TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Google to automatically delete more audio recorded by Assistant and introduce new privacy protections. “Digital assistants have been in the spotlight recently after various stories about contractors listening to recordings. Following a backlash from users and privacy advocates, Google has announced a number of changes to how it stores and processes audio data.”

Search Engine Journal: Twitter Officially Rolls Out ‘Hide Replies’ Feature in the US. “It should be noted that when users hide replies they’re not fully deleted. Other users viewing the tweet thread will have the option to manually reveal hidden replies.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Bates College: Fueled by $192,000 grant, Bates museum to publish catalog of art by Marsden Hartley. “Thanks to a major grant to Bates College from a foundation dedicated to the arts, creation has begun of the first-ever comprehensive, publicly accessible guide to all known artworks by Marsden Hartley, a pioneer of American Modernism.”

Eater: The Best Thing About TikTok Food Videos Is How Weird They Are. “A minute is not a lot of time to learn how to cook. That’s how long your typical TikTok user has to make a video — four 15-second clips strung together to get your point across. The point of the platform is the short attention span, the way you can reveal a trick or a joke or, in this case, a complete meal.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Poynter: Fact-checkers from four countries now have a legal guide to face threats and harassment. “After a survey conducted in 2018, FLSI concluded that fact-checkers in the United States, the Philippines, Brazil and Italy were facing increasing legal risks. For this reason, the first four guides — available for download in English, Portuguese and Italian — focus on those countries and provide an overview of relevant laws and policies for each.”

Ars Technica: iOS 13 ships with known lockscreen bypass flaw that exposes contacts. “Apple released iOS 13 with a bunch of new features. But it also released the new OS with something else: a bug disclosed seven days ago that exposes contact details without requiring a passcode or biometric identification first.”

Reclaim the Net: World’s largest and oldest commercial archive Adland taken offline after questionable DMCA claim . “Adland, the biggest commercial archive in the world, has been shut down after its host Vultr responded to a questionable Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim by telling Adland to remove its domain from the network within 24 hours.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

ScienceBlog: Using Soundwaves To Search Through Big Data With More Stability And Ease. “In a paper published in Nature Research’s journal, Communications Physics, researchers in the University of Arizona Department of Materials Science and Engineering have demonstrated the possibility for acoustic waves in a classical environment to do the work of quantum information processing without the time limitations and fragility.”

Earth: Smartphone app uses AI to help African farmers prepare for climate change. “The new PlantVillage AI tool integrates tens of thousands of data points across Africa, with hundreds more being collected every day. The AI assistant has the capacity to keep farmers informed in various ways, such as offering advice on flood mitigation, soil conservation, or on which crops are the most suitable for which regions.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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