In today’s Bulldog tech wrapup:

  • Google intensifies campaign against online extremism
  • ‘Human Project’ study will ask 10,000 to share life’s data
  • High court sides with drugmaker in Plavix lawsuit
  • EU considers sanctions to respond to cyberattacks

The details:

  • Google intensifies campaign against online extremism

Google is intensifying its campaign against online extremism, saying it will put more resources toward identifying and removing videos related to terrorism and hate groups.

The renewed efforts arrive in the wake of violent attacks in the U.S. and elsewhere. A van struck a crowd of people outside a London mosque Sunday, the second time an automobile was used as a weapon in that city this month, and less than a week after a gunman attacked GOP lawmakers on a baseball field.

“While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done. Now,” Google said in a blog post.

Anti-hate groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center have been critical of Google and social media sites, saying that they have done little to curtail hate groups online.

Facebook and Google “have done little to counter the use of their platforms to spread hateful, false “information,” from conspiracy theories accusing various minority groups of plotting against America to websites promoting Holocaust denial and false “facts” about Islam, LGBT people, women, Mexicans and others, the organization said in a report earlier this year.

Google, along with other companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter, recently agreed to create an international forum to share and develop technology, support smaller businesses and speed up their joint efforts against online terrorism.

On the same day of the most recent attack in London, Google said it would escalate those efforts.

Google will nearly double the number of independent experts it uses to flag problematic content and expand its work with counter-extremist groups to help identify content that may be used to radicalize and recruit extremists.

It will also train more people to identify and remove extremist and terrorism-related content faster.

  • ‘Human Project’ study will ask 10,000 to share life’s data

Wanted: 10,000 New Yorkers interested in advancing science by sharing a trove of personal information, from cellphone locations and credit-card swipes to blood samples and life-changing events. For 20 years.

Researchers are gearing up to start recruiting participants from across the city next year for a study so sweeping it’s called “The Human Project .” It aims to channel different data streams into a river of insight on health, aging, education and many other aspects of human life.

“That’s what we’re all about: putting the holistic picture together,” says project director Dr. Paul Glimcher, a New York University neural science, economics and psychology professor.

There have been other “big data” health studies, and the National Institutes of Health plans to start full-scale recruitment as soon as this fall for a million-person project intended to foster individualized treatment.

But the $15 million-a-year Human Project is breaking ground with the scope of individual data it plans to collect simultaneously, says Dr. Vasant Dhar, editor-in-chief of the journal Big Data, which published a 2015 paper about the project.

“It is very ambitious,” the NYU information systems professor says.

Participants will be invited to join; researchers are tapping survey science to create a demographically representative group.

They’ll start with tests of everything from blood to genetics to IQ. They’ll be asked for access to medical, financial and educational records, as well as cellphone data such as location and the numbers they call and text. They’ll also be given wearable activity trackers, special scales, and surveys via smartphone. Follow-up blood and urine tests — and an at-home fecal sample — will be requested every three years.

Participants get $500 per family for enrolling, plus a say in directing some charitable money to community projects.

Researchers hope the results will illuminate the interplay between health, behavior and circumstances, potentially shedding new light on conditions ranging from asthma to Alzheimer’s disease.

  • High court sides with drugmaker in Plavix lawsuit

The Supreme Court says hundreds of out-state-residents can’t sue drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in California state court over adverse reactions to the blood thinner Plavix.

The justices ruled 8-1 Monday that there was not a strong enough connection between the claims against the drugmaker and the company’s ties to the state.

The ruling is a win for Bristol-Myers Squibb and other companies that want to avoid lawsuits in state courts seen as more favorable to plaintiffs.

The case involved 575 non-California residents who joined 86 California residents in suing the New Jersey-based company.

California’s highest court ruled 4-3 that all the cases could move ahead in state court even if the specific claims were not connected to California because the company did other business in the state.

  • EU considers sanctions to respond to cyberattacks

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to prepare a joint response to cyberattacks in the 28-nation bloc, including imposing sanctions on offenders.

The ministers said in a statement Monday that they would develop a “cyber-diplomacy toolbox” to respond to malicious activities online.

They expressed concern at the “increased ability and willingness of state and non-state actors to pursue their objectives” through cyberattacks, and pledged a united response.

While the ministers said they prefer to settle cyberspace disputes peacefully, they stand ready to make full use of the means at their disposal “including, if necessary, restrictive measures.”

EU sanctions usually target people, groups, companies or organizations with asset freezes, travel bans and economic measures like import or export restrictions.