@simson.net
Dr. Simson Garfinkel researches and writes at the intersection of AI, privacy, and digital forensics. He is a fellow of the AAAS, the ACM and the IEEE. He earned his PhD in Computer Science at MIT and a Master of Science in Journalism at Columbia.
Today at 9am MT our skunk episode streams from Childrenshour.org but we are on the radio somewhere all day. Including right now! Our Stations page at our site has times of broadcasts and links.
Let the 🦨 Skunk episode bring you joy and happiness. We need it!
It’s never too late
Yay!
Is it of course you would want to take? That’s the comment that you’re qualified to make!
Everybody is qualified to comment on it. Is it clear?
Well, the class has started, and it is a success so far
thanks!
We have cats and dogs as pets in the US. If we lived in a world without cats, could we imagine them? Probably not? So imagine another world that has a third animal that people commonly have as pets — an animal that doesn't exist today. What would that animal be like?
I recommend "Secret Mall Apartment," a documentary artists in Providence that transform an unused space in the Providence Place Mall into a secret apartment over the course of four years. Also a look into Michael Townsend's tapeart.com
The final syllabus for "AI, IoT and Cybersecurity" is now available! Download it from here: 1drv.ms/b/c/e53da78e...
It's not too late to register! Register here:
coursebrowser.dce.harvard.edu/course/artif...
I'm still looking for a few people to test-drive the labs that I put together for my "AI, IoT and Cybersecurity" course.
You can find the labs on our GitHub site: github.com/Harvard-CSCI...
Email me if you are interested!
ACM's new "Open Access" policy makes the articles in the ACM Digital Library open access, but perplexingly puts some bibliometrics behind a paywall. As an ACM Fellow, I have signed the petition asking ACM to make the bibliometrics Open Access as well.
www.ipetitions.com/petition/res...
Please send to sgarfinkel@fas.harvard.edu
AI, IoT and CyberSecurity — Help test the labs!
Looking for people to try the labs for Harvard CSCI E-11, AI, IoT and Internet of Things. Labs are free, but the grader and the course dashboard require either a Harvard account or a "course_key" to run. simson.net/csci-e-11-gi...
Reply for details!
AI, Internet of Things, and Cybersecurity - SPRING 2026
We have published the first three pages of the syllabus for our Harvard Extension Course: simson.net/csci-e-11-sy...
Desktops from Naoshima (Japan's art island).
I took some stunning photographs on my most recent trip to Japan. The ZIP file has 15 high resolution photos. (The photo with the birds was taken in Nagasaki.)
simson.net/ref/2025/Jap...
NSF has awarded $1.3M to Sebastian Angel, Andreas Haeberlen, Brett Falk, Ryan Marcus and Pratyush Mishra at Penn under to develop a "Trusted Integration Data Exchange" based on privacy-preserving cryptography. Congrats!
www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...
NSF has awarded $1M to Miel Hostens at Cornell and Joao R Dorea at the University of Wisconsin under the "Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing in Practice (PDaSP)" program. This applies privacy-preserving data analysis to dairy farming!
Congrats!
www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...
NSF has awarded $760K to Henry Corrigan-Gibbs at MIT CSAIL and Emma Dauterman at Stanford under the "Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing in Practice (PDaSP)" program.
Congrats!
www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...
I will be co-teaching Artificial Intelligence, the Internet-of-Things, and Cybersecurity (CSCI E-11) with Geoff Cohen this spring at the Harvard Extension School. Details are at coursebrowser.dce.harvard.edu/course/artif.... Labs are on GitHub at github.com/Harvard-CSCI... .
Registration open now!
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery has updated its peer review policy to make clear that faculty may not share articles they are reviewing with their students without explicit written permission of the current venue’s peer review leadership.
www.acm.org/publications...
ACM published my TechBrief on digital transformation. Here is the press release in the @aaas.org EurekaAlert!
New report urges governments around the world to achieve “Digital Transformation”
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
And here is the tech brief:
dl.acm.org/doi/book/10....
Sara is spilling the beans about Sascha!
substack.com/@saraabramss...
In case you missed it, I wrote a fun review of "Our Dollar, Your Problem." You can find it on my new substack page:
open.substack.com/pub/database...
You can download it from mitdpbook.com
I just finished Our Dollar, Your Problem and I am recommending it to all my friends. open.substack.com/pub/database...
Just published! How we reconstructed the individual-level records from the 2010 Census tables for tens of millions of people and reidentified millions using only commercially available data. hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/ntchx9im
My experience vibe coding, with citations and recommendations for making it safer. databasenation.substack.com/p/vibe-codin...
@bilawal.bsky.social has put together a 30-minute documentary on the history of Google Earth. Highly recommended. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMl...
