Oct 24, 2024
Sherwood News
Why countries are seeking to build “sovereign AI”
By Jon Keegan
Nvidia’s CEO says nations can’t afford to miss out on this technology, but an AI created and controlled by the government could be dangerous.
Oct 15, 2024
Sherwood News
The crash test dummies for new AI models
By Jon Keegan
In the absence of actual regulation, AI companies use "adversarial testers" to check their new models for safety. Does it actually work?
Feb. 7, 2024
Marketplace
The CIA runs a nonprofit venture capital firm. What’s it investing in?
By Jon Keegan
Marketplace's Kai Ryssal speaks with reporter Jon Keegan of Sherwood News about In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital firm.
Oct 2, 2024
Sherwood News
The biggest barrier to the mass adoption of electric vehicles is charging them
By Jon Keegan
The US is many, many miles away from its goal of installing 500,000 chargers by 2030.
Sept. 20, 2024
Sherwood News
These are the AI companies that the CIA is investing in
By Jon Keegan
You can’t spell CIA without AI
Spet. 13, 2024
Sherwood News
But how risky are OpenAI's new models, really?
By Jon Keegan
Well, it can help experts plan biological threats and it’s really good at tricking people.
Sept. 4, 2024
Sherwood News
Corporate surveillance technology is out of control
By Jon Keegan
A new report details the disturbing ways your employer can monitor your life even out of the office.
Aug 27, 2024
Sherwood News
Threads’ chaotic “For You” feed quantified
By Jon Keegan
How old are the posts Threads are recommending to its users?
Aug 23, 2024
Sherwood News
Big Tech's onslaught of bots forces publishers to play an impossible game of Whac-A-Mole
By Jon Keegan
Jul 17, 2024
The Markup
Everyone Is Judging AI by These Tests. But Experts Say They’re Close to Meaningless
By Jon Keegan
Benchmarks used to rank AI models are several years old, often sourced from amateur websites, and, experts worry, lending automated systems a dubious sense of authority
Jul 25, 2024
Sherwood News
Just four companies are hoarding tens of billions of dollars worth of Nvidia GPU chips
By Jon Keegan
Each Nvidia H100 can cost up to $40,000, and one big tech company has 350,000 of them.
Mar 16, 2024
The Markup
I Used ChatGPT as a Reporting Assistant. It Didn’t Go Well
By Jon Keegan
The AI tool ignored basic instructions about sourcing and citations. But it’s a pretty good newsroom coding partner.
February 23, 2024
The Markup
What Happens to Your Sensitive Data When a Data Broker Goes Bankrupt?
By Jon Keegan
Data on sensitive locations, such as abortion clinics, could be sold off, raising alarms.
February 13, 2024
The Markup
Use Our Game Safety Buddy to Protect Your Kids and Yourself on Gaming Consoles
By Jon Keegan
Our tool and advice can help you navigate the overwhelming number of settings on today’s game platforms.
Jan 29, 2024
Beautiful Public Data
FAA Aviation Maps
By Jon Keegan
Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration’s aviation maps.
January 27, 2024
The Markup
How To Handle the Growing Flood of Leaked Data
By Jon Keegan
An interview with Micah Lee, author of a new book on analyzing datasets that were leaked, hacked, or just accidentally left in the open.
January 26, 2024
The Markup
How Abortion Ruling Spurred Federal Action Against the Location Data Industry
By Jon Keegan
Nearly a quarter of the 47 location data companies we identified in 2021 have faced Congressional scrutiny or regulatory enforcement actions.
January 17, 2024
The Markup
Each Facebook User is Monitored by Thousands of Companies
By Jon Keegan
A new study looks at who is sending information about your online activity to Facebook.
January 11, 2024
The Markup
Federal Trade Commission Sanctions Location Data Broker X-Mode
By Jon Keegan
The company is prohibited from selling sensitive location data and is ordered to put consumer privacy protections in place.
Nov 27, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Government Comic Books
By Jon Keegan
Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and how soldiers should handle homosexuality in the military.
November 27, 2023
The Markup
Kroger Sued for Sharing Sensitive Health Data With Meta
By Jon Keegan
Two proposed federal class action lawsuits, filed in the wake of a Markup investigation, accuse the grocer of disclosing private data through its online store and pharmacy.
November 11, 2023
The Markup
Meet Nightshade—A Tool Empowering Artists to Fight Back Against AI
By Jon Keegan
Meet Nightshade—A Tool Empowering Artists to Fight Back Against AI A newly released research paper outlines a tool artists can use to make their work act like “poison” if it is ingested by an AI image generator.
Oct 17, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Wild Horses
By Jon Keegan
The Bureau of Land Management wants to pay you $1,000 to adopt a wild horse. But the program has been criticized by animal rights advocates and subject to scrutiny by Congress.
October 16, 2023
The Markup
Twitter Is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood
By Jon Keegan and Dan Phiffer
Markup readers helped uncover the link delays, which also affect WhatsApp and Messenger.
Oct 4, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
The Army and Navy Style Guides
By Jon Keegan
These fascinating Army and Navy brand style guides define the look, feel and voice of our armed forces.
Sep 21, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Nuclear Weapon Test Films
By Jon Keegan
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has an archive of an estimated 10,000 films of nuclear weapons tests from the 1940's - 1960's.
Sept. 15, 2023
The Markup
Twitter is Still Throttling Competitors’ Links—Check for Yourself
By Jon Keegan, Dan Phiffer and Joel Eastwood
Loading links to Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Substack takes far longer than to other sites. We built a tool so you can check any domain you like
Aug 21, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
All of the 8,331 License Plates in America
By Jon Keegan
States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
August 3, 2023
The Markup
How to Quickly Get to the Important Truth Inside Any Privacy Policy
By Jon Keegan and Jesse Woo
An investigative data journalist and a former tech lawyer teach you how to spot tricks and hidden disclosures within these interminable documents—and even how to claw back some privacy
July 1, 2023
The Markup
What Are “Data Clean Rooms”?
By Jon Keegan
The dirt on data brokers’ latest privacy buzzword
June 23, 2023
The Markup
How Your Attention Is Auctioned Off to Advertisers
By Joel Eastwood, Gabriel Hongsdusit, and Jon Keegan
In mere milliseconds, online advertisers scrutinize your personal data and bid for your eyeballs
June 13, 2023
The Markup
Suicide Hotlines Promise Anonymity. Dozens of Their Websites Send Sensitive Data to Facebook
By Colin Lecher and Jon Keegan
The Markup found many sites tied to the national mental health crisis hotline transmitted information on visitors through the Meta Pixel
June 8, 2023
The Markup
From “Heavy Purchasers” of Pregnancy Tests to the Depression-Prone: We Found 650,000 Ways Advertisers Label You
By Jon Keegan and Joel Eastwood
A spreadsheet on ad platform Xandr’s website revealed a massive collection of “audience segments” used to target consumers based on highly specific, sometimes intimate information and inferences
June 1, 2023
The Markup
Life360 Sued for Selling Location Data
By Jon Keegan
A proposed class-action lawsuit cites Markup reporting and claims the family-tracking app did not get user consent to sell location data
May 23, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Mapping Volcano Eruptions With Drones
By Jon Keegan
Drones have become an essential tool to map, measure and observe the extremely dangerous environments surrounding volcanic eruptions.
May 2, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Here’s All the Rocks We Hauled Back From the Moon
By Jon Keegan
The 12 human beings who walked on the Moon collected, catalogued and returned 842 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Each sample has been meticulously documented in NASA's Lunar Sample Catalog.
Apr 10, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
1,000 Photos of Dolphin Fins
By Jon Keegan
Scars, scratches and wounds abound in these photos as encounters with unknown creatures and boat propellers leave their marks, imprinting a story of close escapes and cheating death.
Mar 27, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
The Mirror Fusion Test Facility
By Jon Keegan
A decade-long effort to build a machine to unlock the promise of nuclear fusion fell victim to budget constraints and competing science, and was shut down the day it was dedicated. It was never turned on.
Mar 18, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Special Database 18: 3,248 Mugshots Used for Training Image Recognition Systems
By Jon Keegan
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has maintained a dataset of mugshot photos of 1,573 people for decades, including 175 minors, until we asked about them.
February 22, 2023
NPR
What Kroger is doing with data about customers in its loyalty program
By Jon Keegan
NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with reporter Jon Keegan of The Markup about the data that Kroger grocery chain collects about customers in its loyalty program.
February 16, 2023
The Markup
Forget Milk and Eggs: Supermarkets Are Having a Fire Sale on Data About You
By Jon Keegan
When you use supermarket discount cards, you are sharing much more than what is in your cart—and grocery chains like Kroger are reaping huge profits selling this data to brands and advertisers.
Feb 13, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
Pilot Manual for a 1940's U.S. Navy Blimp
By Jon Keegan
This 122 page manual contains all of the operating instructions and technical details needed to pilot this sleek, silver, 250 foot long, weaponized anti-submarine dirigible.
Feb 6, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
The United States Frequency Allocation Chart
By Jon Keegan
This crazy, beautiful chart illustrates the incredible complexity of managing one of our nation’s most crucial – and invisible – national assets: the radio spectrum.
Jan 9, 2023
Beautiful Public Data
The Style Guide for America’s Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
By Jon Keegan
Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals. But the one consistent thing that will stay the same from Maine to California are the signs you pass on the highway. That is because America’s roads and highways have a big, fat style guide.
Dec 29, 2022
Beautiful Public Data
Mapping the Sea Floor
By Jon Keegan
USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of the sea floor off Cape Ann, MA.
Nov 26, 2022
Beautiful Public Data
Vehicle Crash Test Films from the 1970's and 1980s
By Jon Keegan
Deep in the public archives of the NHTSA, there are thousands of films of some classic (and some ugly) 70’s and 80’s cars being smashed into smithereens.
November 8, 2022
The Markup
How Political Campaigns Use Your Phone’s Location to Target You
By Jon Keegan
Before you got in line on Election Day, the emerging and largely unregulated political tracking industry was able to trace your movements.
Nov 7, 2022
Beautiful Public Data
Visualizing Rivers and Floodplains with USGS Data
By Jon Keegan
Using USGS elevation data to visualize stunning views of the flow of water through rivers and floodplains.