The
rest of the world seems to be going in the opposite direction.
Those who want to see HHS/OCR come down like a ton
of bricks on more entities and impose heavier civil monetary
penalties for HIPAA breaches will likely not be happy to learn that
HHS has decided to reduce the maximum civil penalties it will impose
for the four tiers of violations of HIPAA.
[Tables
omitted. Bob]
HHS’s notification, which will be published in
the Federal Register on April 30, explains their reasoning and
justification for exercising their discretion in this way. I’ve
reproduced the notification, below.
I think we’ve found a title for the Fall Privacy
Foundation seminar… What
are humans for?
Register
to listen to the podcast.
As AI
advances, what are humans for?
… The
wary relationship between humans and technology is also at the heart
of Mr McEwan’s new novel, “Machines like Me” (reviewed by The
Economist here
).
… In
an interview with “The Economist Asks” podcast, he reflects on
the moral quandaries of differentiating between synthetic and
biological humans and his own on-off relationship with technology.
A
good summary.
Here’s
how Internet of Things malware is undermining privacy
… There
are several aspects to the problem. One is that devices with
microphones and cameras may be monitoring
what people say and do directly.
Sometimes users may not even be aware that there is a microphone
present, as
happened with Google’s Nest.
Another is the
leakage of sensitive information from
the data streams of IoT devices. Finally, there is the problem
summed up by what is called by some “Hyppönen’s
law”:
“Whenever an appliance is described as being ‘smart’, it’s
vulnerable”.
… Existing
legislation may provide a more effective way of tackling IoT’s
threat to privacy. As readers of this blog know, the
EU’s GDPR law is
proving to be a powerful weapon for defending personal data and
tackling abuses. It may be that the GDPR can be used to curb some of
the worst problems of IoT systems, at least in Europe.
Kinda
like a Berlin wall, but an e-wall.
The
Quick Read About… Russia’s New Internet Law
… This
law will regulate how internet traffic moves through critical
infrastructure for the internet. By November internet service
providers will have to adopt new routing and filtering technology and
grant regulators the authority to directly monitor and censor content
it deems objectionable. But the real groundbreaker is the intent to
create a national domain name system (DNS) by 2021, probably as a
back-up to the existing global system that translates domain names
into numerical addresses. If Russia builds a workable version and
switches it on, traffic would not enter or leave Russia’s borders.
In effect, it means turning on a standalone Russian internet,
disconnected from the rest of the world.
… Read
this
excellent piece by
GZERO Media’s Alex Kliment on the pros and cons of shutting down
the internet in times of emergency. Folks in the Kremlin should read
it, too.
(Related)
On the other hand…
Telecom
giants battle bill which bans Internet service throttling for
firefighters in emergencies
Internet
service providers (ISPs) and telecom firms are fighting a bill which
would force them to provide unfettered broadband services and prevent
them from throttling data use in emergency situations.
… As reported
by StateScoop, the bill – introduced in
February – aims to prevent a repeat of what happened in summer 2018
during the Mendocino Complex Fire, one of the largest wildfires
recorded in California's history.
During the blaze, which erupted in July, two
combined fires burned a combined 459,123 acres, destroyed 280
structures, and resulted in the death of one firefighter, as reported
by the Sacramento
Bee.
As firefighters from the Santa Clara County
Central Fire Protection District fought to contain the fires, they
found their Internet service drastically reduced, having been
throttled in what Verizon Wireless later called a "customer
support mistake."
… Verizon said at the time that the company
has an internal policy to remove "data speed restrictions when
contacted in emergency situations," but this did not happen
during the wildfires.
To lift the throttling, instead, Verizon told the
department to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
Spoiler
alert: We don’t know.
How
to prepare for a career in machine learning and artificial
intelligence
… I
heard an interesting stat recently: Approximately 70% of deep
learning or AI practitioners today are still in school. Because this
is an emerging technology, and it's pulling in people from all sorts
of disciplines, we don't really have a great precedent for it yet.
Truth
is, a majority of good practitioners in the space today are either
self-taught, or they're coming from a different domain entirely (i.e.
not just computer science or programming). A solid background in
statistics and traditional mathematics is always helpful —
experience in a research area is also a big plus.
Dilbert
talk directly to my Architecture class.
