Tuesday, October 29, 2019


Similar to what Texas did. Interesting that the National Guard already has the skills. Oh wait. They don’t!
Ohio Establishes ‘Cyber Reserve’ to Combat Ransomware
The civilian unit of the National Guard will be on call to assist local governments that come under cyberattack.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill into law Friday that establishes a volunteer “cyber reserve” of computer and information technology experts who will be able to assist local governments in the face of a ransomware or cybersecurity attacks.
The reserve will consist of five teams of 10 people spread throughout the state who will be vetted and trained to respond to cybersecurity emergencies affecting local governments. The response will be similar to the way the Ohio National Guard is placed on active duty during a natural disaster, said Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio Adjutant General who oversees the state’s National Guard.
Unlike the National Guard, the volunteer force would be comprised of civilians who could not be called up for active military duty. Members must vetted to join and the guard is currently accepting applications. Members would only be paid when deployed.




Not quite clarification (to a non-lawyer like me), but lots of detail.
These Cookies are Out of This World
European Court of Justice Planet 49 decision sets the record straight on consent for online cookies and trackers.
On October 1, 2019 the Court of Justice of the EU issued its much awaited decision in the Planet 49 case. The case dealt with the participation in an online lottery and what the consent for that should look like, in view of online cookies / trackers deployed in the website where the lottery was held.




Well gosh! If Harvard says so…
We Need AI That Is Explainable, Auditable, and Transparent
Just as we concern ourselves with who’s teaching our children, we also need to pay attention to who’s teaching our algorithms. Like humans, artificial intelligence systems learn from the environments they are exposed to and make decisions based on biases they develop. And like our children, we should expect our models to be able to explain their decisions as they develop.
As Cathy O’Neil explains in Weapons of Math Destruction, algorithms often determine what college we attend, if we get hired for a job, if we qualify for a loan to buy a house, and even who goes to prison and for how long. Unlike human decisions, these mathematical models are rarely questioned. They just show up on somebody’s computer screen and fates are determined.




We should see many attempts at an ethical approach.
Mozilla partners with Element AI to spearhead ethical artificial intelligence
As the technology continues to develop and grow, it is important to create -- and hopefully stick to -- applications that maintain some level of ethics (although what level, in turn, is debatable).
Element AI, an AI enterprise software provider that maintains existing partnerships with AWS, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Intel, will work with Mozilla to explore these aspects of ethical AI governance.
The companies will also work on "data trusts," a new, proposed technological solution born from AI to measure and maintain data control, which may become key as AI works its way into data collection solutions.
Data trusts are third-party stewardship models based on "common law trust." These tools, as documented in an Element AI whitepaper, are proposed as a way to give individuals more control over their personal information; to balance power and data rights between companies, governments, and individuals; to enhance privacy, and to give the public the opportunity to "share in the value of data and artificial intelligence."




Who should we trust?
Automatic braking can be life-saving (except when it's not), IIHS study finds
A new study released Tuesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ranks a majority of midsize cars as "superior" or "advanced" in their pedestrian crash prevention. But three models ranked as "basic," and three got "no credit" at all for their systems.
The IIHS study gauged the performance of these systems in the day. But a separate, recent report by AAA exposed major flaws in automatic emergency braking systems after dark.
"We found that at night the systems were completely ineffective," said Greg Brannon, AAA's director of automotive engineering.




The grocery wars continue.
Amazon axes $14.99 Amazon Fresh fee, making grocery delivery free for Prime members to boost use
Amazon is turning up the heat once again in the world of groceries, and specifically grocery delivery, to make its services more enticing in face of competition from Walmart, as well as a host of delivery companies like Postmates. Today, the company announced that it would make Amazon Fresh — the fresh food delivery service it now offers in some 2,000 cities in the US and elsewhere — free to use for Prime members, removing the $14.99/month fee that it was charging for the service up to now.
Alongside free delivery, Amazon is giving users one and two-hour delivery options for quicker turnarounds, and it’s making users’ local Whole Foods inventory available online and through the Amazon app.



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