The facial recognition tool of choice?

Clearview AI landed a new facial recognition contract with ICE

Taylor Hatmaker reports:

The controversial facial recognition software maker Clearview AI has a new contract with ICE, the most controversial U.S. government agency. Clearview was already known to work with the branch of Homeland Security fiercely criticized for implementing the Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies. The new contract makes it clear that relationship is ongoing — and that Clearview isn’t just playing a bit part in tech’s lucrative scrum for federal contracts.

First spotted by tech watchdog Tech Inquiry, the new contract is worth $224,000 and will provide the agency with what is only described as “Clearview licenses,” likely just access to the company’s software services.

Read more on TechCrunch.

[From the article:

Four companies competed for the contract.

I want one!

https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/london-scientists-build-ultra-broadband-a4524801.html

London scientists build 'ultra broadband nearly three million times faster' than UK home fibre optic internet connections

Scientists in London claim to have achieved the world’s fastest-ever internet speed - quick enough download the entire Netflix library a split second.

A University College London-- led team used amplifiers to enhance the way light carries digital data through fibre-optic broadband to achieve a record 178 terabits per second - almost three million times faster than the average UK home connection.

… "I think the societal benefit is clear - fast internet for all and a more productive economy.

“It’s important because internet traffic and data has been increasing exponentially over the last 10 years but we have reached the theoretical limit.

"The one other way to increase the capacity in optical fibre is increasing the range of wavelengths and colours that we can use, which is exactly what I’ve done.

(Related) ...but I would settle for this.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/every-village-will-get-optical-fiber-internet-in-1-000-days-pm-modi-in-independence-day-speech-1711415-2020-08-15

Every village will get optical fiber internet in 1,000 days: PM Modi in Independence Day speech

Keep learning.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/search-online-learning-courses-study-partners/

5 Tools to Search for Online Learning Courses and Study Partners

Many universities and schools make their coursework available for free online, in what is called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). You can go for paid courses too that offer legitimate degrees once you finish them.

Finding the right course for your time availability and budget, and completing it within the timeframe, is the difficult part. So here are a few ways to make that search easier.

It’s not a war, but we want to send in the troops anyway. And feel free to shoot back!

https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/14/australian_critical_infrastructure_defence_plan/?&web_view=true

Australian government wants power to run cyber-response for businesses under attack

Australia’s government has proposed giving itself the power to take over private enterprises’ response to cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure.

A new Consultation Paper titled Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Systems of National Significance [PDF] notes that critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attack, that such attacks are already happening and that the nation needs a plan so that if something nasty happens – like a hack taking out energy suppliers - other industries don’t go down like dominoes.

… Under such circumstances, critical infrastructure operators should be given “appropriate immunities to ensure they are not limited by concerns of legal redress for simply protecting their business and the community.”

(Related)

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/08/14/state-backed-hacking-cyber-deterrence-and-the-need-for-international-norms/?web_view=true

State-backed hacking, cyber deterrence, and the need for international norms

… While Chinese, Russian, North Korean and Iranian state-backed APT groups get most of the spotlight (at least in the Western world), other nations are beginning to join in the “fun.”

It’s a free for all, it seems, as the world has yet to decide on laws and norms regulating cyber attacks and cyber espionage in peacetime, and find a way to make nation-states abide by them.

When your little helper turns on you…

https://thehackernews.com/2020/08/amazon-alexa-hacking-skills.html?&web_view=true

Amazon Alexa Bugs Allowed Hackers to Install Malicious Skills Remotely

Check Point cybersecurity researchers—Dikla Barda, Roman Zaikin and Yaara Shriki—today disclosed severe security vulnerabilities in Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant that could render it vulnerable to a number of malicious attacks.

According to a new report released by Check Point Research and shared with The Hacker News, the "exploits could have allowed an attacker to remove/install skills on the targeted victim's Alexa account, access their voice history and acquire personal information through skill interaction when the user invokes the installed skill."

"Smart speakers and virtual assistants are so commonplace that it's easy to overlook just how much personal data they hold, and their role in controlling other smart devices in our homes," Oded Vanunu, head of product vulnerabilities research, said.

Amazon patched the vulnerabilities after the researchers disclosed their findings to the company in June 2020.

This is a biggie and probably not the last.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/14/oracle-and-salesforce-hit-with-gdpr-class-action-lawsuits-over-cookie-tracking-consent/

Oracle and Salesforce hit with GDPR class action lawsuits over cookie tracking consent

The use of third party cookies for ad tracking and targeting by data broker giants Oracle and Salesforce is the focus of class action style litigation announced today in the UK and the Netherlands.

The suits will argue that mass surveillance of Internet users to carry out real-time bidding ad auctions cannot possibly be compatible with strict EU laws around consent to process personal data.

The litigants believe the collective claims could exceed €10BN, should they eventually prevail in their arguments — though such legal actions can take several years to work their way through the courts.

Report is free with registration.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/new-ponemon-institute-report-indicates-major-consumer-privacy-gap/

New Ponemon Institute Report Indicates Major Consumer Privacy Gap

A new study from the Ponemon Institute indicates that people are increasingly aware of online consumer privacy issues, but also overwhelmingly feel that they do not have the tools to protect themselves and are looking to government to intervene. [They should know better! Bob]

The study, entitled “Privacy and Security in a Digital World,” asked a diverse sample of 650 adults from across the United States about their sentiments toward various aspects of big tech platforms. Consumers indicated that their general trust in online services has dropped in recent years, with particularly sharp increases in concerns about search engines and social media platforms. Very few trust websites in general with collection and sharing of personal information, but only about half seem to be fully aware of the personal protection options that are available to them.

Panic and ignorance – a salesman’s dream?

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/14/21365300/artificial-intelligence-ai-school-reopening-technology-covid-19

The dystopian tech that companies are selling to help schools reopen sooner

Thousands of schools nationwide will not be reopening this fall. But in Las Vegas, the private K-12 Meadows School plans to use an artificial intelligence-powered thermal screening system to keep students safe as they return to classes.

The system will scan for signs that students have elevated temperatures — an indication they might have Covid-19 — as they enter buildings for their classes. If they’re flagged, the students will be asked to wait separately for about 10 minutes, and then get their temperature taken again. If the result is within a normal range, they’re cleared to start their day. If not, they’ll be sent home.

“Things are strange enough. Kids are going to be coming to school with masks. They’re going to be meeting friends with masks,” Jeremy Gregersen, the head of school at Meadows, told Recode. “They’re going to be meeting their teachers for the first time in person in strange new ways, and what we want is for kids to feel welcome and to normalize their arrival at school as early as possible.”

… A slew of firms, many of which already sold surveillance products, are adjusting their technology to the pandemic. The suite of products includes everything from computer programs that can identify whether or not a student is wearing a mask to artificial intelligence that measures how well people are social distancing. Sometimes, these capabilities are sold together as a package.

I can see where this would be a concern.

https://www.cnet.com/news/tiktoks-us-employees-plan-to-sue-trump-administration-over-executive-order/

TikTok's US employees plan to sue Trump administration over executive order

Employees say the order would bar TikTok from paying them.

This could get interesting.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/13/21367966/amazon-liable-defective-products-california-marketplace-third-party?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

Amazon can be held liable for products sold on Marketplace, appeals court rules

Amazon can be held liable for defective products sold on its Marketplace in California, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The California Fourth District Court of Appeals reversed a 2019 trial court ruling and reinstated claims from a woman who says she suffered third-degree burns when a defective laptop battery she bought from a third-party seller on Amazon caught fire.

The decision could have dire repercussions for Amazon, which has argued for years that it only serves as an intermediary between buyers and third-party sellers on the Marketplace portion of its platform. That stance has protected Amazon from liability for Marketplace products, that is, until now. The company is now facing several other lawsuits over defective products in other courts.

For my friends in the English department:

https://hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com/blog/poor-grammar-makes-for-a-poor-extortion-campaign-you-under-attack-pay-us-before-make-drama-23915.html

Poor Grammar Makes For a Poor Extortion Campaign; ’You Under Attack‘ Pay Us ’Before Make Drama’

Try it yourself.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/natural-language-processing-python-seo/377051/#close

An Introduction to Natural Language Processing with Python for SEOs

… We are going to learn practical NLP while building a simple knowledge graph from scratch.

Specifically, we are going to extract useful facts automatically from Search Engine Journal XML sitemaps.

In order to do this and keep things simple and fast, we will pull article headlines from the URLs in the XML sitemaps.

We will extract named entities and their relationships from the headlines.

Finally, we will build a powerful knowledge graph and visualize the most popular relationships.

Cyberwar, no matter how asymmetric, is still war. Have we reached that level? If North Korea is ‘hacking for pay’ should Israel attack Iran?

https://www.databreaches.net/north-korean-hacking-group-attacks-israeli-defense-industry/

North Korean Hacking Group Attacks Israeli Defense Industry

Ronen Bergman and Nicole Perlroth report:

Israel claimed Wednesday that it had thwarted a cyberattack by a North Korea-linked hacking group on its classified defense industry.

The Defense Ministry said the attack was deflected “in real time” and that there was no “harm or disruption” to its computer systems.

However, security researchers at ClearSky, the international cybersecurity firm that first exposed the attack, said the North Korean hackers penetrated the computer systems and were likely to have stolen a large amount of classified data. Israeli officials fear the data could be shared with North Korea’s ally, Iran.

Read more on the New York Times.

(Related) When does hacking cross the line into Cyberwar?

https://cyware.com/news/unfolding-cyberthreats-on-aerospace-and-military-sectors-8c0d013d/?web_view=true

Unfolding Cyberthreats on Aerospace and Military Sectors

Could this data be used without Privacy impact? Is it more acceptable if it works to slow/stop the pandemic?

Cry of privacy breach as Kerala cops tap call records of Covid patients

KP Saikiran reports:

Kerala, whose scientific contact-tracing strategy in the initial weeks of the pandemic became a model for others to follow, has now worked up an ethical and legal storm with a controversial police decision to collect call detail records (CDR) of Covid-positive citizens and draw up “route maps” to trace those who came in contact with them.

Read more on Times of India.

Interesting idea. Does this mean Privacy has reached a level where it needs its own department?

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/privacyops-reimagining-privacy-compliance/

PrivacyOps: Reimagining Privacy Compliance

Following several high profile incidents highlighting the harm that can be done when personal information is mishandled or abused, there is now a growing awareness that privacy is a basic human right. A wave of new privacy regulations such as the European Union’s GDPR, California’s CCPA, Brazil’s LGPD, and more aim to give consumers greater control of their personal information held by companies.

Enterprise organizations are pivoting to be able to efficiently comply with these new regulations. However, traditional compliance and privacy management practices driven by periodic manual surveys, rampant data sprawl across on-prem and cloud data stores, and complex coordination across multiple organizational silos make this challenging.

PrivacyOps is an emerging framework that reimagines how to efficiently implement privacy management throughout an organization. Much like DevOps has emerged as a more agile and effective way to operationalize software development, PrivacyOps promises the same for privacy compliance.

Not bad enough by themselves, they are starting to breed!

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/aiot-when-ai-meets-iot-technology/

AIoT: When Artificial Intelligence Meets the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology helping us to reimagine daily life, but artificial intelligence (AI) is the real driving force behind the IoT’s full potential.

From its most basic applications of tracking our fitness levels, to its wide-reaching potential across industries and urban planning, the growing partnership between AI and the IoT means that a smarter future could occur sooner than we think.

This infographic by TSMC highlights the breakthrough technologies and trends making that shift possible, and how we’re continuing to push the boundaries.

Perspective.

https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-is-a-totalitarians-dream-heres-how-to-take-power-back-143722

Artificial intelligence is a totalitarian’s dream – here’s how to take power back

… In 2019, the billionaire investor Peter Thiel claimed that AI was “literally communist”. He pointed out that AI allows a centralising power to monitor citizens and know more about them than they know about themselves. China, Thiel noted, has eagerly embraced AI.

My mom let her copyright lapse… (Podcast)

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/12/1006678/who-owns-your-face/

Who owns your face?

… In the last of a four-part series on facial recognition, host Jennifer Strong explores the way forward for the technology and examines what policy might look like.

(Related) (Podcast)

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/12/1006665/clearview-ai-billion-faces/

Land of a billion faces

… In part two of this four-part series on facial recognition, we meet the CEO of the controversial company who tells us our future is filled with FaceID— regardless of whether it's regulated or not.

Before you get to AI…

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3570716/mlops-the-rise-of-machine-learning-operations.html

MLops: The rise of machine learning operations

As hard as it is for data scientists to tag data and develop accurate machine learning models, managing models in production can be even more daunting. Recognizing model drift, retraining models with updating data sets, improving performance, and maintaining the underlying technology platforms are all important data science practices. Without these disciplines, models can produce erroneous results that significantly impact business.

Developing production-ready models is no easy feat. According to one machine learning study, 55 percent of companies had not deployed models into production, and 40 percent or more require more than 30 days to deploy one model. Success brings new challenges, and 41 percent of respondents acknowledge the difficulty of versioning machine learning models and reproducibility.

Is it time to start revoking these monopolies?

https://www.bespacific.com/hate-your-internet-provider-heres-why-you-might-be-stuck-with-them/

Hate your internet provider? Here’s why you might be stuck with them

Fast Company: “Ever wish you could ditch your ISP for one with higher speeds and lower costs? Too bad. According to a new report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance, a local community economic development advocacy group, tens of millions of Americans have no real choice in who their Internet service provider is…”

Keeping up.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/tech-jobs-are-growing-again-but-the-top-skills-companies-want-are-changing/

Software developer jobs are growing again. But the top skills companies want are changing

Skills that are in most demand from IT chiefs are cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, technical architecture, organisational change and cloud, according to research by tech recruiter Harvey Nash. By contrast, in last year's survey IT chiefs listed big data and analytics as the skills most in demand, followed by cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, technical architecture and DevOps.

For my students.

4 things you must do to prep for an AI-powered job interview

AI can speed the vetting and hiring process, but candidates need to prep differently when this technology is being used.

Perhaps the database creation process should include a question like: “Would you like security with that?” Clearly the current process doesn’t work. Notice how few large breaches we have seen recently? I guess hackers don’t need them if organizations are leaving their data accessible without the need to hack.

https://www.hackread.com/cyber-security-firm-businesses-data-leaked-online/?web_view=true

Sensitive data of cyber security firm & other businesses leaked online

If we could get a penny for every time we reported an unsecured server getting found, perhaps it would amount to vacation dollars.

In another recent incident, security researchers named Noam Rotem and Ran Locar from vpnMentor have reported on an unsecured AWS S3 bucket containing over 5.5 million files and worth 343GB of data which was found on December 20, 2019, but they could disclose it now only due to responsible disclosure practices.

(Related) Or you could just send an email asking to have money deposited in their accounts.

https://www.inforisktoday.com/bec-scam-costs-trading-firm-virtu-financial-69-million-a-14804?&web_view=true

BEC Scam Costs Trading Firm Virtu Financial $6.9 Million

High-speed trading firm Virtu Financial says it lost $6.9 million in a business email compromise scam in May. The company is now suing its insurer for failure to cover the loss, according to legal documents filed in the case.

In its court filing, Virtu Financial reports that an executive's email account was illegally accessed and used to send fraudulent emails to the company's accounting department, resulting in two wire transfers to a bank in China.

A model for future cyber wars?

https://www.databreaches.net/pakistan-army-identifies-major-cyber-attack-by-india-targeting-mobile-phones-of-govt-military-officials/

Pakistan Army identifies major cyber attack by India targeting mobile phones of govt, military officials

The News reports:

Pakistani intelligence agencies have tracked a major security breach by Indian hackers whereby phones and other gadgets of government officials and military personnel were targeted, the military’s media wind said Wednesday.

According to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the cyber-attack by Indian intelligence agencies involved “a range of cyber crimes including deceitful fabrication by hacking personal mobiles and technical gadgets”.

“Various targets of hostile intelligence agencies are being investigated,” said the military’s media wing.

Read more on The News (PK)

Hoist on the pendulum of law…

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/nj-supreme-court-no-5th-amendment-right-not-to-unlock-your-phone/

NJ Supreme Court: No 5th Amendment right not to unlock your phone

New Jersey's Supreme Court has ruled that compelling a suspect to unlock his or her cell phone doesn't violate the Fifth Amendment. The courts continue to be deeply split on this question. Back in June, Indiana's Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion, and several other state and federal courts have reached divergent positions on the issue over the last few years.

This case focuses on an allegedly corrupt cop named Robert Andrews. Andrews is a former Essex County Sheriff who allegedly tipped off a suspect named Quincy Lowery about a pending police investigation.

… The police seized two iPhones belonging to Andrews, but investigators were unable to unlock them. Andrews refused to unlock the phones based on the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination.

On Monday, the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected that Fifth Amendment claim. The Fifth Amendment only protects defendants against self-incriminating testimony, not the production of incriminating documents. While "testimony" usually refers to speech, that's not always the case. Sometimes, a defendant can reveal information by his or her actions. For example, if the government doesn't already know who owns a phone, then forcing a defendant to unlock it amounts to forced testimony that the defendant is the owner.

But that reasoning doesn't apply in this case. The phones were registered in Andrews' name and were in his possession. There's little doubt that Andrews knows the passcodes. So if he's forced to enter the passcodes to his own phones, the New Jersey Supreme Court reasoned, he's not revealing any information that the government doesn't already know.

Interesting argument.

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/redefining-ai-leadership-in-the-c-suite/

Redefining AI Leadership in the C-Suite

… We contend that while CFOs may not think of themselves as leaders of artificial intelligence for their companies, they can make a bigger leadership impact when it comes to AI strategy and adoption.

There are two key reasons. The first is that CFOs are heads of the finance function, and many finance processes and tasks can be performed by AI. One survey of U.S. organizations found that 24% of finance managers are currently using AI, and another 50% expect to use it within three to five years.

The second reason is that CFOs are usually the primary custodians of “value for money” appraisals and as such should provide oversight on AI investments. A 2018 Deloitte survey on trends in CIO reporting relationships found that 28% of CIOs report to the CFO. This is significant in terms of AI because a 2020 survey of global AI adopters from Deloitte found that IT is the single most likely area (with 47% listing it as a “top two” application domain, and cybersecurity in second place, with 22%) where companies will apply AI and automation to tasks and processes frequently repeated activities.

As always, I’m curious as to when AI will go from ‘useful’ to ‘mandatory.’

https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2020/08/12/brave-new-world-how-ai-tools-are-used-in-the-legal-sector/

Brave New World: How AI Tools Are Used in the Legal Sector

In our previous article, we explored several legal implications that artificial intelligence will have on patent law, and the availability of patent protection for AI inventions. In this article, we explore the impact of AI in the legal industry, including new AI tools for legal departments, and how to plan for risk when using these AI tools.

Trying to understand antitrust in today’s political environment. They don’t define ‘hypercompetitive behavior.’

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/qualcomm-wins-appeal-in-long-running-ftc-antitrust-case/d/d-id/763128?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT

Qualcomm wins appeal in long-running FTC antitrust case

The decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a lower court ruling from May 2019.

The FTC had begun investigating Qualcomm in 2014, while governments in Asia and Europe have been looking into the company since around 2009, according to court documents.

Hard bargain

In 2017, the FTC sued Qualcomm and, on May 21, 2019, US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose made her ruling in the case public.

Koh found Qualcomm commanded "unreasonably high royalty rates" for its intellectual property, and ordered it to renegotiate licensing deals.

The judge said the wireless technology company's patent-licensing practices – both the fees it charges cellphone makers, and the controversial "no license, no chips" practice – were anti-competitive.

Qualcomm was accused of pressuring vendors to buy at least 85% of their chips from Qualcomm, thus eliminating competition.

The appeals court disagreed with this ruling. The panel of three judges wrote: "Anti-competitive behaviour is illegal under federal antitrust law. Hypercompetitive behaviour is not."

A tool for my math students.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-lens-homework-help/

Google Lens Can Now Help With Math and Science Problems

Google is looking to help children and parents get ready for a whole new form of school when education resumes in the coming months. The company announced a slew of new educational tools and features on The Keyword.

While all the changes seem useful, the one that really stands out from the crowd is the update to Google Lens. It was already a useful tool, but Google is adding a new feature that will allow it to help with solving difficult math and science questions.

The new Google Lens feature uses Socratic to allow students or parents to take a photo of a difficult problem and get help.

It’s not just a tool that provides you with the answer, either (though it does give you the answer in the end). Instead, Google Lens and Socratic will provide step-by-step instructions to solve the problem. It’ll also show helpful explainers that will help the student actually learn to solve the math or science equation. After all, the point isn’t just to find out the answer, but to understand how to reach it yourself.

A tool for elaborating on a video link.

https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2020/08/two-ways-to-quickly-create-transcripts.html

Two Ways to Quickly Create Transcripts of YouTube Videos

… I showed them how to quickly create transcripts for videos. There are two methods for this. Both methods are explained in the videos below.

Option 1

When you are viewing a video on YouTube you can open the automatically generated transcript (a feature many people overlook) and then copy the transcript into a Google Doc. Once the transcript is in the Google Doc you can edit the text and text formatting. Additionally, in the Google Doc you can insert links to the corresponding timestamps for the video. Watch this video for a demonstration of how this process works.

Option 2
The other option for making a timestamped transcript of a YouTube video is to use a third-party service. VidReader is the service that I've been using since last fall to create transcripts of YouTube videos. Here's my demo of VidReader.