RAND mathematician Mary Lee describes the wide variety of personal data collected by smart devices and applications, such as smartwatches, brain implants, and period trackers.
Facial recognition technology is developing rapidly and is increasingly being used in policing. What do policymakers need to understand in order to minimize the risks it poses, while also maximizing its benefits?
As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have deployed mobile phone surveillance programs to augment public health interventions. The authors examine how these programs can be implemented in ways that protect privacy.
Dozens of countries are using mobile phone tools and data sources for COVID-19 tracking. These tools are beneficial, but they also have the potential for harm. As public health agencies consider using mobile surveillance tools, they will need to address privacy concerns.
Feature stories explore what research says about learning loss after extended school breaks; how stress and trauma affect individual and community health; and how a critical care surge response tool is helping hospitals during the pandemic.
RAND's Ben Boudreaux describes how contact tracing can be used to track the spread of COVID-19 and explains the differences between manual and automated contact tracing.
Digital platforms that let users interact virtually and often anonymously have given rise to harassment and other criminal behaviors. Tech-facilitated abuse—such as nonconsensual pornography, doxing, and swatting—compromises privacy and safety. How can law enforcement respond?
The pandemic is an unprecedented public health crisis. But the response from science, technology, and innovation communities has been remarkable. It proves that innovation and learning, interdisciplinary methods and collaboration, information and data sharing, and adaptability are more important than ever.
This weekly recap focuses on the health and economic consequences of states reopening, the dangers of 'Truth Decay' during the coronavirus crisis, helping refugees, and more.
Face recognition technologies (FRTs) offer opportunities to improve identification efforts, but they also raise concerns about privacy and bias. Understanding the trade-offs between the utility and risks of FRTs is crucial for evaluating their adoption and implementation.
Personal smart devices offer an unprecedented opportunity to identify, track, map, and communicate about COVID-19. But apps could pose privacy and security concerns.
To help inform public debate and decision making, RAND Europe explored the uses of cryptocurrencies for illicit or criminal purposes, focusing on the Zcash cryptocurrency, in a research project commissioned by the Electric Coin Company.
This weekly recap focuses on how hospitals can increase critical care capacity, reforming the U.S. unemployment system, supporting farmworkers, and more.
Quantum computers that are exponentially faster than any of our current classical computers and are capable of code-breaking applications could be available in 12 to 15 years, posing major risks to the security of current communications systems.
Quantum computers are expected to be powerful enough to break the current cryptography that protects all digital communications. But this scenario is preventable if policymakers take actions now to minimize the harm that quantum computers may cause.
Quantum computers are expected to revolutionize computing. But hackers may be able to use them to crack the encryption system that protects all digital communications. How soon could this scenario become a reality? And what can be done to prevent it?
The Catholic Church joined with technology companies in February to release the “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” which it hopes will lend meaning if not governance frameworks for the use of artificial intelligence. Making sure that “everyone can benefit” from AI by making its discoveries widely available will be important. This is perhaps where the church can be most effective.
This weekly recap focuses on why the United States should extend the New START agreement, the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan, new tobacco products, and more.
This report explores innovation in citizen science as it relates to data collection, analysis, recruitment and capacity building. It also considers emerging themes and topical issues including policymaking developments.
As social media has increasingly become the main outlet for people to acquire news and opinion, there are concerns about the effect of algorithm-driven services on the spread of misleading information. But the issue doesn't merely lie with how social platforms use algorithms to deliver content.
This report evaluates efforts by four public awareness campaigns to overcome negative perceptions and promote awareness of mental health disorders and their treatment, with a focus on military and veteran populations.
