Security fines like GDPR fines? Fine by me!

https://www.databreaches.net/trudeau-privacy-law-to-level-stiff-fines-for-digital-breaches/

Trudeau Privacy Law to Level Stiff Fines for Digital Breaches

Kait Bolongaro reports:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government unveiled a remake of Canadian privacy laws to strengthen user rights in the digital world.

Under legislation introduced Tuesday in Ottawa, companies that commit the most serious offenses would be hit with fines worth as much as 5% of revenue or C$25 million ($19 million), whichever is higher. The government said these penalties would be the strongest among the Group of Seven.

Read more on Bloomberg.

How important are good backups? Consider...

https://www.databreaches.net/nc-alamance-skin-center-breach-left-patient-data-totally-unrecoverable/

NC: Alamance Skin Center breach left patient data totally unrecoverable

Alamance Skin Center recently reported a HIPAA breach to HHS as being a “Loss” incident with data in EMR. But previous media coverage provided an even more dire understanding of the incident.

On November 4, Triad Business Journal reported that the medical practice, part of Cone Health, had been the victim of a ransomware attack. The attackers reportedly gained a foothold via a phishing attack. The type of ransomware was not reported.

According to Cone Health, “a thorough forensic investigation concluded that no patient information was taken in the attack. However, patient data at the practice is unrecoverable.”

Alamance notified HHS that 100,000 patients were impacted by the incident.

Alamance’s notification  on their web site follows, in part. It explains that the ransomware attack was in late July, but it was on October 21 that they discovered that data were unrecoverable. They do not mention whether they had any backup or if so, how recent it might be.

Read more on their web site.

Can I scrape the Internet for articles I point to from my blog?

https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/clearview-ai-first-amendment-illinois-lawsuit.html

Clearview AI’s First Amendment Theory Threatens Privacy—and Free Speech, Too

What could be one of the most consequential First Amendment cases of the digital age is pending before a court in Illinois and will likely be argued before the end of the year. The case concerns Clearview AI, the technology company that surreptitiously scraped 3 billion images from the internet to feed a facial recognition app it sold to law enforcement agencies. Now confronting multiple lawsuits based on an Illinois privacy law, the company has retained Floyd Abrams, the prominent First Amendment litigator, to argue that its business activities are constitutionally protected. Landing Abrams was a coup for Clearview, but whether anyone else should be celebrating is less clear. A First Amendment that shielded Clearview and other technology companies from reasonable privacy regulation would be bad for privacy, obviously, but it would be bad for free speech, too.

… The people who’ve sued Clearview contend that the company is violating an Illinois privacy law that regulates the collection, use, and dissemination of biometric information. The company argues in defense that its business practices involve the kinds of activities that the First Amendment has been held to protect in the past—collecting publicly available information, analyzing it, and sharing the conclusions of that analysis. In a brief filed in October, it likened its app to a search engine and contended that its judgment about “what information will be most useful to users” is an “editorial” judgment akin to those made by newspapers.

(Related)

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/lapd-banned-commercial-facial-recognition-clearview?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

Los Angeles Police Just Banned The Use Of Commercial Facial Recognition

The LAPD, the third-largest police department in the United States, issued a moratorium on the use of third-party facial recognition software on Nov. 13, after it was told that documents seen by BuzzFeed News showed more than 25 LAPD employees had performed nearly 475 searches using Clearview AI as of earlier this year. Department officials have made conflicting statements in the past about their use of facial recognition technology, including claims that they deploy it sparingly.

Perspective.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-brain-and-value/202011/how-should-we-think-about-the-ethics-artificial-intelligence

How Should We Think about the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence?

Fiona McEvoy on the role of regulation, ethics, and consumer vigilance.

… New and emerging tech products are now embedded in almost every industry, so the ethical challenges of technologies like AI aren’t limited to the sector that develops them. They should concern “user industries” too. Fundamentally, it’s this incredible penetration of tech that has given rise to concerns about ethics and societal consequences.

More ‘virtual tours’ for the self-isolating.

https://www.makeuseof.com/visit-cultural-sites-search-google/

Google Now Lets You Virtually Visit 100 Cultural Sites in Search

The company announced on The Keyword that it is adding a new feature coming to search that makes it so you can virtually explore over 100 important cultural sites worldwide without hopping on a plane.

… To get access to this feature, you must search in English for information about one of the supported locations. While browsing the wealth of information offered by Google, you can click on the "About" section to see a link to the virtual tour.

… Google announced that it has more than 100 cultural locations you can visit through Search. Unfortunately, the company didn't release a full list of places, so you'll have to do some experimenting to see if the places you're curious about are supported.

The company's blog post did announce and link to some locations you can visit, though. For example, you can get tours of the Palace of Versailles in France, the Palace Museum in China, Sicily's Valley of the Temples, Mount Haguro in Japan, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in the US, and Brazil's Museu Nacional de Belas Artes.

(Related) If you need a reason to stay home...

https://thenextweb.com/plugged/2020/11/18/google-maps-will-now-display-number-of-covid-19-cases-in-an-area/

Google Maps will now display number of COVID-19 cases in an area

… Google Maps is rolling out new information related to COVID-19 in a particular area. The app will now display the total number of cases and deaths till now and a 7-day trend indicating if the numbers are going up or down. Plus, you’ll also get to access local guidelines, restrictions, and information related to testing centers.

… rolling out to Android and iOS Maps users globally in the coming weeks.

“Legal” and “Ethical” are not the same thing. I wonder what was going on when they did this?

How the NYPD obtains people’s personal data with no oversight

Craig McCarthy reports:

The NYPD has used tens of thousands of questionable subpoenas over the last decade to intimidate private companies into handing over the personal information of cops and civilians alike — all with no oversight from the city or the courts, The Post has found.

While the vast majority of subpoenas in New York State — and across the country — require the signature of a judge or the blessing of a grand jury, the New York City Council empowered the department nearly a century ago to issue such commands to force unwilling cops to produce internal records or appear at disciplinary hearings.

Read more on NY Post.

“How” may be less interesting than “Why.”

How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps

Joseph Cox reports:

The U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, Motherboard has learned. The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others include a Muslim dating app, a popular Craigslist app, an app for following storms, and a “level” app that can be used to help, for example, install shelves in a bedroom.

Read more on Vice.

Looks like I missed this in September.

https://www.insideprivacy.com/data-privacy/the-spanish-supervisory-authority-approves-a-gdpr-code-of-conduct-on-advertising/

The Spanish Supervisory Authority Approves a GDPR Code of Conduct on Advertising

On September 16, 2020, the Spanish Supervisory Authority (“AEPD”) approved a “Code of Conduct for Data Processing in Advertising” (“Code”) (see the decision approving the code here ). This is the first GDPR approved Code of Conduct with an accredited monitoring body in the European Union. The Code enters into effect on November 17, 2020, two months after its approval.

Difficult question to answer: What don’t you know?

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-extremely-aggressive-internet-censorship-world.html

'Extremely aggressive' internet censorship spreads in the world's democracies

A University of Michigan team used Censored Planet, an automated censorship tracking system launched in 2018 by assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science Roya Ensafi, to collect more than 21 billion measurements over 20 months in 221 countries. They will present the findings Nov. 10 at the 2020 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

… Ensafi's team found that censorship is increasing in 103 of the countries studied, including unexpected places like Norway, Japan, Italy, India, Israel and Poland—countries which the paper notes are rated as some of the freest in the world by advocacy group Freedom House. They were among nine countries where Censored Planet found significant, previously undetected censorship events between August of 2018 and April of 2020. Previously undetected events were also identified in Cameroon, Ecuador and Sudan.

Teaching about AI.

https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/ai-is-for-everyone-everywhere

AI is for Everyone, Everywhere

… this guide serves as a toolkit for K-12 teachers who are preparing the next generation of AI users and developers. Featuring in-depth interviews with practitioners, infographics and project guidelines for classroom teachers, as well as a webinar on the importance of AI in education, it aims to provide schools with straightforward and practical ways to integrate computational thinking across their curricula. Moreover, it is an invitation for teachers of all subjects and students of any age, ability or background to take part in AI explorations.

A tool for learning or for evidence gathering?

https://www.bespacific.com/free-software-to-create-full-copies-of-sites-to-archive/

Free software to create full copies of sites to archive

“HTTrack is a free (GPL, libre/free software) and easy-to-use offline browser utility. It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site’s relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the “mirrored” website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system. WinHTTrack is the Windows (from Windows 2000 to Windows 10 and above) release of HTTrack, and WebHTTrack the Linux/Unix/BSD release. See the download page.…” [Presidential transitions are a time when government sites go offline, data and information is removed and lost. It may be helpful to make copies of sites that you need to archive.]

For my favorite English teachers…

https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-11-17

Big Brother will keep you safe, forever.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/16/australia_contact_tracing_review_payment_recommendation/

Australia to track Coronavirus encounters with payment card records

Australia will develop the capability to use payment records in the service of coronavirus contact tracing.

A National Contact Tracing Review released last Friday called for a raft of information technology responses to the pandemic, on grounds that containment of the novel coronavirus will be needed even after a vaccine emerges. The report notes that Australia has generally done very well managing the pandemic, but that some contact tracing efforts still rely on handwritten records and contact details are inconsistently recorded in public venues such as restaurants.

Contrast with the Russian standard (You disagree? You need help!) Is this why Trump moved to Florida?

S.D.N.Y.: Mental health detentions don’t require actual showing of dangerous behavior; probability enough

From FourthAmendment.com:

A mental health detention requires “requires only a ‘probability or substantial chance’ of dangerous behavior, not an actual showing of such behavior.’” … Probable cause for involuntary hospitalization may be established from ‘information gleaned from informants[,] … normally the putative victim or eyewitness, unless the circumstances raise doubt as to the person’s veracity.’ … “However, the ‘harm to self or others’ standard is not met by evidence suggesting merely that the person is emotionally disturbed. See Myers, 819 F.3d at 634 (‘A person may be annoyed, uncooperative, and irrational without presenting a danger to herself or of violence to others.’).” “Insofar as plaintiff contends that the undisputed evidence assembled by defendants does not warrant summary judgment under the ‘harm to self or others’ standard, she is correct. Defendants do not identify, nor has the Court found, any cases holding that probable cause existed for a mental health seizure on facts similar to the ones in this case. To the contrary: courts in the Second Circuit generally find probable cause for a mental health seizure only where there were threats of harm to others, suicidal threats, clear evidence of self-harm, the possession of a firearm or other dangerous weapon by a mentally disturbed person, or some combination of those factors. ….” Guan v. City of New York, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212611 (S.D. N.Y. Sept. 18, 2020).

For my researchers.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/info#

Google Books Ngram Viewer

When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., "British English", "English Fiction", "French") over the selected years.

[Try searching for “facial recognition” here: https://books.google.com/ngrams Bob]

A ‘culture break’ for shut ins.

https://www.bespacific.com/virtual-art-museums-and-online-exhibits-you-can-visit-during-pandemic/

Virtual art museums and online exhibits you can visit during pandemic

Rappler – “In the months we’ve been in lockdown due to the pandemic, a means of escape has been through art. Whether it be books, songs, films, or a newfound passion for painting, art has been our solace. To celebrate Go To An Art Museum Day on November 9, we’ve curated a list of museums you can visit in the comfort of your homes and at your own pace.…”

Where does this sit on the scale of pandemic response? A police enforced prescription? I suppose it could be worse: Army hunting anyone outside their homes with flame throwers.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-lockdown-greece-text-authorization-sms-message-authorities-reason-leave-home

Coronavirus lockdown in Greece requires people to text authorities before leaving home

The lockdown will start at daybreak Saturday and last until the end of the month. With infections surging across the country, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he acted before patients overwhelm hospitals.

… As part of the lockdown, all retail stores except those selling essential items such as food, medication, and fuel will be closed.

… People will only be allowed to leave their homes for work, physical exercise or medical reasons, and only after sending a text message to authorities.

Perspective.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2020/11/15/its-managers-not-workers-who-are-losing-jobs-to-ai-and-robots-study-shows/?sh=7517092a20d5

It’s Managers, Not Workers, Who Are Losing Jobs To AI And Robots, Study Shows

Managers, not lower-level employees, are seeing their ranks diminished with the onset of artificial intelligence and robots, a new study out of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School finds. That’s because as AI and robotics expands within a business, managers can oversee a wider breadth of operations.

In a recent podcast discussion, Lynn Wu, professor at The Wharton School and AIB Affiliated Faculty, points out that “contrary to the popular notion that robots will replace human labor, we find robot-adopting firms employed more people over time. Any displacement of labor came from firms that did not adopt robots. These non-adopting firms actually lost their competitiveness — and they had to lay off workers.” Details of Wu’s study, based on looking at the performance of firms that purchased AI and robots over a 20-year period in Canada, will be published in the INFORMS journal Management Science.

Semantics?

http://www.dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/view/3203

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE COMPLEXITY OF ETHICS

While reflecting upon artificial intelligence, one of its characteristics is often highlighted: its complexity. Sometimes the complexity of artificial intelligence is even used as an argument against holding humans responsible for it. At the same time, surprisingly the complexity of ethics is usually perceived with a reductionist understanding of ethics. In this article, the concept “artificial intelligence” itself is critically reviewed resulting in the introduction of a more adequate term: “databased systems.” Beyond that, I argue against the possibility of “ethical” databased systems and in favour of databased systems with ethics. Finally, the complexity of ethics and its consequences for the ethical dimension of technology-based innovation will be in the focus.

Another view…

https://jurnal.unej.ac.id/index.php/eJLH/article/view/18380

Legal Aspect of Artificial Intelligence on Automated Decision Making: Indonesia, the European Union, the United States and China

This paper analyzes the urgency of a comprehensive legal framework of automated decision-making as part of Artificial Intelligence in Indonesia by comparing it in the European Union, the United States, and China. More importantly, this paper inquires about the status quo of the legal protection of automated decision-making In Indonesia. Besides, this paper will also highlight the involvement of profiling in an automated decision-making system and discuss personal data protection implementation. Members of the European Union set out a law in the General Data Protection Regulation that prohibits Automated Decision-Making to a certain extent. Whereas in the United States, the practice of automated decision-making is rather usual. Lastly, China takes rather an exceptional measure and develops a social credit system. The analysis asserts how Indonesia has weak legal protection towards personal data and profiling that could essentially facilitate automated decision-making. The provision of automated decision-making and Profiling is the absolute bare minimum on the newest Personal Data Protection Regulation Draft. It does not give enough legal certainty towards the matter of automated decision-making and profiling. Thus, it is paramount for the lawmaker to comprise a comprehensive regulation on automated decision-making, including profiling, by adopting the legal framework of the General Data Protection Regulation.

A mere nibble (as fines go) but multiply this by the number of countries in the world…

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1763111/business-economy

Turkish competition board hits Google with $25m fine

Google has been hit with a 196.7 million Turkish lira ($25.6 million) fine by the Turkish Competition Board as part of an investigation against the company.

The decision comes amid growing government control of Internet in the country.

… Google is accused of breaching the law by complicating search results in the content services market by placing text ads at the top of organic search results. Therefore, some companies do not show up in searches if they do not generate advertisement revenue for Google.

A strategic consideration. Enough here to get you thinking...

https://www.makeuseof.com/cloud-storage-vs-local-backups/

Forget Cloud Storage: Here's Why You Should Switch to Local Backups

… If you're considering switching to local backup, here's everything you need to know.

A new and elegant approach? Will the average computer user take the time to consider each request? Or will they rely on a “click here to give me access’ button I provide?

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/11/inrupts-solid-announcement.html

Inrupt’s Solid Announcement

Earlier this year, I announced that I had joined Inrupt, the company commercializing Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid specification:

The idea behind Solid is both simple and extraordinarily powerful. Your data lives in a pod that is controlled by you. Data generated by your things — your computer, your phone, your IoT whatever — is written to your pod. You authorize granular access to that pod to whoever you want for whatever reason you want. Your data is no longer in a bazillion places on the Internet, controlled by you-have-no-idea-who. It’s yours. If you want your insurance company to have access to your fitness data, you grant it through your pod. If you want your friends to have access to your vacation photos, you grant it through your pod. If you want your thermostat to share data with your air conditioner, you give both of them access through your pod.

This week, Inrupt announced the availability of the commercial-grade Enterprise Solid Server, along with a small but impressive list of initial customers of the product and the specification (like the UK National Health Service ). This is a significant step forward to realizing Tim’s vision:

Never was?

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

Your Computer Isn't Yours

I’m speaking, of course, of the world that Richard Stallman predicted in 1997, The one Cory Doctorow also warned us about,

On modern versions of macOS, you simply can’t power on your computer, launch a text editor or eBook reader, and write or read, without a log of your activity being transmitted and stored.

It turns out that in the current version of the macOS, the OS sends to Apple a hash (unique identifier) of each and every program you run, when you run it. Lots of people didn’t realize this, because it’s silent and invisible and it fails instantly and gracefully when you’re offline, but today the server got really slow and it didn’t hit the fail-fast code path, and everyone’s apps failed to open if they were connected to the internet.

Because it does this using the internet, the server sees your IP, of course, and knows what time the request came in. An IP address allows for coarse, city-level and ISP-level geolocation, and allows for a table that has the following headings:

Date, Time, Computer, ISP, City, State, Application Hash

… This means that Apple knows when you’re at home. When you’re at work. What apps you open there, and how often. They know when you open Premiere over at a friend’s house on their Wi-Fi, and they know when you open Tor Browser in a hotel on a trip to another city.

… Well, it’s not just Apple. This information doesn’t stay with them:

Know how that AI thinks!

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Pursuing-Open-Source-Development-of-Predictive-The-Waggoner-Macmillen/93d65a4447804dc3116169f15f6618a82e137d21

Pursuing Open-Source Development of Predictive Algorithms: The Case of Criminal Sentencing Algorithms

Currently, there is uncertainty surrounding the merits of open-source versus proprietary algorithm development. Though justification in favor of each exists, we argue that open-source algorithm development should be the standard in highly consequential contexts that affect people’s lives for reasons of transparency and collaboration, which contribute to greater predictive accuracy and enjoy the additional advantage of cost-effectiveness. To make this case, we focus on criminal sentencing algorithms, as criminal sentencing is highly consequential, and impacts society and individual people. Further, the popularity of this topic has surged in the wake of recent studies uncovering racial bias in proprietary sentencing algorithms among other issues of over-fitting and model complexity. We suggest these issues are exacerbated by the proprietary and expensive nature of virtually all widely used criminal sentencing algorithms. Upon replicating a major algorithm using real criminal profiles, we fit three penalized regressions and demonstrate an increase in predictive power of these open-source and relatively computationally inexpensive options. The result is a data-driven suggestion that if judges who are making sentencing decisions want to craft appropriate sentences based on a high degree of accuracy and at low costs, then they should be pursuing open-source options.

Perspective.

https://thenextweb.com/shift/2020/11/14/we-currently-have-no-smart-cities-by-2025-therell-be-26-syndication/

We currently have no smart cities — by 2025 there’ll be 26

Spending on smart city technology is expected to reach US$327 billion by 2025, up from US$96 billion in 2019, according to a new forecast from Frost & Sullivan.

The analyst company said an uncertain post-pandemic situation will compel cities to focus on developing collaborative, data-driven infrastructure for use in healthcare, public security services and more.

… Cities have already invested in contact-tracing wearables and apps, open data platforms, autonomous drones and crowd analytics to fight COVID-19, according to the report, and smart grids, intelligent traffic management, autonomous vehicles, smart lighting and e-governance services are expected to gain traction when the pandemic passes.

Have we crossed from defiant to delusional? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-loses-string-of-election-results-lawsuits/ar-BB1b07iS

Trump Loses String of Election Results Lawsuits

In quick succession, Mr. Trump was handed defeats in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan, where a state judge in Detroit rejected an unusual Republican attempt to halt the certification of the vote in Wayne County pending an audit of the count.

...and yet I can’t prove that my vote was recorded correctly, or at all. Funny that.

https://www.bespacific.com/the-november-3rd-election-was-the-most-secure-in-american-history/

The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

Wider jurisdiction and wider scope of defamation?

https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/12/facebook-loses-final-appeal-in-defamation-takedown-case-must-remove-same-and-similar-hate-posts-globally/

Facebook loses final appeal in defamation takedown case, must remove same and similar hate posts globally

Austria’s Supreme Court has dismissed Facebook’s appeal in a long running speech takedown case — ruling it must remove references to defamatory comments made about a local politician worldwide for as long as the injunction lasts. [Does it then have to put them back? Bob]

… Questions were referred up to the EU’s Court of Justice. And in a key judgement last year the CJEU decided platforms can be instructed to hunt for and remove illegal speech worldwide without falling foul of European rules that preclude platforms from being saddled with a “general content monitoring obligation”. Today’s Austrian Supreme Court ruling flows naturally from that.

Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports that the court confirmed the injunction applies worldwide, both to identical postings or those that carry the same essential meaning as the original defamatory posting. [So, would this article have to be suppressed? How about if I posted it in place of the original? Bob]

Also more work from home. What will that tracking show?

https://onezero.medium.com/welcome-back-to-the-office-please-wear-this-tracking-device-98747a66750f

Welcome Back to the Office. Please Wear This Tracking Device

A boom in contact tracing devices could herald a new era of worker surveillance

I doubt anyone has THE answer, yet. Keep trying.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/washington-state-could-be-the-2021-battleground-for-internet-privacy-11605177001

Washington State Could Be the 2021 Battleground for Internet Privacy

A senior lawmaker in Washington believes the state can be the next hub for consumer privacy legislation in the U.S., following California’s lead. But he faces continued opposition from within his own party over how it should be enforced.

State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat who chairs the Washington state Senate’s Environment, Energy & Technology Committee, said he is evaluating the recently approved California Privacy Rights Act with an eye toward updating the Washington Privacy Act in the coming weeks in preparation for the next legislative session beginning in January.

… Similar to data protections in the CPRA, Mr. Carlyle’s draft 2021 bill would give residents the right to request companies to delete or correct their personal data. The proposal would also allow consumers to opt out of data processing for certain purposes, such as targeted advertising, and require businesses to conduct data-protection assessments.

The key sticking point is enforcement, state officials say, namely whether to create a private right of action that would allow individuals to sue companies for alleged violations.

“I do not support that position in any way,” Mr. Carlyle said, warning of frivolous lawsuits and citing opposition from the business community. “I strongly believe state-level [attorney general] enforcement is the way you can most effectively enforce the bill.”

Some other state officials, including Attorney General Bob Ferguson, argue that such a private right of action is crucial.

“Last year’s data privacy bill was unenforceable,” Mr. Ferguson, a Democrat, said in a statement. “The bill prohibited individuals from going to court to protect their rights, and failed to give my office the tools we need to ensure compliance.”

(Related) If not an answer, a strong suggestion.

https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2020/11/12/european-commission-publishes-draft-of-new-standard-contractual-clauses/

European Commission Publishes Draft of New Standard Contractual Clauses

On November 12, 2020, the European Commission published a draft implementing decision on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) along with its draft set of new standard contractual clauses (the “New SCCs”).

Should be informative.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/introducing-how-fix-internet-new-podcast-eff

Introducing “How to Fix the Internet,” a New Podcast from EFF

Today EFF is launching How to Fix the Internet, a new podcast mini-series to examine potential solutions to six ills facing the modern digital landscape.

… We are launching the podcast with two episodes: The Secret Court Approving Secret Surveillance, featuring the Cato Institute’s specialist in surveillance legal policy Julian Sanchez; and Why Does My Internet Suck?, featuring Gigi Sohn, one of the nation’s leading advocates for open, affordable, and democratic communications networks. Future episodes will be released on Tuesdays.

We’ve also created a hub page for How to Fix the Internet. This page includes links to all of our episodes, ways to subscribe, and detailed show notes. In the show notes, we’ve included all the books mentioned in each podcast, as well as substantial legal resources—including key opinions in the cases we talk about, briefs filed by EFF, bios of our guests, and a full transcript of every episode.

You can subscribe to How to Fix the Internet via RSS. Stitcher, TuneIn, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify and through any of the other podcast places.

If the music companies can do it, the ISPs must also.

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/internet-service-provider-isp-cox-communications-found-liable-to-tune-1-billion

Internet Service Provider (ISP) Cox Communications Found Liable to the Tune of $1 Billion For Allowing Users to Illegally Share Music Files on Peer-to-Peer Networks

Recently, the Eastern District of Virginia upheld a music piracy jury verdict against the internet service provider Cox Communications. See Sony Music Ent. v. Cox Commc’ns, Case No. 1:18-cv-950-LO-JFA, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105071 (E.D. Va. June 2, 2020). The jury returned a $1 billion damage award against Cox Communications who was accused of knowingly allowing subscribers to share and download infringing songs via peer-to-peer sharing platforms such as BitTorrent. Holding an internet service provider liable for the infringing acts of its users, this case sets the stage for a closely watched appeal.

… The jury found Cox failed to address the copyright infringement despite receiving information from the copyright owners about the time, place, and IP addresses responsible for illegally distributing and reproducing music files over Cox’s network. The court agreed there was enough evidence to find the technology used to detect the infringement was reliable, Cox had the right and ability to supervise the infringement committed by its subscribers, and Cox gained a financial benefit from the infringement. There was sufficient basis for the jury to find Cox liable for vicarious copyright infringement, and because Cox failed to address the specific notices of infringement, for contributory infringement as well.

Perspective. I suspect the President’s insistence that ‘employees’ “do what I want, ignore the facts” will inform most of the post-presidential investigations of his business dealings. By the way, Krebs was fired.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-officials-exclusive-idUSKBN27S2YI

Exclusive: Top official on U.S. election cybersecurity tells associates he expects to be fired

Top U.S. cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, who worked on protecting the election from hackers but drew the ire of the Trump White House over efforts to debunk disinformation, has told associates he expects to be fired, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.