Wednesday, March 03, 2021

Will this thinking come to the US?

https://www.pogowasright.org/phone-data-must-be-limited-to-major-crime-probes-top-eu-court-says/

Phone Data Must Be Limited to Major Crime Probes, Top EU Court Says

Molly Quell reports:

Personal cellphone data can be used only in the investigation of serious crimes, the EU’s high court found on Tuesday.
In its decision, the European Court of Justice noted that, unless it’s for a serious crime or in the interest of public safety, countries are prohibited from obtaining location data under the European Union’s 2002 Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive.

Read more on Courthouse News.



(Related) possibly not…

https://www.pogowasright.org/hawley-asks-fbi-director-about-consumer-data-collected-in-capitol-riot-investigation/

Hawley asks FBI director about consumer data collected in Capitol riot investigation

Bryan Lowry reports:

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about data the bureau has collected from banks, cellular companies and social media platforms in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
[…]
Hawley’s questioning focused on data the bureau has collected in its investigation — rather than on the causes of the attack — suggesting that the agency may be overreaching its legal authority.
He asked Wray about geolocation data and metadata collected from cell phone companies.

Read more on McClatchy. You may despise Hawley (or love him), but regardless, the questions are good questions to ask and to pursue to make sure that the government doesn’t use the insurrection as an opportunity to expand its ability to gather and use data without a warrant or even reasonable suspicion.





Gary Alexander pointed to this article (that I had missed) about legal machinations after a breach. “We gotta sue somebody!’

https://www.cyberscoop.com/solarwinds-hack-court-lawsuits-regulators/

SolarWinds hack spotlights a thorny legal problem: Who to blame for espionage?

Every massive breach comes with a trail of lawsuits and regulatory ramifications that can last for years. Home Depot, for instance, only last month settled with a group of state attorneys general over its 2014 breach.

The SolarWinds security incident that U.S. officials have pinned on state-sponsored Russian hackers is unlike anything that came before, legal experts say, meaning the legal liability could take even longer to resolve in court.

The most likely kind of case to come to court involves allegations of securities fraud. Several law firms have have announced investigations meant to round up investors who took a financial hit when SolarWinds stocks dropped after the company’s role became known. Stock trades some company executives made not long before the revelations — a reported $280 million worth — are feeding into that consternation.





We knew this was coming...

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/541290-virginia-governor-signs-comprehensive-data-privacy-law

Virginia governor signs comprehensive data privacy law

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed the Consumer Data Protection Act on Tuesday, making Virginia the second state in the U.S. to pass a comprehensive data privacy law.

The bill will give consumers the right to opt out of having their personal data processed for targeted advertising and the right to confirm if their data is being processed.

… The law will go into effect in 2023 and applies to all businesses that control or process the proposal data of at least 100,000 consumers, derive more than 50 percent gross revenue from the sale of personal data or process the personal data of at least 25,000 consumers.





Always useful…

https://fpf.org/blog/event-report-brussels-privacy-symposium-2020-research-and-the-protection-of-personal-data-under-the-gdpr/

EVENT REPORT: BRUSSELS PRIVACY SYMPOSIUM 2020 – RESEARCH AND THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA UNDER THE GDPR

On December 2, 2020, the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and the Brussels Privacy Hub of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) hosted the Brussels Privacy Symposium 2020: Research and the protection of Personal Data Under the GDPR.

A new report ... summarizes and offers context to the discussions at the event.





AI is not just, ‘start the program and stand back.’

https://fortune.com/2021/03/02/it-only-looks-simple-the-complex-human-decisions-behind-an-easy-a-i-use-case/

It only looks simple: the complex human decisions behind an “easy” A.I. use case

As we’ve noted in this newsletter before, sometimes even simple applications of A.I. can be transformative. But it is worth remembering that simple things can take a lot of thought, planning, and skill to do right.

A case in point: The luxury fashion brand Chanel a few weeks ago debuted Lipscanner. It’s an iPhone app that allows a user to take a photo of any color and find the lipstick shade from Chanel’s collection that most closely matches it. Then the user can “try that lipstick on” virtually, using augmented reality on their camera phone.

Sounds simple, right? But as Cedric Begon, the director of the Connected Experience Innovation Lab at Chanel, which built Lipscanner, says, it isn’t. “This wasn’t easy at all,” he tells me.

The team that built the product worked on it for more than 18 months.

… He said the team involved in the creation of the A.I.-enabled tool included designers and product managers, data scientists and machine learning engineers, IT experts, marketing experts and lawyers. “This product goes to the heart of the nature of the relationship between the customer and the product and that requires a sophisticated integration of many points of view,” he says.

You’ll notice Begon mentioned lawyers there. One of the biggest issues around a product like Lipscanner is not only the data used to train the A.I. system and where it comes from, but also what happens with the data it uses when making the lipstick suggestions and virtual try-ons: the images users capture on their phones. That can be thorny legal terrain, especially in Europe, where a company might easily run afoul of the European Union’s stringent data protection laws (the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR).





Perspective. (Streaming sales were 10 times greater.)

https://www.makeuseof.com/vinyl-defeats-cds-first-time-34-years/

Vinyl Defeats the CD for the First Time in 34 Years

The figures are in, as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) 2020 year-end report crowns vinyl the victor in the physical format war, announced via an RIAA blog post.

2020 saw vinyl sales grow by almost 29% in value, year-over-year. At the end of December, vinyl sales had amassed a value in excess of $625 million.

By contrast, the CD continues down its slippery slope, with a reduction in sales of around 23% based on last year's figures. The value of all CD sales accounted for $483 million of all physical sales. The CD has seen marked decreases in sales (year-on-year) for several years, now.





So my niece can build her own backup band.

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/googles-tone-transfer-uses-ai-to-transform-your-guitar-into-a-saxophone-trumpet-flute-or-violin

Google's Tone Transfer uses AI to transform your guitar into a saxophone, trumpet, flute or violin

… if you’re among those who are more interested in making their guitar sound like a totally different instrument, you may want to have Tone Transfer on your radar.

The free website – designed by Google and Team Magenta – allows users to upload any sound sample and convert it into either saxophone, trumpet, flute or violin.





Because I like lists and SciFi. More to read!

https://bookriot.com/sci-fi-books-about-robots-and-ai/

10 INNOVATIVE SCI-FI NOVELS ABOUT ROBOTS AND AI

… The novels on this list are included because they all offer unique and innovative perspectives on robots and/or artificial intelligence. Even though every book on this list is so different, they all imagine worlds where artificial intelligence and robots feel like an incredibly real and plausible part of our future.



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