Lesson plan

DataSpii

DataSpii (pronounced data-spy) is a leak that directly compromised the private data of as many as 4 million Chrome and Firefox users via at least eight browser extensions. The eight browser extensions included Hover Zoom, SpeakIt!, SuperZoom, SaveFrom.net Helper, FairShare Unlock, PanelMeasurement, Branded Surveys, and Panel Community Surveys. The private data included personally identifiable information (PII), corporate information (CI), and government information (GI). DataSpii impacted the Pentagon, Walmart, AT&T, Zoom, Bank of America, Sony, Kaiser Permanente, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Symantec, FireEye, Trend Micro, Boeing, Tesla, SpaceX, Pfizer, and Palo Alto Networks. Highly sensitive information (e.g., private network topology) associated with these corporations and agencies was intercepted and sent to foreign-owned entities. The data was made publicly available via Nacho Analytics (NA), a marketing intelligence company which described itself as "god mode for the internet." Both paid and free-trial members of NA were provided access to the leaked data. Upon signing up for NA membership, members were then provided access to the data via a Google Analytics account.…

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Article summary

DataSpii (pronounced data-spy) is a leak that directly compromised the private data of as many as 4 million Chrome and Firefox users via at least eight browser extensions. The eight browser extensions included Hover Zoom, SpeakIt!, SuperZoom, SaveFrom.net Helper, FairShare Unlock, PanelMeasurement, Branded Surveys, and Panel Community Surveys. The private data included personally identifiable information (PII), corporate information (CI), and government information (GI). DataSpii impacted the Pentagon, Walmart, AT&T, Zoom, Bank of America, Sony, Kaiser Permanente, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Symantec, FireEye, Trend Micro, Boeing, Tesla, SpaceX, Pfizer, and Palo Alto Networks. Highly sensitive information (e.g., private network topology) associated with these corporations and agencies was intercepted and sent to foreign-owned entities. The data was made publicly available via Nacho Analytics (NA), a marketing intelligence company which described itself as "god mode for the internet." Both paid and free-trial members of NA were provided access to the leaked data. Upon signing up for NA membership, members were then provided access to the data via a Google Analytics account.…

Key claims

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.