Category: Digital Infrastructure & Platforms
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New Developments in California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Litigation
The ongoing legal challenge to California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) has entered a new phase, with tech industry group NetChoice pursuing an injunction on First Amendment grounds. This update examines recent developments in the case, including our clinic’s amicus brief and the emerging legal arguments around platform regulation. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for…
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CAC-Vote: Another Insecure Internet Voting System
Philip Stark and I have released this paper with an analysis of a DARPA-sponsored research project to develop an internet voting system. An Internet Voting System Fatally Flawed in Creative New Ways Abstract: The recently published “MERGE” protocol is designed to be used in the prototype CAC-vote system. The voting kiosk and protocol transmit votes…
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How to Conduct AI Oversight: Industry Insiders Make Recommendations to Senators
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law hearing titled “Oversight of AI: Insiders’ Perspective” on September 17, 2024 sought to understand how and why the government can and should regulate the burgeoning industry. I attended the hearing and am writing to share my impressions here. Chock-full of analogies that…
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Ninth Circuit Upholds AADC Ban on “Dark Patterns”
On August 16, 2024, the Ninth Circuit ruled in NetChoice v. Bonta to strike significant portions of California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) on First Amendment grounds. The Act was designed to enhance privacy and safety provisions for children online. The Ninth Circuit Court upheld the law’s ban on “dark patterns,” finding that the provision regulates conduct rather…
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A Brief History of Multi-Perspective Issuance Corroboration
“Multi-Perspective Issuance Corroboration” (or “MPIC”) is currently under discussion as an industry-wide standard by the CA/Browser Forum Server Certificate Working Group, and possibly by other Forum Working Groups in the future (i.e., the S/MIME Working Group). This is a promising idea that aims to mitigate the risk of equally-specific Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) attacks by…
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Building on Colorado’s Success: All States Need Mandatory Rideshare Transparency Reporting
Colorado has become the first state mandating transparency specifically around platform fees and driver wages from rideshare platforms like Uber and Lyft, whose opaque AI and algorithmic operations have historically evaded legal oversight. On June 5 2024, Governor Jared Polis signed SB24-075, the Transportation Network Company Transparency bill into an act, compelling these platforms to…
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Rows and Columns, the County Line, and the ExpressVote XL
Why did New Jersey counties keep choosing one insecure voting machine after another, for decades? Only this year did I realize what the reason might be. A century ago, New Jersey (like many other states) adopted lever voting machines that listed the offices by row, with the parties (and their candidates) across the columns: The…
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Barcodes on paper ballots: the good, the bad, and the stealth
Paper ballots should not have barcodes to mark votes; paper ballots should have barcodes to mark ballot styles. Why is that? What’s the difference? And at the end, I describe a useful innovation from a company called Voting.works. One of the most important reasons we use paper ballots in elections is to protect our elections…
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Five Themes Discussed at Princeton’s Workshop on Decentralized Social Media
On Monday, March 4, 2024, CITP and DeCenter co-hosted a workshop on the topic of decentralized social media. The invite-only workshop brought together a diverse group of leaders and innovators from the growing decentralized social media sphere, including scholars, engineers, and administrators who actively study, build, and manage decentralized social networks such as Mastodon, Bluesky,…
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Suggested Principles for State Statutes Regarding Ballot Marking and Vote Tabulation
This letter, signed by more than 20 election cybersecurity experts, was addressed to the Pennsylvania State Senate Committee on Government in response to a request for policy advice, but it applies in any state — especially those that use Ballot Marking Devices for all in-person voters: Georgia and South Carolina; most counties in Arkansas, New…
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Building the Society We Want: A CITP Conference
Twenty years ago, social media companies started telling us: “Hey, use this free digital mediaproduct!” We individually used it, or didn’t. And then we all used it, because we had to. Just like the car.The existence of the technology restricts human freedom and agency. The die has been cast:social media has reshaped everything and to…