June 2019 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Homeland Security fuses all biometric data on an Amazon server - what could go wrong?
by Alberto Cammozzo June 20, 2019

June 20, 2019

<https://www.rt.com/usa/462259-homeland-security-database-amazon-fusion/> The US Department of Homeland Security is upgrading its surveillance database to add DNA profiles and relationships to its massive cache of fingerprints and face scans. And Amazon is to host this trove of sensitive information. The DHS Office of Biometric Identification Management is replacing its Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), which cross-references fingerprints, iris scans, and facial recognition with biographical information, with the even more dystopian Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology System (HART), which adds DNA, palm prints, tattoos, scars, and other physical markings. The system will also contain data on people's "relationship patterns," possibly gleaned from social media profiles, which DHS has acknowledged will include "non-obvious relationships" - whatever that means - as well as data from "officer encounters," which often take place under dubiously legal circumstances. While IDENT, which contains information on over 250 million people, has been housed in government-run data centers since it was first developed in 1994, the new HART will live in "the Amazon Web Services FedRAMP certified GovCloud," according to DHS, which has contracted with Northrop Grumman to build the new database. Amazon will control the entire system, from "biometric matching capabilities for fingerprint, iris, and facial matching" to the biometric images themselves. It's not clear whether the facial recognition database is connected to Amazon's Rekognition software, which the company has sold to multiple law enforcement agencies. The DHS joins the CIA, Pentagon, NASA and other federal agencies in handing over its most sensitive information to Amazon. For those worried about their privacy, a top tech official at the CIA insists the cloud is actually more secure than the government's old systems. After all, the CIA has been trusting Amazon with its data since 2014, and it's never been hacked. Amazon, controlled by the country's wealthiest man, will never use the fact that it holds all the government's sensitive information against it. Presumably. DHS can also access and share data and tech with the Pentagon and FBI, which has its own treasure trove of 640 million photos for use in facial recognition systems. The agency can also access the State Department's Consular Consolidated Database, home to almost 500 million visa and passport records, and even have access to several foreign governments' databases, as well as the resources of local, state and tribal law enforcement. Last month, 95 million traveler records, including license plates and photos, were stolen from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a breach that targeted agency contractor Perceptics. While CBP scrambled to reassure Americans that their biometric data was safe and blamed Perceptics for not following its security protocols, it was the second major DHS hack this year, raising serious trust issues with an agency that has made itself responsible for the biometric identifiers of millions of law-abiding citizens. In April, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) leaked the private data - including bank account numbers - of 2.3 million disaster survivors, leaving some of the country's most vulnerable people open to identity theft on top of their other problems.

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bando scuola estiva unipd sui Big Data
by Letizia Mingardo June 20, 2019

June 20, 2019

Segnalo questa interessante iniziativa dell'Università di Padova: la scuola estiva in Big Data nelle scienze fisiche, sociali, umanistiche e della vita. La scadenza per le iscrizioni è il prossimo 25 giugno. Bando e programma in allegato. Un cordiale saluto. Letizia Mingardo

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NYT: "Launching a Global Currency Is a Bold, Bad Move for Facebook"
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 20, 2019

June 20, 2019

Launching a Global Currency Is a Bold, Bad Move for Facebook The way we structure money and payments is a question for democratic institutions, not technology companies. By Matt Stoller Mr. Stoller is a fellow at the Open Markets Institute. June 19, 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/opinion/facebook-currency-libra.html

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Opinion | ‘There’s Just No Doubt That It Will Change the World’: David Chalmers on V.R. and A.I. - The New York Times
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 19, 2019

June 19, 2019

‘There’s Just No Doubt That It Will Change the World’: David Chalmers on V.R. and A.I. We will develop new worlds and beings with powers greater than our own. How do we maximize them for good? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/opinion/david-chalmers-virtual-reality.h… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Ecco come la criptovaluta di Facebook cambierà il sistema bancario globale
by don Luca Peyron June 19, 2019

June 19, 2019

I nostri studenti usano spesso la parola "ansia" ecco.. .certe notizie un filino di ansia lo suscitano pure a me! Buona lettura e buona domenica dl https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/finanza-e-mercati/2019-06-15/ecco-come-crip… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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Huawei, my way or the highway: Which way should the EU turn? | Centre for European Reform
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 19, 2019

June 19, 2019

https://www.cer.eu/insights/huawei-my-way-or-highway-which-way-should-eu-tu… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Inside the urgent battle to stop UK police using facial recognition | WIRED UK
by Alberto Cammozzo June 19, 2019

June 19, 2019

<https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-police-facial-recognition>

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Large Redmond Collider: CERN reveals plan to shift from Microsoft to open-source code after tenfold license fee hike
by Antonio Vetro' June 18, 2019

June 18, 2019

La motivazione della -ancora ipotetica- decisione sarebbe nel costo del rinnovo della licenza, che Microsoft avrebbe moltiplicato per 10 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/13/cern_microsoft/

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Il salto triplo dell’Africa tra innovazione digitale, svolta “green” e cooperazione
by don Luca Peyron June 18, 2019

June 18, 2019

Sguardi al di là del Mediterraneo. Buona lettura Dl https://www.agi.it/economia/africa_innovazione_digitale_green-5668016/news/…

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Linked Democracy (book)
by Eleonora Bassi June 18, 2019

June 18, 2019

Segnalo una stimolante lettura: *Linked Democracy. Foundations, Tools, and Applications* by *Poblet*, Marta, *Casanovas*, Pompeu, *Rodríguez-Doncel*, Víctor SpringerBriefs in Law, 2019 (disponibile in open access) https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030133627 This open access book shows the factors linking information flow, social intelligence, rights management and modelling with epistemic democracy, offering licensed linked data along with information about the rights involved. This model of democracy for the web of data brings new challenges for the social organisation of knowledge, collective innovation, and the coordination of actions. Licensed linked data, licensed linguistic linked data, right expression languages, semantic web regulatory models, electronic institutions, artificial socio-cognitive systems are examples of regulatory and institutional design (regulations by design). The web has been massively populated with both data and services, and semantically structured data, the linked data cloud, facilitates and fosters human-machine interaction. Linked data aims to create ecosystems to make it possible to browse, discover, exploit and reuse data sets for applications. Rights Expression Languages semi-automatically regulate the use and reuse of content. Buona lettura, Eleonora

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