- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Venezia addio, cantava, mentre una lacrima scendeva
by 380° June 10, 2022

June 10, 2022

Buongiorno nexiane, mi perdoni Carlo Blengino per la domanda a bruciapelo: ma tutto questo una amministrazione comunale può farlo in questi termini? É legale? della «Smart Control Room» di Venezia è già stato scritto qui, ma le informazioni in questo odierno articolo del Il Post (se veritiere) forniscono il definitivo quadro inquietante. https://www.ilpost.it/2022/06/10/venezia-smart-control-room/ «La stanza dove si vede tutto quello che succede a Venezia» --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- [...] In parte serve a studiare, e se possibile prevedere, certi comportamenti di residenti e turisti; in parte ha l’ambizione di aumentare l’efficienza dei servizi offerti, ma anche la sicurezza e il cosiddetto “decoro”. [...] Secondo il sindaco Luigi Brugnaro, la Smart Control Room rappresenta «un’idea nuova di controllo della città», secondo Simone Venturini, assessore al Turismo, «un controllo totale». TIM, che si è occupata della parte tecnologica del suo sviluppo, la definisce «un unicum a livello nazionale ed europeo nel panorama dei progetti di “Smart City 2.0”» e nel video in cui la presentò citò espressioni come 5G, Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence e Cloud Computing. [...] Vinse TIM e nel settembre del 2020 la Smart Control Room, finanziata con fondi europei e comunali, fu presentata nella nuova sede della Polizia locale. [...] In riferimento a quanto succedeva fino al 2020, Bettini dice: «non è che mancasse la possibilità di visualizzare i mezzi del trasporto pubblico locale in tempo reale», solo che «ognuno vedeva i dati di propria competenza», spesso in luoghi e in sistemi tecnologici diversi. Secondo Bettini «l’intuizione che ha avuto il sindaco è stata di aprire le scatole per portare tutto al centro», e avere informazioni il più possibile coordinate e condivise che consentono agli operatori della Smart Control Room di avere «una visione complessiva della città, così da essere più efficaci e puntuali nella gestione dei problemi». [...] Gran parte di ciò che ha a che fare con gli spostamenti delle persone è gestito invece attraverso i dati provenienti dalle celle telefoniche a cui si agganciano i telefoni cellulari di residenti, pendolari e turisti. «Acquisiamo dall’operatore telefonico i dati derivanti dal traffico che ciascuna sim produce quando si collega con l’antenna», spiega Bettini: «e questi dati ci danno una misura piuttosto attendibile delle presenze sul nostro territorio. Partendo da dati che riguardano un «campione significativo» e che sono poi rielaborati con «gli opportuni algoritmi», dalla Smart Control Room si può sapere quante persone sono o sono state a Venezia o in un determinato luogo di Venezia: nel caso degli italiani, da che «area censuaria» provengono, nel caso degli stranieri da quale paese. Dati di questo tipo, ci tiene a precisare Bettini, sono anonimi [1] [...] Dalla Smart Control Room si può sapere, sempre attraverso i dati delle celle telefoniche, quante persone provenienti da Chioggia erano a Venezia in un dato momento [2], quante sono nell’aeroporto della città o da quali paesi provengono più turisti: nell’ordine, per quanto riguarda i primi giorni di giugno, da Germania, Regno Unito, Stati Uniti, Francia e Spagna. [...] c’è Mattia Bernello, 27enne agente della polizia locale [...] arrivato dopo aver lavorato nella centrale operativa della polizia, dopo un apposito corso di «quasi 300 ore». Dice che il tipo di attività che si possono svolgere grazie alla Smart Control Room è «abbastanza immenso» [...] Si aspetta, inoltre, che in futuro la Smart Control Room possa contribuire a «prevedere determinate situazioni e reagire prima che queste accadano». [3] [...] La Smart Control Room, dice Maniero, «è in grado di avere una supervisione su tutto e su tutti». [...] Il Corriere della Sera l’ha presentata come la «sentinella hi-tech che sorveglia ogni angolo di Venezia» e ha aggiunto che, visitandola, «sembra di entrare in un film di fantascienza». [4] [...] la newsletter italiana Privacy Chronicles, che ha circa 500 iscritti e che della Smart Control Room si occupò dopo che se ne era parlato per questioni legate al turismo e ai pernottamenti, scrivendo: Che succede quando uniamo prenotazioni riferibili a persone identificate a un sistema di controllo come quello della Smart Control Room? Beh, succede che abbiamo tutti i presupposti per far diventare Venezia una gabbia a cielo aperto. Il sistema di prenotazione consentirà all’amministrazione comunale di identificare ogni singola persona in visita presso Venezia, mentre la Smart Control Room permetterà di sorvegliarne spostamenti e modalità di soggiorno. Incrociare i dati, secondo necessità, sarà un gioco da ragazzi. I turisti (italiani e stranieri) sono consapevoli che saranno sottoposti a sorveglianza continuativa dal momento in cui metteranno piede a Venezia fino al momento in cui usciranno? E i residenti? Chi lavora alla Smart Control Room insiste sul fatto che i tantissimi dati sono aggregati e anonimi, e di conseguenza legittimi. «A noi qui interessa studiare i fenomeni e monitorare il territorio» dice Bettini, «non andare a fare operazioni che non sono nemmeno legittime». Videosorveglianza esclusa, spiega Bettini, il sistema ha già raggiunto i «50 terabyte di dati archiviati», pari a 50mila gigabyte. Almeno in parte, alcuni dubbi e scetticismi sulla Smart Control Room sono dovuti alle sovrapposizioni e delimitazioni non sempre chiare tra ciò di cui si occupa la polizia locale, per questioni di traffico, sicurezza o decoro e ciò che invece rientra in interessi di altro tipo, per esempio di analisi e gestione del turismo. Intanto, ci sono diversi progetti – in certi casi già piuttosto avanzati, come nel caso di Firenze – con cui altre città puntano a replicare quanto fatto da Venezia. Nell’immediato futuro, comunque, Bettini dice di essere molto interessato a come «università e istituti di ricerca stanno studiando modalità per studiare i dati [della Smart Control Room] e fornire nuovi modelli analitici e predittivi». E aggiunge che «dopo questa fase di avvio il sistema si vuole aprire all’esterno, per quanto possibile». --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- «prevedere comportamenti», «aumentare sicurezza e decoro», «controllo totale» basato su «Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence e Cloud Computing», «area censuaria» dei turisti, «prevedere determinate situazioni e reagire prima che queste accadano»... così, come fosse Antani. sull'anonimita dei (meta)dati CENTRALIZZATI in quella control room, direi che sarebbe il caso che TUTTI quelli che si occupano di questi progetti facciano un corso di 300 ore gestito, chessò, dalla Polizia Postale, eh? (Suggerimento: i dati della SIM sono anonimi?!? Come diavolo si calcola l'«area censuaria» dei turisti anonimi?... É scritta in fronte come Jo Condor (cit.)?) ... così magari la smettiamo di continuare a diffondere queste baggianate, perché non se ne può più è tutto pronto per passare la Smart Control Room direttamente nelle mani dell'azienda cinese che si comprerà Venezia, Firenze...? Saluti, 380° [1] nota mia: mente spudoratamente, non sapendo di mentire?!? [2] nota mia: col prossimo aggiornamento del sistema, incrociando i dati del sistema sanitario nazionale anche il loro stato vaccinale... ma non l'indirizzo di casa, sia mai! [3] nota mia: tipo prevenire reati prima che vengano commessi? Mi vengono i brividi quando constato che certe persone non hanno il benché minimo pudore a dichiarare pubblicamente cose del genere, ma si ascoltano? [4] nota mia: "Minority Report", "Brazil" il molto più angosciante "The Truman Show"? -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego) «Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché» Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

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Presentazioni in ambito "education" (worldwide) a TNC22 (settimana prossima...)
by Damiano Verzulli June 10, 2022

June 10, 2022

La prossima settimana si terra' a Trieste la TNC22, probabilmente il principale evento europeo (e non solo...) dedicato al "networking del/nel mondo della ricerca". È organizzato da GÉANT che, a livello europeo, coordina lo sviluppo della rete che interconnette la totalità degli Atenei e degli Enti di Ricerca europei, inclusi quelli del nostro Paese (attraverso il GARR; qualche dettaglio su GEANT è qui: https://network.geant.org/ ). Diciamo che se GARR interconnette gli enti di ricerca italiani, GÉANT interconnette GARR... con gli altri "GARR" degli altri paesi europei, e non solo... Insomma, TNC22 è un evento molto importante (dettagli su: https://tnc22.geant.org/ ) Fra le varie sessioni ce ne sono alcune focalizzate sul tema "education". Nella mail qui sotto trovate i riferimenti a 6 talk (con contributi di Ghana, Ecuador, Olanda ed altre realta' europee). Il programma completo è qui: https://tnc22.geant.org/programme/ Essendo possibile seguire gli stream on-line (previa registrazione qui: https://indico.geant.org/event/1/registrations/6/ ), ho pensato potesse essere di interesse per questa lista. Chiudo auto-dandomi una pacca sulle spalle, segnalando che mercoledi' 15 avrò un piccolo spazio per presentare un lavoro di GARRLab condotto con diversi studenti proprio all'interno di GARRLab ( https://tnc22.geant.org/sessions/#s7 ) Tra l'altro, se fra i docenti universitari che seguono questa lista ci fosse qualcuno interessato a promuovere GARRLab presso i propri studenti... ovviamente la cosa ci farebbe (molto) piacere (lo status di studente è "vincolante" per la partecipazione a GARRLab...) Saluti, DV =========================================================== -------- Messaggio Inoltrato -------- Oggetto: [tf-edu] TF-EDU: TNC22 presentations about education Data: Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:07:36 +0000 Mittente: Gyöngyi Horváth <******(a)geant.org> Dear TF-EDU members, Next Monday, 13 June 2022 our annual conference begins at TNC22 in Trieste, Italy. I wanted to share with you some highlights that are education related from the conference programme. The event can be also accessed online: https://tnc22.geant.org/ ** *Tuesday, 14 June 2022:* *16:00 – 17:30 CEST* *Session: The Inevitable Covid session* *ERTL - A COVID-19 intervention for 46 Colleges of Education in Ghana* The COVID19 pandemic disrupted every system globally. Education delivery in emerging economies was hardest hit due to underdeveloped support systems and infrastructural deficits. The Government of Ghana innovated several interventions to implement emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL). The presentation focuses on specific interventions rolled out by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission in Colleges of Education. This intervention relied on the provision of new and improvement of existing Wi-Fi Connectivity in the colleges. This was also augmented with the distribution of smart mobile handsets. The intervention was aimed at leaving no student behind and dubbed “Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning”. Speakers: Anthony Dzidzornu <https://tnc22.geant.org/speakers/#302> (Ghana Tertiary Education Commission), Jacob Akunor <https://tnc22.geant.org/speakers/#303> (Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC)) *Wednesday, 15 June 2022:* *12:45 - 13:15 CEST* *Demonstration:* National platform for virtual education and analytics in Ecuador – ELSA <https://tnc22.geant.org/sessions/#s164> ELSA aims to provide a high-performance e-learning platform guided by a methodology based on active learning and assisted by learning analytics processes, which allows improving the virtual educational process of higher education institutions in Ecuador. The platform runs on CEDIA’s distributed computing infrastructure, which is based on hyper-convergence technology and has immediate response systems for failures and contingency sites. The platform has specialized data analysis components that collect data on technological, pedagogical, and communicative skills, which allows assertive decision-making at different levels. ELSA support approximately 700 thousand students enrolled during the pandemic period and is one of the main pillars in the digital transformation process of Ecuadorian universities. Presenter: Freddy Sumba (CEDIA) *16:00 – 17:30 CEST* *Session: Fixing the World* *Setting course towards digital sovereignty. How ‘public values’ can steer us towards a better world* Digital technologies are not neutral, they have the power to significantly change the way research and education institutes work. The only way in which we can meaningfully gain control over digital sovereignty is by standing strong together. NRENs can have an important role doing things differently. In this session we will sketch the urgency of the matter and present SURF’s ‘public values’ approach towards digital and academic sovereignty within the Netherlands. Let’s set course towards a better (digital) world! Speakers: Christien Bok <https://tnc22.geant.org/speakers/#142> (SURF), Corno Vromans <https://tnc22.geant.org/speakers/#494> (SURF) *16:00 – 17:30 CEST* *Session: Trusted Infrastructure in Action* *GEANT last resort solution to enables NRENs to support the digital transformation of Erasmus+* This talk reports on the work GÉANT and the NRENs undertook to scale out the MyAcademicID Service, one of the most used service in eduGAIN, the challenges faced in rolling-out a new attribute (ESI) to identify students at the European scale, the Erasmus+ IdP of last resort launched in just a few months to ensure that all students can take advantage of the digitized processes and the publication of the ESI Entity Category. MyAcademicID Service enables students to use their federated accounts to authenticate themselves to the Erasmus+ services. MyAcademicID also enables students to use their national eIDs, through eIDAS, and link them with their academic accounts. In the first year of operation, ~100K students from ~2000 HEIs from 32 countries, used MyAcademicID. Speakers: Licia Florio <https://tnc22.geant.org/speakers/#326> (GÉANT), Christos Kanellopoulos <https://tnc22.geant.org/speakers/#327> (GÉANT) *Thursday, 16 June 2022* *11:00 – 12:30 CEST* *Session: Supporting Research and Education* *Are** NREN**s** ready for digital education?* The NREN landscape highlights key trends for developing new, long term strategies for education: identifying key objectives for long term vision for the digitalization of education and how NRENs can play a role. Identifying and describing what underlying infrastructure, policies and steps are needed. One key area is flexibilization of education: institutions will need to adapt to create standardized programmes to recognize each other's course achievements across institutions and countries. Mobility of the data for achievements of students would require safe and secure access to their data while ensuring the ownership of data is with the individual and our NREN community provides the underlying infrastructure and expertise to support it. Speaker: Gyongyi Horvath (GEANT) *Collaboration opportunities* Gyöngyi identified in her presentation that a key area is flexibilization of education and that institutions will need to adapt to create standardized programmes to recognize each other's course achievements across institutions and countries. Mobility of the data for achievements of students would require safe and secure access to their data while ensuring the ownership of data is with the individual and our NREN community provides the underlying infrastructure and expertise to support it. Corno will present the result of a pilotproject on student mobility that are part Dutch Acceleration Plan that will finish by the end of this year. The usecase for this project is a student who wants to attent a couse at another university. Next he will focus on the urge to think about digitisation from a Public Value perspective, give some examples of pilot projects and calls for collaboratioin on this theme. Speaker Corno Vromans (SURF)

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A vision for a European EdTech in the digital education ecosystem
by Alessandro Brolpito June 9, 2022

June 9, 2022

A vision for a European EdTech, thinking to EdTech start-ups and SMEs, broadly indicating some hows https://digitaleducationstakeholderforum.eu/public/uploads/Time-for-action-… Alessandro

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"How a New Generation Is Combatting Digital Surveillance" (Boston Review)
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 9, 2022

June 9, 2022

*How a New Generation Is Combatting Digital Surveillance* / //Younger voices are using technology to respond to the needs of marginalized communities and nurture Black healing and liberation./ Payton Croskey Kenia Hale Nate File June 2, 2022 We’ve generally come to accept that our devices are listening to our conversations <https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/amazons-alexa-never-stops-listening…>, our personal data is being tracked and sold <https://www.wired.com/story/wired-guide-personal-data-collection/>, and that law enforcement tracks and stores images of our own faces <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/technology/facial-recognition-police.html>. But is there anything to be done about our dwindling digital privacy? While there is a growing community of people committed to protecting our privacy online, a new lab at Princeton University pays particular attention to the challenges and threats that Black and other marginalized people face under our digital surveillance state. Kenia Hale, a predoctoral fellow, and Payton Croskey, a rising senior, are members of Princeton’s Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab <https://www.thejustdatalab.com/>, where they research ways people of color can resist this surge of digital surveillance. The lab, created and led by sociologist Ruha Benjamin <https://aas.princeton.edu/people/ruha-benjamin>, “brings together students, educators, activists and artists to develop a critical and creative approach to data conception, production and circulation,” and aims to “rethink and retool the relationship between stories and statistics, power and technology, justice and data.” Hale and Croskey led a project this spring called “Liberatory Technology and Digital Marronage.” <https://www.thejustdatalab.com/tools-1/liberatory-technology-and-digital-ma…> Their team researched various technologies that reject and subvert the growing prevalence of digital surveillance, as well as technologies creating refuges from mainstream digital society. They compiled their findings into a zine <https://www.flipsnack.com/EBC8CD77C6F/liberatory-technology-zine.html> and online repository <https://github.com/kenia-hale/Liberatory-Technology-Digital-Marronage>, and are developing an app, Our Space, built off of their work. /Boston Review /Black Voices in the Public Sphere Fellow Nate File <https://bostonreview.net/authors/nate-file/> spoke with Hale and Croskey about their research, the possibilities of technologies that respond to the needs of marginalized people, and the red flag of any digital technology claiming to be neutral. [...] continua qui: https://bostonreview.net/articles/how-a-new-generation-is-combatting-digita…

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SPAM blacklisting is out of control (totally, n.d.r.)
by 380° June 9, 2022

June 9, 2022

Buonasera nexiane, executive summary: «the Ads are sent from legitimate senders, which are not on any blacklist»; chi usa una RBL danneggia anche te, digli di smettere. ci risiamo, recentemente una mia email è stata respinta dal server del mio destinatario perché l'IP del server di posta del mio provider [1] è finito in una di quelle simpatiche liste di proscrizione dette RBL (Real-time Blackhole List), tipo: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- host mailserver.del.destinatario[IP.del.mailserver] said: 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [IP.del.mio.mailserver] blocked by RBL; Blocked - see https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?IP.del.mio.mailserver (in reply to RCPT TO command) --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- in pratica il server del destinatario si rifiuta di accettare il messaggio ancora prima di verificarne "la spammosità" perché l'indirizzo IP del server di posta che uso è incluso nella RBL gestita da spamcop.net (ma ce ne sono a bizzeffe e ogni gestore può usarne una o più a sua scelta) so per certo che cose analoghe succedono regolarmente anche ad alcune nexiane come gesto simbolico propedeuto ad un insperato evento catachico del "mondo email", voglio condividere con tutti i discriminati di questo "mondo" un recente articolo che ben illustra la situazione e mi toglie le parole di bocca: https://blog.roastidio.us/posts/spam_blacklists_are_out_of_control/ «SPAM blacklisting is out of control» February 4, 2022 --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- [...] Yesterday, I suddenly found out that my IP is blacklisted! Specifically, I am on UCEPROTECTL2 and UCEPROTECTL3. I don’t SPAM, so how can it be? Did I get pwn’ed? It turns out that my server is fine. However, they think my IP is in a bad neighborhood: Someone else using the IPs from the same hosting company as I do is spamming. So what should I do? I see three options: [...] Finally, I can pay up. UCEPROTECT conveniently embedded a link to http://www.whitelisted.org/, which offers to whitelist my IP. Had I been on the whitelist, the blacklists would not concern me. [...] There is only one problem: Registration is available for 1 Month (25 CHF), 6 Month (50 CHF), 12 Month (70 CHF), 24 Month (90 CHF) To me this is highway robbery. 25 CHF per month is five times the amount I paid to my hosting company for the VPS! I got the cheap VPS because my hosting company is in a fierce competition with other hosting companies; how many whitelisting companies are out there? Did I sense monopoly? Are the blacklists that useful? [...] I know I can use a blacklist and cut down the volume of unwanted emails to my inbox, but the difference won’t be much, because the Ads are sent from legitimate senders, which are not on any blacklist. Even if they were, they surely are rich enough to pay the 25 CHF per month whitelisting fee. What is SPAM, but some form of advertisement from poor people, with questionable intentions and potentially harmful content? Now email advertising is a multi billion dollar industry, while SPAM has been demonized over the years. I can’t help to wonder if it has anything to do with the rise of big email vendors, who with no exception are Ads platforms themselves. Your “free” personal email accounts are nothing but an Ads delivery pipeline customized to exploit you. Your paid and hosted corporate email accounts are run by the same big email vendors. How much better can they be? The big email vendors love to enforce onerous rules for SPAM blocking; is it for their users, or for themselves? The problem of SPAM control boils down to the issue of signal to noise ratio that one can tolerate. More filtering leads to higher signal to noise ratio, with collateral damages such as filtering out some real signals. To me, an intelligent user armed with a good email client, one trash email would only cost me half a second to glimp through. On the other hand, if a legitimate email from a future friend or a potential business associate were accidentally blocked, the lost opportunity cost is several magnitudes higher. From a cost benefit analysis point of view, I cannot justify blacklisting IPs in my email setup; and I don’t think I am alone. If by any slim chances, you happen to be in charge of an email setup, please, don’t sink to the low of the big email vendors. IP blacklists have their place, however, please don’t use the overarching neighboring blacklists such as UCEPROTECTL2 and UCEPROTECTL3. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- ...e manco le altre, che hanno /tutte/ problemi del tutto analoghi [2] Per chi avesse voglia di "seguire il bianconiglio", questo thread su Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30222736 vi guiderà fino alla sorgente a fare due chiacchiere con l'architetto, ma prima bisogna scegliere la pillolina rossa B-) saluti, 380° [1] uno grossino, che sa il fatto suo, chi volesse lo /trovasse/ facilmente nei metatadi delle mie email; notare che - come ormai nel 99% dei casi - posso inviare solo /autenticandomi/ col mio server di posta. [2] ad esempio sorbs.net: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_and_Open_Relay_Blocking_System#False_pos… ad esempio spamcop.net: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/spamcop-anti-spam-service-su… -- 380° (Giovanni Biscuolo public alter ego) «Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché» Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice but very few check the facts. Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.

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www.commonaccord.org
by Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino June 9, 2022

June 9, 2022

CONDIVIDO UN'INIZIATIVA CHE MI SEMBRA MOLTO PROMETTENTE e UTILE per un approccio basato sul commoning. http://www.commonaccord.org/

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These 5 Charts Help Demystify the Global Chip Shortage...
by Vetro' Antonio June 9, 2022

June 9, 2022

...and reveal why even infusions of cash from the U.S. and European Union won’t solve it. https://spectrum.ieee.org/global-chip-shortage-charts Breve articolo apparso già lo scorso febbraio su IEEE Spectrum (e due mesi fa su carta), i cinque grafici sono molto esplicativi. A.

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Paper: A Genealogy of Digital Platform Regulation
by Alberto Cammozzo June 8, 2022

June 8, 2022

Raccomando questo paper, ottimo sia per l'impostazione generale e la visione, sia per il framing multidisciplinare, sia per l'esposizione. Bietti, Elettra, A Genealogy of Digital Platform Regulation (June 3, 2021). <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3859487> [...] At its core, this Article is about three themes: regulatory deadlock in digital markets, neoliberal capture, and the need to deconstruct and historicize before reconstructing and imagining new digital spaces. I discussed the specificities and limits of neoliberal visions of platform regulation, particularly that they obscure the way private digital power manifests, escapes regulatory scrutiny, and can lead to harm to humans and ecosystems in ways that partly repeat the de-regulatory and cyberutopian errors of the past. I also began to show that any vision – regardless of whether it can be characterized as libertarian, liberal, neoliberal, or critical – is partly determinative of future trajectories and partly indeterminate and malleable. In other words, each of us lawyers, activists, policy-makers, scholars, students is constrained by our context but retains agency and the ability to change states of affairs. This leads me, in this concluding section, to a few final thoughts that will serve as guiding threads for moving forward. I have emphasized throughout this Article a distinction between libertarian, liberal, and critical perspectives, and more concretely between liberal and neoliberal understandings of platform regulation on the one hand, and critical and other egalitarian and socialist understandings on the other. I identified these categories for expository clarity and to show that noble ideas such as law and freedom can be instrumentalized for wrongful purposes if we fail to pay attention to their normative roots and effects in concrete circumstances. Unless subjected to iterative and situated moral scrutiny, these ideas risk acting as empty facades that favor powerful interests. Moving forward requires a methodological shift that entails two steps. First, it is essential to look at the past – the way past visions and attempts evolved, their positive and negative repercussions – to avoid repeating mistakes and to situate oneself more precisely and contextually in a long-term process of regulatory progression. Today, because of past failures to look at history and context, the primary options on the platform regulation table fall within the neoliberal playbook. Antonio Gramsci wrote that “[a] main obstacle to change is the reproduction by the dominated forces of elements of the hegemonic ideology. It is an important and urgent task to develop alternative interpretations of reality.”[...]

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Consumer and digital groups in Europe and the U.S. call for a full ban on surveillance-based advertising - European Digital Rights (EDRi)
by Alberto Cammozzo June 8, 2022

June 8, 2022

<https://edri.org/our-work/consumer-and-digital-groups-in-europe-and-the-u-s…> On 1 June, the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), that EDRi is part of, published a policy resolution on banning surveillance-based advertising <https://tacd.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/20220601-TACD-Surveillance-base…>. The invasive practices of collecting, sharing, and processing of individual data to deliver personalized advertising, has become the primary business model in the online advertising space. Surveillance advertising is promoted by the world’s largest technology companies, like Meta (Facebook) or Alphabet (Google), and is a key driver behind the spread of misinformation, undermining democratic discourse, economic and political equity, marketplace competition, privacy, public health, and basic consumer protections. As the potential for harm vastly outweighs the potential benefits, TACD calls for a full ban on surveillance-based advertising. [..]

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The Decentralized Mystique
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 7, 2022

June 7, 2022

The Decentralized Mystique New academic research on Bitcoin’s early years undermines its foundational myths of privacy through pseudonymity and decentralization, Jaron Lanier and Glen Weyl write. https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/06/07/the-decentralized-mystique/ (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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