NEW RESOURCES

Ransom Center Magazine: Decades of movie poster history go online. “The movie posters collection is currently part of an ambitious digitization project. Each of the 10,000 posters is first transferred to the photography studio and metadata is gathered from the poster to create a database record. Once the poster is correctly aligned with the camera, the height of the camera is adjusted to fit the poster size, and then a high definition photo of the poster is taken. The photographer checks the image for fidelity to the original for preservation purposes and then derivatives are made for the online collection. Handled carefully, the poster is returned to its folder and the whole process starts again.” The project is expected to be complete by at the end of this year or early next year.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Facebook to roll out new privacy tools ahead of European GDPR laws. “Facebook has faced numerous complaints and accusations when it comes to privacy, and nowhere has this been more obvious than in Europe. In response to European Union plans to change the laws concerning the privacy of personal data, the social network is on the verge of rolling out a new privacy center to users. The upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to give people more control over their personal data, and it is due to come into force in May.”

YouTube Blog: New Official Artist Channels provide a single destination for artists and fans to connect . “We launched Official Artist Channels last year to help make it easier for fans to find content from their favorite artists by uniting their full body of work (from official videos to live performances, to individual songs and albums) under one channel. Today, we’re simplifying things even more by bringing together an artist’s subscribers under their Official Artist Channel.”

USEFUL STUFF

I wasn’t sure whether to include this or not, and I think I should. Anyway, from Lonely Planet: The world’s first airline compensation checker has been launched. “Leading air passenger rights advocate AirHelp has launched the world’s first tool for travellers to check their eligibility for compensation from flight disruptions now up to three years in the past. The compensation-focused company’s new tool also allows travellers to visually map out their journeys from their mobiles into an adventure map that can be shared online.” You might wonder if the tool is limited because it notes compensation amounts in euros. But I was able to begin the checking process using a flight that occurred entirely within the United States.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BuzzFeed: This Is Facebook’s News Survey. “Last week, Facebook said its News Feed would prioritize links from publications its users deemed ‘trustworthy’ in an upcoming survey. Turns out that survey isn’t a particularly lengthy or nuanced one. In fact, it’s just two questions.” Good grief.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Straits Times: Personal details of over 200,000 Malaysian organ donors leaked online: Report. “Another major leak of personal data has been reported in Malaysia, just three months after the uncovering of 46.2 million personal details of mobile phone subscribers online. According to online technology site Lowyat.net, some 220,000 Malaysian organ donors and their next-of-kin have fallen victims to possible personal identification data theft.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Harvard Business Review: How the Data That Internet Companies Collect Can Be Used for the Public Good. “We live in a quantified era. It is estimated that 90% of the world’s data was generated in the last two years — from which entirely new inferences can be extracted and applied to help address some of today’s most vexing problems. In particular, the vast streams of data generated through social media platforms, when analyzed responsibly, can offer insights into societal patterns and behaviors. These types of behaviors are hard to generate with existing social science methods. All this information poses its own problems, of complexity and noise, of risks to privacy and security, but it also represents tremendous potential for mobilizing new forms of intelligence.”

Phys.org: Combating data breach fatigue. “If you shop online or swipe a credit or debit card when out to eat, you’ve likely received a notice your personal information was compromised in a data breach. And if you’re like most consumers, chances are you did nothing in response, says an Iowa State University researcher. Cyberattacks are so prevalent that Rui Chen, an associate professor of information systems in ISU’s Ivy College of Business, says consumers are experiencing data breach fatigue. Chen and colleagues at the University of Texas at San Antonio (Eric Bachura, Rohit Valecha, H. Raghav Rao) are working to understand this behavior.”

University of Southern California: Scientists work to automate quick translation of obscure languages. “A team of researchers from the Information Sciences Institute at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering has received a $16.7 million grant from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to develop an automated information translation and summarization tool to quickly translate obscure languages.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!