Alessandro Acquisti at TED: Why Privacy Matters

Last updated: July 15, 2020 at 17:28 pm

Created on Friday, 17 October 2014 16:40

Facebook's future privacy options:

Alessandro Acquisti is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Public Policy at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and a member of Carnegie Mellon CyLab.

Acquisti's research focuses on the economics of privacy. His studies have spearheaded the application of behavioral economics to the analysis of privacy and information, security decision making, and the analysis of privacy risks and disclosure behavior in online social networks.

In this TED Talk, Alessandro Acquisti explains how and why the line between public and private, both online and in real life, has blurred in the past decade and might even be erased in the (near) future. With his thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares details of recent and ongoing research, including a project that shows how easy it is to match a photograph of a stranger with their sensitive personal information.

What motivates you to share your activities and personal information online? After watching this presentation ask yourself how and why you (still) use the plethora of social media. The preservation of your privacy may very well depend on it.

Source: TED.com

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Psywar

Created on Sunday, 26 September 2010 12:39

'Psywar’ (2010) explores corporate and government use of propaganda and public relations, to manipulate the American population and the world at large.

The movie exposes government and corporate activities which are intended to blur (or even erase) the lines between real news and fake news, as well as the development over time of public relations misinformation campaigns, strategic corporate campaigns to generate goodwill and the perception of 'good works'.

It shows for instance how the U.S. government staged events to manipulate public opinion about the Iraq war, like the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch and the supposedly spontaneous mob that pulled over the statue of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Other topics of discussion are the Pentagon pundit scandal and the hidden activities of the Rendon Group – a PR firm specialized in spinning war.

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Secrets Of The Sun

Last updated: April 27, 2020 at 12:46 pm

Created on Saturday, 31 July 2010 16:08

‘Secrets of the Sun’ explores the myriad mysteries which lie beneath the fiery surface of the sun. Our sun is a fireball in the sky – a bubbling, boiling, kinetic sphere of white-hot plasma exploding and erupting. Its size is almost unimaginable – one million Earths would fit within its boundaries – yet its full mysteries are only now beginning to be understood. From sunspots to solar eclipses, solar flares to solar storms, the birth of the sun to its potential death.

According to mainstream science, the sun is powered by nuclear fusion but there are also scientists who believe that the sun and our universe are in fact electric. I will elaborate on the electric universe theory in one of the upcoming posts.

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