I think I’ve found my perfect side hustle. Charcuterie boards are out. Cookie trays are in!
Jessica Vitak
@vitak.bsky.social
She/her. Professor at University of Maryland's iSchool. Former director of HCIL. Steering Committee Chair-Elect for CSCW. Research: privacy, surveillance, data ethics. https://jessicavitak.com Come for the academic expertise. Stay for the cookie content.
This pup has not forgotten about egg prices. Eggs are very important to him. Doesn't matter why, but it took weeks to save for this one. Thought this was a top priority. Starting to wonder if maybe that wasn't true. 12/10 (credit: u/iztek)
I took the advice to at least photograph them all before disposing, and spent some time reflecting on how awesome it is that I have gotten to travel all over the world to share my research over the last 20 years. I also discovered some lanyards are not built to last and I’m now covered in blue dust.
Jessica Vitak@vitak.bsky.social · 4w agoWhat does one do with 15+ years of conference name tags and lanyards? It feels oddly painful to just throw them out but I can’t keep them.
What does one do with 15+ years of conference name tags and lanyards? It feels oddly painful to just throw them out but I can’t keep them.
Everybody needs to go hear Naomi Oreskes explain how Monsanto manipulated the science to obscure health concerns about Roundup — including ghost-writing papers that became touchstones in their denialism.
PBS News@pbsnews.org · last mo.The Supreme Court sided with the maker of the Roundup weedkiller Thursday in a ruling expected to block thousands of lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people the product could cause cancer. https://to.pbs.org/43VOkVA
... also on Sunday, @vitak.bsky.social and I will be presenting a tutorial on a data ethics decision support tool based on almost a decade of empirical research around research ethics for public/pervasive data! #FAccT2026
While we're celebrating today, we want to give a special shout-out to the six HCIL faculty who were recently promoted: **Associate Prof w/Tenure: Ge Gao, Huaishu Peng, Leo Zhicheng Liu, and Caro Pierce-Wiliams **Full Prof: Sheena Erete & Eun Kyoung Choe Congrats all! 🎉
Today we hold our 43rd annual HCIL symposium to celebrate the amazing research being conducted in the US' oldest HCI lab. Read more and download the program (with abstracts for all the talks) here: hcil.umd.edu/hcil-symposi...
HCIL's 43rd Annual Symposium | May 29, 2026 - Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Join us Friday, May 29 to learn about the cutting-edge research in happening in the HCIL! In this full-day event (held in the Iribe building on UMD’s campus and on Zoom), we’ll hear from faculty and s...
hcil.umd.edu
"If she has her own house, what will she need me for?" I don't know, dude, maybe be cool and fun to be around and be happy for her success instead being whiny little sad-ass troll about it? www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Single women are buying more houses. The men they are dating are not responding well
Female home owners report feeling stuck between men’s contradictory expectations – they are told to be independent, but not assume the breadwinner role
theguardian.com
Nearly 5 ago while covering AI & data at Protocol, I noticed the massive Infrastructure Act funded controversial surveillance tech inside vehicles - stuff that attempts to detect driver impairment or distraction. It was already closer to reality in the EU at the time.
Get ready for cars that read your mood
"If you're absolutely upset, well, the car can know that," said one maker of driver-monitoring AI, which could get a boost from the new law.
web.archive.org
The April 2026 @acm-sigchi.bsky.social research ethics column by @cfiesler.bsky.social, @vitak.bsky.social, and me asks: "is it ever ethical to violate a platform’s Terms of Service to conduct research?" (Spoiler: it's complicated) sigchi.org/news/newslet... 1/3
Newsletters
ACM SIGCHI is the leading international community of students and professionals interested in research, education, and practical applications of Human Computer Interaction.
sigchi.org
I’ll be at #chi2026 this week in Barcelona. Looking forward to chatting with many awesome HCI peeps!
Reminder that the call for workshops is open, with a deadline of this Thursday, March 26th. Workshops are split between Sunday and Monday this year, so you have some options for how to use one or both of those days. soups.page/workshops.html
SOUPS - Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security
soups.page
We're very proud of all our @hcil-umd.bsky.social members who had papers, workshops, and posters accepted to this year's #chi2026. Read more about UMD's research at CHI here: hcil.umd.edu/posts/chi-20...
CHI 2026 Roundup: HCIL students and faculty publish 19 papers, win two honorable mentions - Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Once again, the HCIL will have a strong presence at this year’s ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026), which will be held in Barcelona, Spain in April 2026. HCIL students and...
hcil.umd.edu
So odd that @vitak.bsky.social and I have similar opinions re the privacy & ethical issues of microchipping employees. We both comment here: fortune.com/2026/03/10/w...
Washington state wants to keep employers from microchipping workers, before anyone even gets the idea | Fortune
No employer in Washington state will be able to require workers to get microchipped—if the governor signs a sweeping new bill that's already passed with near-unanimous support.
fortune.com
Azerbaijan just closed airspace "in the south of the country" per Bloomberg macro squawk. Losing that link would have a massive impact on Europe-Asia (incl the Indian subcontinent and ANZ) air travel.
Jo Kibble (Political Animal)@politicanimal.bsky.social · 5mo agoIf anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.
Do you like the work we do? Come and hang out with us. Call for International Doctoral Students: Funded Short-Term Research Visit at the Social Media Lab socialmedialab.ca/2026/02/24/c...
Call for International Doctoral Students: Short-Term Research Visit at the Social Media Lab - Social Media Lab
The Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University welcomes expressions of interest from international PhD students interested in applying for a short-term research visit to conduct joint researc...
socialmedialab.ca
“The fact that Meta’s legal team appears to have come to this hearing in a trial over the dangers their systems cause equipped with invasive glasses that put jurors and others in the courtroom at risk is a bit on the nose.”
Smart glasses in court are a privacy nightmare
Putting smart glasses on trial.
theverge.com
We enjoyed demoing the PERVADE Data Ethics Decision Support Tool, designed to support reflexive research ethics education, at @sigcse-ts.bsky.social in St. Louis. @vitak.bsky.social and @michaelzimmer.bsky.social got great feedback from #TS2026 attendees.
I am SHOCKED. Shocked I tell you!
Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 6mo agoScoop: Ring's CEO told staff Search Party is not going to be just for dogs, according to a leaked email I obtained. Said it is "first for finding dogs" before suggesting it would be expanded to be used for crime: www.404media.co/leaked-email...
Heading to @sigcse-ts.bsky.social in St. Louis with @vitak.bsky.social & @cfiesler.bsky.social to get feedback on the @pervade-ethics.bsky.social PERVADE Data Ethics Decision Support Tool, designed to support reflexive research ethics education. sigcse2026.sigcse.org/details/sigc... #SIGCSE #TS2026
Demo 2C: The PERVADE Data Ethics Tool: Supporting Reflexive Research Ethics Education (SIGCSE TS 2026 - Demos) - SIGCSE TS 2026
Demos provide a way to showcase an educational tool or project in a live setting. Not designed to be sales pitches, demonstrations are a way for the community to see the relevance, potential, and inno...
sigcse2026.sigcse.org
Just saw the news about James Van Der Beek. Especially disheartening to see another Xennial dying from colorectal cancer far too young. Please pay attention to your body. Get checked out if something changes. Colonoscopies are really not that bad -- I know, I've had seven. Also, fuck cancer.
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
::screams into the void::
Philip Bump@pbump.com · 6mo agoSo the feds ARE NOT considering an mRNA vaccine for the flu, which could save countless lives, but ARE backing research into whether horse dewormer can cure cancer, because the right views vaccines as elite and ivermectin as populist. Cool. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Interested in privacy, law, policy, and technology? Consider submitting to our annual symposium on Contextual Integrity - deadline is Feb 13!
Yan@ynotez.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 6mo agoTHE 8TH ANNUAL PRIVACI SYMPOSIUM https://privaci.info/symposium/2026/cfp.html We are pleased to announce the 8th annual PrivaCI Symposium, which will take place on June 24-25, 2026 in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. IMPORTANT DATES All […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]
Join us at 12:30pm ET Thursday, 2/12, in the HCIL Lab (HBK 2105) or online for our weekly brown bag speaker series. We'll hear from Dr. Gabriel Kaptchuk on "On Using Differential Privacy" Visit hcil.umd.edu/bbl-speaker-... for more information.
