Students are being funneled into Google's ecosystem

Elena Constantinescu — 2026-03-24T17:54:00Z

If you're the parent of a student, you're familiar with the many ways technology plays a role in your child's education.
What you may not realize is that the free laptop your child's school provided, or the software it runs, may be tracking your child's every move .
The pervasive use of free laptops and educational software (happening at all grade levels in the United States) means that kids are being funneled into technological ecosystems without parental consent. This should sound (…)

- Newsfeed

OpenAI trains on your data, but there's a free, private ChatGPT alternative

Elena Constantinescu — 2026-03-10T18:51:42Z

AI assistants like ChatGPT promise to make work faster and easier. But every time you enter sensitive information , describe a confidential problem, or ask a personal question, you are handing over valuable data that can be collected, processed, and shared beyond what you intended.
Big Tech AI tools collect and analyze user interactions to improve their models and monetize their platforms, raising serious concerns about intellectual property and data ownership. Public concern peaked in (…)

- Newsfeed

Is ChatGPT safe to use ? Here's what you should know.

Elena Constantinescu — 2026-03-05T22:17:59Z

ChatGPT is a powerful AI assistant used by million of users daily , but is it safe to use ? It's owned and operated by OpenAI, one of the largest tech companies in the world. And like many Big Tech platforms, OpenAI collects large amounts of user data. That data is not protected with zero-access encryption , so the company can divulge it to business partners (including advertising and analytics companies), the government , and hackers in the event of a data breach .
Behind the scenes, (…)

- Newsfeed

Deepfake prevention : Tips to stay in control of your identity online

Elena Constantinescu — 2026-02-26T21:04:58Z

Media headlines often focus on the incredibly realistic results produced by AI image generation tools, but they rarely highlight how those deepfakes are actually created and at what cost.
Many deepfakes are built from ordinary photos, videos, and voice recordings — the everyday content that we willingly upload and make publicly available on social media like Instagram or Facebook , and cloud storage like Google Drive or OneDrive .
What we rarely consider is that those digital traces can (…)

- Newsfeed

ChatGPT ads are rolling out. Here's why they're worse than search ads — and what you can do

Elena Constantinescu — 2026-01-21T10:37:36Z

OpenAI announced its plans to show ads to ChatGPT users, with tests starting for US users on the Free tier and the newly introduced Go plan in the coming weeks. The company said that : Ads won't influence ChatGPT's responses. Ads will be clearly labeled and visually separate. Conversations and personal data will not be shared with advertisers. Ads won't be shown to users under 18, based on user disclosure or OpenAI's own predictions. Ads won't appear near sensitive or regulated topics such (…)

- Newsfeed