Thursday, February 18, 2021

Closer.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/virginia-is-about-to-get-a-major-california-style-data-privacy-law/

Virginia is about to get a major California-style data privacy law

If adopted, the Consumer Data Protection Act would apply to entities of a certain size that do business in Virginia or have users based in Virginia

Legislatures in several other states—including Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Washington have some kind of data privacy bills currently under consideration.



(Related)

https://www.pogowasright.org/broad-new-data-privacy-legislation-supported-by-florida-governor-and-house-speaker/

Broad New Data Privacy Legislation Supported by Florida Governor and House Speaker

Hayden R. Dempsey and Kate Black of Greenberg Traurig, LLP write:

On Feb. 15, Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Chris Sprowls held a press conference to announce their support for legislation that would significantly increase data privacy and security regulation and create new rights for Florida consumers with respect to their personal information (PI).
House Bill 969 by Rep. Fiona McFarland (R-Sarasota) would apply to any for-profit business that collects PI about Florida residents and satisfies one or more of the following thresholds: (a) has annual revenue over $25 million, (b) collects 50% or more of its revenue from selling or sharing PI, or (c) sells or shares the PI of 50,000 or more consumers or devices. If passed, the law will take effect Jan. 1, 2022.

Read more on National Law Review.





Probably not the answer, but likely one component.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/defence-lists-cyber-mitigation-as-key-factor-for-building-ethical-ai/

Defence lists cyber mitigation as key factor for building ethical AI

The Australian Department of Defence has released a new report on its findings for how to reduce the ethical risk of artificial intelligence projects, noting that cyber mitigation will be key to maintaining the trust and integrity of autonomous systems.

The report was drafted following concerns from Defence that failure to adopt emerging technologies in a timely manner could result in military disadvantage, while premature adoption without sufficient research and analysis could result in inadvertent harms.

"Significant work is required to ensure that introducing the technology does not result in adverse outcomes," Defence said in the report [PDF].

In the report, participants have jointly created five key considerations – trust, responsibility, governance, law, traceability – that they believe are essential during the development of any ethical AI project.





Get out there and do something?

https://www.brookings.edu/research/strengthening-international-cooperation-on-artificial-intelligence/

Strengthening international cooperation on artificial intelligence





I am curious to see the reaction. Facebook users will notice, but will news organizations care?

https://www.makeuseof.com/facebook-bans-news-australia-over-proposed-legislation/

Facebook Bans News in Australia Over Proposed Legislation

Facebook previously cut a deal with the UK and agreed to pay news publishers, which is why it's surprising that Facebook wasn't able to do the same in Australia.

Facebook's ban on news is exactly what it sounds like; the platform will no longer display news articles in Australia. While this might help users escape from constantly hearing about politics or the latest controversy, it could also prove irritating when trying to share a story with a friend or family member.

The ban on news means that no news, whether local, national, or global, will be displayed on the platform. Easton outlined these restrictions in more detail, stating that "people and news organisations in Australia are now restricted from posting news links and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on Facebook."



(Related) Governments have Facebook accounts too.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/bom-health-authorities-betoota-caught-in-facebook-news-ban/13166394?section=technology

Posts disappear from pages of health authorities, Bureau of Meteorology amid Facebook news ban

Some pages that don't fit the traditional news genre were stripped out as part of the stoush between Facebook and the federal government over whether the social media company should pay for Australian content it runs on its site.

In response to the outages, Facebook said government pages should not be hit by the changes. A spokesperson said any inadvertently impacted pages would be fixed.

"As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as drafted," the spokesperson said in a statement.



(Related)

https://www.platformer.news/p/facebook-calls-australias-bluff

Facebook calls Australia's bluff

Yesterday, I wrote that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code threatened to splinter the internet. On Wednesday morning, the splintering arrived: Google cut a deal with News Corp. that will ensure its services continue to be provided in Australia, and Facebook walked away from the bargaining table and began preventing people from sharing news links from Australian publishers around the world.

I think Facebook basically did the right thing, and Google basically did the wrong thing, even though Google had a much tougher call to make. Today, let’s talk about why the tech giants made the decisions that they did, why Australia’s shakedown is rotten, and what’s likely to happen next. (If you didn’t read my piece on the subject yesterday, it offers a lot of useful context for what follows. I’ve made it free for all subscribers to read.)





User interface design: too easy to use?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/

Citibank just got a $500 million lesson in the importance of UI design

Citibank was trying to make $7.8M in interest payments. It sent $900M instead.

A federal judge has ruled that Citibank isn't entitled to the return of $500 million it sent to various creditors last August. Kludgey software and a poorly designed user interface contributed to the massive screwup.

Citibank was acting as an agent for Revlon, which owed hundreds of millions of dollars to various creditors. On August 11, Citibank was supposed to send out interest payments totaling $7.8 million to these creditors.

However, Revlon was in the process of refinancing its debt—paying off a few creditors while rolling the rest of its debt into a new loan. And this, combined with the confusing interface of financial software called Flexcube, led the bank to accidentally pay back the principal on the entire loan—most of which wasn't due until 2023.



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