Wednesday, January 04, 2017

For my Computer Security students.
The state’s announcement:
The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation today announced the online public availability of its Data Breach Notification Archive.
The Massachusetts Data Security Law (M.G.L. c.93H) requires any entity that keeps a Massachusetts resident’s personal information to notify affected residents, the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, and the Attorney General’s Office anytime personal information is accidentally or intentionally compromised.  The information maintained by the Office of Consumer Affairs was previously only available through Public Records Requests.
Although the press release doesn’t seem to tell us where to actually find the archive, you can find it here.


But, suspicion is sufficient, right?  
Joe Cadillic writes:
Maine’s Marine Patrol is allowed to put secret surveillance devices inside boats.
According to an article in the Portland Press Herald, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) wants the Marine Patrol to secretly install electronic surveillance devices on the boats of fishermen suspected of violating state fishing regulations.
Did you catch that, police will secretly spy on anyone suspected of violating fishing regulations!
Read more on MassPrivateI.


What could possibly go wrong?  (A possible question on my Computer Security final.)
Her name is Aristotle, and she has eyes, and ears, inside your child's bedroom.
   To new parents, Mattel is positioning Aristotle as a smart baby monitor.  Unlike Google Home or Amazon Alexa, Aristotle is equipped with a camera that streams video through an encrypted cloud connection to your phone.  But with partners like Qualcomm (which makes key chips inside most smartphones) and Microsoft (which provides both Bing search intelligence and Cortana AI smarts), Aristotle is a lot more capable than the baby monitors of today.


Rapelcgvba vf tbbq!  Encryption is good!  (see: http://planetcalc.com/1434/ ROT13)  
EFF – The State of Crypto Law: 2016 in Review
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jan 3, 2017
Nate Cardozo – The State of Crypto Law: 2016 in Review – “This year was one of the busiest in recent memory when it comes to cryptography law in the United States and around the world…  In this post, we’ll run down the list of things that happened, how they could have gone wrong (but didn’t), how they could yet go wrong (especially in the U.K.), and what we might see in 2017…”


How to apply that dossier they’ve been building.  My Data Management students need to think about this. 
Carnival Corp.’s new ‘smart ships’ know your name, what you want and where you want it
Imagine a future world defined by technology so subtle you hardly know its there.
Servers know what you want ahead of time, so your food is ready when you sit down.  The “what should I do today?” question is answered by a list of curated options based on your personal interests.  Standing in line is a remnant of a life long ago.  And perhaps best of all, the technology works so smoothly that no users’ manual is required.
But this isn’t some distant, Trekkie future.  Within months, passengers will find these features aboard Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess.
   The Doral-based cruise company is set to announce its futuristic innovation at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Wednesday, delivering what it promises will be the idea that changes how companies approach not only cruising, but the hospitality industry altogether.
   It starts with a medallion, a quarter-sized disc weighing just under 2 ounces emblazoned with a traveler’s name, ship and sail date.  Guests need only carry it around, or purchase a wristband or necklace to carry it in.
This medallion is like a starship room key embedded with information on the individual cruiser.  Like card keys and bands on some other ships, the medallion helps travelers unlock doors and pay for goods.  But here it does much more.  It can alert crew to know who guests are as they approach.  Guests preferences — such as dietary restrictions and dining reservations — will also be part of the information crew members see on tablets populated with information from the medallions.
The more cruisers do, the more the medallion knows what they like and the more customized their experience becomes.


Watson wants your job!  
Japanese white-collar workers are already being replaced by artificial intelligence
   One Japanese insurance company, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, is reportedly replacing 34 human insurance claim workers with “IBM Watson Explorer,” starting by January 2017.
The AI will scan hospital records and other documents to determine insurance payouts, according to a company press release, factoring injuries, patient medical histories, and procedures administered.  Automation of these research and data gathering tasks will help the remaining human workers process the final payout faster, the release says.
Fukoku Mutual will spend $1.7 million (200 million yen) to install the AI system, and $128,000 per year for maintenance, according to Japan’s The Mainichi.  The company saves roughly $1.1 million per year on employee salaries by using the IBM software, meaning it hopes to see a return on the investment in less than two years.
   Artificial intelligence systems like IBM’s are poised to upend knowledge-based professions, like insurance and financial services, according to the Harvard Business Review, due to the fact that many jobs can be “composed of work that can be codified into standard steps and of decisions based on cleanly formatted data.”  But whether that means augmenting workers’ ability to be productive, or replacing them entirely remains to be seen.


I wonder if he would like to talk to the Privacy Foundation?
Zuckerberg’s 2017 challenge is to meet and listen to people in all 50 states
   Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is using his yearly challenge to educate himself on the needs and problems of his users around the United States.
   Zuckerberg writes “My work is about connecting the world and giving everyone a voice.  I want to personally hear more of those voices this year.”
   The pledge’s parallels to campaign tours might also draw speculation about whether Zuckerberg is seriously considering getting into politics.  The CEO filed documents asking Facebook’s board of directors to potentially allow him to work in government while retaining control of Facebook.  


Why India?  Just because of numbers? 
Google Turns Focus to India’s Small Businesses Amid Search for Users
Alphabet Inc.’s Google is ramping up its efforts to get India’s small businesses online, the latest step in its quest to win new users in the populous nation.
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said on Wednesday that the Mountain View, Calif., company will launch later this year a tool that allows owners of small businesses that are now offline to create mobile-friendly websites for free.  Google says nearly three quarters of the country’s 51 million small businesses currently lack a web presence.
India will be the first country to get access to the feature, which will then be rolled out to other nations.


Perspective.
Amazon’s Third-Party Sellers Had Record-Breaking Sales in 2016
Amazon.com shipped 50 percent more items this holiday season than last for third-party vendors and doubled the amount for 2016 overall, the retail giant said on Wednesday.

(Related).
Amazon’s robot army grows by 50 percent
The world’s largest e-commerce retailer said it has 45,000 robots in some 20 fulfillment centers.  That’s a bigger headcount than that of the armed forces of the Netherlands, a NATO member, according to World Bank data.  It’s also a cool 50 percent increase from last year’s holiday season, when the company had some 30,000 robots working alongside 230,000 humans.
We don’t know yet how many people Amazon is employing in the fourth quarter (that number is expected to be disclosed at the company’s earnings call in early 2017) so we can’t exactly compare the growth of the human versus the robotic workforce.  But from the fourth quarter of 2015 through the third quarter of 2016, Amazon reported a 46 percent, 12-month increase on average in staffers, not counting temporary recruits.


Maybe all my students could use this?
The strategies in this article may not add hours to your day, but you’ll be able to use the time you have more efficiently.

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