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Data cartels : the companies that control and monopolize our information / by Lamdan, Sarah,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In our digital world, data is power, and information hoarders reign supreme. The practices of these digital pillagers are analogous to those of cartels--they use intimidation, aggression, and force to maintain control and power. Sarah Lamdan brings us into the unregulated underworld of the "data cartels," demonstrating how the entities mining, hoarding, commodifying, and selling our data and informational resources perpetuate social inequalities and threaten the democratic sharing of knowledge. The companies at the center of this book are not household names like Google. They fly under the radar and self-identify as "data analytics" or "business solutions" operations. These companies supply the digital lifeblood that flow through the circulatory system of the internet. With their control over data, they can prevent the free flow of information to places where it is needed, and simultaneously distribute private information to predatory entities. Just a few companies dominate most of our critical informational resources, from scientific research and financial data to the law. They are also data brokers, selling our personal data to law enforcement and other government agencies that determine whether we should be eligible for social services, and they sell "risk" products that insurance companies, employers, landlords, and healthcare systems use to make decisions. Alarmingly, everything they're doing is perfectly legal. Ranging from small information firms to billion-dollar data giants like Thomson Reuters and RELX Group, these companies masterfully exploit outdated information and privacy laws, curating online information in a way that amplifies digital racism and targets marginalized communities. In this book, Lamdan contends that privatization and tech exceptionalism have prevented us from creating effective legal regulation. Lack of legal intervention has allowed oversized information oligopolies to coalesce. In addition to specific legal and market-based solutions, Lamdan calls for treating information like a public good and creating digital infrastructure that supports our democratic ideals"--
Subjects: Antitrust law; Cartels; Data protection; Freedom of information; Information services industry; Information services industry;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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iPhone for dummies / by Hart-Davis, Guy,author.;
iPhone For Dummies, 2025 Edition, covers the iPhone basics, as well as the features of iPhone 16 and earlier models. You'll also learn how to navigate the new iOS 17 release to make phone and FaceTime calls, send texts and messages, get online, play games, shoot video, and all the other amazing things your Apple smartphone can do. Guy Hart-Davis, a longtime Apple expert and Dummies tech author extraordinaire, shows you how to set up your phone to work with your life. Customize your settings, including privacy and app permissions, and make sure your phone is protected. Connect the new iPhone models to your other devices, sync your data from your previous phone, and learn about the new stuff you can do with updated hardware on the latest models. This beginner-friendly book makes it easy to become an iPhone power user.
Subjects: iPhone (Smartphone); Cell phones.; Pocket computers.; Portable computers.; Smartphones.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Pegasus : how a spy in your pocket threatens the end of privacy, dignity, and democracy / by Richard, Laurent(Journalist),author.; Maddow, Rachel,writer of introduction.; Rigaud, Sandrine,author.;
"Pegasus is widely regarded as the most effective and sought-after cyber-surveillance system on the market. The system's creator, the NSO Group, a private corporation headquartered in Israel, is not shy about proclaiming its ability to thwart terrorists and criminals. "Thousands of people in Europe owe their lives to hundreds of our company employees," NSO's cofounder declared in 2019. This bold assertion may be true, at least in part, but it's by no means the whole story. NSO's Pegasus system has not been limited to catching bad guys. It's also been used to spy on hundreds, and maybe thousands, of innocent people around the world: heads of state, diplomats, human rights defenders, political opponents, and journalists. This spyware is as insidious as it is invasive, capable of infecting a private cell phone without alerting the owner, and of doing its work in the background, in silence, virtually undetectable. Pegasus can track a person's daily movement in real time, gain control of the device's microphones and cameras at will, and capture all videos, photos, emails, texts, and passwords-encrypted or not. This data can be exfiltrated, stored on outside servers, and then leveraged to blackmail, intimidate, and silence the victims. Its full reach is not yet known. "If they've found a way to hack one iPhone," says Edward Snowden, "they've found a way to hack all iPhones." Pegasus is a look inside the monthslong worldwide investigation, triggered by a single spectacular leak of data, and a look at how an international consortium of reporters and editors revealed that cyber intrusion and cyber surveillance are happening with exponentially increasing frequency across the globe, at a scale that astounds. Meticulously reported and masterfully written, Pegasus shines a light on the lives that have been turned upside down by this unprecedented threat and exposes the chilling new ways authoritarian regimes are eroding key pillars of democracy: privacy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech"--
Subjects: Pegasus (Spyware); Cell phone systems; Electronic surveillance; Mobile apps.; Political corruption.; Privacy, Right of.; Spyware (Computer software);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Blockchain revolution : how the technology behind Bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world / by Tapscott, Don,author.; Tapscott, Alex,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The first book to explain why blockchain technology will fundamentally change the Internet, what it does, and how we use it. Over the past 30 years, no theorist of the digital age has better explained the next big thing than Don Tapscott. For example, in Wikinomics, Tapscott was the first to show how the Internet provides the first global platform for mass collaboration. Now, he writes about a profound technological shift that will change how the world does business--and everything else--using blockchain technology, which powers the digital currency Bitcoin. The Internet as we know it is great for collaboration and communication, but is deeply flawed when it comes to commerce and privacy. The new blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body. Keeping the user's information anonymous, the blockchain validates and keeps a permanent public record of all transactions. That means that your personal information is private and secure, while all activity is transparent and incorruptible--reconciled by mass collaboration and stored in code on a digital ledger. With its advent, we will not need to trust each other in the traditional sense, because trust is built into the system itself. Although many opportunities for the blockchain require a digital currency, Bitcoin is only one application of this great innovation in computer science. The blockchain can hold any legal document, from deeds and marriage licences to educational degrees and birth certificates. Call it the World Wide Ledger. It enables smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized government services, and transactions among things. The Internet of Everything needs a Ledger of Everything: the blockchain is a truly open, distributed, global platform that fundamentally changes what we can do online, how we do it, and who can participate. Tapscott, writing with his son Alex, a financial analyst and technologist, argues that the blockchain will shape the next era of prosperity--in finance, business, healthcare, education, governance, and beyond."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Data encryption (Computer science); Electronic commerce.; Electronic funds transfers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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