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Todd Feathers

@toddfeathers.bsky.social

Freelance investigative data journalist. Writing about technology, education, and privacy. toddfeathers.com

50 Posts2456 Follower1797 Folgt
Katie Drummond@katie-drummond.bsky.social · 2mo ago

NEW: Alpha School is rapidly expanding across the U.S., promising AI-enabled education that teaches kids in two hours a day. Turns out, its $65,000-a-year location in NYC isn't even a *school* because New York State denied its application. One of several insane revelations in this A+ story:

Alpha School’s Ritzy New York City Campus Costs $65,000 a Year—but Isn’t Actually a School

A homeschooling center in Manhattan is part of the company’s nationwide expansion. Internal documents reveal its strategy: “Opening date > safety.”

wired.com

Reyhan Harmanci@harmancipants.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Obsessed with this story. @toddfeathers.bsky.social got internal documents from Alpha School--as well as interviews with lots of people involved with the school--to talk about how this "AI-powered" outfit moves fast and breaks things, except it's K-12, not an app www.wired.com/story/alpha-...

Alpha School’s Ritzy New York City Campus Costs $65,000 a Year—but Isn’t Actually a School

A homeschooling center in Manhattan is part of the company’s nationwide expansion. Internal documents reveal its strategy: “Opening date > safety.”

wired.com

Katie Drummond@katie-drummond.bsky.social · 4mo ago

There are many, many bad government websites.... ...and then there's MyMove.gov -- easily the most evil, disastrously bad website ever to be created for the world wide web. I want to kill it ten times over.

MyMove Is the US Government’s Shittiest Website

For more than 30 years, the US Postal Service has sent people who need to change their addresses to MyMove. Experts say the site uses dark patterns to trap visitors in an online purgatory of “deals.”

wired.com

Todd Feathers@toddfeathers.bsky.social · 8mo ago

If you or anyone you know are moving soon (within the next two weeks) and would like to help me out a ton on a story—with very low effort—please reach out! tips@toddfeathers.com or Signal: 857-997-0375

Todd Feathers@toddfeathers.bsky.social · 9mo ago

On one wall: A constantly updating dashboard with students' lesson completion rates and other metrics On the other: A shop of toys (at 6x markup) they can buy with Alpha bucks, earned by hitting learning quotas In the middle: 6 yos tapping silently away at laptops www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...

Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out

In Brownsville, Texas, some families found a buzzy new school’s methods—surveillance of kids, software in lieu of teachers—to be an education in and of itself.

wired.com

Arthur Holland Michel@writearthur.bsky.social · last yr.

Horrifying story from @gizmodo.com about how Fusus police tech enables wildly disproportionate surveillance of public housing residents in Toledo, Ohio. @toddfeathers.bsky.social

‘Clearly Discrimination’: How a City Uses Fusus to Spy on Its Poorest Residents

Fusus’s technology allows police to tap into live feeds from public and privately owned surveillance cameras. In Toledo, Ohio, cops use the power to watch one particular type of location.

gizmodo.com

Todd Feathers@toddfeathers.bsky.social · last yr.

When Toledo police rolled out their Fusus system, allowing officers to tap into the live feeds of privately owned cameras, they promised to only use the power in emergency situations. We obtained data that tells a very different story about when, and who, TPD watches. gizmodo.com/clearly-disc...

‘Clearly Discrimination’: How a City Uses Fusus to Spy on Its Poorest Residents

Fusus’s technology allows police to tap into live feeds from public and privately owned surveillance cameras. In Toledo, Ohio, cops use the power to watch one particular type of location.

gizmodo.com

Todd Feathers@toddfeathers.bsky.social · 2y ago

For at least 25 safety or rights-impacting systems, agencies reported that “no documentation exists regarding maintenance, composition, quality, or intended use of the training and evaluation data.” gizmodo.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agencies Lack Critical Information About Some of Their Riskiest AI Systems

From facial recognition tools to algorithms that identify diseases, agencies reported that they didn't know enough about what they're acquiring from commercial vendors.

gizmodo.com

Hell Gate *subscribe today!*@hellgatenyc.com · 2y ago

Hell Gate is on the scene at the protest of Amazon union members at the distribution center in Maspeth. Just moments ago, NYPD officers pulled an Amazon worker out of his car after he stood up out of his seat and attempted to join the strike.

Todd Feathers@toddfeathers.bsky.social · 2y ago

Question for folks who use screen readers/accessibility experts: When do you advise describing a person's appearance in alt text? For example, I might purposefully choose an image of a Black scientist or a CEO for a story even though the story isn't about race. Should alt text specify that?

Hannah BW@hbwhbwhbw.bsky.social · 2y ago

seems like this is a flat violation of the TX shield law, which requires Paxton to exhaust reasonable efforts to get the information elsewhere (ie, from GOOG). not surprising that Ken Paxton is using any shred of an excuse to bully a news org, though.

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 2y ago

New: Texas AG Ken Paxton has subpoenaed 404 Media for confidential reporting about an internal Google privacy incident database we published in June. If Paxton wants the database, he can get it directly from Google. Our lawyers have formally objected to the subpoena: www.404media.co/404-media-ob...