Wednesday, February 26, 2020


Secure your systems, or else!
New York State Expected to Increase Enforcement of Cybersecurity Practices
Companies should take note of two imminent developments in New York in the area of cybersecurity regulation: enforcement of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Cybersecurity Regulation (Regulation) and the effective date of the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act or Act). The Regulation and the Act both contain prescriptive cybersecurity requirements and new breach notification obligations for regulated organizations. The Act has a particularly broad reach, impacting any company that owns or licenses private information of New York residents.
The NYDFS Regulation originally came into effect on March 1, 2017, and provided for a two-year implementation plan for companies to develop a robust cybersecurity program.
In addition, on July 25, 2019, Governor Cuomo signed into law the SHIELD Act. Notably, the Act applies to any company that owns or licenses “private information” of New York residents – even organizations that do not conduct business in the state. The Act contains both expanded breach notification obligations (which have been in effect since October 2019) and specific requirements to maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information. These new substantive cybersecurity requirements will take effect on March 21, 2020.




Every student a potential criminal or terrorist?
Weapon Detecting AI’ is Now Scanning Students in South Carolina Schools
Over the past year, administrators at West Florence High School have deployed a variety of new surveillance technologies, embracing a distinct vision of the future of public education.
Earlier this year, the South Carolina district installed vape detectors—which come equipped with chemical sensors and microphones that send alerts directly to the principal—in bathrooms and hallways. During their first week of use, the devices caught 12 students. School-issued Chromebook laptops also now come pre-installed with Gaggle, a new breed of surveillance software that monitors students’ every action on the devices, both on and off school grounds.
And most recently, the metal detectors that stood sentinel at school entrances have disappeared. In their place, schools across Florence District 1 are now equipped with millimeter wave body scanners from Evolv Technology. The company claims that the devices, which are similar to modern airport scanners, can scan 60 people a minute using machine learning algorithms that detect guns, knives, and other threats, and then notify security guards exactly where the objects are on a person’s body.
Educators in places like Florence are understandably predisposed to spend that money and err on the side of caution. But student privacy and civil rights advocates worry that some districts are being hoodwinked by for-profit companies that promise more than their technology can deliver in order to capitalize on the fear of mass shootings.




Those who do not understand encryption are doomed to repeat this question.
Dan Sabbagh reports:
MI5’s director general has called on technology companies to find a way to allow spy agencies “exceptional access” to encrypted messages, amid fears they cannot otherwise access such communications.
Sir Andrew Parker is understood to be particularly concerned about Facebook, which announced plans to introduce powerful end-to-end encryption last March across all the social media firm’s services.
Read more on The Guardian.
[From the article:
Parker called on the tech firms to “use the brilliant technologists you’ve got” to answer a question: “Can you provide end-to-end encryption but on an exceptional basis – exceptional basis – where there is a legal warrant and a compelling case to do it, provide access to stop the most serious forms of harm happening?”




In case you missed something.
FTC Releases 2019 Privacy and Data Security Update
The Federal Trade Commission today released its annual privacy and security update for 2019, highlighting a record year for enforcement actions aimed at protecting consumer privacy and data security.




Start planning...
Close to the Finish Line: Observations on the Washington Privacy Act
We wrote last week that Washington State seems poised to become the second US state to pass a major comprehensive privacy bill. The proposed Washington Privacy Act (WPA) would be mostly aligned with the EU’s GDPR, the global gold standard for data protection (although there are still some significant differences). Read our full comparison of the WPA with GDPR and other privacy laws. At a minimum, the WPA goes much further than the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Perhaps the most significant difference between the WPA and CCPA is that the WPA would require companies and even non-profits to obtain affirmative (“opt in”) consent for the collection of sensitive data, including biometric data and geolocation data.




Let’s talk about an architecture for education.
A Vision of AI for Joyful Education
In a 2013 post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sketched out a “rough plan” to provide free, basic internet to the world and thus spread opportunity and interconnection. However, the United Nations Human Rights Council reported that, in Myanmar, Facebook’s efforts to follow through on such aspirations accelerated hate speech, fomented division, and incited offline violence in the Rohingya genocide. Free, basic internet now serves as a warning of the complexities of technological impact on society. For Chris, an AI researcher in education, and Lisa, a science educator and student of international cyber policy, this example gives pause: What unintended consequences could AI in education have?




Does this make them a target for a bunch of lawsuits?
Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain
Two programmer-musicians wrote every possible MIDI melody in existence to a hard drive, copyrighted the whole thing, and then released it all to the public in an attempt to stop musicians from getting sued.




Freebies!
Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain
Smithsonian Magazine – “Culture connoisseurs, rejoice: The Smithsonian Institution is inviting the world to engage with its vast repository of resources like never before. For the first time in its 174-year history, the Smithsonian has released 2.8 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images from across its collections onto an open access online platform for patrons to peruse and download free of charge. Featuring data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, the new digital depot encourages the public to not just view its contents, but use, reuse and transform them into just about anything they choose—be it a postcard, a beer koozie or a pair of bootie shorts And this gargantuan data dump is just the beginning. Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting. “Being a relevant source for people who are learning around the world is key to our mission,” says Effie Kapsalis, who is heading up the effort as the Smithsonian’s senior digital program officer. “We can’t imagine what people are going to do with the collections. We’re prepared to be surprised.”
The database’s launch also marks the latest victory for a growing global effort to migrate museum collections into the public domain. Nearly 200 other institutions worldwide—including Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago —have made similar moves to digitize and liberate their masterworks in recent years. But the scale of the Smithsonian’s release is “unprecedented” in both depth and breadth, says Simon Tanner, an expert in digital cultural heritage at King’s College London…”



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