What is abnormal? If I’m the only one near the crime with NO cellphone, am I obviously trying to hide something?
https://threatpost.com/google-controversial-geofence-warrants/174938/
Google Report Spotlights Uptick in Controversial ‘Geofence Warrants’ by Police
Newly released data by Google sheds light on a controversial practice called “geofence warrants”, which describes the practice of law enforcement requesting mobile phone data of users within close proximity of a crime.
Google said, in an August report, the number of geofence warrants the company received from law enforcement agencies jumped from 982 in 2018 to 11,554 in 2020.
The warrants allow law enforcement to demand data from phones used within the vicinity of a crime. The tactic allows investigators to identify potential suspects or witnesses to illegal activity.
Know your tools. This one predicts but does not have predictive ability. Are the police being oversold?
SHADOWDRAGON: INSIDE THE SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEILLANCE SOFTWARE THAT CAN WATCH YOUR EVERY MOVE
A MICHIGAN STATE POLICE CONTRACT, obtained by The Intercept, sheds new light on the growing use of little-known surveillance software that helps law enforcement agencies and corporations watch people’s social media and other website activity.
The software, put out by a Wyoming company called ShadowDragon, allows police to suck in data from social media and other internet sources, including Amazon, dating apps, and the dark web, so they can identify persons of interest and map out their networks during investigations. By providing powerful searches of more than 120 different online platforms and a decade’s worth of archives, the company claims to speed up profiling work from months to minutes. ShadowDragon even claims its software can automatically adjust its monitoring and help predict violence and unrest. Michigan police acquired the software through a contract with another obscure online policing company named Kaseware for an “MSP Enterprise Criminal Intelligence System.”
… Michigan State Police spokesperson Shanon Banner said in an email that “the investigative tools available to us as part of this contract are only used in conjunction with criminal investigations, following all state and federal laws.” The founder of ShadowDragon, Daniel Clemens, wrote that the company provides only information that is publicly available and does not “build products with predictive capabilities.”
(Related)
Massachusetts Supreme Court Being Asked To Decide Whether Cops Can Engage In Warrantless Surveillance Of Social Media Users
Tim Cushing writes:
The top court in Massachusetts is asking itself (and legal counsel representing both sides) questions that — on the surface level — don’t really appear to be that difficult to answer. Here’s how Thomas Harrison sums it up for Courthouse News:
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struggled Wednesday to figure out whether police can use trickery to conduct unlimited surveillance of social media accounts even if they have no reason to think that anyone did anything wrong.
I mean, phrased that way, it seems like this should be a “no.” Should the government be able to surveill people suspected of nothing? What else could the answer be in this particular nation with this particular Constitution? And yet, the discussion continues because it’s not quite as simple as that.
Read more on TechDirt.
Does every government see dominance in AI as the answer to all its problems? Or do they see themselves dominated by countries with strong AI?
https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/22/uk_10_year_national_ai_strategy/
Britain publishes 10-year National Artificial Intelligence Strategy
The UK government has published its much-awaited National AI Strategy in pursuit of "global science superpower" status.
The document talks of plans for a "new national programme and approach to support research and development" plus a government white paper on the governance and regulation of AI [PDF ].
Details of the strategy were trailed back in January when the AI Council published its "AI Roadmap" including 16 recommendations to the government.
What would be statistical proof of ‘insider trading?’ Does that apply to politicians?
https://www.bespacific.com/tiktokers-are-trading-stocks-by-copying-what-members-of-congress-do/
TikTokers Are Trading Stocks By Copying What Members Of Congress Do
NPR: “Young investors have a new strategy: watching financial disclosures of sitting members of Congress for stock tips. Among a certain community of individual investors on TikTok, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stock trading disclosures are a treasure trove. “Shouts out to Nancy Pelosi, the stock market’s biggest whale,” said user ‘ceowatchlist.’ Another said, “I’ve come to the conclusion that Nancy Pelosi is a psychic,” while adding that she is the “queen of investing.” “She knew,” declared Chris Josephs, analyzing a particular trade in Pelosi’s financial disclosures. “And you would have known if you had followed her portfolio.” Last year, Josephs noticed that the trades, actually made by Pelosi’s investor husband and merely disclosed by the speaker, were performing well. Josephs is the co-founder of a company called Iris, which shows other people’s stock trades. In the past year and a half, he has been taking advantage of a law called the Stock Act, which requires lawmakers to disclose stock trades and those of their spouses within 45 days. Now on Josephs’ social investing platform, you can get a push notification every time Pelosi’s stock trading disclosures are released. He is personally investing when he sees which stocks are picked: “I’m at the point where if you can’t beat them, join them,” Josephs told NPR, adding that if he sees trades on her disclosures, “I typically do buy… the next one she does, I’m going to buy.”…”
If you really want to say that, can we at least add a laugh track?
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter strike back, sue over Texas social media censorship law
Technology trade groups that represent Facebook, Google’s YouTube and Twitter are suing Texas to stop a new state law that cracks down on social media companies for censoring conservative speech.
The lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday challenges the law signed earlier this month by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that would allow any state resident banned from a social media platform for their political views to sue.
Texas lawmakers were motivated in large part by the suspensions of former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
"At a minimum, H.B. 20 would unconstitutionally require platforms like YouTube and Facebook to disseminate, for example, pro-Nazi speech, terrorist propaganda, foreign government disinformation, and medical misinformation," the lawsuit alleges.
Perspective. You can’t buy a car without a computer?
Worsening Chip Woes to Cost Automakers $210 Billion in Sales
The cost of the intractable semiconductor shortage has ballooned by more than 90%, pushing the total hit to 2021 revenue for the world’s automakers to $210 billion.
That’s the latest dire forecast from AlixPartners, which predicts global automakers will build 7.7 million fewer vehicles due to the chip crisis this year. That’s almost double the consultant’s previous estimate of 3.9 million. Despite ongoing efforts to shore up the supply chain, semiconductor availability has worsened as automakers exhaust stockpiles and other industries have no more to spare.
Tools & Techniques. Everything old is new again.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/09/rot8000.html
ROT8000
ROT8000 is the Unicode equivalent of ROT13 What’s clever about it is that normal English looks like Chinese, and not like ciphertext (to a typical Westerner, that is).
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