Luddites?

https://www.fastcompany.com/91302120/employees-are-actively-sabotaging-ai-efforts-heres-why

31% of employees are actively ‘sabotaging’ AI efforts. Here’s why

According to a new study by generative AI platform Writer, 31% of employees—including 41% of Gen Z workers—admit to “sabotaging” their company’s AI strategy by refusing to adopt AI tools and applications. As a result, roughly two-third of executives say Generative AI adoption has led to tension and division within their organization, with 42% suggesting it’s “tearing their company apart.”

Did META steal your work?

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/03/my-writings-are-in-the-libgen-ai-training-corpus.html

My Writings Are in the LibGen AI Training Corpus

The Atlantic has a search tool that allows you to search for specific works in the “LibGen” database of copyrighted works that Meta used to train its AI models. (The rest of the article is behind a paywall, but not the search tool.)

It’s impossible to know exactly which parts of LibGen Meta used to train its AI, and which parts it might have decided to exclude; this snapshot was taken in January 2025, after Meta is known to have accessed the database, so some titles here would not have been available to download.

Still…interesting.

Searching my name yields 199 results: all of my books in different versions, plus a bunch of shorter items.

Links to all the papers.

https://fpf.org/blog/global/fpf-privacy-papers-for-policymakers-a-celebration-of-impactful-privacy-research-and-scholarship/

FPF Privacy Papers for Policymakers: A Celebration of Impactful Privacy Research and Scholarship

The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) hosted its 15th Privacy Papers for Policymakers (PPPM) event at its Washington, D.C., headquarters on March 12, 2025. This prestigious event recognized six outstanding research papers that offer valuable insights for policymakers navigating the ever-evolving landscape of privacy and technology. The evening featured engaging discussions and a shared commitment to advancing informed policymaking in digital privacy.

To be expected…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hessiejones/2025/03/20/risk-or-revolution-will-ai-replace-lawyers/

Risk Or Revolution: Will AI Replace Lawyers?

As artificial intelligence reshapes many industries, the legal field faces its own crossroads. Over the past few years, a growing number of legal professionals have embraced AI tools to boost efficiency and reduce costs. According to recent figures, nearly 73% of legal experts now plan to incorporate AI into their daily operations.  65% of law firms agree that "effective use of generative AI will separate the successful and unsuccessful law firms in the next five years."

Investors have shown strong support for AI-powered legal startups, with funding reaching new record highs in 2024 with total capital investment of $477 million. The appeal for VCs is the potential that 44% of legal work could potentially be automated by emerging AI tools. Startups like Harvey, raised a $100 million Series C round at a $1.5 billion valuation.

We explore the current state of legal automation with Ben Su, Co-founder and Head of Growth of Capita, the world’s first AI lawyer, and discuss how this shift towards AI could reshape the delivery of legal services.

Don’t understand or don’t care – same result.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/03/doge-to-fired-cisa-staff-email-us-your-personal-data/

DOGE to Fired CISA Staff: Email Us Your Personal Data

A message posted on Monday to the homepage of the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the latest exhibit in the Trump administration’s continued disregard for basic cybersecurity protections. The message instructed recently-fired CISA employees to get in touch so they can be rehired and then immediately placed on leave, asking employees to send their Social Security number or date of birth in a password-protected email attachment — presumably with the password needed to view the file included in the body of the email.

(Ditto)

https://www.bespacific.com/emails-reveal-top-irs-lawyer-warned-trump-firings-were-a-fraud-on-the-courts/

Emails Reveal Top IRS Lawyer Warned Trump Firings Were a “Fraud” on the Courts

ProPublica: “On Feb. 20, nearly 7,000 probationary employees at the Internal Revenue Service began receiving an unsigned letter telling them that they had been fired for poor performance. Trump administration lawyers insist that the IRS and other federal agencies have acted within their authority when they ordered waves of mass terminations since Trump took office. But according to previously unreported emails obtained by ProPublica, a top lawyer at the IRS warned administration officials that the performance-related language in his agency’s termination letter was “a false statement” that amounted to “fraud” if the agency kept the language in the letter. The emails reveal that in the hours before the IRS sent out its Feb. 20 termination letter, a fierce dispute played out at the agency’s highest levels. Joseph Rillotta, a senior IRS lawyer, wrote that “no one” at the IRS had taken into account the performance of the probationary workers set to be fired. Rillotta urged that the language be struck from the draft termination letter. If the falsehood wasn’t removed, Rillotta said he would file a report with the inspector general for the IRS.”

Not sure I agree (or maybe I just don’t understand) – if I don’t have a duty to protect, can I leave your data unprotected?

https://pogowasright.org/the-differences-between-non-disclosure-exfiltration-and-notice-a-courts-view/

The differences between non-disclosure, exfiltration and notice – a court’s view

David Kessler and Sue Ross write:

Although there is scant case law on the question, it is generally accepted that it is not a violation of one’s duty not to disclose information if it is stolen from you.  Put another way, disclosure is an affirmative act, and, absent an affirmative duty to protect information from unauthorized access, theft of information is not a violation of a duty not to disclose.

This question, however, was at the heart of the decision in  Gerber v. Twitter, Inc., case no. 4:23-cv-00186-KAW (N.D. Cal. Dec. 18, 2024) (2024 WL 5173313).  Judge Kandis Westmore ruled that a social media platform’s duty not to disclose personal information is not the same as the duty to protect that information against theft.  Further, the duty not to disclose does mean the social media platform has a duty to notify individuals if  the social media platform is breached.  As a result, the court granted in part and denied in part the defendant’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaint.  (Id.)

Read more at Data Protection Report.

Perspective. The more tools we provide to make life easier the less anyone wants to keep doing things the “old way.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-19/michael-bloomberg-kids-are-spending-too-much-class-time-on-laptops

Kids Are Spending Too Much Class Time on Laptops

Over the past two decades, school districts have spent billions of taxpayer dollars equipping classrooms with laptops and other devices in hopes of preparing kids for a digital future. The result? Students have fallen further behind on the skills they most need to succeed in careers: the three R’s plus a fourth — relationships.

… Just 28% of eighth graders are proficient in math and 30% in reading. For 12th graders, the numbers are similarly dismal (24% in math and 37% in reading, according to the most recently available scores). And US students have also fallen further behind their peers in other countries.

Not all consequences are intentional.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-03-19/trump-cbp-one-app-shutdown-is-a-gift-to-mexico-cartel-smugglers

Trump’s App Shutdown Is a Gift to Mexico’s Cartels

There were few fond obituaries in the American press last week when the Trump administration announced that it was shutting down CBP One, the app immigrants had once been able to use to schedule asylum appointments with US Customs and Border Protection. Even before the administration largely disabled the app in January, immigrant-rights advocates had complained for years that the software was glitchy and difficult to use. They also said it helped officials illegally limit the flow of asylum seekers into the country, while MAGA types tarred it for supposedly making entry too easy.

South of the border, however, the app will be missed. Some immigrants and those who work with them say it provided a rare alternative to Mexican drug cartels’ exploitative, often-violent system of human smuggling and trafficking. For “many, many” asylum seekers with reasonable claims, the app proved to be an essential lifeline and a peaceful substitute for cartel muscle, says Pastor Guillermo Navarrete, who runs the Tijuana side of the Border Church, a weekly Methodist service held on both sides of the rust-colored border wall. As its capabilities expanded over the past couple of years, “it was a surprise from the American government,” Navarrete says, “because it was useful.”

Perspective.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389913336_ChatGPT_and_academic_work_new_psychological_phenomena

ChatGPT and academic work: new psychological phenomena

This study describes the impact of ChatGPT use on the nature of work from the perspective of academics and educators. We elucidate six phenomena: (1) the cognitive workload associated with conducting Turing tests to determine if ChatGPT has been involved in work productions; (2) the ethical void and alienation that result from recondite ChatGPT use; (3) insights into the motives of individuals who fail to disclose their ChatGPT use, while, at the same time, the recipient does not reveal their awareness of that use; (4) the sense of ennui as the meanings of texts dissipate and no longer reveal the sender’s state of understanding; (5) a redefinition of utility, wherein certain texts show redundancy with patterns already embedded in the base model, while physical measurements and personal observations are considered as unique and novel; (6) a power dynamic between sender and recipient, inadvertently leaving non-participants as disadvantaged third parties. This paper makes clear that the introduction of AI tools into society has far-reaching effects, initially most prominent in text-related fields, such as academia. Whether these implementations represent beneficial innovations for human prosperity, or a rather different line of social evolution, represents the pith of our present discussion.

Leading indicator…

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-suspends-some-efforts-counter-russian-sabotage-trump-moves-closer-putin-2025-03-19/

Exclusive: US suspends some efforts to counter Russian sabotage as Trump moves closer to Putin

Several U.S. national security agencies have halted work on a coordinated effort to counter Russian sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks, easing pressure on Moscow as the Trump Administration pushes Russia to end its war in Ukraine.

Trailing datum…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/18/russia-criminal-networks-drive-increase-sabotage-europol

Russia using criminal networks to drive increase in sabotage acts, says Europol

Russia and other state actors are driving an increase in politically motivated cyber-attacks and sabotage of infrastructure and public institutions in the EU, the bloc’s police enforcement agency has found.

Europol’s 80-page serious and organised crime threat assessment for 2025 also describes in detail how “hybrid threat” actors have established a “shadow alliance” with organised criminal gangs in Europe to try to destabilise the functioning of the EU and its member states.

Could be useful.

https://www.bespacific.com/50-free-datasets-in-50-minutes/

50 Free Datasets in 50 Minutes

50 Free Datasets in 50 Minutes. National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 6, 2025: “Below are federal government datasets with individual-level structured data that can be downloaded for free as Excel or CSV files and localized to any city, county or state in the United States. Unless noted, all the data is updated and can be used to analyze trends, as well as comparisons for your community to the rest of your state, or nation. Some datasets include addresses or longitude/latitude to enable mapping. Most of the datasets are available directly from the government agency, but we have provided other datasets that reputable data journalists or organizations have acquired, often through FOIA, cleaned up and provided to you for free (e.g., Data Liberation Project, started by Jeremy Singer-Vine and now coordinated by MuckRock and Big Local News). All of these datasets empower you to localize federal-level data to your community. Links can be dynamic and ever changing, so if one ends up being broken, Google to find its new location. Also, we provide the actual URL so you can put it in the Internet Archive to see what the website contained in the past. Some datasets can be pretty complicated, but most sites provide code sheets and data dictionaries to explain the content. Also, in many cases, tipsheets from previous IRE/NICAR conferences available at the IRE Resource Center go into depth in how to interpret the data, and the pros, cons, limitations and pitfalls of particular datasets…

Search websites of data gatherers who have already pulled together federal datasets and posted them online, then acquire the data yourself. They include the Data Liberation Project, Data is Plural, the Accountability Project, MuckRock, Kaggle, Google Dataset Search,  GovernmentAttic.org,  ProPublica (check their archived data store list, which isn’t updated, but provides good ideas), and Big Local News…”

Perspective. A nation of shoppers…

https://searchengineland.com/generative-ai-surging-online-shopping-report-453312

Generative AI use surging among consumers for online shopping: Report

Traffic from generative AI surged to U.S. retail sites over the holiday season and that trend has continued into 2025, according to new Adobe data.

Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,300% compared to the year prior (up 1,950% YoY on Cyber Monday).

This trend continued beyond the holiday season, Adobe found. In February, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,200% compared to July 2024.

The percentages are high because generative AI tools are so new. ChatGPT debuted its research preview on Nov. 30. 2022. Generative AI traffic remains modest compared to other channels, such as paid search or email, but the growth is notable. It’s doubled every two months since September 2024.

Never ask questions if you won’t like the answers?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/17/trump-russia-ukraine

Trump administration pulls US out of body investigating Ukraine invasion

The Trump administration is withdrawing from an international body formed to investigate responsibility for the invasion of Ukraine in the latest sign that the White House is adopting a posture favouring Vladimir Putin.

The Department of Justice said it was pulling out of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) two years after the Biden administration joined it with a commitment to hold Putin, Russia’s president, to account for the 2022 invasion and subsequent crimes committed by Russian forces.

Can harm be backtracked to a probable cause?

https://databreaches.net/2025/03/16/courts-are-still-willing-to-dismiss-data-breach-lawsuits-for-lack-of-standing/

Courts Are Still Willing To Dismiss Data Breach Lawsuits for Lack of Standing

Raika Casey and Alexis Opper of BakerHostetler write:

In data breach litigation, courts generally find plaintiffs have standing such that their complaints may proceed past the pleading stage when it is alleged that sensitive information was impacted and there is an allegation of dark web exposure, misuse or fraud. However, a few courts have recently dismissed proposed data breach class actions despite these factors being alleged.

For example, in Maser v. CommonSpirit Health, a Colorado district court dismissed a proposed data breach class action, finding that the plaintiff failed to allege an injury-in-fact fairly traceable to the data breach despite allegations that she experienced bank fraud and a drop in her credit score. No. 1:23-cv-01073-RM-SBP (D. Colo. Dec. 4, 2024). Because the plaintiff’s bank information was not compromised in the breach and “none of the stolen data fields in and of themselves can enable fraud,” the court held that the alleged harms were not fairly traceable to the breach and, therefore, her other injury allegations were insufficient to support standing.

Read more at Data Counsel.

Read worthy?

https://pogowasright.org/new-book-on-privacy-and-technology/

New Book: ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY

Law professor and privacy law scholar Dan Solove recently announced the publication of his new book, On Privacy and Technology.

Can privacy law keep up with new digital technologies such as AI?

The book is a short accessible overview of my thinking about privacy for the past 25 years. I tried my best to make it short and engaging – it’s about 130 pages.

• Amazon Page

• OUP Page

And another word to define?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5170170

Humanist Copyright

This exploration of the role of authorship in copyright law proceeds in three parts: historical, doctrinal, and predictive. First, I will review the development of authorfocused property rights in the pre-copyright regimes of printing privileges and in early Anglo-American copyright law through the 1909 U.S. Copyright Act. Second, I will analyze the extent to which the present U.S. copyright law does (and does not) honor human authorship. Finally, I will consider the potential responses of copyright law to the claims of proprietary rights in AI-generated outputs. I will explain why the humanist orientation of US copyright law validates the position of the Copyright Office and the courts that the output of an AI system will not be a "work of authorship" unless human participation has determinatively caused the creation of the output.

How are we doing?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5172957

Legitimizing Ai: Ethical Ai in Corporate Ethics Statements

This study examines organizations’ ethics statements on artificial intelligence (AI). Drawing on the legitimacy framework, this study investigates how these statements serve as mechanisms to align organizational AI practices with stakeholder expectations, establish ethical benchmarks, and deploy strategic legitimation cues. Among the Fortune Global 500 and Forbes AI 50 companies, 101 (18.36%) have published corporate AI ethics statements. A quantitative content analysis of these statements reveals that intelligibility, safety, and justice are widely recognized as key ethical AI standards. The statements frequently address customers and employees as primary stakeholders, emphasizing intelligibility and privacy for customers and safety, intelligibility, and accountability for employees. Substantive cues are more prevalent than symbolic cues in legitimizing these ethical AI standards. The findings offer valuable insights for corporate management and communication professionals and a foundational guideline for developing and evaluating corporate AI ethics statements.