Julia Angwin Profile picture
Jun 18, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Amazon bans dangerous listings. But we found nearly 100 listings for banned weapons, drug equipment, and spy gear.

Several were listed as “Amazon’s Choice.” Five were sold by Amazon itself.

Amazing reporting from @AnnieGilbertson and @jonkeegan themarkup.org/banned-bounty/… /1
These materials are not only dangerous - but deadly. In an interview from prison, Eric Falkowski told us that he bought pill presses on @amazon and used them to make counterfeit prescription opioids. His fake pills killed two people and sickened 20 others. /2
Amazon says it catches billions of improper listings a year. But it was pretty easy for us evade its rules. @jonkeegan set up a seller account and listed two weapons parts for sale just by varying the words and codes he used in the listing. /3
Amazon’s autocomplete also suggested banned items to us in the search bar and as “frequently bought together” items. When he registered as a seller, Amazon’s automated systems also suggested @jonkeegan list a banned item - a bong - as a vase in the home decor department. /4
Amazon removed most of the items we brought to their attention and some of the autocomplete suggestions.

But is unchecked automated self-policing - plus occasional oversight from the press - truly the best way to keep dangerous goods off of Amazon’s platform? /5
As always, we show all our work - with underlying data, screenshots and methodology. Please read!
themarkup.org/banned-bounty/… /end

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More from @JuliaAngwin

Jul 16
Huge investigation from @proof__news today: We reveal the trove of YouTube videos that are being used to train AI models (including Anthropic's Claude).

Yes, it includes all your favorite YouTubers - from @hankgreen to @MrBeast to @khanacademy.

proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-a…
Were your favorite YouTubers' videos secretly used to train AI? Search the dataset that we compiled here:
proofnews.org/youtube-ai-sea…
We launched our YouTube channel today, too. After all, what better way to report on YouTubers' videos being used without their consent than with a YouTube video?

Read 5 tweets
Jun 13, 2023
🧵Amidst rampant surveillance, one bastion of privacy remains – end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp. But dangerous laws are being proposed in US, UK, EU & beyond to force those apps to scan your messages.

My latest for @nytopinion nytimes.com/2023/06/13/opi…
Feeling a sense of deja vu? Yes, you have heard this story before. But it’s worse this time.

Previously, the FBI sought a “master key” that could unlock encrypted content with a search warrant. But they lost after a showdown with Apple in 2016. /2

apple.com/customer-lette…
A luminary lineup of crypto & infosec experts including @rossjanderson @mattblaze @WhitfieldDiffie @matthew_d_green @schneierblog @djweitzner successfully argued that there was no way to keep safe a “master key” that could unlock all encryption. /3

cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/…
Read 15 tweets
Feb 4, 2023
I’m sad to report that I am leaving @themarkup to pursue other projects, which I will announce soon. It was an honor and a privilege to found @themarkup five years ago to create an investigative newsroom that integrated engineers and journalists. /1
My goal was to use the best of tech – computation, automation, machine learning – to investigate the human impacts of tech. And to do it using the scientific method as our compass rather than the fuzzy concept of “objectivity.” /2
The amazing thing is that it worked! Our precise methodologies allowed us to uncover everything from Google and Amazon self-preferencing to bias in mortgage approval algorithms. These investigations had impact from the halls of Congress to courtrooms across the country. /3
Read 15 tweets
Jan 14, 2023
Let’s talk about consent. Do you feel like you ever properly consented to being surveilled online constantly, having a profile built of your interests and having that profile made available to anyone who could pay for it?

EU regulators don’t think so either. /1
Earlier this month @edpb fined Meta €390 million for not getting proper consent before profiling FB & IG users. It was hailed a huge victory for EU’s landmark privacy law, GDPR, but sadly it may not change how you are profiled. /2
The problem is that GDPR enforcement is not in the hands of the EU, but in the member states. And most Big Tech cases land at the Irish regulator @DPCIreland because that is where many tech European headquarters are based. /3
Read 8 tweets
Jul 30, 2022
The U.S. is closer to passing a federal privacy law than ever. But there’s a catch: it sets a “ceiling” and not a “floor” for state & local privacy laws.

In this week’s newsletter @cam_kerry says that's “the price of getting strong protections.” /1

themarkup.org/newsletter/hel…
But Ashkan Soltani, head of the new privacy agency in California, where a strong privacy law would go into effect next year, tells me the trade-off “is a trap.”

The federal bill “locks into amber” rules that prevent future innovation to protect privacy. /2 Image
The federal bill would also delay privacy enforcement for about two years. California was set to begin enforcing next year, while the fed bill would give the FTC time to prepare guidance and rulemaking.

“I think two years is a reasonable amount of time,” @cam_kerry said. /3
Read 4 tweets
Jun 22, 2022
In light of the recent US settlement with Facebook, I want to tell y’all a story about how hard it is to make change in our algorithmic world, why you need a village of researchers, and why law enforcement agencies need to get better at tech. /1

nytimes.com/2022/06/21/tec…
Six years ago, @terryparrisjr & I bought an ad on Facebook, targeted to only white people looking for housing, using a drop-down menu blocking ads from being seen by different “ethnic affinity groups.” Experts said this violated the Fair Housing Act. /2

propublica.org/article/facebo…
Facebook said it would fix it with an algorithm blocking the use of race in housing, employment & credit ads.

I wondered why it needed an algorithm and didn’t block other protected categories such as age and gender. But FB claimed a win. /3

about.fb.com/news/2017/02/i…
Read 13 tweets

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