Thursday, July 11, 2019


What constitutes a “conflict short of war?”
U.S. Offensive Cyber Operations against Economic Cyber Intrusions: An International Law Analysis – Part I
Would Economic Cyber Intrusions Against U.S. Entities Violate International Law?




I teach my students how to create their own encryption. Am I facilitating crime?
The Movement to Ban End-to-End Encryption Has Hit Another Inflection Point
It now appears that key agencies within the federal government have mixed feelings about the idea to ban end-to-end encryption. For example, on one hand are law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Department of Justice, which view end-to-end encryption as a roadblock in their efforts to track down criminals and terrorists. On the other hand, the Commerce and State departments are less willing to take the heavy-handed step to ban end-to-end encryption, due to fears of the potential economic, security and diplomatic consequences.




Another GDPR nuance.
Dutch DPA: Banks May Not Use Payment Data for Marketing Purposes
In the wake of a recent announcement by a major Dutch bank that it would start providing its customers with personalized advertisements based on their spending patterns, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has sent a letter to all Dutch banks urging them to thoroughly review their direct marketing practices. The DPA specifically asked any bank contemplating the use of transaction data for direct marketing to reconsider. In its analysis, the DPA may have introduced a very onerous obligation to re-collect personal data for every single use.
Under the GDPR, personal data must be collected for a specific purpose and not further processed for a different purpose if that further purpose is incompatible with the original purpose.
The DPA then specifically held that a bank does not collect transaction data for the purpose of direct marketing (contrary to the Dutch bank’s privacy statement).
The DPA subsequently concluded that the purpose of direct marketing is incompatible with the purpose of enabling financial transactions.




Another perspective on AI.
The Metamorphosis
AI will bring many wonders. It may also destabilize everything from nuclear détente to human friendships. We need to think much harder about how to adapt.
HENRY A. KISSINGER, ERIC SCHMIDT, DANIEL HUTTENLOCHER




A lot of questions about privacy, AI, liability, etc.
Amazon Alexa will now be giving out health advice to UK citizens
MIT Technology Review – “The UK’s National Health Service hopes that its partnership with Amazon could help to reduce demand on its services.
  • The news: From this week, when UK users ask their Amazon smart speaker health-related questions, it will automatically search the official NHS website, which is full of medically-backed health tips and advice.
  • The aim: The government believes it will ease the burden on over-stretched doctors and hospitals, but also help elderly, disabled or blind patients who may struggle to access this information otherwise.
  • The worries: There are concerns that the voice service might discourage genuinely ill people from seeking proper medical help. It being Amazon, there are also concerns over data privacy, especially over an area as sensitive as health. The firm says all data can be deleted by customers…


(Related) My students are writing a policy for firms that sell voice activated devices to ensure that any evidence of criminal (or terrorist) activity is identified and reported to the proper authorities. Wish them luck.
WHO’S LISTENING WHEN YOU TALK TO YOUR GOOGLE ASSISTANT?
GOOGLE, AMAZON, AND Apple say their AI-powered virtual assistants make it easier to get things done on smartphones or at home. Last month, a couple in the Waasmunster area of Belgium got an unexpected lesson in how these supposedly automated helpers really work.
Tim Verheyden, a journalist with Belgian public broadcaster VRT, contacted the couple bearing a mysterious audio file. To their surprise, they clearly heard the voices of their son and baby grandchild—as captured by Google’s virtual assistant on a smartphone.
Verheyden says he gained access to the file and more than 1,000 others from a Google contractor who is part of a worldwide workforce paid to review some audio captured by the assistant from devices including smart speakers, phones, and security cameras.
WIRED reviewed transcripts of the files shared by VRT, which published a report on its findings Wednesday. In roughly 150 of the recordings, the broadcaster says the assistant appears to have activated incorrectly after mishearing its wake word. [So, the other 850 were not recorded “in error?” Bob]
Privacy scholars say Google’s practices may breach the European Union privacy rules known as GDPR introduced last year, which provide special protections for sensitive data such as medical information and require transparency about how personal data is collected and processed.




A privacy podcast.
Internet Privacy: What Issues Arise Over Accessing Private Information Online?
Gov. Janet Mills recently signed into law The Act to Protect the Privacy of Online Consumer Information. It is one of the nation’s strictest internet privacy protection bills. It requires Maine ISPs to get customers' approval before sharing or selling their personal data. The law prohibits ISPs from offering customers discounts in exchange for selling their data. We discuss the issues that arise over how best to protect private information.
Listen to the full program here..52:48 :




Another swing of the pendulum.
Five new bills threaten California's privacy act, experts say
Five digital privacy bills are up for consideration in the California Senate’s judiciary committee on Tuesday that would drastically alter the California Consumer Privacy Act. The new legislation could reverse many of the measures improving security of consumers’ personal data under the landmark privacy bill, which is set to go live in 2020.
The bills — AB 1416, AB 25, AB 873, AB 846 and AB 1564 — are intended to repeal and amend much of the CCPA, which set a new standard for consumer data protection after being signed into law last June.
AB 1416, identified by privacy advocates as the most pernicious of the five bills up for consideration, would allow any business to sell personal information even after a consumer opts out, if the sale is conducted for the purposes of detecting fraud or other illegal activity.




Because we can? Will IP lawyers be able to determine what the AI based its design on? (Note the company’s URL)
AI'S LATEST JOB? DESIGNING COOL T-SHIRTS
THE T-SHIRTS SOLD by Cross & Freckle, a New York–based fashion upstart, don't look revolutionary at first glance. They come in black or white, they're cut for a unisex fit, and they sell for $25. Each of them has a little design embroidered into the cotton that references staples of New York City life: pigeons, dollar pizza slices, subway rats.
Cross & Freckle doesn't just use AI to create its designs; it also got the brand's name and logo from a neural net, called the Hipster Business Name Generator and used an AI text generator to create the mumbo-jumbo marketing copy on the company's website. It's a new model for a brand that relies entirely on AI.




Perspective. Technology moves too fast for employees to make a full career of one skill.
Amazon commits $700M to retrain 100k employees, acknowledging impact of tech on jobs
Amazon is embarking on a $700 million effort to retrain its U.S. workforce, in a high-profile acknowledgment of the impact of technology and automation on jobs and the workforce.
The company says it will spend the money over the next five years to “upskill” roughly 100,000 employees, about one-third of its U.S. workforce. The free program, announced Thursday morning, will allow Amazon workers to reboot their careers in hot areas such as data mapping specialist, data scientist, solutions architect and business analyst.




An Amazon enabled occupation I knew noting about.
ROAD-TRIPPING WITH THE AMAZON NOMADS
Anderson is an Amazon nomad, part of a small group of merchants who travel the backroads of America searching clearance aisles and dying chains for goods to sell on Amazon. Some live out of RVs and vans, moving from town to town, only stopping long enough to pick the stores clean and ship their wares to Amazon’s fulfillment centers.




Dilbert give a great example of something so many people believe that it can’t possibly be “fake news!”



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