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

"Europe eyes stricter rules on facial recognition"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*Europe eyes stricter rules on facial recognition* /Under new legal guidance, companies and agencies will need explicit consent to use the technology./ By Mark Scott, Laurens Cerulus and Nicholas Vinocur 7/9/19, 6:45 AM CET Updated 7/14/19, 7:31 AM CET Europe's privacy watchdogs are looking to tighten restrictions on the use of facial recognition in a shift that could limit how governments and large companies use the technology. [...] continua qui: https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-facial-recognition-facebook-privacy-…

July 15, 2019

Le hostess? Diventeranno chatbot. Come l’AI sta cambiando i viaggi in aereo

by don Luca Peyron

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

July 15, 2019

computers and society

by Norberto Patrignani

Carissim*, tra i tanti festeggiamenti dell'estate del 1969, esattamente 50 annni fa il prof. Wasserman introduce questo corso all'universita' Wisconsin-Madison. Probabilmente uno dei primi esempi della storia, credo possa essere utile ancora oggi... ciao! Norberto

July 15, 2019

Re: [nexa] UK ISP group names Mozilla 'Internet Villain' for supporting 'DNS-over-HTTPS'

by Giacomo Tesio

Caspita! Sono riusciti a resistere ben 4 giorni al potere lobbistico di Google! Un record! Qui in Italia quanti sono quelli che anche solo ci provano? E voi negli Stati Uniti, come state messi? Quante sono le organizzazioni che provano a prendere il toro per le corna? Quante quelle che piagnucolano ma si fanno comunque finanziare? Come avevo scritto, hanno nominato Mozilla per il premio giusto, ma per la ragione sbagliata. DNS-over-HTTPS infatti è solo un piccolo dettaglio (per quanto utile all'interno di un attacco per inviare dati all'esterno attraverso un canale sicuro ed insospettabile) rispetto alla montagna di problemi tecnici che Mozilla ha introdotto nell'architettura del Web. E che si rifiuta, a tutt'oggi di affrontare. On 11/07/2019, Stefano Zacchiroli <zack(a)upsilon.cc> wrote: > On Fri, Jul 05, 2019 at 09:00:32AM +0200, Giacomo Tesio wrote: >> https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/uk-isp-group-names-mozilla-interne… > > https://www.ispa.org.uk/ispa-withdraws-mozilla-internet-villain-nomination-… > > ISPA withdraws Mozilla Internet Villain Nomination and Category Posted > on 9th July 2019 Credo possa essere utile a questa lista leggere il comunicato intero. Non cita direttamente il problema geopolitico, ma ai punti 3, 4 e 5 lo lascia intendere a chi abbia un minimo di competenza in merito. Dopo la parte che hai citato, infatti il testo prosegue: While we are withdrawing the nomination, we still believe that it is important to properly scrutinise the implementation plans for DoH. Below we set out our position in more detail and we will continue to develop this position and engage with our members, browser and app companies, DNS resolvers and vendors, policymakers and the wider Internet community on this issue. Any implementation of DoH (or equally any other flavour of encrypted DNS) should be capable of achieving the expected privacy and security benefits, while at the same time being mindful of the complex internet eco system, as well as the different user relationship and trust models that are in play. 1. User choice: An application switching to DoH should ensure that this switch does not undermine choices that have been previously made by the user. For example, if parents have decided to filter an internet connection in their home via network or local level DNS controls, these choices should not simply be ignored by the application. 2. User consent: Any application switching to DoH should ensure that the decision to switch resolvers is made by a user who is: a/ fully informed about the implications of switching resolvers, and b/ fully capable of expressing consent, e.g. relevant admin rights need to be protected and decisions should be made by main account holders Furthermore, DoH discovery and selection should allow users to change their resolver selections as they wish too, e.g. they may wish to revisit selections when new resolvers become available. 3. Data protection: Any application switching to DoH should ensure that a DoH resolver fully complies with the local data protection requirements. 4. Security: Any application switching to DoH should ensure that the selected DoH provider is capable of replicating existing security policies and capabilities such as malware protection that are currently in place for that user. 5. Online safety: Any application switching to DoH should ensure that the selected resolver should be capable of replicating the online safety policies that are currently in place for that user. 6. User and access-network-operator support: If DoH doesn’t work or is slow, a customer’s internet access will be affected. The customer will contact their ISP, not the DoH provider, but the ISP won’t be able to fix things for them. As a minimum, any application switching to DoH should ensure that the selected resolver should provide a 24/7 user call centre reachable via low-cost/local rate telephony and an online support capability. Support for fault-diagnosis and resolution between ISP, resolver and users should also be provided. There are numerous other areas that we could go into, e.g. how DoH affects enterprise networks, or content caching, and the points raised in this post are only an initial outline. We recognise that things have started moving at Internet Engineering Task Force level, for example, and look forward to engaging in a constructive discussion. ____ Speriamo veramente che si avvii un dialogo costruttivo sull'architettura emergente del Web! Un dialogo in cui voci diverse ed indipendenti dai grandi player possano chiedere a questi di RISPONDERE degli errori madornali che hanno compiuto e stanno compiendo. Giacomo

July 15, 2019

"Some of Amazon's highly paid tech workers say warehouse worker conditions are 'a source of shame'"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*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…

July 14, 2019

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

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

July 14, 2019

Money’s no object for Facebook, so hit it where it hurts | John Naughton | Opinion | The Guardian

by Alberto Cammozzo

<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

July 14, 2019

FTC approves a record $5 billion settlement with Facebook over Cambridge Analytica scandal

by J.C. DE MARTIN

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

July 13, 2019

Internet of Things: Energy boon or bane?

by don Luca Peyron

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

July 13, 2019

NYT: "Fernando Corbató, a Father of Your Computer (and Your Password), Dies at 93"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*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

July 13, 2019