Search

Search engines match user queries with webpages. Search efficiency, increases when data-driven network effects attract more users and generate economies of scale and scope in data aggregation. Network effects enhance user welfare but also trigger antitrust concerns because they may "tip" the market towards a single dominant search engine – Google Search. The EU Digital Markets Act imposes an obligation on very large gatekeepers search engines to share their user data with smaller search engines to facilitate market entry and competition. The available empirical literature on search engine efficiency shows that asymmetric data sharing, from larger to smaller search engines, may increase competition but reduce user welfare because it fragments the user data pool that is crucial for efficiency, in particular for rare queries. Tension between competition and user welfare can be overcome by symmetric and mutual data sharing between all search engines, irrespective of market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the EncroChat operation, French law enforcement authorities collected over 120 million messages from 60.000 EncroChat users. They cooperated with Dutch law enforcement authorities and Europol in a Joint Investigation Team. In the Netherlands, EncroChat data has already been used in over 200 criminal cases. This article examines what lessons can be learned from the Dutch experience with the EncroChat operation from a human rights perspective, in particular the right to a fair trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a follow up to the Digital Rights judgment of 8 April 2014 in which the Grand Chamber invalidated the data retention directive, the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm and the Court of Appeal in London both referred questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. On 21 December 2016, the Grand Chamber rendered a landmark judgment in which it interpreted Article 15(1) of e-privacy directive 2002/58/EC dated 12 July 2002 in light of Article 7 on the right to privacy, Article 8 on the protection of personal data, Article 11 on freedom of expression and Article 52(1) on the principle of proportionality of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Grand Chamber ruled that EU law does not allow a general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data. It also ruled that access of competent national authorities to retained data must be restricted solely to fighting serious crime and subject to prior review by a court or an independent administrative authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementations of Big Data analysis are reshaping society. The novel ways mathematics operate in society warrants new efforts for mathematics education, both in teaching the new technology and in providing an ethical and critical awareness of its implications. This interview study investigates pre-service teachers' ethical reasoning in data science contexts, focusing on aspects of access to the data that underpin the technology. Findings show that pre-service teachers offer a wide array of ethical arguments related to access to data, that informs their effort to think critically on oppressive situations. However, there is also an indication that their reasoning can be limited by lacking understanding of the related data science methodology, implying that mathematics teacher education should encompass more of this. • Big Data Analytics has ramifications for vulnerable groups in society. • Big Data Analytics has implications for social justice oriented teaching. • Teachers' ethical reasoning can be limited if lacking Big Data Analytics knowledge. • Data access is an important aspect when relating ethics with Big Data applications. • Critical mathematical consciousness is related to seeing plurality of perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Evidence for Action (E4A) program assumes that both resource allocation and quality of care can improve via a strategy that combines evidence and advocacy to stimulate accountability. The present paper explains the methods used to collect baseline monitoring data using two tools developed to inform program design in six focus countries. The first tool is designed to understand the extent to which decision-makers have access to the data they need, when they need it, and in meaningful formats, and then to use the data to prioritize, plan, and allocate resources. The second tool seeks the views of people working in the area of maternal and newborn health (MNH) about political will, including: quality of care, the political and financial priority accorded to MNH, and the extent to which MNH decision-makers are accountable to service users. Findings indicate significant potential to improve access to and use of data for decision-making, particularly at subnational levels. Respondents across all six program countries reported lack of access by ordinary citizens to information on the health and MNH budget, and data on MNH outcomes. In all six countries there was a perceived inequity in the distribution of resources and a perception that politicians do not fully understand the priorities of their constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By adopting a reflective–reflexive approach, the paper explores aspects of positionality in relation to gender and culture and examines in what way they affect the generation of status and power within the relationships and social interactions of the research participants. By drawing on my personal experience as a female researcher operating in a male-dominated, foreign and yet familiar setting, I will analyse the mechanisms involved in the negotiation of the positions occupied by the various players and how this determined my status in terms of insider/outsidership. Particular attention will be paid to the facilitation of access to the field and the construction of knowledge. The data informing this paper were collected as part of a study of school-based models of initial teacher training in Germany, including contributions from the directors, tutors and mentors of three teacher training Seminars as well as my own observations. The relatively small sample of respondents and the researcher's subjective perspective of reporting and interpreting the findings preclude any conclusions of a general nature to be drawn. However, interesting data emerged, suggesting that aspects of gender and culture as well as the researcher's biographical background constitute powerful factors in the positioning of the research participants, which have methodological and epistemological implications. In the light of these findings I would argue that by adopting a reflective–reflexive approach the quality of the research account can be enhanced by making the mechanisms involved in the negotiation of positions of power and control more transparent. Finally, the analysis presented is intended to act as a caveat against the simplistic assumption that a researcher's familiarity and biographical affiliation with the setting will assist him/her in establishing and maintaining control over the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Many health care organizations release test results to outpatients through an online patient portal. However, there are no reports in the literature about the immediate release of online test results to patients who are in the hospital. We report an experience with a patient's family member who reviewed online test results in the intensive care unit (ICU) and the divergent opinions of care team members about how this information affected the patient's care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the competition among hospitals and health care providers to offer evidence-based practice. It mentions that the bell-shaped curve is a description of the normal distribution of data. It states that the evidence is changing as medical science progresses, and patients have time and the motivation to stay informed.

The article reports that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) launched a consensus report, Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America, which depicts specific and participatory recommendations for improving the efficiency and quality of the U.S. health care system. It mentions that the system's inefficiency lead to needless deaths.