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By: Scott Gutierrez

Your smartphone can track your location, your favorite places to shop, and the topics you most often engage with on social media. But be warned college students: Your phone also may know the next time you skip class.

Dozens of  colleges and universities in the United States now use apps installed on students’ personal phones to monitor student attendance. The apps connect through campus Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technology, and can alert a professor or advisor when students don’t show up to class or arrive a few minutes late. SpotterEDU, a system employed by about 40 schools, including Syracuse, Auburn, Central Florida, Indiana, and Missouri, logged more than 1.5 million student check-ins last year.

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By: Michael McNeil

As humanity races to advance in the 2020s, many have become uneasy about the amount of space weaponizing that has occurred.  Last month the United States officially created the sixth branch of its military, the Space Force, signaling to the world America’s long-term intent to develop and protect its space-based capabilities. However, the United States is not the only government that is actively weaponizing space, or has been for a long time.    China has a robust space weapons and technologies program that is very secretive and active.  Same is true of Russia which has a storied history of developing and deploying space-based weapons in the past, like its famous R-23M Space Cannon from the 1970s.  And in early 2019, Japan shot an explosive at an asteroid it landed on in space, which created a crater much larger than they expected.

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Image: Generated Photos (Gallery of deepfake, AI generated photos)

By: Ashley Stoll

By now you have probably heard of “deepfakes”–a type of media in which a person’s image is replaced with a fake–and the growing concern that surrounds them.  But, what you probably don’t know is that most deepfakes you see are actually “shallowfakes” and the laws currently being written to stop these fraudulent videos will be ineffective on many of the videos being made. We need a solution that will target all types of disinformation, and for that we need to enlist the help of Internet platforms.

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By: Stephanie Verdoia

The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) bylaws have established requirements for student-athletes to remain eligible and compete in collegiate athletics as “amateur” athletes, and not “professional” athletes. Article 12.5, one of the more controversial bylaws created by the NCAA to maintain this distinction, restricts employment and compensation for student-athletes. To maintain amateur status, student-athletes essentially cannot receive any compensation based on their name, image, or likeness as an athlete. This amateurism model has generated consistent litigation throughout the years accusing the NCAA of violating antitrust law, violating federal minimum wage laws, and depriving student-athletes right of publicity.

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By: Samantha Pelto

It is no news that telemarketing calls are the cause of great annoyance and frustration to consumers throughout the United States. Telemarketing calls are often considered unwanted solicitation at inconvenient times, on topics irrelevant to the consumer.  With the rapid growth of the telemarketing industry, Congress ascertained that consumers were becoming outraged. In response, Congress passed the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act in 1994, which authorized the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to promulgate the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The TSR helps to limit the number of unwanted sales and charitable solicitation calls consumers receive from telemarketers. However, the telemarketing industry still remains largely unchecked, and telemarketing calls continue to invade the privacy of consumers.

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