July 2019 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Le hostess? Diventeranno chatbot. Come l’AI sta cambiando i viaggi in aereo
by don Luca Peyron July 15, 2019

July 15, 2019

Buongiorno a tutti, i contenuti di questa intervista, nulla di particolarmente nuovo in effetti, mi fanno rabbrividire. Eliminiamo personale e rapporti umani, risparmiando denari ed alzando profitti, in nome di un presunto miglioramento del servizio e, per di più, usando i giovani come scusa i quali, secondo dichiarazioni, preferirebbero interfacciare con una macchina che con un essere umano! Nella Bibbia capita ogni tanto che qualcuno si stracci le vesti, a questo giro me le straccio digitalmente io... che tristezza usare così le nuove generazioni che, per esperienza condivisa sicuramente da molti in questa lista, cercano disperatamente un umano con cui dialogare, fosse solo per chiedere una informazione ed averne in cambio un sorriso! Fine predicozzo e sfogo, buona lettura dl https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/le-hostess-una-chatbot-come-l-ai-sta-cambia… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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UK ISP group names Mozilla 'Internet Villain' for supporting 'DNS-over-HTTPS'
by Giacomo Tesio July 15, 2019

July 15, 2019

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/uk-isp-group-names-mozilla-interne… UK government and local ISPs are putting the pressure on browsers to drop plans to support DoH protocol. The trade association for internet service providers in the UK has nominated Mozilla for this year's award of "Internet Villain" because of the browser maker's plans to support the DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) protocol in its Firefox browser. In a statement published this week, the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPAUK) claimed that Mozilla plans to support DNS-over-HTTPS "in such a way as to bypass UK filtering obligations and parental controls, undermining internet safety standards in the UK." The trade association's comments come after two months of constant criticism aimed at both Mozilla and Google, from both the UK government and various advocacy groups, and all are centered around the new DoH protocol. [...] Basically, Google and Mozilla's support for DoH effectively narrows down to the same moral dilemma that surrounds the Tor Project and the Tor network. Browser makers must now decide if it's worth supporting a tool that brings privacy improvements to millions, at the expense of a few that may have to suffer. Currently, DoH is not supported in the stable versions of Chrome and Firefox. Google is still testing DoH support in Chrome, while Mozilla has completed a successful DoH test in Firefox, and officially said it plans to support the feature in the stable branch, but did not give out a timeline. Mozilla is nominated for ISPAUK's "Internet Villain" prize together with US President Donald Trump (for causing a huge amount of uncertainty across the complex, global telecommunications supply chain in the course of trying to protect national security) and the EU's Article 13 Copyright Directive (for threatening freedom of expression online by requiring 'content recognition technologies' across platforms). A Mozilla spokesperson did not return a request for comment in regards to the organization's nomination. ___ E' divertente come si possa vincere il premio giusto, per le ragioni sbagliate. Giacomo

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"Some of Amazon's highly paid tech workers say warehouse worker conditions are 'a source of shame'"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 14, 2019

July 14, 2019

*Some of Amazon's highly paid tech workers say warehouse worker conditions are 'a source of shame'* /Julie Bort// / A group of Amazon's tech workers are openly supporting the planned strike by Amazon warehouse workers in Shakopee, Minnesota, next week during the online retailer's Prime Day shopping event. Some of them will even be flying out to walk the picket line and give speeches during the strike, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the employee activist group organizing this show of support, said. [...] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-tech-workers-prime-day-strike-2019-7…

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What are the policy options? A systematic review of policy responses to the impacts of robotisation and automation on the labour market | EU Science Hub
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 14, 2019

July 14, 2019

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-resear… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Money’s no object for Facebook, so hit it where it hurts | John Naughton | Opinion | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 14, 2019

July 14, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/14/facebook-google-fines…> If you want a measure of the problem society will have in controlling the tech giants, then ponder this: as it has become clear that the US Federal Trade Commission is about to impose a fine of $5bn (£4bn) on Facebook for violating a decree governing privacy breaches, the company’s share price went up! This is a landmark moment. It’s the biggest ever fine imposed by the FTC, the body set up to police American capitalism. And $5bn is a lot of money in anybody’s language. Anybody’s but Facebook’s. It represents just a month of revenues and the stock market knew it. Facebook’s capitalisation went up $6bn with the news. This was a fine that actually increased Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth. But what it has exposed once and for all is a company that is out of control on a global scale. The investigation was launched in March 2018 after the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr revealed that the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested the private information of more than 50 million Facebook users. In 2012, Facebook had made a deal with the FTC – a consent decree – to protect user privacy. Facebook to be fined $5bn for Cambridge Analytica privacy violations – reports Read more What the surging share price reflects is the unconscionable profitability of the tech business when it reaches the scale at which these companies operate. For regulators, this should be a wake-up call. Controlling tech companies can’t be done by fines alone. Regulators have to hit them where it really hurts. In the case of the two leading practitioners of surveillance capitalism, Google and Facebook, this means adopting a wide-spectrum approach. There is no silver bullet. First, regulators need to focus on these companies’ capacity to hoover up and monetise the data they extract from their users’ online behaviour. Since much of this data has been accumulated in a lawless (or at any rate law-free) environment and it now constitutes their most valuable asset (not to mention the insuperable barrier to entry for potential competitors), Google and Facebook should be obliged to make the data available to other organisations (including in the public sector) under controlled conditions. Second, given that the entire digital industry runs on data, competition authorities ought to be much more sceptical about the acquisition strategies of digital giants. With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, for example, Facebook ought never to have been allowed to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram. The mistake was to believe that these were distinctly different entities, whereas in fact they were all data companies. Nothing comparable in the media industry would have been allowed, or indeed in many other areas of industrial life. Equally, Google should never have been allowed to buy YouTube, and it should now be compelled to hive it off as a separate outfit. Third, competition authorities should put the opaque, high-speed data-trading marketplaces owned and operated by Google and Facebook under the microscope – as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority now intends to do. In no other area of industrial life would companies be allowed to be operators of such vast and entirely opaque marketplaces. As in many others areas of life, sunlight can be a good disinfectant. Finally, the perennial bluff of the surveillance capitalists – that they are indispensable agents of innovation – should be called. Much of this “innovation” has come from their acquisition of creative startups rather than the ingenuity of their internal talents. Their standard procedure from the outset has been to acquire potential disruptive startups before they are able to scale up. We need to wise up to this strategy and make it harder to pull off. Fines are a necessary but not sufficient way of getting this rogue industry under democratic control. • John Naughton is professor of the public understanding of technology at the Open University

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FTC approves a record $5 billion settlement with Facebook over Cambridge Analytica scandal
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 13, 2019

July 13, 2019

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/88333/social-networks/ftc-facebook-fin… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Internet of Things: Energy boon or bane?
by don Luca Peyron July 13, 2019

July 13, 2019

I consumi, un problema di sistema! Buona lettura dl https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6438/326 _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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NYT: "Fernando Corbató, a Father of Your Computer (and Your Password), Dies at 93"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 13, 2019

July 13, 2019

*Fernando Corbató, a Father of Your Computer (and Your Password), Dies at 93* /By Katie Hafner/ July 12, 2019 Fernando Corbató, whose work on computer time-sharing in the 1960s helped pave the way for the personal computer, as well as the computer password, died on Friday at a nursing home in Newburyport, Mass. He was 93. His wife, Emily Corbató, said the cause was complications of diabetes. At his death he was a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Corbató, who spent his entire career at M.I.T., oversaw a project in the early 1960s called the Compatible Time-Sharing System, or C.T.S.S., which allowed multiple users in different locations to access a single computer simultaneously through telephone lines. At the time, computing was done in large batches, and users typically had to wait until the next day to get the results of a computation. In a 1963 public television interview, Dr. Corbató described batch processing as “infuriating” for its inefficiency. The advent of time-sharing, however, reinforced the notion, still in its infancy, that computers could be used interactively. It was an idea that would animate the computing field for decades. [...] continua qui: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/science/fernando-corbato-dead.html

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Space Technology: robotica e AI a servizio dell’esplorazione spaziale | 18 luglio 2019
by Francesco Ruggiero July 12, 2019

July 12, 2019

Gentilissimi, vi segnalo un incontro in programma il *18 luglio 2019*, ore 18-20, a *Infini.To - Planetario di Torino*, in via Osservatorio 30, Pino Torinese. *Space Technology: robotica e AI a servizio dell’esplorazione spaziale*, una tavola rotonda per discutere gli innumerevoli temi legati all’esplorazione robotica e umana dello Spazio. Ospiti della serata: *Maria Antonietta Perino* (Thales Alenia Space), *Giancarlo Genta* (Politecnico di Torino),* Giada Genchi* (IIT) e *Antonio Santangelo* (Nexa Center for Internet & Society). Per ulteriori informazioni: info(a)planetarioditorino.it In allegato la locandina dell’evento. Cordiali saluti, Francesco -- Francesco Ruggiero Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino web: http://nexa.polito.it mail: francesco.ruggiero(a)polito.it tel: 011 090 7219

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Google employees are eavesdropping, even in Flemish living rooms, VRT NWS has discovered | Flanders News
by Alberto Cammozzo July 11, 2019

July 11, 2019

<https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2019/07/10/google-employees-are-eavesdropping-…> [...] Not everyone is aware of the fact that everything you say to your Google smart speakers and your Google Assistant is being recorded and stored. But that is clearly stated in Google’s terms and conditions. And what people are certainly not aware of, simply because Google doesn’t mention it in its terms and conditions, is that Google employees can listen to excerpts from those recordings. Google has continually claimed that it doesn’t eavesdrop. Google Holland even made a smooth YouTube ‘explainer’ to remove any misconceptions about eavesdropping. In this video, Google employees answer the question ‘Does Google eavesdrop?’. They say that the commands are being stored and transferred to Google for analysis. And they very clearly state: ‘No, you are not being eavesdropped’. Google does listen in It is true that Google does not eavesdrop directly, but VRT NWS discovered that it is listening in. Or rather: that it lets people listen in. We let ordinary Flemish people hear some of their own recordings. ‘This is undeniably my own voice’, says one man, clearly surprised. A couple from Waasmunster immediately recognise the voice of their son and their grandchild. What did we do? VRT NWS was able to listen to more than a thousand excerpts recorded via Google Assistant. In these recordings we could clearly hear addresses and other sensitive information. This made it easy for us to find the people involved and confront them with the audio recordings. Why is Google listening in? In the aftermath of the Amazon case, we were able to talk to someone who works for a Google subcontractor. He let us take a look at the system that collects audio via Google Assistant. Thousands of employees worldwide use this system to listen to audio excerpts. In Flanders and Holland, around a dozen people listen to Dutch recordings. Why is Google storing these recordings and why does it have employees listening to them? They are not interested in what you are saying, but the way you are saying it. Google’s computer system consists of smart, self-learning algorithms. And in order to understand the subtle differences and characteristics of the Dutch language, it still needs to learn a lot. Sometimes Google’s search engine has difficulty analysing a certain speech command. When that is the case, they put this command in Google’s online tool Crowdsource. By the way, if you want to help Google get better at describing images and facial expressions, everyone can use this tool (for free). What you will not find in this free tool, is the part where you can describe audio recordings. Google subcontracts that task to outside professionals. They log in to a secure part of the tool that has a list of the audio excerpts they have to analyse. We have three sources confirming that this is the way Google works. Speech recognition automatically generates a script of the recordings. Employees then have to double check to describe the excerpt as accurately as possible: is it a woman’s voice, a man’s voice or a child? What do they say? They write out every cough and every audible comma. These descriptions are constantly improving Google’s search engines, which results in better reactions to commands. One of our sources explains how this works. Most recordings made via Google Home smart speakers are very clear. Recordings made with Google Assistant, the smartphone app, are of telephone quality. But the sound is not distorted in any way. Anonymous? Knowing that people who work for Google indirectly are listening to such recordings raises questions about privacy. In order to avoid excerpts being automatically linked to a user, they are disconnected from the user’s information. They delete the user name and replace it with an anonymous serial number. But, as shown in one of the videos above, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recover someone’s identity; you simply have to listen carefully to what is being said. What’s more, if they don’t know how it is written, these employees have to look up every word, address, personal name or company name on Google or on Facebook. In that way, they often soon discover the identity of the person speaking. Sex... VRT NWS listened to more than a thousand excerpts, 153 of which were conversations that should never have been recorded and during which the command ‘Okay Google’ was clearly not given. But as soon as someone in the vicinity utters a word that sounds a bit like ’Okay Google’, Google Home starts to record. This means that a lot of conversations are recorded unintentionally: bedroom conversations, conversations between parents and their children, but also blazing rows and professional phone calls containing lots of private information. Mistaken recordings can also occur when someone presses the wrong button on his or her phone or unintentionally gives a command. [...]

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