If
you can’t manage technology perhaps you shouldn’t be using it?
(You see why outsourcing is popular?)
Avon
Cosmetics Leaks 7GB of Personal and Technical Information from
Unsecured Server
Last
month, SafetyDetectives researchers discovered an unsecured database
belonging to the popular Avon beauty company. The server, which
lacked basic security measures, was easily accessible by
investigators, who found a trove of 19 million records, including
personal information of employees and website technical data.
While
the news might not strike a chord at first, the data breach
disclosure follows a June 9 regulatory
filing by
the company, which confirmed a security incident that “interrupted
some systems and partially affected operations.”
Protesters
act as a smoke screen for drug theft?
More
pharmacy chains report HIPAA breaches linked to looting during
protests
First
it was Walmart disclosing
that
their pharmacies in stores in California and Chicago had suffered
damage and theft by looters of medications ready for pickup with
patient information on labels.
Then
it was CVS,
who notified HHS that more than 21,000 patients’ information may
have been compromised by looters who stole or accessed prescriptions
ready for pickup.
Now
it’s Walgreens
who
is notifying an as-yet-undisclosed number of patients at multiple
stores across multiple states.
I’m
shocked. Shocked I tell you!
Over
Half of Americans Do Not Trust Companies to Ethically Collect, Use or
Sell Personal Data
A
new study from professional services firm KPMG finds that over half
of Americans are no longer comfortable with their personal data being
in the hands of private companies.
97%
feel that data privacy is important to them, and 87% take it a step
further in believing that it should be considered a human right, but
54% feel that companies cannot be trusted to use their personal data
in an ethical way. On the specific subject of the sale of personal
data, 68% believe that companies will not do so in a responsible way.
The
KPMG study (“New
Imperative for Corporate Data Responsibility”)
surveyed 1,000 US citizens from a broad mix of age, race, gender and
regional backgrounds.
How
do I regulate thee
Let
me count the ways
New
Zealand establishes algorithm charter for government agencies
A
standards guide on how to use algorithms across government.
Dubbed
as the "first in the world", the Algorithm
Charter for Aotearoa New Zealand,
according to Minister for Statistics James Shaw, will improve data
transparency and accountability, especially when algorithms are being
used to process and interpret large amounts of data.
"Using
algorithms to analyse data and inform decisions does not come without
its risks," he said. "It is important, therefore, that
people have confidence that these algorithms are being used in a
fair, ethical, and transparent way. And that's what this Charter is
all about."
Tools
& Techniques. (Image or video)
This
AI turns your home videos into cute cartoons
If
you’ve ever wondered what you’d look like in animated form, you
can now find out. Developers Tejas
Mahajan and Niraj Pandkar have created an AI tool that can turn your
photos and videos into cartoons.
Cartoonizer
is
based on a research
paper by
University of Tokyo researchers Xinrui Wang and
Jinze Yu. The tool leverages their open-source
implementation to create a publicly-available demo of the method,
using GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) servers for the video inference
and CPUs (central processing units) for the images.
… Mahajan
and Pandkar plan
to open source the code and write an article on the architecture
within the next few days. In the meantime, you can try the tool out
yourself at the
Cartoonizer website.
For
my students…
Phidgets
- A Fun, Free, Hands-on Way to Learn Python, Java, and More
As
the new school year approaches Phidgets
is
one new thing that I’m excited to use with my students. Phidgets
provide a fun, hands-on way for students to learn to program in
Python, Java, C#, and Swift. If you’re not a computer science
teacher, don’t skip over this post thinking that Phidgets is just a
product for computer science classes. There’s no cost to try it
out because Phidgets will send you a free
kit to get started.
And Phidgets has super easy-to-follow instructions that make perfect
sense even if you have never written a single line of code in your
life.
What
are Phidgets?
Phidgets
are sensors, microcontrollers that you can program in your choice of
four programming languages. You can program Phidgets to do things
like turn things like LED lights on and off, to record data, and to
automate processes. Come all three of those things together and
you’ll start to build some really interesting things like lights
that turn on based on a light sensor or build a simple alert system
with motion and proximity sensors. Probably the quickest way to see
what’s possible with Phidgets is to watch this 90
second video.
… The
Phidgets
starter kit for schools comes
in a 6”x3”x4” box that serves as the storage container for the
kit’s contents and also serves to hold the LEDs and switches
included in the kit. The kit also includes a humidity sensor, a hub
(where wired connections are made), and all necessary wires and
cables.
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