December 2018 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook - Report | Privacy International
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 30, 2018

Dec. 30, 2018

http://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-android-share-data-fac… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Google wins dismissal of facial recognition lawsuit over biometric privacy act - The Verge
by Alberto Cammozzo Dec. 30, 2018

Dec. 30, 2018

<https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/29/18160432/google-facial-recognition-laws…> Google has been facing a lawsuit since 2016 for alleging scanning and saving the biometric data of a woman who was unwittingly captured in 11 photos taken by a Google Photos user on Android. The lawsuit over facial recognition privacy has just been dismissed by a judge in Chicago, who found that the plaintiff didn’t suffer “concrete injuries,” as first reported by Bloomberg. In the original suit, the woman sued Google for allegedly uploading her data to Google Photos and scanning it to create a template of her face without her permission. The Google lawsuit is one of three cases aimed at prominent tech companies that have allegedly violated the United States’ toughest biometric privacy law and it’s the first one to get dismissed. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act has long been a huge obstacle for tech companies working on facial recognition initiatives. The law requires companies to obtain people’s explicit permission in order to make biometric scans of their bodies. Illinois citizens who feel their rights have been violated can file lawsuits under the act. Companies including Google, Snapchat, and Facebook all faced lawsuits initiated in 2015 and 2016 for allegedly violating the Illinois law. The other lawsuits are still pending. In April, a federal judge ruled that Facebook must face a class action lawsuit from Illinois users over allegations that it used facial recognition technology photos without explicit user consent. The feature “Tag Suggestions” that offers users suggested people based on their faces in photos allegedly violates the Illinois law.

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Investigating Apps interactions with Facebook on Android
by Giacomo Tesio Dec. 30, 2018

Dec. 30, 2018

> We found that at least 61 percent of apps we tested automatically transfer data to > Facebook the moment a user opens the app. This happens whether people have a > Facebook account or not, or whether they are logged into Facebook or not. > We also found that some apps routinely send Facebook data that is incredibly > detailed and sometimes sensitive. Again, this concerns data of people who are > either logged out of Facebook or who do not have a Facebook account. https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/investigating-apps-interactions-… Giacomo

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I was a contract worker in Google’s caste system—and it wasn’t pretty
by Giacomo Dec. 27, 2018

Dec. 27, 2018

Interessante esperienza di un avvocato a contratto per Google. https://qz.com/1494111/googles-caste-system-is-bad-for-workers-and-bad-for-…

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In the central marketplace of ancient Athens, around 350BC, there stood a machine called the kleroterion....
by gianlucaquaglia＠gmail.com Dec. 27, 2018

Dec. 27, 2018

How can we break the Brexit deadlock? Ask ancient Athens by James Bridle 25 dec 2018 In the central marketplace of ancient Athens, around 350BC, there stood a machine called the kleroterion. This was a six-foot-high slab of stone that had a series of slots on the front, and a long tube bored down from the top to the base. Those up for selection for the various offices of state would insert metal ID tags, called pinakia, into the slots, and a functionary would pour a bucket of coloured balls, suitably shaken, into the top of the tube. The order in which the balls emerged would determine who took which role, some for the day, some for a year. [...] continua qui https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/25/break-brexit-deadlock…

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It’s time for a Bill of Data Rights
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 27, 2018

Dec. 27, 2018

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612588/its-time-for-a-bill-of-data-right… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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The Welfare State Is Committing Suicide by Artificial Intelligence – Foreign Policy
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 26, 2018

Dec. 26, 2018

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/25/the-welfare-state-is-committing-suicid… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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BoingBoing: "YouTube let a contentID scammer steal a popular video"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 26, 2018

Dec. 26, 2018

*YouTube let a contentID scammer steal a popular video** * At considerable expense, Christian Friedrich Johannes Büttner, the man behind successful YouTube channel TheFatRat, recorded and posted an original music video. It ran up 47m views, helping to place him among the higher echeleons of YouTube's hitmakers. But then a scammer—someone with no posted videos, no working contact info and no significant internet presence—claimed ownership of it through YouTube's ContentID system. Büttner appealed and was denied. [...] continua qui: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/26/youtube-let-a-contentid-scamme.html

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"Tending the Digital Commons: A Small Ethics toward the Future"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 26, 2018

Dec. 26, 2018

THE HEDGEHOG REVIEW: VOL. 20 NO. 1 (SPRING 2018) *Tending the Digital Commons: A Small Ethics toward the Future** */ //Alan Jacobs/ Facebook is unlikely to shut down tomorrow; nor is Twitter, or Instagram, or any other major social network. But they could. And it would be a good exercise to reflect on the fact that, should any or all of them disappear, no user would have any legal or practical recourse. I started thinking about this situation a few years ago when Tumblr—a platform devoted to a highly streamlined form of blogging, with an emphasis on easy reposting from other accounts—was bought by Yahoo. I was a heavy user of Tumblr at the time, having made thousands of posts, and given the propensity of large tech companies to buy smaller ones and then shut them down, I wondered what would become of my posts if Yahoo decided that Tumblr wasn’t worth the cost of maintaining it. I found that I was troubled by the possibility to a degree I hadn’t anticipated. It would be hyperbolic (not to say comical) to describe my Tumblr as a work of art, but I had put a lot of thought into what went on it, and sometimes I enjoyed looking through the sequence of posts, noticing how I had woven certain themes into that sequence, or feeling pleasure at having found interesting and unusual images. I felt a surge of proprietary affection—and anxiety. [...] continua qui: https://iasc-culture.org/THR/THR_article_2018_Spring_Jacobs.php

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Silicon Noir and the End of Techno-Optimism: The Intercept’s 2018 Tech Coverage
by Alberto Cammozzo Dec. 26, 2018

Dec. 26, 2018

Bella rassegna dell'anno in cui la marea è cambiata da tecnofila a tecno-avversa._ _ Auguriamoci che il prossimo anno venga ricordato come quello della riscossa delle tecnologie, delle leggi e delle pratiche a favore della libertà_. _ <https://theintercept.com/2018/12/24/the-intercept-2018-tech/>_ _ This will likely go down as the year in which technology, once envisioned as an empowering and equalizing force, finally went headlong down the path toward dystopia and oppression. Our story this summer about Google planning to return to China with censored search at first shocked Silicon Valley, but it was the dark nature of what followed — internal dissent squelched, executives dissembling, Chinese users to be closely tracked — that proved most surprising. Other depressing developments seemed right out of an ominous sci-fi film like “Blade Runner,” whether it was reporting that revealed the National Security Agency’s prowess at voice recognition, Facebook’s plans to use artificial intelligence to predict users’ future behavior, or just how badly ultrawealthy Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was exploiting underlings. As tech enters 2019, its brightest days seem to be well behind it. [...] Alberto

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