For
both my Security classes. (I do like good bad examples) If facial
recognition is used to say “Hey, check this out!” I’d be happy.
If it says, “Found target, launching weapons.” I’m a bit more
concerned.
Biased
and wrong? Facial recognition tech in the dock
…
The
Californian city of San Francisco recently banned the use of FR
by
transport and law enforcement agencies in an acknowledgement of its
imperfections and threats to civil liberties. But other cities in
the US, and other countries around the world, are trialling the
technology.
In
the UK, for example, police forces in South Wales, London. Manchester
and Leicester have been testing the tech to
the consternation of civil liberties organisations such
as Liberty and Big Brother Watch, both concerned by the number of
false matches the systems made.
… Just
this week, academics
at the University of Essex concluded that matches in the London
Metropolitan police trials were wrong 80% of the time,
potentially
leading to serious miscarriages of justice and infringements of
citizens' right to privacy.
A
bit of Computer Security history.
Getting
up to speed with AI and Cybersecurity
Many
people are unaware that the first computer virus predates the public
internet.
In
1971 Bob Thomas, an American IT academic wrote Creeper,
the first computer program that could migrate across networks. It
would travel between terminals on the ARPANET printing the message
“I’m the creeper, catch me if you can”. Creeper was made
self-replicating by fellow academic and email inventor, Ray
Thomlinson, creating the first documented computer virus.
In
order to contain Creeper, Thomlinson wrote Reaper,
a program that would chase Creeper across the network and erase it –
creating the world’s first antivirus cybersecurity solution.
Something
for my Computer Security discussions.
THE
BIGGEST CYBERSECURITY CRISES OF 2019 SO FAR
A
‘fake news” law? Think Russia will comply?
Will
California’s New Bot Law Strengthen Democracy?
The
New Yorker –
“When you ask experts
how
bots influence politics—that is, what specifically these bits of
computer code that purport to be human can accomplish during an
election—they will give you a list: bots can smear the opposition
through personal attacks; they can exaggerate voters’ fears and
anger by repeating short simple slogans; they can overstate
popularity; they can derail conversations and draw attention to
symbolic and ultimately meaningless ideas; they can spread false
narratives. In other words, they are an especially useful tool,
considering how politics is played today.
On July 1st, California became the first state in the nation to try to reduce the power of bots by requiring that they reveal their “artificial identity” when they are used to sell a product or influence a voter. Violators could face fines under state statutes related to unfair competition. Just as pharmaceutical companies must disclose that the happy people who say a new drug has miraculously improved their lives are paid actors, bots in California—or rather, the people who deploy them—will have to level with their audience… By attempting to regulate a technology that thrives on social networks, the state will be testing society’s resolve to get our (virtual) house in order after more than two decades of a runaway Internet…”
Another
good bad example. What is the ‘balance of power’ when companies
have “big Data?”
Public
Management of Big Data: Historical Lessons from the 1940s
Public
Management of Big Data: Historical Lessons from the 1940s by
Margo Anderson – Distinguished Professor, History and Urban
Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“At
its core, public-sector use of big data heightens concerns about the
balance
of power
between government and the individual. Once information about
citizens is compiled for a defined purpose, the temptation to use it
for other purposes can be considerable, especially in times of
national emergency. One of the most shameful instances of the
government misusing its own data dates to the Second World War.
Census data collected under strict guarantees of confidentiality was
used to identify neighborhoods where Japanese-Americans lived so they
could be detained in internment camps for the duration of the war.”
– Executive Office of the President, Big Data: Seizing
Opportunities, Preserving Values, May 2014
(Related)
Will the lawyer with the “bigger Data” always win?
Methods
of Data Research for Law
Custers,
Bart, Methods of Data Research for Law (October 28, 2018). Custers
B.H.M. (2018), Methods of data research for law. In: Mak V., Tjong
Tjin Tai E., Berlee A. (Eds.) Research Handbook in Data Science and
Law. Research Handbooks in Information Law Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
355-377. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411873
“Data
science and big data offer many opportunities for researchers, not
only in the domain of data science and related sciences, but also for
researchers in many other disciplines. The fact that data science
and big data are playing an increasingly important role in so many
research areas raises the question whether this also applies to the
legal domain. Do
data science and big data also offer methods of data research for
law? As will be shown in this chapter, the answer to this question
is positive: yes,
there are many methods and applications that may be also useful for
the legal domain. This answer will be provided by discussing these
methods of data research for law in this chapter. As such, this
chapter provides an overview of these methods.”
Crisis
or not?
Opinion:
Legislative Fix Needed to Keep Internet Applications Free in
California
No
matter where you go in California, you’re likely to see someone on
their smartphone, tablet or computer using an app or other online
service to look something up, watch a video, send an email, check
social media or the weather, or any number of the dozens of things
people do online every day.
Today,
most of these online activities are free, meaning whether you are a
college student researching a paper, a single mom looking for a job,
or a small employer sending an email to your staff, the internet
provides everyone from all walks of life equal and free access to
information and services critical to our everyday lives. But these
free services that have helped level the socio-economic playing field
are at risk unless a policy fix is passed in Sacramento this year.
In
2018, the State Legislature hastily passed a sweeping measure known
as the California
Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
This law was intended to give consumers more understanding and
control of their online personal data and information, something we
all support.
… Many
flaws did come to light. One of the most significant has to do with
language in the CCPA that hinders tailored online advertising by
prohibiting the sharing of technical information necessary to make
the ads work. These ads are a major reason why many online services
are free now, and unless fixed this year, this flaw in the CCPA could
result in new costs for online services we take for granted and get
for free today.
… A
policy fix would clarify that when a consumer opts-out of the “sale”
of their personal information, it does not restrict the ability of
companies to continue to market targeted ads to that same consumer as
long as those ads rely on sharing technical information only, not
personally identifiable information.
(Related)
Is this ‘personal information” or merely technical information?
‘Fingerprinting’
to Track Us Online Is on the Rise. Here’s What to Do.
The
New York Times – Advertisers
are increasingly turning to an invisible method that pulls together
information about your device to pinpoint your identity.
“Fingerprinting involves looking at the many characteristics of
your mobile device or computer, like the screen resolution, operating
system and model, and triangulating this information to pinpoint and
follow you as you browse the web and use apps. Once enough device
characteristics are known, the theory goes, the data can be assembled
into a profile that helps identify you the way a fingerprint would.
And here’s the bad news: The technique happens invisibly in the background in apps and websites. That makes it tougher to detect and combat than its predecessor, the web cookie, which was a tracker stored on our devices. The solutions to blocking fingerprinting are also limited…”
I
had hoped to stay away from the whole Block Chain / Bitcoin
kerfuffle.
Facebook’s
Libra Cryptocurrency Could Have Profound Implications for Personal
Privacy
In
the never-ending search for new revenue streams, social media giant
Facebook is now looking to launch its very own cryptocurrency, known
as Libra. While the stated goal of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency
is to bring financial services to the world’s 1.7 billion unbanked
population, and to make it easier and more convenient than ever
before to send and receive money around the world, data privacy
experts, politicians, regulators, central bankers and government
officials are already warning that the latest innovation from
Facebook may result in a confusing headache of privacy, financial,
political, and socio-economic issues.
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