Wednesday, September 04, 2019


Keep up!
Round-Up of Recent Changes to U.S. State Data Breach Notification Laws




We should have this figured out in a few (Okay, 30) years.
Disinformation and the 2020 Election: How Social Media Industry Should Prepare
NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights – The role of social media in a democracy. “In our fourth report on online disinformation, the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights explores risks to democracy and free speech posed by the expected spread of disinformation during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The report outlines steps the social media companies should take to counter the coming wave of disinformation. Preparing for the fight against false and divisive content will not be cost-free. But investments in R&D and personnel ultimately will help social media platforms restore their brand reputations and slow demands for draconian government regulation.
Social media companies’ policies on disinformation often lack clarity and strategic foresight and have been enforced in an ad hoc fashion. To reduce the probability of governmental content regulation in the U.S., these companies should show they can close the governance gap when it comes to disinformation. Read our examination of how social media companies have reacted to politically oriented false content, and the disinformation tactics hey will need to prepare for in 2020…”


(Related)
US plans for fake social media run afoul of Facebook rules
Facebook said Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would be violating the company’s rules if agents create fake profiles to monitor the social media of foreigners seeking to enter the country.
Law enforcement authorities, like everyone else, are required to use their real names on Facebook and we make this policy clear,” Facebook spokeswoman Sarah Pollack told The Associated Press in a statement Tuesday. “Operating fake accounts is not allowed, and we will act on any violating accounts.”
Pollack said the company has communicated its concerns and its policies on the use of fake accounts to DHS. She said the company will shut down fake accounts, including those belonging to undercover law enforcement, when they are reported.




For discussion.
Russell Brandom reports on another case where law enforcement served Google with a search warrant,
...asking for data that would identify any Google user who had been within 100 feet of the bank during a half-hour block of time around the robbery. They were looking for the two men who had gone into the bank, as well as the driver who dropped off and picked up the crew, and would potentially be caught up in the same dragnet. It was an aggressive technique, scooping up every Android phone in the area and trusting police to find the right suspects in the mess of resulting data. But the court found it entirely legal, and it was returned as executed shortly after.
Read more about this type of reverse warrant on The Verge, and then think about whether you leave for your cellphone’s default settings for location ON or OFF.




Moving slowly is better than not moving at all.
Facebook will no longer scan user faces by default
Facebook is making facial recognition in photos opt-in by default. Starting today, it’s rolling out its Face Recognition privacy setting, which it first introduced in December 2017, to all users. If you have Face Recognition turned on, Facebook will notify you if someone uploads a photo of you, even if you aren’t tagged. You can then tag yourself, stay untagged, or report the photo if it’s something you want taken down. Facebook tells The Verge it expects to complete the rollout over the next several weeks.




Everything helps.
Transferring Data Under GDPR
We have found beliefs about managing data transfers can be broad and confusing since the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was put in force in May 2018. Some believe no data transfers outside of the EU are allowed. Others believe if you have a legitimate business reason to transfer data, and an agreement with the customer, it is simply business as usual. The real answer often lives in between.
We will walk through the GDPR requirements for processing personal data to help you envision how the GDPR data transfer rules may apply to your organization and your customers.




Confusing, isn’t it?
German court decides that GDPR consent can be tied to receiving advertising
On June 27, 2019, the High Court of Frankfurt decided that a consent for data processing tied to a consent for receiving advertising can be considered as freely given under the GDPR.
The claimant’s consent had been obtained in connection with his participation in a sweepstakes contest. In order for the claimant to participate in the contest, he had to consent to receive advertising from partners of the sweepstakes company
In line with previous case law, the court decided that bundling consent for advertising with the participation in a sweepstakes contest does not prevent it from being “freely given”. According to the court, “freely given” consent is a consent that is given without “coercion” or “pressure”. The court decided that enticing a customer with a promise of a discount or the participation in a sweepstakes contest in exchange for the consent to process his data for advertising does not amount to such coercion or pressure. According to the court, “a consumer may and should decide himself or herself if the participation in the sweepstakes is worth his or her data”.




Do you have a secure procedure for forwarding email?
Beware of web beacons that can secretly monitor your email
Legal By the Bay – Joanna L. Storey: “A twist in the recent prosecution of a Navy Seal charged with killing a prisoner in Iraq in 2017 brought to the forefront an ethics issue that has been squarely addressed by several jurisdictions, but not yet in California: the unethical surreptitious tracking of emails sent to opposing counsel using software embedded in a logo or other image. Also known as a web beacon, the tracking software is an invisible image no larger than a pixel that is placed in an email and, once activated, monitors such actions as when the email was opened, for how long, how many times, where, and whether the email was forwarded. The sender’s goal may be to determine how seriously you are considering a settlement demand that he attached to an email – the more you view the email, the more you may be inclined to accept the demand. Or, the sender may want to know to where you forward the email (e.g., you may forward the email to a client whose location is unknown to opposing counsel)….”




Interesting article. Do my grad students know as much?
MIT developed a course to teach tweens about the ethics of AI
This summer, Blakeley Payne, a graduate student at MIT, ran a week-long course on ethics in artificial intelligence for 10-14 year olds. In one exercise, she asked the group what they thought YouTube’s recommendation algorithm was used for.
To get us to see more ads,” one student replied.
These kids know way more than we give them credit for,” Payne said.
Payne created an open source, middle-school AI ethics curriculum to make kids aware of how AI systems mediate their everyday lives, from YouTube and Amazon’s Alexa to Google search and social media.
Kids today are not just digital natives, they are AI natives,” said Cynthia Breazeal, Payne’s advisor and the head of the personal robots group at the MIT Media Lab. Her group has developed an AI curriculum for preschoolers.




Training the next generation. Probably worth considering?
4 Ways to Avoid Having AI Release Consumers’ Inner Sociopath
Alexa, you’re ugly. Alexa, you’re stupid. Alexa, you’re fat.”
This barrage of abuse came from my friend’s children, who were shouting at his Amazon device, trying to prompt a witty comeback from the AI assistant. What was just a game to the kids looked a lot like the worst kind of playground bullying, and as my friend unplugged the device, he scolded, “We don’t talk to people like that.”
But unfortunately, we do talk like that, especially to AI assistants and chatbots that are unable to establish the boundaries that humans do. After all, if you hit someone, they may hit you back. If you call your barista ugly, you should expect them to spit in your latte. In their inability to push back, virtual assistants and chatbots shield us from the consequences of bad behavior.


(Related)
Can Artificial Intelligence Help Prevent Mental Illness?
The company has developed a wearable device, an app and machine learning system to collect data and monitor users’ level of stress, before predicting when it could be the cause of a more serious or physical health condition.
Mental illness is one of the biggest medical challenges of the 21st century. According to the World Health Organization, around 450 million people globally are affected by mental illness.
But two-thirds of people with a known mental condition, such as anxiety, depression and co-occurring disorders, fail to seek help from medical professionals. This can be due to a number of factors, including stigma and discrimination.


(Related)
15 Social Challenges AI Could Help Solve




What could possibly go wrong?
Air Force-Affiliated Researchers Want to Let AI Launch Nukes
Air Force Institute of Technology associate dean Curtis McGiffin and Louisiana Tech Research Institute researcher Adam Lowther, also affiliated with the Air Force, co-wrote an article — with the ominous title “America Needs a ‘Dead Hand ” — arguing that the United States needs to develop “an automated strategic response system based on artificial intelligence.”
In other words, they want to give an AI the nuclear codes. And yes, as the authors admit, it sure sounds a lot like the “Doomsday Machine” from Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satire “Dr. Strangelove.”
The “Dead Hand” referenced in the title refers to the Soviet Union’s semiautomated system that would have launched nuclear weapons if certain conditions were met, including the death of the Union’s leader.
This time, though, the AI-powered system suggested by Lowther and McGiffin wouldn’t even wait for a first strike against the U.S. to occur — it would know what to do ahead of time.




Dilbert offers a simple solution for bias.



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