Free is good!

https://thehackernews.com/2022/02/us-cybersecurity-agency-publishes-list.html

U.S. Cybersecurity Agency Publishes List of Free Security Tools and Services

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday published a repository of free tools and services to enable organizations to mitigate, detect, and respond effectively to malicious attacks and further improve their security posture.

The "Free Cybersecurity Services and Tools” resource hub comprises a mix of services provided by CISA, open-source utilities, and other implements offered by private and public sector organizations across the cybersecurity community.

Think of the fun we could have disrupting traffic on I25 or those mountain roads with no guardrails!

https://thenextweb.com/news/cars-security-and-source-code

Your car is a computer on wheels — and its code can be hacked

We aren’t joking when we talk about cars as big fat data generating computer centers on wheels. If you go on Glassdoor, there’s even an interview question, “How many lines of code does a Tesla have?”

I’m not entirely sure, but even a decade ago, premium cars contained 100 microprocessor-based electronic control units (ECUs), which collectively executed over 100 million lines of code. Then there’s telematics, driver-assist software, and infotainment system, to name but a few other components that require code.

Hire an AI lawyer or get left behind?

https://www.globalcompliancenews.com/2022/02/19/international-artificial-intelligence-in-the-administration-of-justice310122/

International: Artificial Intelligence in the administration of justice

In the not too distant past, many were convinced that Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) would not substantially change the practice of law. The legal profession was considered to be — by its very nature — requiring specialist skills and nuanced judgment that only humans could provide and would therefore be immune to the disruptive changes brought about by the digital transformation. However, the application of ML technology in the legal sector is now increasingly mainstream, particularly as a tool to save time for lawyers and provide a richer analysis of ever-larger datasets to aid legal decision-making in judicial systems throughout the world.

Have we learned to counter disinformation by preemption? Will this work domestically?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/02/18/preempting-putin-washingtons-campaign-of-intelligence-disclosures-is-complicating-moscows-plans-for-ukraine/

Preempting Putin: Washington’s campaign of intelligence disclosures is complicating Moscow’s plans for Ukraine

… In 2014, the United States and its allies were caught flat footed —not just by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but by the campaign of falsehoods that accompanied it. Designed to warp public perceptions of the annexation of Crimea, delegitimize the government in Kyiv, cast doubt on the existence of Russian operatives in eastern Ukraine, and evade blame for their downing of passenger jet MH-17, these information operations took Western governments by surprise. The U.S. government was slow to coordinate with partners, and some Western journalists, not yet wise to the Kremlin’s playbook, covered “both sides” of events, unwittingly feeding the uncertainty and nihilism about the existence of truth on which Putin thrives.

The Biden administration in particular seems to have learned lessons from this experience. By launching a proactive campaign to call the Kremlin’s bluffs, the White House hopes to foil Moscow’s plans. But even if, as seems likely, it falls short of that goal, Washington’s campaign of disclosures could make it more difficult for the Kremlin to deploy disinformation to deflect culpability for its actions in the aftermath of an intervention, and help build public support in the United States and Europe for a sharper response.

Ready or not…

https://www.makeuseof.com/ways-metaverse-will-change-work/

7 Ways the Metaverse Will Forever Change How We Work

It's going to change everything. The metaverse is coming, and it'll even change how we work, where we work, and the jobs we can do.

A not-so-subtle reminder: Today your website, tomorrow your more critical systems.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/new-wave-of-cyber-attacks-on-ukrainian-government-websites-knocks-defense-ministry-offline/

New Wave of Cyber Attacks on Ukrainian Government Websites Knocks Defense Ministry Offline

A second wave of cyber attacks in Ukraine knocked a number of websites offline temporarily, including the Defense Ministry’s public-facing site and two major banks.

An earlier round of attacks in mid-January focused on defacing government websites and making threats, but did not do any known damage beyond that. The current cyber attacks appeared to use distributed denial of service (DDoS) techniques to take several websites offline for several hours.

… It’s natural to assume that Russia is behind the cyber attacks on Ukraine’s government websites, but the seeming lack of effort and damage does raise some questions. The first wave of attacks in January, which amounted to nothing more than defacement of a number of government websites, was eventually attributed to a hacking team linked to Belarus intelligence. The Ukrainian security officials believe that the defacements may have been cover for something more serious, and “wiper” malware was reportedly found stashed away on some systems, but the only escalation thus far has been the DDoS attacks which seem to have been fairly easily recovered from.

(Related)

https://thenextweb.com/news/conflict-ukraine-proves-cyber-attacks-are-weapons-of-war

The conflict in Ukraine proves cyber-attacks are now weapons of war

For the past few weeks, Russia has been deploying military forces into strategic positions on Ukraine’s borders. However, there is another, virtual dimension to the escalating conflict: cyber-attacks on the Ukrainian government and business websites and services.

Attacks on Ukraine’s information systems are part of a type of hybrid warfare that Russia has been fine tuning for the past couple of decades but is now far more sophisticated.

Cyber espionage and information warfare have become an intrinsic part of recent conflicts and happen on a regular basis between conflicting powers. However, governments do not usually publicly claim responsibility for this type of activity, since this could put them in a position of declaring war against the targeted country and provoking counterattacks and sanctions from the international community. Therefore, evidence that Russia is definitely behind these attacks is hard to establish.

Addressing new technology introduced in the last five years or attempting to delay the law for another five years?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/fresh-legislation-may-replace-data-protection-bill/articleshow/89624369.cms

Fresh legislation may replace Data Protection Bill

India may draft a completely new privacy bill, people directly aware of the matter told ET, by putting aside the current version of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 that has been in the making for nearly five years and does not comprehensively address the requirements of the country’s changing technology landscape, they said.

Among the options being discussed is the introduction of fresh legislation that can cater to the ongoing "sea change in the local and global technology (environment)", those aware of the thinking within government circles said.

Not sure I understand the fears that prompted this. How does recognition of AI as a person grant the AI greater rights?

https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2022/2/17/22939000/idaho-lawmakers-new-bill-animals-personhood

Idaho lawmakers introduce a new bill that would bar animals and AI from ‘personhood’

Idaho lawmakers have introduced a bill that would prevent animals, natural resources and artificial intelligence from gaining “personhood status” in Idaho, the Idaho State Journal reports.

What’s happening: Idaho’s House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday introduced new legislation that “seeks to prevent any future efforts to increase environmental protections for animals or inanimate objects by granting them some of the same legal rights a person would have,” according to KTVB.

The sponsor of the bill — Rep. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton — said there’s been a push nationwide for nonhuman entities to gain personhood status in order to limit access to natural resources, according to The Associated Press.

… “We don’t want our children to be inferior to artificial intelligence,” she said. “Children are not equal to bodies of water or trees, so their rights shouldn’t be equal to those as well.”

Were we once courteous? How did we lose that skill? (Good on ya!)

https://www.databreaches.net/this-sites-new-no-help-for-you-policy/

This site’s new “No help for you” policy

From the “Yes-I’m-grumpy-but-you-earned-it Department:”

Over the years, mainstream journalists have reached out to me for information related to breach stories they were developing, and I generally tried to help them. In some cases, that might involve a few phone calls. In other cases, it might be an hour or more of my time on the phone or some phone calls and emails. And I wish I had a dollar for every time a reporter told me that they had no idea how to get to the dark web or that their editor wouldn’t let them go on the dark web and would I be willing to share some data with them?

In any event, in cases where it sounded like a chunk of my time would be needed or I had already been talking to the reporter for an hour to help them understand an incident, I have told the reporters that I was happy to help them but I expected them to link to my site or my reporting on the incident or somehow acknowledge the information on this site and the help they received. They all said they understood, and with one exception, they agreed to that.

Annoyingly, many of those who agreed that they would link to this site or this site’s original reporting and coverage broke their word. Their stories appeared and they never informed their readers that this site had previously covered what they were now reporting or had helped the reporter understand the issues, events, or what HIPAA and HITECH require.

That failure to acknowledge the help and this site happened again recently. Let’s just call it the straw that broke this camel’s back.

This site has a new policy.

I’m done providing free help to paid journalists who just want to use me as a free source or resource without any credit. This does not apply to the regular infosec/data breach journalists because we have a mutually supportive relationship when it comes to sharing information or helping each other. This policy applies to paid reporters from news outlets because they just take and give nothing back to this site. They are now on their own unless they want to hire me to help them for a discounted rate of $350.00 per hour. Or they can go looking for others who may be willing to donate chunks of time to them for free. I am no longer willing to.

This site doesn’t make any money but that doesn’t mean that I can just sit around spending hours helping others earn money for reporting while they don’t credit their sources.

A tool I use frequently.

https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-organize-kindle-library-using-calibre/

4 Ways to Organize Your Kindle Library Using Calibre

Calibre is a hugely useful ebook management software. It allows you to tag, sort, and otherwise play around with the ebooks in your personal library. And if you're anything like us, you may have accumulated a vast number of ebooks in your Kindle library.

It's difficult to meaningfully organize your Kindle ebooks, so here are four ways to organize your Kindle library using Calibre.

No doubt they will repeat this warning every couple of years to remind everyone that the hacking continues.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/16/22937554/russian-hackers-target-us-defense-contractors-nsa-cisa?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

Russian hackers have obtained sensitive defense information technology by targeting US contractors, according to CISA

The state-sponsored actors acquired information on weapons, aircraft design, and combat communications systems over a period of years

Russian state-sponsored hackers have been targeting security-cleared US defense contractors for at least two years, according to an alert released Wednesday by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA).

According to the alert, Russian-backed actors had targeted cleared defense contractors (CDCs) and subcontractors that supported the Department of Defense (DoD) in a range of areas, including weapons and missile development, vehicle and aircraft design, surveillance and reconnaissance, and combat communications systems. Compromised entities include contractors supporting the US Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force, DoD, and Intelligence programs.

Hacker wanted, must be able to pass my AI resume review.

https://news.dolakha.net/how-job-applicants-try-to-hack-resume-reading-software-original-news/

How job applicants try to hack resume-reading software – Original News

… Nilizadeh designed an experiment to see if she could dodge the resume-ranking algorithm. She collected over 100 resumes from LinkedIn, GitHub and personal websites and actually scraped a variety of job postings. Then he randomly enhanced some resumes by embedding keywords from the job posting in the text. When she ran them through a resume-ranking program, she found her rankings improved significantly—a jump of up to 16 places. It didn’t matter if the resume listed other relevant qualifications or if it matched the open role.

Nilizadeh’s experiment was purely academic: he published its consequences Last fall, with an audience of security researchers in mind. But as software pervades the hiring process, job seekers have developed their own hacks to increase their interview chances, such as adding keywords to the metadata of their resume file or in invisible text from Ivy League universities. name inclusion.

What is the opposite of “an abundance of caution?” If you can’t be identified instantly, will you be flagged as a potential terrorist?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/02/clearview-ai-aims-to-put-almost-every-human-in-facial-recognition-database/

Clearview AI aims to put almost every human in facial recognition database

"Clearview AI is telling investors it is on track to have 100 billion facial photos in its database within a year, enough to ensure 'almost everyone in the world will be identifiable,' according to a financial presentation from December obtained by The Washington Post," the Post reported today. There are an estimated 7.9 billion people on the planet.

The December presentation was part of an effort to obtain new funding from investors, so 100 billion facial images is more of a goal than a firm plan. However, the presentation said that Clearview has already racked up 10 billion images and is adding 1.5 billion images a month, the Post wrote. Clearview told investors it needs another $50 million to hit its goal of 100 billion photos, the Post reported:

… The increase in photos could be paired with an expanded business model. Clearview "wants to expand beyond scanning faces for the police, saying in the presentation that it could monitor 'gig economy' workers and is researching a number of new technologies that could identify someone based on how they walk, detect their location from a photo or scan their fingerprints from afar," the Post wrote.

We want to protect children from tech firms…

https://www.pogowasright.org/californias-strict-child-data-bill-would-limit-big-tech-data-collection/

California’s strict child-data bill would limit Big Tech data collection

Madhumita Murgia and Hannah Murphy report:

California lawmakers plan to introduce a new bill to protect children’s data online this Thursday, mirroring the UK’s recently introduced children’s code, as part of growing momentum globally for stricter regulation on Big Tech.

The California age-appropriate design-code bill will require many of the world’s biggest tech platforms headquartered in the state—such as social media group Meta and Google’s YouTube—to limit the amount of data they collect from young users and the location tracking of children in the state.

Read more at Ars Technica.

(Related) Should we protect them from teachers too?

https://www.pogowasright.org/teacher-spying-is-instilling-surveillance-culture-into-students/

Teacher Spying Is Instilling Surveillance Culture Into Students

Liam Day reports:

For the teachers, it began in October at the California Teachers Association’s 2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference. Lori Caldeira and Kelly Baraki explained how they identified potential new members of UBU, the school’s club of LGBTQ supporters. “When we were doing our virtual learning—we totally stalked what they were doing on Google, when they weren’t doing schoolwork,” Caldeira said. “One of them was Googling ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ And we’re like, ‘Check.’ We’re going to invite that kid when we get back on campus.”

Whatever you think of LGBTQ issues, the fact that a teacher can remotely track what students do online should give you pause. This was not a case of a teacher reviewing the browser history on a classroom computer after school. As Caldeira said, albeit with her tongue in cheek, they were stalking the kids.

Read more at Reason.

Real time intelligence. Add enough location data to get a Tomahawk missile close and some target recognition software and no significant military assets are safe.

https://www.bespacific.com/if-russia-invades-ukraine-tiktok-will-see-it-up-close/

If Russia Invades Ukraine, TikTok Will See It Up Close

Wired: “On the snowy roads near Kursk, tanks and military equipment stop traffic. Videos from around the Russian city—roughly 100 miles from the border with Ukraine—show cars waiting in line to cross train tracks being used to transport tanks from one place to the next. Dozens of military vehicles have been filmed parked together. And shaky footage shows tanks rumbling across snowy ground alongside a busy road. All of these records have one thing in common: They were shared on TikTok. If Russia invades Ukraine, don’t expect the TikToks to stop. From small Belarusian villages to industrial Russian cities on the Ukrainian border, as the tanks and troops have rolled in, local residents have captured the scenes on their phones—and uploaded what might one day be crucial evidence to social media. “There is a lot of data out there,” says Benjamin Strick, investigations director at the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), a nonprofit organization that focuses on countering influence operations. The CIR team, along with other open source investigators, have been busy verifying and mapping videos of troop movements in Russia and Belarus for several weeks, painstakingly comparing landmarks in video footage with satellite images and other official data to confirm their authenticity. The CIR’s map of verified videos plots the movements of military equipment and troops all around Ukraine’s eastern flanks. In January, the CIR mapped 79 pieces of footage; in February, it has verified 166 videos so far. Since April 2021, the mobilization of Russian troops has been accompanied by reams of digital evidence. These come from a variety of sources, from smartphone footage to high-resolution overhead images captured by commercial satellite companies. Troops, helicopters, and military hardware have all been spotted in satellite images. But for people on the ground, TikTok has emerged as a key platform for showing military movements…”

Like “Red Light” cameras, other technologies that raise government revenue will be coming everywhere soon?

https://www.bespacific.com/new-york-is-now-using-cameras-with-microphones-to-ticket-loud-cars/

New York Is Now Using Cameras With Microphones To Ticket Loud Cars

Road and Track: “If you live in New York and drive a loud car, you could receive a notice from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection telling you your car is too loud. Not because a police officer caught your noisy car, but because a computer did. Road & Track reports: A photo of an official order from the New York City DEP was published to Facebook by a page called Lowered Congress on Monday, directed at a BMW M3 that may have been a bit too loud. The notice reads as follows: “I am writing to you because your vehicle has been identified as having a muffler that is not in compliance with Section 386 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, which prohibits excessive noise from motor vehicles. Your vehicle was recorded by a camera that takes a pictures of the vehicle and the license plate. In addition, a sound meter records the decibel level as the vehicle approaches and passes the camera.” The order goes on to tell the owner to bring their car to a location specified by the DEP — a sewage treatment plant, to be precise — for inspection. Show up, and you’ll have the opportunity to get the car fixed to avoid a fine — much like California’s “fix-it” ticket system. The document also informs the owner that if they fail to show up, they could face a maximum fine of $875, plus additional fines for continuing to ignore the summons. A New York City DEP spokesman confirmed to Road & Track via email the system is part of a small pilot program that’s been running since September 2021. From the description above, it sounds like it works much like a speed camera that automatically records a violation and sends it to you in the mail by reading your license plate. Instead of a speed gun, this new system uses a strategically placed sound meter to record decibel levels on the road, matching it to a license plate using a camera. […] The program will be reevaluated on June 30, according to the DEP. From there it’ll likely either be expanded or taken out of commission…”

Local business.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/16/nomad-closes-on-20m-to-transform-the-landlord-tenant-experience/

Founded by Opendoor and Twilio alums, Nomad closes on $20M to ‘transform the landlord-tenant experience’

Nomad, a marketplace that aims to provide small-time rental property owners with “guaranteed rent,” has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Silicon Valley Bank Capital.

The raise comes just six months after the Denver-based startup raised about $5 million in a seed round of funding. Nomad’s co-founders PJ O’Neil and Matt Thelen started the company after leaving their respective roles at Opendoor and Twilio. O’Neil was a general manager at Opendoor and Thelen was director of business operations at Twilio.

Founded in 2020, Nomad’s goal is to remove risk and financial uncertainty for small-time rental property owners. Today, it offers several financial products for both rental owners and their residents. Its flagship product is guaranteed rent for mom-and-pop rental property owners (primarily DIY landlords), which is designed to give these landlords more certainty even in turbulent market conditions.

Nothing earthshaking but a fair introduction.

https://www.makeuseof.com/data-in-law-enforcement/

How Does Law Enforcement Use Data to Solve Crime?

Data can form an important part of solving crimes, but how exactly is it used?

Might help explain really ancient terms like: Mainframe or Vic-20.

https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2022/02/take-virtual-tour-of-national-museum-of.html

Take a Virtual Tour of the National Museum of Computing

98% of the press releases that are sent to me are completely worthless. Then every once in a while I get one that's actually kind of helpful. That was the case when earlier this week I got a press release about The National Museum of Computing.

The National Museum of Computing documents and celebrates the development of computers and computing. There is a physical museum that you can visit (if you're near Bletchley, England). There is also a great virtual tour of the National Museum of Computing. Throughout the virtual tour you'll find dozens of clickable hotspots to learn about the artifacts housed within the museum.

In addition to the virtual tour, museum's website hosts some picture-based challenges about computers. Students have to spot the differences between the images of artifacts from the museum.

Perspective. Maybe I should come out of retirement?

https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-02-17

Should be interesting to try a few to see if they really could be useful.

https://www.makeuseof.com/ai-writing-tools/

7 AI Writing Tools You Should Check Out

Who writes the definitions? Imagine Donald Trump’s version.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/16/priti-patel-push-tech-giants-ban-legal-harmful-content/

Priti Patel to push tech giants to ban 'legal but harmful' content

Home Secretary is looking to amend the draft Online Safety Bill to increase the liability of internet giants

Priti Patel is preparing to go to war with big tech companies as she pushes for them to ban "legal but harmful" content generated by users.

The Home Secretary is looking to amend the wide-ranging draft Online Safety Bill - which seeks to protect children using the internet - to argue that the liability of internet giants should be increased.

Facebook and Google would be among the companies covered by new liabilities, as Ms Patel seeks to clamp down on issues including fraud and radicalisation.

Hacking for fun and profit…

https://www.pogowasright.org/researcher-fully-recovers-text-from-pixels-how-to-reverse-redaction/

Researcher fully recovers text from pixels: how to reverse redaction

Just when you thought you were safe? Ax Sharma reports:

Using pixelation to redact images? Those pixels may not actually be hiding anything.

A researcher has demonstrated how he was able to successfully recover text that had been redacted using the pixelation technique. Further, the researcher has released a GitHub tool that can be used by anyone to reconstruct text from obscure, pixelated images.

Read more at BleepingComputer.

A privacy trend or exception?

https://www.pogowasright.org/bloomberg-loses-uk-court-case-on-suspects-right-to-privacy/

Bloomberg loses UK court case on suspect’s right to privacy

Jane Croft reports:

Bloomberg has lost a privacy case at the UK’s highest court, which ruled on Wednesday that suspects in a criminal investigation have the right not to be named by media organisations until charges are brought. In a ruling that will have far-reaching implications for the British media, the Supreme Court found that Bloomberg had breached the privacy rights of a suspect who was the subject of a criminal investigation, by naming him in an article.

Read more on Financial Times.

So what happens if the non-UK press names the individual? Will the individual be able to get the report de-indexed by Google in the UK? And won’t it be too late anyway once their name gets out?

We have seen inter-nation differences before — as when Germany prohibited publication of the names of murderers who had served their time and who had new identities — but this is a different issue: whether someone just suspected of a crime has a right to privacy. So for now, we know they do have more rights in the U.K. than in the U.S., where we may see reports of individuals being suspected or investigated but they have not yet been charged.

I still don’t get it.

https://www.makeuseof.com/blockchain-technology-simplified/

The Simple Explanation to Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology has always been a complicated topic to discuss, but we've simplified it for beginners to get a quick grasp on the subject.

Resource. Add to your Feedly?

https://www.bespacific.com/reuters-legal-news-is-free-to-access-and-now-customizable-to-your-interests/

Reuters Legal News is Free to Access and Now Customizable to Your Interests

LawSites: “Over the past two years, Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, has been beefing up its coverage of legal news, bringing on the former editor-in-chief of Law.com to lead legal news, hiring several well-known legal-industry commentators as columnists, and increasing its hiring of legal news editors and reporters. One result of this activity was Westlaw Today, a premium legal news service launched in July 2020 that is fueled Reuters news and available only to subscribers of Westlaw and Westlaw Edge for an additional cost. However, Reuters has also significantly enhanced legal news coverage on its public-facing site — coverage it somewhat quietly launched last year — and all of that reporting and commentary is freely available to readers with no subscription required. Plus, the public site includes insights and analysis from Westlaw, Practical Law, Peer Monitor and the Thomson Reuters Institute, as well as thought leadership submitted by outside authors. Even better, this week Reuters enhanced its site with customization, adding a “My View” feature that allows readers to set personal preferences for the types of news they wish to follow…”

Self inflicted surveillance?

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-safety-apps-runners/

The 7 Best Safety Apps for Runners

Sharing your route with a loved one before heading out is a long-standing tradition among runners. Now, apps can track your run in real-time and share it with anyone you like, making every run feel safer. Plus, many apps provide additional services like bright lights and alarms for security as well.

Privacy is good?

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/mission-critical-report-documents-increasing-primacy-of-digital-privacy-consumer-distrust-of-ai/

“Mission Critical”: Report Documents Increasing Primacy of Digital Privacy, Consumer Distrust of AI

Cisco’s annual Data Privacy Benchmark Study for 2022 highlights how digital privacy has become a primary “mission critical” concern for organizations of all types and sizes, as consumers demand better treatment of personal data and nations around the world put privacy laws into action.

In addition to becoming a regular part of business practices, the report finds that the return on investment (ROI) of mature digital privacy programs continues to be high – particularly when privacy is aligned with security.

… The survey notes that 90% of consumers now say they will not buy from organizations that do not protect personal data, and 91% say that they consider external privacy certifications as part of their buying process. 92% of organizations now say that digital privacy is integral to their culture.

[The report: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/doing_business/trust-center/docs/cisco-privacy-benchmark-study-2022.pdf?CCID=cc000742&DTID=odicdc000016

Am I reading this right? This biometric data comes from images, not directly from people.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/texas-attorney-general-sues-meta-over-facebooks-facial-recognition-01644874313

Texas attorney general sues Meta over Facebook’s facial recognition

The Texas attorney general is suing Facebook parent Meta, saying the company has unlawfully collected biometric data on Texans for commercial purposes, without their informed consent.

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit Monday a state district court claiming Meta has been “storing millions of biometric identifiers” — identified as retina or iris scans, voice prints, or a record of hand and face geometry — contained in photos and videos people upload to its services, including Facebook and Instagram.

Computer law just keeps growing..

https://www.bespacific.com/social-media-law/

Social Media Law

Bogdan, Varvara, Social Media Law (December 10, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3982602 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3982602

“Social media law is a new direction for scientific research. Users of various social networking websites around the world are concerned about the protection and preservation of their personal data, the protection of copyright for content, including after the death of the user, as well as the security of conducting business when using them. Some disruptions in the work of social media (on March 20, 2021 and October 4, 2021, the work of Instagram, one of the most popular networks, was blocked for several hours) led to the inability to use accounts, including business ones. Freedom to register in social media networks can also cause problems that are not legally protected. The creation of fake accounts, the provision of inaccurate information, and various types of abuse ‒ all of these negatively affect the dynamics of the development of social networks and undermines the credibility of their owners. It is against this background that this essay proposes the author’s vision of the development of social media law. The author will be happy to develop the discussion in this area”

Perhaps I need to create a company to provide Deepfake alibis?

https://www.bespacific.com/deepfakes-on-trial-a-call-to-expand-the-trial-judges-gatekeeping-role/

Deepfakes on Trial: a Call to Expand the Trial Judge’S Gatekeeping Role to Protect Legal Proceedings from Technological Fakery

Delfino, Rebecca, Deepfakes on Trial: a Call to Expand the Trial Judge’S Gatekeeping Role to Protect Legal Proceedings from Technological Fakery (February 10, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4032094 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4032094

“Picture this: You are arrested and accused of a serious crime, like carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, or child abuse. The only evidence against you is a cellphone video showing the act of violence. To the naked eye, the perpetrator on the video is you. But you are innocent. The video is a “deepfake” – an audiovisual recording created using readily available Artificial Intelligence technology that allows anyone with a smartphone to believably map one person’s movements and words onto another person’s face. How will you prove the video is deepfake in court? And, who—the judge or the jury–gets to decide if it’s fake? The law does not provide clear answers. But this much is certain–deepfake evidence is an emerging threat to our justice system’s truth-seeking function. Deepfakes will invade court proceedings from several directions—parties may fabricate evidence to win a civil action, governmental actors may rely on deepfakes to secure criminal convictions, or lawyers may purposely exploit juror bias and skepticism about what is real. Currently, no evidentiary procedure explicitly governs the presentation of deepfake evidence in court. The existing legal standards governing the authentication of evidence are inadequate because the rules were developed before the advent of deepfake technology. As a result, they do not solve the urgent problems of–how to show a video is fake and how to show it isn’t. In addition, although in the last several years, legal scholarship and the popular news media have addressed certain facets of deepfakes, there has been no commentary on the procedural aspects of deepfake evidence in court. Absent from the discussion is who gets to decide whether a deepfake is authentic. This article addresses the matters that prior academic scholarship about deepfakes obscures. It is the first to propose a new rule of evidence reflecting a unique reallocation of the fact-determining responsibilities between the jury and the judge, treating the question of deepfake authenticity as one for the court to decide as part of an expanded gatekeeping function under the rules of evidence. Confronting deepfakes evidence in legal proceedings demands that courts and lawyers use imagination and creativity to navigate pitfalls of proof and manage a jury’s doubts and distrust about what is real. Your freedom may depend on how we meet these challenges.”