They will know where you are, who you communicate with and probably
what you say. Sort of like all the current WiFi services.
Chinese
firm's plan for free Wi-Fi worldwide may trigger security concerns
A Chinese technology firm's plan to provide free
Wi-Fi service worldwide through an ambitious constellation of
satellites has the potential to trigger security
concerns in many countries.
Shanghai-based LinkSure Network, which specialises
in mobile internet connectivity, unveiled the first of the 272
satellites that it plans to send to space earlier this week.
… The security concerns from
free Wi-Fi plan are heightened by China's plans to put in place a
navigational satellite system rivalling US GPS.
… Some global technology giants like Google,
SpaceX, OneWeb and Telesat have already announced similar projects to
use satellites to provide free internet access.
Something to stir up discussion.
Elie Mystal writes:
Like many people of certain age, I fear inviting an Amazon Cylon into my home to record my every move simply because I’m too lazy to turn on my stereo. Unlike most people, I have sound legal reasons for distrusting Alexa that buttress my irrational fears of robots.
I do not want a voice-activated recording device in my home, because I do not know what the state might do with that information.
To justify his reluctance (and he certainly
doesn’t need to justify it to me, because I’m already there),
Mystal cites a New Hampshire case previously
mentioned on this blog:
Strafford County Superior Court Justice Steven M. Houran ordered Amazon to turn over recordings that may have captured the death of two women, and implicated Timothy Verrill, a suspect charged in their deaths.
The order was made on probable cause grounds, which has some legal analysts concerned. From Legal Tech news:
Andrew Ferguson, who teaches law at the University of the District of Columbia, explained that Internet of Things (IoT) enabled evidence “presents hard decisions for judges because analog rules do not necessarily make sense in a digital world.”
“In essence, the judge conflated probable cause, that a crime occurred with probable cause, that evidence of that crime will be on the device. This is both understandable, because judges have routinely granted such warrants for homes or cars or computers, but also probably a stretch if you think about what the probable cause standard should be,” Ferguson said.
However, he warned, just because a crime has been committed does not mean that all the smart devices associated with the suspects should be searched because of the possibility of helpful evidence. “I think the judge’s court order fails to understand exactly how Amazon Echos work, and is based on a hope for possible evidence as opposed to a reasonable certainty that incriminating evidence will be found.”
Read more on Above
the Law.
Who thinks terrorists are idiots? Have we ever
(will we ever) capture a real terrorist because they declare their
intent on a customs form?
US Customs
Form Asks, ‘Are You A Terrorist?’ — 70-Year Old Grandpa May Get
Blacklisted For Mistakenly Saying Yes
A 70-year-old Scottish man may be barred from
entering the United States on an upcoming vacation because he
mistakenly answered yes to a customs form asking whether he was a
terrorist.
Which begs the question of why the hell an actual
terrorist would answer yes to such a question, but I digress.
… Stevenson isn’t the first to mess up the
online form. Last month, a Scottish woman accidentally answered yes
to the ESTA question, “Do you seek to engage in or have you ever
engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?,”
according
to BBC.
Stevenson did try calling to get it fixed to no
avail. He has one shot at correcting the record by making an
appointment at the U.S. Embassy in London before his trip.
Looks like the numbers of my international
students will go up.
H-1B visa
shift may favor tech companies
The Trump administration proposed a change to the
H-1B program Friday that could make it harder for Indian outsourcing
firms to hire workers from overseas, while helping large Bay Area
tech companies bring highly skilled foreigners to their headquarters.
The rule change tinkers with the lottery
that determines who gets the 85,000 H-1B visas granted to
for-profit companies every year.
Currently, a person with a master’s or doctoral
degree from an American college or university has better odds of
receiving a visa, because they’re eligible for a lottery just for
people with U.S. advanced degrees that gives out 20,000 H-1B visas.
If they miss their shot, they continue on to a lottery for the
remaining 65,000 slots, for which individuals with either graduate or
undergraduate degrees are eligible.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to
switch the order of these lotteries, it said in a notice
of the proposed rule change, which would — somewhat
counterintuitively — improve the odds for those highly educated
workers.
Changing the order would mean more highly skilled
workers would compete for the same number of visas, reducing the
likelihood that people without advanced degrees win in the general
lottery. Those who studied in the United States and are more likely
to be brought on at high-tech companies would still have a second
chance in the smaller lottery dedicated to U.S. advanced degree
holders.