Golly gosh Mr Legislator, if the Aussies can do it we should too! You don’t want us to be left behind, do you?
'Surveillance state': Australian police given sweeping new hacking powers
On August 25, the Identify and Disrupt bill passed through Australia’s Senate, introducing three new warrants allowing authorities to take unprecedented action against suspected cybercriminals.
The new warrants include authorizing police to hack the personal computers and networks of suspected criminals, seize control of their online accounts and identities, and disrupt their data.
Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, praised the broad expansion of powers available to Australian authorities targeting cyber actors. “Under our changes, the AFP will have more tools to pursue organised crime gangs to keep drugs off our street and out of our community, and those who commit the most heinous crimes against children,” she said.
While both the government and opposition supported the legislation, Senator Lidia Thorpe of minor party The Greens slammed the bill for hastening Australia’s march down the path to becoming a “surveillance state:”
… However, calls for warrants to be exclusively approved by a judge were excluded from the legislation. The PJCIS also recommended that issuance of warrants be restricted to offenses against national security including money laundering, serious narcotics, cybercrime, weapons and criminal association offenses, and crimes against humanity. However, the finalized bill does not include amendments that reduce the scope of offenses in this way.
(Related) Clearly, our “software experts” could use some help.
https://www.databreaches.net/fbi-palantir-glitch-allowed-unauthorized-access-to-private-data/
FBI Palantir glitch allowed unauthorized access to private data
Ben Feuerherd reports:
A computer glitch in a secretive software program used by the FBI allowed some unauthorized employees to access private data for more than a year, prosecutors revealed in a new court filing.
The screw-up in the Palantir program — a software created by a sprawling data analytics company co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel — was detailed in a letter by prosecutors in the Manhattan federal court case against accused hacker Virgil Griffith.
Read more on the NY Post.
How could this possibly work?
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/27/china-proposes-strict-control-of-algorithms/
China proposes strict control of algorithms
China is not done with curbing the influence local internet services have assumed in the world’s largest populous market. Following a widening series of regulatory crackdowns in recent months, the nation on Friday issued draft guidelines on regulating the algorithms firms run to make recommendations to users.
In a 30-point draft guidelines published on Friday, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) proposed forbidding companies from deploying algorithms that “encourage addiction or high consumption” and endanger national security or disrupt the public order.
The services must abide by business ethics and principles of fairness and their algorithms must not be used to create fake user accounts or create other false impressions, said the guidelines from the internet watchdog, which reports to a central leadership group chaired by President Xi Jinping. The watchdog said it will be taking public feedback on the new guidelines for a month (until September 26).
Mission creep? Masks as a national security measure? Will there be a TSA agent on every bus?
TSA Controls Public Transit: Orders Americans To Wear Masks On Buses And Trains
Joe Cadillic writes:
For years, Edward Hasbrouck of “Papers Please” has been sounding the alarm over the TSA and DHS. And yours truly, has published numerous articles warning the public about the continued expansion of said organizations under the guise of the War on Terror.
Last week the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the TSA is requiring Americans to wear masks on public transit.
“Passengers will be required to wear masks on the nation’s trains, buses, airplanes and airports through Jan. 18 under a federal mandate extended Tuesday by the Biden administration.”
This is a privacy advocate’s worst fear. What was once considered “fake news” by our mass media is now a reality. This is not a CDC request, it is a TSA federal mandate, which essentially means that the TSA is now in control of America’s public transit.
Read more on MassPrivateI.
So mayors and governors no longer have a say? I did not notice what happened/happens to public transportation in Texas and Florida — two states where governors have banned mask mandates in some settings. Under the supremacy clause of the constitution, a federal regulation should trump (no pun intended) a state directive, but will the states challenge the TSA mandate as unconstitutional — or have they challenged it already? I’ve totally not paid sufficient attention to this one. Thankfully, Joe keeps watching out for these developments.
Perspectives on privacy.
https://www.pogowasright.org/tschider-article-on-consent-and-privacy/
Tschider article on consent and privacy
Public Citizen writes:
Charlotte Tschider of Loyola of Chicago has written Meaningful Choice: A History of Consent and Alternatives to the Consent Myth, 22 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 617 (2021). Here is the abstract:
Although the first legal conceptions of commercial privacy were identified in Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis’s foundational 1890 article, The Right to Privacy, conceptually, privacy has existed since as early as 1127 as a natural concern when navigating between personal and commercial spheres of life. As an extension of contract and tort law, two common relational legal models, U.S. privacy law emerged to buoy engagement in commercial enterprise, borrowing known legal conventions like consent and assent. Historically, however, international legal privacy frameworks involving consent ultimately diverged, with the European Union taking a more expansive view of legal justification for processing as alternatives to consent.
Read more of the abstract on Public Citizen or access the full article from SSRN.
Lawyers misrepresenting? Infected with the Trump virus?
This legal writing startup is using AI to spot misrepresentations in litigation docs
Clearbrief is attracting more investor interest for its AI-powered software that gives legal professionals a way to automatically spot misrepresentations in litigation documents.
… Clearbrief’s software uses natural language processing to assess how legal writing is backed up by supporting evidence. It can be used by lawyers to assess their own work or their competitors’ briefs. It can also help judges read a brief alongside evidence, all in one place.
… Clearbrief is riding tailwinds from the pandemic as hearings and proceedings are done virtually, and the legal industry adopts more technology. New regulations, such as New York’s recently-adopted rule on hyperlinking in electronically-filed documents, are also helping drive growth.
Clearbrief is also aiming to make the law more accessible to the public with tools such as this interactive SCOTUS opinion.
Keeping things straight. (The comparisons make the definitions more understandable.)
https://www.analyticsinsight.net/data-analytics-vs-data-science-vs-ml-whats-the-difference/
DATA ANALYTICS VS DATA SCIENCE VS ML: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
… Data analytics is the study of analyzing large amounts of data to identify patterns, answer questions, and make conclusions. It’s a diverse and complicated area that frequently entails the use of specialized software, algorithms, and automation.
… Data science is a concept that covers data purification, preparation, and analysis and is used to deal with huge data. A data scientist collects data from a variety of sources and uses machine learning, data modeling, and sentiment analysis to extract useful information from it. They can give accurate forecasts and insights that may be utilized to support key business decisions since they understand data from a business perspective.
… Machine learning is the process of extracting data, learning from it, and forecasting future trends for a certain topic using algorithms. Statistical analysis and predictive analysis are two types of machine learning programs that are used to identify trends and uncover hidden patterns from data.
Perspective. Podcast.
How will we use artificial intelligence in 20 years’ time?
ONE OF the most prominent figures in China’s tech sector and author of “AI 2041” tells Anne McElvoy how artificial intelligence will have changed the world in twenty years’ time. They discuss the impact machine learning will have on jobs and why an algorithm could spot the next pandemic. Plus, can a robot ever replicate human emotion? Runtime: 30 min
https://play.acast.com/s/theeconomistasks/theeconomistasks-kai-fulee
A resource, even though we are no longer locked down.
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