September 21, 2014

Briefly

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Data collection edition

  • Too Much Information:  Clemson University, in South Carolina, was “requiring students and faculty to complete an online course through a third party website that asks invasive questions about sexual history.
  • Too Little Information: New Zealand insurers are not willing to cooperate with price-comparison websites of the sort that exist elsewhere in the world.  These have led to lower prices where they have been introduced, but the insurers say their real concern is that people won’t get the most appropriate cover. (Herald today, Stuff back in March)
  • Just Right (maybe):  Apple says that with the new iOS8 operating system it is unable to unlock phones and decrypt data, and so will be able to refuse government demands to do so. Of course, the government can still grab lots of metadata, and as John Gilmore points out, there’s nothing but Apple’s bare word to go on.
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Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »