Friday, December 13, 2019


Perhaps we need another definition? (Would 100 per week change the UK’s mind? How about 100,000?)
The Application of International Law to Cyberspace: Sovereignty and Non-intervention
The term “cyber attack” sounds dramatic, invoking images of war. Many commentators have talked about how the law on the use of force and the law of armed conflict apply to cyber attacks. But the reality is that cyber incursions by one State into another State’s territory are both more frequent and less dramatic than attacks that rise to the level of a use of force. The United Kingdom estimates that it is on the receiving end of an average of ten cyber attacks a week, most by State-sponsored hackers. These low level, persistent attacks do not constitute a use of force nor reach the level of intensity required to trigger an armed conflict. They will often leave no physical trace. But they can cause significant economic and political damage in the victim State. And they can violate other rules of international law, namely the principle of sovereignty, and/or the prohibition on intervention in another State’s affairs.




A start on Best Practices. A metric for failures.
5 Steps to Securing Your Enterprise Mobile App




Better lawyers or naive management?
Facebook Won’t Change Web Tracking in Response to California Privacy Law
Facebook Inc. has told advertisers it doesn’t need to make changes to its web-tracking services to comply with California’s new consumer-privacy law, setting up a potential early clash over how the closely watched law will be enforced once it goes into effect.
Facebook is one of several companies in the $130 billion U.S. digital-ad industry that maintains that routine data transfers about consumers may not fit the law’s definition of “selling” data. Other major competitors, including Alphabet Inc. ’s Google, have introduced new tools to comply with the law’s mandate to stop collecting data if a user opts out.




Worth a deep read.
EFF on the Mechanics of Corporate Surveillance
EFF has published a comprehensible and very readable "deep dive" into the technologies of corporate surveillance, both on the Internet and off. Well worth reading and sharing.
Boing Boing post.




A book list for Privacy wonks. I picked a couple…
Notable Privacy and Security Books 2019
Here are some notable books on privacy and security from 2019. To see a more comprehensive list of nonfiction works about privacy and security, Professor Paul Schwartz and I maintain a resource page on Nonfiction Privacy + Security Books.




For my students. And me. Streaming FREE.
The Age Of A.I.’: Robert Downey Jr. Hosts YouTube Documentary Series – Watch The Trailer
Hey Alexa, how is artificial intelligence reshaping our world? Robert Downey Jr. will explain in The Age of A.I., a new documentary series from YouTube originals that premieres December 18. Check out the first trailer above and key art below.
The eight-episode series takes a deep dive into the fascinating world of the most transformational technology in the history of humankind, per YouTube’s logline.




My AI says I find this article troubling.
Emotion-detecting tech should be restricted by law - AI Now
A leading research centre has called for new laws to restrict the use of emotion-detecting tech.
The AI Now Institute says the field is "built on markedly shaky foundations".
Despite this, systems are on sale to help vet job seekers, test criminal suspects for signs of deception, and set insurance prices.
It wants such software to be banned from use in important decisions that affect people's lives and/or determine their access to opportunities.
AI Now refers to the technology by its formal name, affect recognition, in its annual report.
"It claims to read, if you will, our inner-emotional states by interpreting the micro-expressions on our face, the tone of our voice or even the way that we walk," explained co-founder Prof Kate Crawford.
Prof Crawford suggested that part of the problem was that some firms were basing their software on the work of Paul Ekman, a psychologist who proposed in the 1960s that there were only six basic emotions expressed via facial emotions.
But, she added, subsequent studies had demonstrated there was far greater variability, both in terms of the number of emotional states and the way that people expressed them.




Does this have any direct parallel in Standard Oil or other busted trusts?
FTC Weighs Seeking Injunction Against Facebook Over How Its Apps Interact
If it materializes, the action by the Federal Trade Commission would focus on Facebook’s policies concerning it how it integrates its apps or allows them to work with potential rivals, these people said. Alongside its core social network, Facebook’s key products also include Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
The potential FTC action would likely seek to block Facebook from enforcing those policies on grounds that they are anticompetitive, the people said. An injunction could seek to bar Facebook from further integrating apps that federal regulators might look to unwind as part of a potential future breakup of the company, one of the people said.



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