Once surveillance concepts leak from government software, programmers realize how simple it is to create similar tools for the civilian markets.
‘Stalkerware’ apps are proliferating. Protect yourself.
… Flash Keylogger is part of a rapidly expanding group of apps known as “stalkerware.” While these apps numbered in the hundreds a few years ago, they have since grown into the thousands. They are widely available on Google’s Play Store and to a lesser degree Apple’s App Store, often with innocuous names like MobileTool, Agent and Cerberus. And they have become such a tool for digital domestic abuse that Apple and Google have started in the past year acknowledging that the apps are an issue.
From last September to May, the number of devices infected with stalkerware jumped 63%, according to a study by security firm NortonLifeLock. This month, the Federal Trade Commission said it had barred one app-maker, Support King, from offering SpyFone, a piece of stalkerware that gains access to a victim’s location, photos and messages. It was the first ban of its kind.
… Stalkerware is a thorny issue because it lives in a gray area. There are legitimate uses for surveillance apps, like parental control software that monitors children online to protect them from predators. But this technology becomes stalkerware when it’s stealthily installed on a partner’s phone to spy on him or her without consent.
(Related) Some adaption of surveillance is more direct than others.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/30/mod_data_strategy_social_media_surveillance/
UK MoD data strategy calls for social media surveillance on behalf of 'local authorities'
The Ministry of Defence has published a data strategy that calls on the British armed forces to make better use of its "enduring strategic asset" – by spying on social media and dobbing in dissenters to local councils.
In a move bound to fuel tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists, the MoD's Data Strategy for Defence document [PDF ] published this week says the military ought to be carrying out "Automated scanning of social media platforms" to detect "change in population sentiment."
"Decision making is enhanced by local surveillance of groups of interest," notes the strategy document, adding that spying on irritated citizens' Facebook rants helps "local authorities" impose "heightened readiness measures".
Nowhere does the document explain why a strategy paper has gone so far off the beaten track that it promotes collecting data the MoD doesn't have and using it for decidedly non-military purposes.
No doubt “Honest Abe” will be selling “His” Lincoln Town Cars soon.
‘Speaking Portraits’ Make It Unsettlingly Easy to Turn Still Photos Into Animated Deepfakes
Gizmodo: “Earlier this year, social media was briefly taken over by seemingly everyone using MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia feature to bring old photos to life. The company whose AI technology powers Deep Nostalgia, D-ID, is taking that technology one step further, turning still headshot photos into videos that move and say whatever a user wants. As impressively lifelike as the results from MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia often were, the feature had its limitations. After a still photo of a person was uploaded, their orientation in the shot was analyzed to determine which direction their head and eyes were looking, at which point a matching video from a small collection of ‘driver videos’ was selected to be used as a reference to create the AI-generated movements. Users had no control over the movements in the generated video, and the subject made no attempt to speak. At the recent TechCrunch Disrupt 2021, D-ID revealed a more advanced version of Deep Nostalgia called Speaking Portraits that can make still photos appear to move and talk based on either a source video, just an audio clip, or even a text file with a pre-written script…”
Interesting, but you have to give up the tools you know and love…
The death of identity: Knowing your customer in the age of data privacy
“Know your customer” is one of the foundational concepts of business. In the digital age, companies have learned much about their customers by forming individual profiles from third-party cookies, social content, purchased demographics and more. But in the face of growing demands for privacy, businesses have the opportunity to overhaul their relationship with customer data to focus solely on first-party data and patterns of behavior.
Companies have employed digital analytics, advertising and marketing solutions to track customers and connect their behaviors across touch points. This enabled the creation of data profiles, which have been leveraged to deliver personalized experiences that resonate through relevance and context.
Now, however, this practice of profiling and identifying customers is increasingly coming under scrutiny. Regulators are adopting new data and consumer privacy legislation, most recently seen with the Colorado Privacy Act. Moreover, Apple’s privacy implementations in iOS 14.8 and iOS 15 have been adopted by an estimated 96% of users, who have opted to stop apps from tracking their activity for ad targeting. And Google has announced it will no longer support third-party cookies and will stop tracking on an individual basis altogether through its Chrome browser.
Tools & Techniques. Have a process you would like to automate?
https://www.bespacific.com/metasoftware-building-blocks-for-legal-technology/
Metasoftware: Building Blocks for Legal Technology
Shadab, Houman B., Metasoftware: Building Blocks for Legal Technology (June 29, 2021). NYLS Legal Studies Research Paper No. 3876785, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3876785 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3876785
“This Article develops a novel concept in information technology called metasoftware. It then applies the concept of metasoftware to developing legal technology. Metasoftware enables users to create the software of their choosing and stands in sharp contrast to traditional, functional software that is intended for a particular purpose or a defined range of tasks. Functional software is the default type of software that is currently produced and includes word processing, email, social networking, enterprise resource management, online marketplaces, and video game software. Metasoftware, by contrast, is not functional. Metasoftware presents the user with a blank slate upon which to build functional software. I argue that software is metasoftware to that extent that (1) it enables users to build user interface elements, workflow logic, and perform database operations, (2) provides connectivity with external data and software systems, and (3) is able to be stored and run independently from the platform that is used to build the software. In its purest form, metasoftware enables its users to build any functional software (given the existing state of technology), integrate with all open software platforms, and be hosted and run in the environment of the user’s choosing without being bound to a particular vendor or other proprietary software platform. My identification of metasoftware contributes to the academic literature on information systems (and technology). Metasoftware is a hitherto unrecognized category of software for analysis in terms of several foundational lines of information technology research including user acceptance and usage, diffusion within an organization, and impact on organizational innovation and success (e.g., business performance). I analyze three types of metasoftware platforms to determine how metasoftware characteristics are implemented in each and important inherent tradeoffs. These platforms are those closely tied to major producers of cloud-based software platforms, standalone proprietary “no code” software builder platforms, and open source visual development platforms. This Article also describes how metasoftware platforms can be used to build functional legal technology and analyzes how the tradeoffs between different types of metasoftware platforms turn impact how each type of platform should be approached as building blocks for legaltech software. I focus on four major categories of legaltech as illustrative of the potential for metasoftware to build functional software: legal research, legal matter management, contract automation, and a variety of applications of artificial intelligence…”
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