This is a well-produced segment. I encourage you to watch so you can hear the noise for yourself. The professor of environmental health science that they interviewed called it an “unprecedented new noise source.”

Neighbors say noise from Michigan data center is 24/7 and upending their lives

One Michigan community has been experiencing the reality of a data center next door for a couple of years now, and they say the sound has changed their lives.

wxyz.com

Our 2026 Conference schedule has been posted! You won't want to miss these excellent sessions. New research, lessons to share, workshops, and more! www.civicsoftechnology.org/2026conference

“Employee privacy is at the core of how we innovate and build,” [Microsoft] said. “We do not support employee surveillance in any way.” www.windowslatest.com/2026/07/18/n...

"Not employee surveillance," Microsoft defends Teams' new location tracking feature, now rolling out

Until now, Microsoft Teams could answer a question like, “Is Jack available to talk right now?” as part of its built-in “online presence” feature. You have this feature almost everywhere, including Go...

windowslatest.com

“After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings.”

ICE shared Medicaid data it wasn't supposed to have with Palantir

The revelations came out in a federal court case brought by Democratic states challenging ICE's access to Medicaid data to aid in deportation efforts.

npr.org

New from the @ubyssey.ca "How safe is our data?" - which explores some of the longer term repercussions of the Canvas/Instructure data breach. ubyssey.ca/news/how-saf...

How safe is our data? UBC instructors and experts discuss concerns, vulnerabilities and solutions

ShinyHunters’s attack on Instructure revealed vulnerabilities in UBC’s data management system. And we might not see the effects until 20 to 30 years from now, according to one computer scientist.

ubyssey.ca

Months after the data breach, Instructure has still not provided customers with information about what was stolen. They said they would release information this week, but "recently learned that the third-party platform we've selected to deliver your data may have been subject to a security threat."

Education should not resemble a high-surveillance environment. Privacy International is documenting the use of facial recognition in schools and universities. We need your input. pvcy.org/frtmap

The feedback deadline for the Government of Canada's proposed changes to the Privacy Act is tomorrow. I'm going to propose that Privacy Impact Assessments are published in full, not just summaries, with appropriate redactions. They should be licensed Creative Commons. www.canada.ca/en/treasury-...

Glad to see @ubyssey.ca is not letting the Instructure hack issue drop. Thanks for covering the Open Letter I wrote to the OIPC. I did get a response, but it made no promises about the deeper investigation we were looking for. ubyssey.ca/news/how-saf...

How safe is our data? UBC instructors and experts discuss concerns, vulnerabilities and solutions

ShinyHunters’s attack on Instructure revealed vulnerabilities in UBC’s data management system. And we might not see the effects until 20 to 30 years from now, according to one computer scientist.

ubyssey.ca

"They just want to turn it off." A fascinating story of the librarians who have started teaching classes showing people how to remove AI "features" from their phones and apps. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/02/m...

These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech

Despite breathless reporting on how AI is going to change the world, Hannah Cyrus, a Bangor librarian, said that, in her experience, most library patrons aren’t finding it helpful.

bangordailynews.com

Today we beat Stephen Miller’s lawsuit mill in court! For 3 years I’ve been a defendant in a case filed by America First Legal on behalf of Gateway Pundit & a random antivaxxer we’d never heard of until she sued us. The plaintiffs claimed we “censored” them. It was a lie. They just lost.

Instructure doesn't want the public or journalists knowing more about the ShinyHunters breach. This 6/28 "incident update" is still not a disclosure. Two months into this story, we don't know the specifics of what was stolen. Students deserve to know. Link: www.instructure.com/incident_upd...

Hundreds march in Vancouver to oppose planned AI data centres www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Hundreds march in Vancouver to oppose planned AI data centres | CBC News

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Vancouver on Saturday to oppose the construction of two new AI data centres in the city.

cbc.ca

AI detectors don't work and there's a whole industry marketing circumvention products to students. "Even honest students are often willing to fork over $10 to $20 per month for premium tools, since A.I. detectors sometimes flag legitimate work." Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...

Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era

nytimes.com

LinkedIn Article - My reflections on Ian Linkletter's Gasta #EdTech2026 @iltasky.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/pulse/standi...

Standing Ovation for Ian Linkletter's Gasta at ILTA EdTech2026

In the pic: Back (L-R) Mags Amond., Ian Linkletter Louise Nagle, Rose Baker, Colin O'Brien & Grzegorz Rogola.

linkedin.com

Stand tall!

Irish Learning Technology Association@iltasky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

@linkletter.org gives a powerful Gasta at #edtech26 Stand tall.

Instructure officially confirms they paid a ransom in this FAQ document: www.instructure.com/sites/defaul... I see that the document name says Privileged Confidential but this was linked on their website.

Instructure: "We have been informed that no Instructure customers will be extorted as a result of this incident, publicly or otherwise." @dexdigi.bsky.social: "What does it mean when the customer for an educational technology app isn't the student, isn't the user, it's the institution?"

Dexter Thomas@dexdigi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

schools are acting like the Canvas hack is 'fixed'. it's not. here's my interview with @linkletter.org on the decade+ of decisions that led to this, what 'shred logs' are (and are not), and what we can do now youtu.be/Tu9QbSIFwQc

I *did* make the point that obscurity is not security, which didn’t make it in here. But I do maintain it’s better for individual universities to be a little fishy in the current cyberattack climate. Be the littlest fishy in town.

si oppington@stillwellgray.ca · 3mo ago

@brennacgray.bsky.social in the paper

Do you know I actually think that these people are so inoculated from any public sentiment that they are legitimately shook by a handful of boos at commencements this week?

The Canvas hack isn't over. I had a great conversation with Dexter about protecting students, institutional accountability, and rethinking our reliance on the LMS.

Dexter Thomas@dexdigi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

schools are acting like the Canvas hack is 'fixed'. it's not. here's my interview with @linkletter.org on the decade+ of decisions that led to this, what 'shred logs' are (and are not), and what we can do now youtu.be/Tu9QbSIFwQc

“That is shocking. And no, I don’t mean the size and implications of this massive data breach…I mean that this is the story: “the LMS is down. We can’t do school.” This take down of LMS’s in light of he Canvas breach is even better than the one I posted earlier today. Read and take to heart.

That Damned LMS Dependency

For the second time in less than a year, a major disruption to the learning management system Canvas has prompted cries (and headlines) that “we can’t do school!” In the fall of 2025, an Amazon Web S...

2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com

My next book, *The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI*, will be out in about a month. 1/

Instructure's Acceptable Use Policy could be seen to ban users from criticizing Instructure or Canvas on the platform. This is mitigated by the fact that many users may no longer feel safe communicating on Canvas. Institutions need to spin up alternatives ASAP. www.instructure.com/policies/acc...

What a week it's been.

New, by me: U.S. lawmakers want answers from the chief executive of Instructure, which makes the Canvas software for schools, about the company's data breach and the defacement/extortion shitshow that followed. Millions of students' data stolen in the breach. Instructure paid the hackers' ransom.

US lawmakers demand answers from Instructure after Canvas data breaches | TechCrunch

U.S. House lawmakers want to know how hackers broke into education tech giant Instructure twice, and stole reams of data from students who use the company's flagship student data software Canvas.

techcrunch.com

What recourse do institutions have against Instructure for the extended outage during finals? Once Canvas loses 99.9% uptime status, they give service credits calculated by number of hours multiplied by 3% of 1/12 of annual fees, capped at 1/12 annual fees. web.archive.org/web/20260513...

You may recall "any lawful purpose" being the US government's phrase demanding Anthropic allow the use of Claude for domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Turns out this phrase has been in Instructure's ToS for *years*. It's the AI language that's new. How can public bodies sign this?

Ian Linkletter@linkletter.org · 3mo ago

What is Instructure doing with user data? On April 17, 2026, this "Usage Data" section had language added saying Instructure can use this data for "any lawful purpose". It prohibits customers from using their data to train AI, while allowing themselves to do so. web.archive.org/web/20260513...

I am planning to send this letter on Thursday, so if you'd like to sign on, please do! And please share with colleagues.

Brenna Clarke Gray@brennacgray.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Friends in British Columbia's teaching and learning sector, I believe the Canvas breach is an important moment for us to request a review of how data is handled and how risk assessment in tool selection is done. If you agree, please consider signing this open letter and please share widely:

What is Instructure doing with user data? On April 17, 2026, this "Usage Data" section had language added saying Instructure can use this data for "any lawful purpose". It prohibits customers from using their data to train AI, while allowing themselves to do so. web.archive.org/web/20260513...