PoliceOne: Federal grant to help Ala. establish a civil asset forfeiture database. “Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s office announced April 10 a $38,336 grant that will go toward establishing a statewide database to enable the tracking of property seized by police during arrests. The money, which is provided to the state from the U.S. Department of Justice, will go to the Alabama Justice Information Commission for the development of a civil asset forfeiture plan. The plan includes the development of a database.”
transparency
Transparency Report: Second Half of 2018 (LinkedIn Blog)
LinkedIn Blog: Transparency Report: Second Half of 2018. “As this report shows, the number of government requests for data about LinkedIn members continues to grow as our overall membership grows. As always, we continue to review each request carefully before taking any action, and we continue to notify affected members whenever the law allows it.”
Chemical Watch: ICCA calls for global substance information database
Chemical Watch: ICCA calls for global substance information database. “The International Council of Chemical Associations is calling for the development of a global database containing publicly available information on chemicals. The database, which it calls an ‘international navigator’, could be based on information in existing databases such as the EU Iuclid and EUCLEF (the EU Chemicals Legislation Finder), those from the US, Canada and Japan, or the OECD eChemPortal.”
UKAuthority: Open justice initiatives seek to make sense of court proceedings
UKAuthority: Open justice initiatives seek to make sense of court proceedings. “A growing crisis in the justice system – including the soaring number of people appearing without legal representation – has inspired a clutch of initiatives aiming to unlock the knowledge in case reports with the help of big data and AI technologies.”
Mashable: Google Assistant may promote advertisers without telling you about it
Mashable: Google Assistant may promote advertisers without telling you about it. “Google’s voice-recognition virtual assistant, Google Assistant, can do a lot now. It can be your personal interpreter, it can find you the best route home, and it can even donate to your favorite charity. One thing Google Assistant won’t do, however, is disclose when its potentially recommending you a company advertising with Google.” The headline makes it seem cut and dried, but the actual article paints a more ambiguous picture. Still, with all the crackdowns on influencer marketing I can’t see how this goes unremarked
TechCrunch: New Facebook tool answers the question ‘Why am I seeing this post?’
TechCrunch: New Facebook tool answers the question ‘Why am I seeing this post?’. “Facebook announced today that it is adding to News Feeds a feature called “Why am I seeing this post?” Similar to ‘Why am I seeing this ad?,’ which has appeared next to advertisements since 2014, the new tool has a drop-down menu that gives users information about why that post appeared in their News Feed, along with links to personalization controls.”
Billy Penn: Philadelphia just published its $4 billion checkbook for all to see
Billy Penn: Philadelphia just published its $4 billion checkbook for all to see. “Remember the ‘missing $33 million’ that had Philly taxpayers up in arms last year? And how the figure then dropped to $23 million, then $2 million, until all but $528,000 was accounted for as of January? Next time that happens, you should be able to do some of the math yourself.”
