August 2019 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Hackers have stolen photos of travelers taken by the US border agency - MIT Technology Review
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 8, 2019

Aug. 8, 2019

<https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613660/hackers-have-stolen-photos-of-tra…> The data breach underlines the need for tighter controls over what the US government can do with our data. The news: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has disclosed that hackers breached a subcontractor’s systems and stole photographs the agency had taken of travelers and vehicle license plates at border crossings. As many as 100,000 people may have had their information compromised in the attack, the New York Times reported, citing an unnamed government official. CBP’s revelation comes a week after Perceptics, a company that makes license plate readers used by the US government, was reportedly hacked. It’s not yet clear if there is any connection between the two incidents. The irony: CBP is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is charged with boosting cybersecurity in the US. The incident makes clear, however, that the DHS needs to take a harder look in its own backyard. CBP says the subcontractor breached security and privacy protocols by transferring images to its own network without the agency’s approval. The response: CBP, which first learned of the data breach on May 31, says it has taken the equipment involved out of service and that none of the stolen images have so far appeared online. Some politicians have already called on the government to review its systems for protecting people’s sensitive data. The bigger risk: Privacy activists are already concerned about how the US is embracing face recognition technology at airports and other border areas. The CBP breach will increase pressure on the US government to create clearer guidelines for collecting sensitive personal information—and for ensuring it doesn’t end up in hackers’ hands.

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DeepMind’s Latest A.I. Health Breakthrough Has Some Problems
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 8, 2019

Aug. 8, 2019

DeepMind’s Latest A.I. Health Breakthrough Has Some Problems The Google machine learning company trumpeted its success in predicting a deadly kidney condition, but its results raise questions around data rights and patient diversity Julia Powles Aug 6 · 8 min read https://onezero.medium.com/deepminds-latest-a-i-health-breakthrough-has-som… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Blockchain e GDPR secondo l'Europa
by Diego Giorio Aug. 7, 2019

Aug. 7, 2019

Non mi sembra sia ancora passato in lista, si tratta certamente di un report da studiare Saluti (e magari buone vacanze, per chi non le ha ancora fatte o le sta facendo) a tutti D. http://privacyitaliana.com/2019/08/07/blockchain-e-gdpr-la-posizione-delleu…

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Legal Shield for Websites Rattles Under Onslaught of Hate Speech - The New York Times
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 7, 2019

Aug. 7, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/technology/section-230-hate-speech.html (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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How Google and big tech watch your money
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 6, 2019

Aug. 6, 2019

<https://www.fastcompany.com/90349518/gmail-keeps-a-record-of-your-purchase-…> It’s no secret that Google gathers up large amounts of your data based on your search history. But far less known is that the company has also been automatically tallying up your digital and real-world financial transactions based on receipts found in your Gmail accounts and other Google services. It’s just another sign of the enormous reach of tech titans, including Facebook, mining our real-world transactions to generate new insights into our behavior and new revenue streams. If you have a Google account, see for yourself: In the Google Account Activity section, a tab called “Payments & subscriptions” reveals a page of your Purchases, Subscriptions, and Reservations, along with your stored Payment Methods. The page—which I stumbled upon recently, and which CNBC also reported on—includes transactions, like deliveries and online orders, gathered from receipts or confirmations received in Gmail as well as from Google services like the Google Play Store. (View yours at https://myaccount.google.com/payments-and-subscriptions by clicking on “Manage purchases.”) The data can be eye-opening: a partial catalog of years of purchases that you probably didn’t know Google had yanked from the depths of your digital life. Like many, I’ve long used Gmail like a cabinet or shoebox to keep track of receipts. But I was unaware that I had consented for the Google bots to scan my inbox, identify specific emails, and assemble a dossier of my purchases. Google says the purchase data is not used to target ads and is only viewable by the individual user. “To help you easily view and keep track of your purchases, bookings and subscriptions in one place, we’ve created a private destination that can only be seen by you,” a Google spokesperson explained in an email. The idea is to help you do things like track a package, cancel a reservation, or renew a subscription, according to Google. “We don’t use any information from your Gmail messages to serve you ads, and that includes the email receipts and confirmations shown on the Purchase page.” Plus, says Google, “you can delete this information at any time.” Not easy to delete But there is a catch. Removing data from “Purchases” requires users to click each purchase individually: There is no way for users to easily delete their entire purchase history from Google’s servers. Removing the original emails doesn’t work either: When CNBC reporter Todd Haselton bravely deleted every single email in his Gmail, the transactions in his purchase history still remained. [...]

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Google "Street View" Wiretap Allegations Settled for a "Modest" $13 Million
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 6, 2019

Aug. 6, 2019

<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/google-street-view-wiretap-allegations-79…> In 2007, Google began gathering photographs for its Google Maps “Street View” application featuring adjustable panoramic, street-level images tied to addresses searched in Google Maps. Google captured these photographs with cameras mounted on company vehicles traveling on public roads. However, the cars were also equipped with Wi-Fi reception antennas collecting data transmitted by homes and businesses over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks in areas where the Street View vehicles photographed. In addition to collecting basic identifying information about the Wi-Fi networks, Google also collected “payload data,” including messages, search queries, and other communications sent and received over the unencrypted Wi-Fi networks as the vehicles travelled and photographed the surroundings. In 2010, plaintiffs filed a number of class action lawsuits alleging Google violated the Wiretap Act and other state laws and wiretap statutes by collecting this payload data from the unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. The cases were consolidated in the Northern District of California where Google’s motions to dismiss were denied. [...]

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Revealed: The Secret Scripts Amazon Give to Cops to Promote Ring Surveillance Cameras - VICE
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 6, 2019

Aug. 6, 2019

<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjwea4/revealed-the-secret-scripts-amazo…> [...] The “Reactive Q&A” obtained by Motherboard was given to the police department of Maywood, NJ. The document includes sample answers that police can give to questions people might have about the partnership. One sample question is, “What is the partnership benefit?” “The Neighbors app lets you easily share and communicate with your neighbors about crime and safety so you can have real-time, local crime data at your fingertips,” Ring instructs police to say. “The Neighbors app facilitates communication between neighbors, which is a crucial element of crime prevention.” [...] Greer said that most forms of private surveillance costs police time and money because they have to get a court order before collecting private footage. Ring, meanwhile, allows police to request footage directly from camera owners. [...]

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Riders, copertura Inail e mix cottimo-paga oraria: ecco il decreto - CorCom
by Mauro Alovisio Aug. 6, 2019

Aug. 6, 2019

Gent.mi segnalo news di interesse in arrivo mercoledì 8nhttps:// www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/digital-economy/riders-copertura-inail-e-mix-c… Buona estate Mauro Alovisio

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Airbnb, via per via la mappa degli alloggi nelle grandi città italiane
by Luigi Scorca Aug. 5, 2019

Aug. 5, 2019

https://www.infodata.ilsole24ore.com/2019/08/05/airbnb-via-via-la-mappa-deg…

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Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US
by Giacomo Tesio Aug. 5, 2019

Aug. 5, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveilla… Exclusive: the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois. Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company. [...] rthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.” [...] The new balloons promise a cheap surveillance platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods. And because winds often travel in different directions at different altitudes, the balloons can usually hover over a given area simply by ascending or descending. Neither Sierra Nevada nor US Southcom responded to requests for comment on this story. However, the rival balloon operator World View recently announced that it had carried out multi-week test missions in which its own stratospheric balloons were able to hover over a five-mile-diameter area for six and a half hours, and larger areas for days at a time.

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