Rory Doolan
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droolan.bsky.social
Rory Doolan
@droolan.bsky.social
480 followers 570 following 1 posts
Immunology/parasitology
PhD student at SwissTPH in the Helminth Immunology Group
Naarm ✈️ Basel
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Rory Doolan
meredithmeredith.bsky.social
📣 NEW -- In The Economist, discussing the privacy perils of AI agents and what AI companies and operating systems need to do--NOW--to protect Signal and much else!

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...
An illustration of me, and the headline: "AI agents are coming for your privacy, warns Meredith Whittaker The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security" To put it bluntly, the path currently being taken towards agentic AI leads to an elimination of privacy and security at the application layer. It will not be possible for apps like Signal—the messaging app whose foundation I run—to continue to provide strong privacy guarantees, built on robust and openly validated encryption, if device-makers and OS developers insist on puncturing the metaphoric blood-brain barrier between apps and the OS. Feeding your sensitive Signal messages into an undifferentiated data slurry connected to cloud servers in service of their AI-agent aspirations is a dangerous abdication of responsibility. Happily, it’s not too late. There is much that can still be done, particularly when it comes to protecting the sanctity of private data. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we approach the development and deployment of AI agents. First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app. Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it.
September 9, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Rory Doolan
australiainstitute.org.au
Excellent work by @ketanjoshi.co in his first #OffTheCharts for us pointing out that the Safeguard Mechanism just safeguards gas companies from having to worry about reducing emissions
australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-saf...
Chart showing Woodside met its 2023-24 Safeguard Mechanism target by buying offset, not reducing emissions AT ALL
May 28, 2025 at 1:39 AM
droolan.bsky.social
Another busy day for the HIG Lab at the Joint #Parasitology Spring meeting of the SSTMP, BSP, and DGP in Würzburg 🪱
March 13, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Rory Doolan
lydiatrippler.bsky.social
Interested in Schisto research and interventions? 🪱 For >15 years, @swisstph.bsky.social 🇨🇭 and the Public Health Lab - IdC 🇹🇿 conducted research and implemented interventions in Pemba, TZ, now approaching elimination.
📽 Watch our new documentary here showing these efforts: youtu.be/sGwnGLug-Aw?...
Documentary: Schistosomiasis research and interventions in Pemba, Tanzania
YouTube video by SwissTPH
youtu.be
November 21, 2024 at 11:25 PM