- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

On the Weaponization of Open Source
by Vetro' Antonio April 3, 2022

April 3, 2022

"My problem is that this weaponization is killing off trust. I think the temptation of using open source projects as weapons against Russia should be resisted because it sets a dangerous precedent and may ultimately set back the open source movement and push organizations back into seeking refuge in commercial software with all its opaqueness and obscurity." https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/community-voices/on-the-wea…

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BMJ 2022;376:o702: The illusion of evidence based medicine
by 380° April 3, 2022

April 3, 2022

Buongiorno nexiane, sarà OT qui? «The illusion of evidence based medicine» (di sicuro l'illusione non è limitata alla medicina, n.d.r) BMJ 2022; 376 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o702 (Published 16 March 2022) https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o702 Questi alcuni estratti arbitrariamente selezionati da me, ma l'articolo non può essere riassunto. --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Evidence based medicine has been corrupted by corporate interests, failed regulation, and commercialisation of academia, argue these authors The advent of evidence based medicine was a paradigm shift intended to provide a solid scientific foundation for medicine. The validity of this new paradigm, however, depends on reliable data [...] The release into the public domain of previously confidential pharmaceutical industry documents has given the medical community valuable insight into the degree to which industry sponsored clinical trials are misrepresented. Until this problem is corrected, evidence based medicine will remain an illusion. The philosophy of critical rationalism, advanced by the philosopher Karl Popper, famously advocated for the integrity of science and its role in an open, democratic society. [...] Scientific progress is thwarted by the ownership of data and knowledge because industry suppresses negative trial results, fails to report adverse events, and does not share raw data with the academic research community. [...] The pharmaceutical industry’s responsibility to its shareholders means that priority must be given to their hierarchical power structures, product loyalty, and public relations propaganda over scientific integrity. [...] As a result, university departments become instruments of industry: through company control of the research agenda and ghostwriting of medical journal articles and continuing medical education, academics become agents for the promotion of commercial products. [...] The corporate university also compromises the concept of academic leadership. Deans who reached their leadership positions by virtue of distinguished contributions to their disciplines have in places been replaced with fundraisers and academic managers, who are forced to demonstrate their profitability or show how they can attract corporate sponsors. [...] for example, physicians are selected based on their influence on prescribing habits of other physicians. [...] Ironically, industry sponsored KOLs (key opinion leaders, n.d.r.) appear to enjoy many of the advantages of academic freedom, supported as they are by their universities, the industry, and journal editors for expressing their views, even when those views are incongruent with the real evidence. While universities fail to correct misrepresentations of the science from such collaborations, critics of industry face rejections from journals, legal threats, and the potential destruction of their careers. [...] Regulators receive funding from industry and use industry funded and performed trials to approve drugs, without in most cases seeing the raw data. [...] Unconcerned governments and captured regulators are unlikely to initiate necessary change to remove research from industry altogether and clean up publishing models that depend on reprint revenue, advertising, and sponsorship revenue. Our proposals for reforms include: [...] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Ometto le proposte di riforma degli autori (se vi interessano potete facilmente trovarle voi) perché mi interessano veramente poco, è la diagnosi che conta, ma che è ancora /ampiamente/ ignorata, contrastata, misconosciuta e perfino negata: la "evidence based"-qualcosa è **una illusione**, la scienza (la medicina è scienza?!?) è /altra cosa/ (con buona pace di Popper e dei positivisti, ma non divaghiamo) Saluti, 380° P.S.: per una analisi, completa di comoda rappresentazione grafica, su quali sono i meccanismi e gli "input" attraverso i quali si giunga alla illusione scientifica (chiamata scientific halucination nel testo) si veda https://nooscope.ai/ -- 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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Contra Chrome
by Giacomo Tesio April 2, 2022

April 2, 2022

Hi, my nae is Scott McCloud! I'm a cartoonist and comics scholar. Back in 2008, I created a comic book for GOOGLE explaining the inner working of their soon-to-be-released new browser Chrome. The comic was a web phenomenon when for two days it was the only source of information on this major software release. But now that we're entering the 2020s, be and the good folks at Google had the same feeling: Chrome has changed so much that we owe you guys an update. [...] In fact you don't even have to push RETURN at all. From the moment you begin to type [nella barra degli indirizzi/omnibox], everythig is instantly syphoned off. (we jokingly call this Chrome's "no return policy") Let's take a moment here to sink in: ALL those words you might deem TOO SENSITIVE to even TYPE -- your ex's name, an abortion clinic, that group therapy idea -- before you even DECIDED whether to send them, Google has already EXTRACTED them, your doubts, your hesitations. [...] And the Google Assistant, Google's answer to Alexa, will not function properly until you have granted Google access to your browsing history. It won't even respond to "What time is it?" until you feed all of your browsing history and contacts. Though it is still LISTENING, of course, then still RECORDING everything you SAY. Continua su https://contrachrome.com/ Un fumetto davvero molto chiaro ed istruttivo. Gli articoli di approfondimento (pagina 28 e 29) potrebbero essere tratti dalla lista Nexa, ma in realtà ne ho trovati anche alcuni che non conoscevo. Ne consiglio caldamente la lettura. Giacomo

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i gravi limiti del software libero (was: André Gorz, "L’ideologia sociale dell'automobile" (1973))
by Giacomo Tesio April 1, 2022

April 1, 2022

Ciao Andrea, On Fri, 25 Mar 2022 14:30:03 +0100 Andrea Trentini wrote: > > Il software libero, sin dalla sua definizione, soffre dei limiti > > culturali del contesto in cui è nato. > > questi limiti mi sfuggono... Ahimé, non solo a te! Il limite più grave è stato l'inconsapevole confusione di RMS nell'identificare il valore alla base del movimento del software libero, che ne ha determinato il nome. Una bella intervista che ripropone quel processo è quella di Rob Lucas, del 2018 [1] ``` I was inspired by the attitude at the mitai Lab, where the hackers said: ‘We’re not going to let the administrators tell us how to do things; we’re going to work on what they need, but we will decide how; and we won’t let them implement computer security to restrict us with.’ This was a conscious decision of the hackers who had written the time-sharing system, which they’d started a couple of years before I got there. Their attitude was, yes, the administrators could fire us, but we were not going to suck up to them. [...] We were there because we were free to improve the system and do useful things, the way we wanted to, and not be treated like people who had to obey all the time. [...] Minsky, I was told, didn’t like having doors locked, because he had a tendency to lose his keys. So the doors to the Lab and all the offices inside it were always open. There were no passwords for the time-sharing system. There was no file protection—literally: anybody could sit down at any console and do anything. [...] The point is that when people share a computer, either they do so as a community, where they trust each other and resolve disputes, or it’s run like a police state, where there are a few who are the masters, who exercise total power over everyone else. [...] we developed a culture of welcoming everyone to come and work on everything, and share. So, we resisted security measures. Anyone could look at anyone else’s terminal through the system. But the kids, teenagers coming in over the internet—Arpanet, as it was then—they would watch, and they would learn things. ``` RMS descrive una comunità che condivideva l'accesso al PDP-10, in equilibrio dinamico su 3 valori: - libertà - comunione - curiosità RMS poi continua: ``` # So they could watch people programming? Yes, they could. Our way of dealing with kids coming in over Arpanet was to socialize them. We all participated in that. For example, there was a command you could type to tell the system to shut down in five minutes. The kids sometimes did that, and when they did we just cancelled the shutdown. They were amazed. They would read about this command and think, surely it’s not going to work, and would type it—and get an immediate notification: ‘The system is shutting down in five minutes because of . . . ’ # It sounds like chaos. Except it wasn’t, you see. There was always a real user, who would just cancel the shutdown and say to that person, ‘Why did you try to shut the machine down? You know we’re here using it. You only do that if there’s a good reason.’ And the thing is, a lot of those people felt outcast by society—they were geeks; their families and their fellow students didn’t understand them; they had nobody. And we welcomed them into the community and invited them to learn and start to do some useful work. It was amazing for them not to be treated as trash. ``` Nella sua formulazione del software libero, sin dalla scelta del nome valore fondamentale, RMS ha involontariamente infuso la propaganda politica USA di quegli anni di guerra fredda. E così comunità e curiosità sono sparite ed è rimasta solo la libertà, un valore importantissimo, ma purtroppo da un lato totalizzante dall'altro ambiguo, perché può essere limitato ad una prospettiva completamente individualista, mentre il software libero non può esistere senza una comunità. Ma il vero valore fondante dell'etica hacker è la curiosità, il desiderio di sperimentare, creare, acquisire nuove conoscenze. E' sempre la curiosità che spinge un hacker a creare qualcosa di nuovo. Inoltre la curiosità NON è un valore totalizzante, non si può giustificare una guerra con la curiosità, mentre innumerevoli carneficine sono state combattute sia in nome della libertà che in nome della comunione. E ce li ritroviamo a scontrarsi in vari modi ancora oggi, nelle loro banalizzazioni novecentesche: liberismo vs comunismo. Il primo fondamentale errore di RMS è stato fondare il software libero sulla libertà invece che sulla curiosità, sul desiderio di conoscere e creare cose nuove, da cui derivano sia il bisogno di libertà che quello di comunità/comunione. A sua discolpa c'è che era Americano, nato, cresciuto ed educato a pane e propaganda da guerra fredda. Questo peccato originale però ha reso il software libero vulnerabile e ne hanno approfittato rapidamente le aziende, con l'invenzione dell'open source e la diffusione delle licenze permissive. Negli anni innumerevoli tecniche sono state inventate per privatizzare il software libero, per sottrarre di fatto agli utenti le libertà che il software libero intendeva garantire loro. Le licenze permissive, in primis, che rendono banale l'embrace, extend, extinguish (vedi WhatsApp con XMMP, come esempio). Il SaaSS, che la AGPLv3 ha rinunciato a gestire [2]. E ultimo ma non meno importante, la violazione automatizzata delle licenze copyleft da parte di GitHub CopyALot^W Copilot (e future incarnazioni). E poi Tivoitization, DRM, patenti, incremento artificiale della complessità del software... Sulla privacy, che pure è precondizione della libertà degli utenti, il software libero non ha ricette. Ed infondo, le 4 libertà si stanno riducendo a privilegi DA ANNI! Quanti di noi sanno leggere il software libero che utilizzano? Quanti hanno il tempo di farlo? Il software libero perde terreno da anni. Perché? Vi sono molte ragioni naturalmente, ma tutte sono riconducibili a quel singolo peccato originale. La libertà senza comunione caratterizza l'individuo senza comunità. Ma gli individui, soli, soccombono ad un'industria forte, ben organizzata e soprattutto politicamente consapevole. Gli hacker vengono usati e poi marginalizzati. E quando alzano la testa dal pc, tutti a strapparsi le vesti. Questi sono i gravi limiti del software libero. Dobbiamo andare oltre, superarli. Eventualmente cambiare definizioni. O del software libero non resterà che una "F" in "OSS" Giacomo PS: comunque alla fine Andrea, non so se ho vinto o perso il caffé! :-) On Fri, 25 Mar 2022 14:30:03 +0100 Andrea Trentini wrote: > > Scommetto un caffé che la tua risposta a questo quesito non sarebbe > > troppo diversa da quella di Gorz rispetto alla città a misura di > > auto. > > > > Mi sbaglio? > > sbagli nel senso che non vedo un parallelo, semmai un antiparallelo ecco il tuo parallelo: > non devo essere obbligato a possederli per esercitare i miei > diritti di cittadinanza Gorz nel 1973 diceva, dell'auto, proprio questo. [1] https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii113/articles/richard-stallman-talking-to… [2] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html

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"US, EU sign data transfer deal to ease privacy concerns"
by J.C. DE MARTIN April 1, 2022

April 1, 2022

/"Business groups hailed the announcement, saying it will provide relief to thousands of companies, including tech giants like Google and Facebook, that faced uncertainty over their ability to send data between the U.S. and Europe, which has much stricter regulations on data privacy. Data may be related to employees or customers and users, and companies use it for all types of online advertising, purchases and communications.// // //The agreement came hours after EU officials agreed on sweeping new digital rules to rein in the power of big tech companies such as Facebook and Google."// / Dai, è di sicuro solo una coincidenza! juan carlos *US, EU sign data transfer deal to ease privacy concerns** * By KELVIN CHAN and CHRIS MEGERIAN BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and United States made a breakthrough in their yearslong battle over the privacy of data that flows across the Atlantic with a preliminary agreement Friday that paves the way for Europeans’ personal information to be stored in the U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal during Biden’s stop in Brussels while on a European tour amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. [...] continua qui: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-technology-business-united-…

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"Les Américains pourront accéder à toutes les données personnelles des Européens" Eric Denécé
by J.C. DE MARTIN April 1, 2022

April 1, 2022

*"Les Américains pourront accéder à toutes les données personnelles des Européens" Eric Denécé* Publié le 30/03/2022 à 19:27 - Mise à jour le 31/03/2022 à 17:31 Dans cet entretien essentiel, nous avons reçu Eric Denécé, directeur du Centre français de recherche sur le renseignement, afin qu’il commente l’accord sur le transfert vers les États-Unis des données personnelles des Européens conclu lors du sommet européen du 25 mars entre la présidente de la Commission Ursula von der Leyen et le président américain Joe Biden. « C’est passé quasiment inaperçu », déplore le politologue, qui nous livre également son analyse sur la crise russo-ukrainienne. Eric Denécé commence par rappeler qu’un premier échange sur le transfert des données personnelles des citoyens en Europe vers les États-Unis avait été invalidé par la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne en juillet 2020. Celle-ci avait estimé que les garanties de sécurité en matière de traitement des données n’étaient pas respectées aux États-Unis en vertu, notamment, de la loi américaine sur le Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Par ce texte, « les Américains peuvent piocher dans les données que nous leur transmettons comme ils le veulent en utilisant l’argument de la sécurité nationale, ce qui ouvre la porte à tous les abus », alerte le politologue qui juge qu’Ursula von der Leyen a profité de la crise ukrainienne pour adopter cet accord, pourtant inéquitable. Il le rappelle : « Il n’y a pas de réciprocité des données avec les Américains. » Et d’insister sur le bénéfice que ces derniers pourront en tirer : « On sait que toutes les écoutes de la NSA faites depuis 2002 au titre de la lutte contre le terrorisme ont servi à la guerre économique et non pas à la lutte contre les attentats. » [...] continua qui: https://www.francesoir.fr/videos-lentretien-essentiel/eric-denece

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André Gorz, "L’ideologia sociale dell'automobile" (1973)
by J.C. DE MARTIN March 31, 2022

March 31, 2022

Nella mia ignoranza ho scoperto solo da poco questo articolo del 1973 di André Gorz, intitolato: "L’ideologia sociale dell'automobile": https://www.slow-news.com/lideologia-sociale-della-macchina/ Lo condivido in questa sede anche se non parla di digitale perché mi sembra metodologicamente utile quando si riflette di tecnologia (digitale incluso). Mi scuso con chi già conosce il testo. jc

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‘Globally significant’ AI Act must recognise those affected by AI, says the Ada Lovelace Institute
by Enrico Nardelli March 31, 2022

March 31, 2022

- Ada is recommending amendments to ensure that those affected by AI are recognised and empowered in the AI Act. - Centring those affected by AI, Ada recommends enshrining legal rights for complaint and collective action and giving civil society a voice within standards setting. - Ada recommends expanding and reshaping the role of risk in the Act. Risk should be based on ‘reasonably foreseeable’ purpose and extended beyond individual rights and safety, to also include systemic and environmental risks. The Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent research institute based in the UK and Brussels, has today published a series of proposed amendments to the EU AI Act aimed at recognising and empowering those affected by AI, expanding and reshaping the meaning of ‘risk’ and accurately reflecting the nature of AI systems and their lifecycle. As the first comprehensive attempt in the world to regulate AI, the Act has the potential to become a global standard in the regulation of AI and serve as inspiration for other legislative initiatives around the world. Ada recommends empowering people by building ‘affected persons’ into the Act and enshrining their legal rights for complaint and collective action. The voice of civil society should also be increased by building representation for civil society organisations into the EU standards-setting process, which to date has had to tackle technical rather than societal issues. Risk forms the foundation of the AI Act, and Ada is proposing changes to both how risk is determined in the Act and to its categories of risk. The amendments recommend establishing a process for adding new types of AI to the ‘high risk’ list and assessing risk based on the ‘reasonably foreseeable purpose’ of AI systems, rather than their ‘intended purpose’. ... The policy briefing builds on an expert legal opinion commissioned by the Ada Lovelace Institute and authored by Professor Lilian Edwards, a leading academic in the field of internet law, which addresses substantial questions about AI regulation in Europe and looks towards a global standard. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/press-release/ai-act-must-recognise-th… -- EN ===================================================================== Prof. Enrico Nardelli Direttore Laboratorio Nazionale "Informatica e Scuola" del CINI Dipartimento di Matematica - Universita' di Roma "Tor Vergata" Via della Ricerca Scientifica snc - 00133 Roma tel: +39 06 7259.4204 fax: +39 06 7259.4699 mobile: +39 335 590.2331 e-mail: nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it online meeting: https://blue.meet.garr.it/b/enr-y7f-t0q-ont home page: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~nardelli blog: http://link-and-think.blogspot.it/ ===================================================================== --

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Re: [nexa] Bologna: citizen wallet
by Giuseppe Attardi March 31, 2022

March 31, 2022

Una follia: la illustra bene l’episodio “Nose Dive” di Black Mirror. — Beppe > On 30 Mar 2022, at 20:24, <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> wrote: > > From: 380° <g380(a)biscuolo.net <mailto:g380@biscuolo.net>> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] Bologna: citizen wallet > Message-ID: <87tubfd52t.fsf(a)xelera.eu <mailto:87tubfd52t.fsf@xelera.eu>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Buongiorno nexiane, > > https://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/politica/22_marzo_29/bologna-… <https://corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/politica/22_marzo_29/bologna-…> > > Bologna, la «patente digitale» per i cittadini virtuosi: punti e > premi. E un’app con tutti i servizi > > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- > > L’idea è simile al meccanismo di «una raccolta punti del supermercato», > come sottolinea lo stesso assessore. «Il cittadino avrà un > riconoscimento se differenzia i rifiuti, se usa i mezzi pubblici, se > gestisce bene l’energia, se non prende sanzioni dalla municipale, se > risulta attivo con la Card cultura». Comportamenti virtuosi che > corrisponderanno a un punteggio che i bolognesi potranno poi «spendere» > in premi in via di definizione: «Scontistiche Tper, Hera, attività > culturali e così via». > > La sperimentazione dell’app dopo l’estate > > Il progetto del citizen wallet partirà in via sperimentale dopo > l’estate, ma resta il nodo della privacy e delle resistenze che potrebbe > incontrare tra i cittadini. «Ovviamente nessuno sarà costretto a > partecipare, chi vuole darà il consenso scaricando e utilizzando > un’apposita applicazione, io credo saranno in tanti ad aderire», > scommette l’assessore pentastellato, che punta ad allargare il più > possibile i vantaggi per i cittadini virtuosi: «Vogliamo fargli capire > che non sono degli “sfigati” ma che i loro comportamenti vengono > premiati». > > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- > > Saluti, 380° > > -- > 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 <https://stallmansupport.org/>>.

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Apple, Meta gave customer data to hackers posing as law enforcement
by Giuseppe Attardi March 31, 2022

March 31, 2022

Apple and Meta Platforms provided customer data such as addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses to hackers who posed as law enforcement officials, Bloomberg reported <https://email-st.seekingalpha.com/click/27206446.33775/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmxv…>. The news outlet, citing three people familiar with the situation, reported that the tech giants gave the information in the middle of last year to a fraudulent "emergency data request." These requests generally are accompanied by a search warrant or subpoena, but emergency requests do not need court orders, Bloomberg added. Snap was also the recipient of a forged request, but it is not clear if the Evan Spiegel-led company complied and responded. Apple, Snap and Meta Platforms did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha, but Apple pointed Bloomberg to the law enforcement guidelines posted on its website <https://email-st.seekingalpha.com/click/27206446.33775/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXBw…>. "If a government or law enforcement agency seeks customer data in response to an Emergency Government & Law Enforcement Information Request, a supervisor for the government or law enforcement agent who submitted the Emergency Government & Law Enforcement Information Request may be contacted and asked to confirm to Apple that the emergency request was legitimate," the guideline states. It's unclear who the hackers were, but some cybersecurity researchers have speculated that it could be a group of minors in the U.S. and U.K. and may be one of members of the Lapsus$ group that hacked Nvidia <https://email-st.seekingalpha.com/click/27206446.33775/aHR0cDovL3NlZWtpbmdh…>, Microsoft <https://email-st.seekingalpha.com/click/27206446.33775/aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWVraW5n…> and Samsung <https://email-st.seekingalpha.com/click/27206446.33775/aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWVraW5n…> in recent weeks. Bloomberg added that the information obtained by the hackers was used to carry out harassment campaigns, citing one of the people. The three people also noted that the information could have been used to commit financial fraud. It's likely that the requests were sent via hacked email domains that allowed the fraudsters access to law enforcement agencies in multiple countries and created the requests using templates. Bloomberg also reported that Discord, an instant messaging platform, was also the recipient of a fraudulent legal request and the company told the news outlet it had complied with the request. On Wednesday, Apple started allowing certain apps, including Netflix and Spotify, to allow sign-up links that point outside Apple's App Store. <https://email-st.seekingalpha.com/click/27206446.33775/aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWVraW5n…>

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