Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Self-inflicted wounds. Indistinguishable from a cyberwar attack?
Zimbabwe Government Shuts Down Internet, Backfires Spectacularly Affecting Economy - Toshi Times
Zimbabwe has been ravaged by widespread local unrest the past week. The catalyst? A controversial decision to increase the prices of petrol and diesel by a massive 150 percent.
Citizens of Zimbabwe have since this voiced their dissatisfaction with this decision through a series of protests and demonstrations. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp have been integral in organizing these events.
… As such, it would appear that the governmental-led shutdown of the internet has led to immensely worse consequences. The national economy has effectively been disabled – however, this was not caused by the protestors, rather, it was the work of the government’s actions.
… a preexisting liquidity crisis in the country has already led citizens towards alternative means of exchange, such as cryptocurrencies or other cashless alternatives such as bank cards.
All of these payment systems have now been rendered moot, due to the government’s actions. It remains to be seen how all of this will ultimately play out – but it already seems plain that the government’s fear of economic turmoil has caused exactly that.




Further defining the response…
Massachusetts Amends Data Breach Notification Law to Require Free Credit Monitoring
The Governor of Massachusetts recently signed House Bill No. 4806 into law, which will amend certain provisions of the state’s data breach notification law. In addition to changing the information that must be included in notifications to regulators and individuals, the amendments will also require entities to provide eighteen months of free credit monitoring services following breaches involving Social Security numbers. The amendments, which will enter into force on April 11, 2019, are discussed in greater detail below.




An interesting reaction.
NYPD Spy Drones Fly into Privacy Headwinds
A squad of 14 New York Police Department drones will soon be soaring over the city’s skyline, with the ability to record people’s lives, even if that’s not their stated use. Some will be equipped with infrared cameras that have the ability to see through walls and record the privacy of bedrooms, although, again, NYPD says this isn’t the intent. Still, the technology isn’t just creepy (though it is creepy); if not monitored carefully, its deployment raises the specter of uses beyond those currently planned by the NYPD that could be illegal.
… New Yorkers are being asked to take the NYPD at its word, but many New Yorkers want a stronger guarantee. This is part of why advocates and activists are pushing for the Public Oversight of Technology Act (“POST Act”), a New York City Council bill that would require the NYPD to develop and publicize an “impact and use policy” for each piece of surveillance technology it purchases.




Is this machine as accurate as the lab? How good is “good enough?”
Coming Soon to a Police Station Near You: The DNA ‘Magic Box’
… in early 2017, the police booking station in Bensalem became the first in the country to install a Rapid DNA machine, which provides results in 90 minutes, and which police can operate themselves. Since then, a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the country — in Houston, Utah, Delaware — have begun operating similar machines and analyzing DNA on their own.
… In 2017, President Trump signed into law the Rapid DNA Act, which, starting this year, will enable approved police booking stations in several states to connect their Rapid DNA machines to Codis, the national DNA database. Genetic fingerprinting is set to become as routine as the old-fashioned kind.
… But already many legal experts and scientists are troubled by the way the technology is being used. As police agencies build out their local DNA databases, they are collecting DNA not only from people who have been charged with major crimes but also, increasingly, from people who are merely deemed suspicious, permanently linking their genetic identities to criminal databases.




A mere nibble. Wait for GDPR to bite!
Google has been fined $56.8 million by privacy regulators in France, marking the country’s first use of the tough new privacy rules enacted in Europe last year. Specifically, the company is accused of violating provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by using, without proper consent, the private data of users to craft personalized ads; and by burying key privacy disclosures pages deep, amid oceans of text.
In a statement Monday, France’s privacy watchdog, CNIL, said that Google had been fined for needlessly obscuring information concerning the processing of its users’ data, which Europe’s privacy rules demand be made more easily accessible. Essential information about how user data is processed, stored, and used, it said, was “excessively disseminated across several documents.” It required, in some cases, up to five or six steps to unearth key disclosures, including details of how Google amasses personal information to help it pinpoint a user’s location.
… the French commission found Google’s process for informing users about what precisely they’re consenting to to be wholly inadequate.
… “We have found that large corporations such as Google simply ‘interpret the law differently’ and have often only superficially adapted their products,” Schrems reportedly told the station. “It is important that the authorities make it clear that simply claiming to be compliant is not enough.”




Yeah, it’s complicated.
Dutch surgeon wins landmark 'right to be forgotten' case
… The doctor’s registration on the register of healthcare professionals was initially suspended by a disciplinary panel because of her postoperative care of a patient. After an appeal, this was changed to a conditional suspension under which she was allowed to continue to practise.
But the first results after entering the doctor’s name in Google continued to be links to a website containing an unofficial blacklist, which it was claimed amounted to “digital pillory”.
… The judge said that while the information on the website with reference to the failings of the doctor in 2014 was correct, the pejorative name of the blacklist site suggested she was unfit to treat people, and that was not supported by the disciplinary panel’s findings.
The court further rejected Google’s claim that most people would have difficulty in finding the relevant information on the medical board’s Big-register, where the records are publicly held.
The surgeon’s lawyer, Willem van Lynden, from the Amsterdam firm MediaMaze, said the ruling was groundbreaking in ensuring doctors would no longer be judged by Google on their fitness to practise.




Don’t they store US user data in the US?
Russian Watchdog Launches 'Administrative Proceedings' Against Facebook, Twitter
The state regulator has repeatedly warned the companies they could be banned if they do not comply with a 2014 law requiring social networking sites to store the personal data of Russian users inside the country.
Zharov said Facebook and Twitter provided "no concrete information on localising the data of Russian users on the territory of the Russian Federation."
He added that the companies also did not provide a "timeframe" for when they plan to store the data of Russian users in Russia.
The 2014 law has caused widespread concern as it is seen as putting the information of Russian users at risk of being accessed by the country's intelligence services.




Would automating justice eliminate bias?
Machine Learning and the Rule of Law
Chen, Daniel L., Machine Learning and the Rule of Law (January 6, 2019). Computational Analysis of Law, Santa Fe Institute Press, ed. M. Livermore and D. Rockmore, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3302507
“Predictive judicial analytics holds the promise of increasing the fairness of law. Much empirical work observes inconsistencies in judicial behavior. By predicting judicial decisions—with more or less accuracy depending on judicial attributes or case characteristics—machine learning offers an approach to detecting when judges most likely to allow extra legal biases to influence their decision making. In particular, low predictive accuracy may identify cases of judicial “indifference,” where case characteristics (interacting with judicial attributes) do no strongly dispose a judge in favor of one or another outcome. In such cases, biases may hold greater sway, implicating the fairness of the legal system.”




Perspective.
Gartner: Enterprise use of AI grew 270% over the past 4 years
Companies are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) like it’s going out of style, according to a new report by Gartner. The Stamford firm’s 2019 CIO Survey of more than 3,000 executives in 89 countries found that AI implementation grew a whopping 270 percent in the past four years, and 37 percent in the past year alone.
… “If you are a CIO and your organization doesn’t use AI, chances are high that your competitors do and this should be a concern.”




Tracing the evolution of an industry.
Are sitdown scooters the next big urban craze? Austin is about to find out
… Already home to thousands of electric scooters, many of them crowding downtown sidewalks, the Central Texas city will be the first to experience a new generation of shareable electric scooters from an Oxnard, California-based company called Ojo Electric. Unlike well-known scooter companies such as Bird and Lime, Ojo's models are bulkier and include a seat.
Referred to as a "light electric vehicle," the scooters can travel 50 miles on a single charge and have a top speed of 20 mph, in compliance with city regulations, the company said in a news release. The company says their vehicles are designed for bike lanes and streets.




What can I learn?
400 free Ivy League university courses you can take online in 2019
Quartz: “The eight Ivy League schools are among the most prestigious colleges in the world. They include Brown, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, and Columbia universities, and the University of Pennsylvania. All eight schools place in the top fifteen of the US News and World Report 2018 national university rankings. These Ivy League schools are also highly selective and extremely hard to get into. But the good news is that all these universities now offer free online courses across multiple online course platforms.
So far, they’ve created over 494 courses, of which around 396 are still active. Here’s a collection of all of them, split into courses in the following subjects: Computer Science, Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, Art & Design, Science, Health & Medicine, Data Science, Education & Teaching, Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Personal Development, and Programming…”


No comments: