- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks
by J.C. DE MARTIN Sept. 26, 2021

Sept. 26, 2021

https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out-insi… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Worker surveillance rises as more companies offer remote work options - The Washington Post
by Alberto Cammozzo Sept. 25, 2021

Sept. 25, 2021

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/24/remote-work-from-home-…> When Kerrie Krutchik, an attorney for 34 years, was hired this spring for one of the legal field’s fastest-growing jobs, she expected to review case files at a pandemic-safe distance from the comfort of her Ohio home. Then she received a laptop in the mail with her instructions: To get paid, she’d have to comply with a company-mandated facial recognition system for every minute of her contract. If she looked away for too many seconds or shifted in her chair, she’d have to scan her face back in from three separate angles, a process she ended up doing several times a day. For Krutchik, the laptop’s unblinking little camera light quickly became a nightmare — and a reminder of what her new work day might look like even after the pandemic fades. After two weeks, she ended her contract and pledged never to consent to that kind of monitoring again. “It’s just this constant, unnecessary, nerve-racking stress: You’re trying to concentrate and in the back of your mind you know you’re on camera the entire time,” she said. “While you’re reviewing a document, you don’t know who is reviewing you.” The spread of the delta variant has kept many of America’s office employees working from home and fueled a rise in surveillance technologies by employers — in finance, law, technology and other industries — eager to keep tabs on their remote workforce. The facial recognition monitoring Krutchik experienced offers one of the stranger examples of America’s massive work-from-home experiment, because it relies on a glitchy and, to some, quite creepy camera system built to ensure workers don’t lose focus or break the rules. The adoption of the technology coincides with an increase in companies’use of more traditional monitoring software <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/30/work-from-home-surveil…>, which can track an employee’s computer keystrokes, take screenshots and in some cases record audio or video while they are working from home. Sometimes, this is done without their knowledge, which means companies have the potential to gain access to employees’ private details like banking or health information. Workers have little power to control how and when they’re being monitored, especially if they are using work-issued devices. Experts advise workers to assume they are being monitored if they’re in the office or using company equipment, and recommend they read the fine print when in comes to employee contracts. Market research firm Gartner**says companies used more surveillance tools during the coronavirus <https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_14> pandemic to keep tabs on employees and monitor work productivity. The number of large employers using tools to track their workers doubled since the beginning of the pandemic to 60 percent. That number is expected**to rise to 70 percent within the next three years, said Brian Kropp, chief of human resources research at Gartner. Federal government to expand use of facial recognition despite growing concerns <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/25/federal-facial-recogni…> And the software**is expected to become even**more sophisticated, telling employers how to turn the data they collect into actionable measures to drive the business. Soon it might do things like tell managers how employees work together via Zoom, understand who the main contributors are and how specific patterns may lead to specific results. “That’s going to be the evolution of the monitoring,” Kropp said. Companies say the tracking offers a critical way to ensure theiremployees are staying productive <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/30/work-from-home-surveil…>and telling the truth about how much they work when their bosses are many miles away. Some employers have voiced concerns that, without the monitoring, their workers might cut corners or pursue multiple jobs simultaneously, depriving them of the focus and labor they need to stay competitive in the remote-work era. Help Desk: Ask our tech team your tech questions <https://hosted-washpost.submissionplatform.com/sub/hosted/5c780829031087003…> Brad Edward, CEO of Spekless Cleaning in Arlington, VA, said he has been using monitoring software from Hubstaff at his company for about five years. The reason? He needs a reliable time tracking system for his local and remote office workers who help with operations. But Spekless is not interested in checking on exactly what employees are doing throughout the day because Edward believes privacy is an important part of the employer-employee relationship. “Ultimately as an employer your goal is to foster a culture of collaboration and mutual trust,” he said. “These tools can either work with you or against you, depending on how you use them.” Still, many workers say they are increasingly worried about the level of surveillance. David, who spoke on the condition that his last name remain anonymous, was working as a customer service agent for a financial tech company in Utah when the pandemic started, and he was sent to work from home. Last fall, after his company switched the software it asked employees to use on their work-issued computers, he was randomly clicking around the system trying to figure out how to get where he needed to be. Suddenly, his boss started speaking to him through his headset, instructing him on how to log in. David said he couldn’t recall exactly what software the company used, but he was surprised to find that his boss could see what he was doing, a seemingly new capability at the company. “I was upstairs with my boys, and I get a text from my husband (David) that said, ‘If you come down here, don’t say anything and let me know because we’re being listened to,’” said David’s wife, Rebekah. When David brought the issue up at a company meeting, he found out the company could listen to his audio at any time, not just during calls that are often monitored for quality purposes. But now David was at home with his wife and children. The situation had changed, but the monitoring had not adapted to the privacy he expected while working from home. “[I felt] paralyzed,” David said. “Like I couldn’t say anything without potential repercussions.” Within a month of the discovery, David quit his job. Ashley, who spoke on the condition of being identified only by her first name to avoid employment repercussions, said the banking start-up she was working for in New York implemented surveillance software about 10 days after the company sent employees to work from home last year. The company asked them to download Hubstaff, a software program that tracks productivity in part by recording keystrokes and taking screenshots, on their personal computers. The request was out of the question for Ashley, who was**furloughed for refusing to download the software before getting a new job altogether. “I have so much information on my computer: my banking information, my passwords, my email that has stuff from my doctors,” she said. “I just wouldn’t want my employers to have access to this.” While she tried to take up the issue with human resources, she saw a change in how her colleagues worked. The company expected employees to have an 85 percent or higher “activity level,” which is calculated based on keystrokes and mouse movement. Anyone who didn’t meet expectations was docked pay. To avoid that, Ashley said her co-workers began sending each other more messages to meet their keystrokes rather than lose time thinking through a complex problem. “People just stopped caring [about the job],” she said. The tension between employees and employers around the level of monitoring comes down to trust and transparency, experts say. If employees aren’t given the full details of when and how they’re monitored and if they don’t feel trusted at work, they’re more likely to refuse monitoring of any kind regardless of the purpose. “Employers have to be upfront and honest about the extent of the monitoring,” said John Verdi, vice president of policy at data privacy-focused think tank Future of Privacy Forum, which is funded by Big Tech companies including Facebook and Google. “And employees have to be upfront and honest about what they view is their obligation in their jobs.” Attorneys required to use the new face-scanning software <https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/08/dangers-facial-recognitio…> while working from home said they understood the need for security because reviewing sensitive documents is part of the job. But many felt the remote-work surveillance had gone too far. The facial recognition systems, they said, felt intrusive, dysfunctional or annoying, booting them out of their work software if they shifted in their seat, rested their eyes, adjusted their glasses, wore a headband or necklace, went to the bathroom or had a child walk through their room. Even more problematically, some facial recognition systems have been shown in research to perform worse with people of color because the algorithms are less accurate at identifying people with darker skin tones. That leaves many attorneys fearful that they could be penalized due to the color of their skin. Three attorneys, all of whom are Black, said they’d routinely struggled to be recognized by the face-scanning systems in a way that their lighter-skinned colleagues did not. Several couldn’t help but note the irony that their careers in consumer privacy and employment law had led them to a role they felt pushed the boundaries on both. “The true currency an attorney has is trust … and the technology they’re using to monitor what attorneys are doing puts that trust into question,” said Gerald Edwards, a New York City attorney practicing since 1994. “Are you even trusting me at all, that you have to watch me and monitor me like a 4-year-old?” Experts say monitoring often doesn’t accomplish management’s goals unless leaders set clear-cut, realistic objectives customized to each team and its needs. But the pandemic triggered panic among many companies that suddenly had to allow their employees to work from home for the first time. “It seems like a lot of people confused monitoring with management,” said Alison Green, work advice columnist who runs the Ask a Manager website and received numerous complaints about employee surveillance during the pandemic. “You don’t always need this level of micromanaging.” Laszlo Bock, CEO and co-founder of human resource software service Humu and former Google executive, said the pandemic created a sudden instinct in leaders to increase the level of control as workers went remote. “The paradox is every manager is also an employee, and they have a manager,” he said. “If you ask [managers] what they want from their manager, it’s to stay out of their way.” Legally, employers usually have the upper hand when it comes to monitoring, said Marta Manus, an attorney at San Diego-based Marble Law Firm. Often, employees are unaware that the policies they sign upon their hiring include terms that cover work surveillance such as monitoring through laptop cameras or computer software. Manus said employees should be wary and ask for specifics about any monitoring policy as well as who will have access to that data. But if workers hope to sue their employers for invasion of privacy, they have the burden to prove damages. “If it’s a company device, you have zero expectation of privacy,” she said. “If it’s a personal device, as long as there are clear policies in place in favor of monitoring for work purposes, the law is going to permit it.” Employee monitoring software provider Teramind says its number of customers has increased by three to four times during the pandemic. And many small and midsize employers who were on the fence about purchasing the software at the beginning of the pandemic are now making the purchase as they move to permanent remote work options. Teramind has two versions of monitoring software, one in which employees know they’re being monitored and can switch on or off, and one where employers have control of the monitoring. Eli Sutton, Teramind’s vice president of operations, said the company advises its clients to tell their employees that they’re using the software as well as explain the productivity goals. The knowledge alone on average translates into a 30 percent spike in productivity versus secretly monitoring employees, Sutton said. The reason is because employees know what specific goals they have to reach and that they’re being monitored for those goals, he said. Hubstaff said it logged a record month in March 2020, and since the beginning of the pandemic, customers have increased by 40 percent. Currently, more than 70,000 companies and organizations use Hubstaff. But Hubstaff said most employers want their employees to understand how the software works and know what’s being tracked. [...]

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'Chilling': Facial recognition firm Clearview AI hits watchdog groups with subpoenas - POLITICO
by Alberto Cammozzo Sept. 25, 2021

Sept. 25, 2021

<https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/24/clearview-ai-subpoena-watchdog-gro…> Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition company that scrapes public images from social media to aid law enforcement probes, has subpoenaed internal documents from some of the groups that first exposed its activities. The firm served subpoenas in August to civil society coalition Open The Government, its policy analyst Freddy Martinez and the police accountability nonprofit that he’d previously founded, Lucy Parsons Labs — demanding any correspondence they’d had with journalists about Clearview and its leaders, as well as information they’d uncovered about the company and its founders in public records requests, over the last four years. The subpoenas, obtained by POLITICO, could draw the groups into lengthy court battles and, they argue, dissuade others from taking on Clearview or other companies working on potentially problematic technologies. David Brody, counsel and senior fellow for privacy and technology at the nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the move could be seen as an attempt to deter the advocacy groups, and journalists, from future investigations. “To use legal process to try to silence critics — silence people that are just trying to get transparency about how our criminal justice system is operating and what tools are being used by law enforcement agencies — that's pretty problematic,” Brody said. Open the Government and MuckRock shared their research about police use of surveillance — including Clearview’s technology — with the New York Times, and the paper published several reports last year <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-reco…> detailing the startup’s work with law enforcement. Authorities have been using Clearview’s software for several years to try to match images in government databases and surveillance footage with billions of personal photos posted to the internet. Privacy, human rights and civil liberties advocates have long raised alarm about the technology as both intrusive and biased. It has been shown <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/technology/facial-recognition-bias.html> to disproportionately misidentify women and people of color. Clearview's attorney Andrew J. Lichtman said in a statement that “Clearview AI is vigorously defending itself against claims in multi-district litigation and therefore has served subpoenas to appropriate parties relating to its defense.” That litigation is a privacy case in Illinois district court that does not appear to involve Open The Government, Martinez or Lucy Parsons Labs. Clearview did not respond to a question on how the communications with journalists were relevant to the Illinois case. Brody said it can be a taxing and expensive process to contest a subpoena — and that can be especially troublesome for nonprofits and smaller advocacy organizations without the legal or financial might to fight it off. Lisa Rosenberg, executive director of Open the Government, argued it’s a way for Clearview to threaten critics. "They presumably have massive amounts of resources at their disposal; we do not,” Rosenberg said in an interview, adding that “nonprofits could potentially be bullied by Clearview." Open the Government has secured pro bono legal representation from the firm Ballard Spahr. It was not immediately clear whether other advocates or civil society groups that have been outspoken about Clearview were targeted with subpoenas. Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that litigates and advocates against government mass surveillance, argued the subpoenas could intimidate or undermine watchdog groups like his. “There is absolutely no justification for a vendor to be able to target civil society groups; we know just how chilling that can be,” he said. Rosenberg also called the subpoenas “a backhanded way” of targeting journalists’ sources. “If a court did make us turn over those records, that precedent would be terrifying for First Amendment reasons,” she said. Journalists “would have to be worried that you could maybe protect your sources, but your sources couldn't protect themselves.” Clearview**Founder Hoan Ton-That has stood by his “search engine for faces <https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2020/02/10/clearview-ai-facial-recognit…>,”emphasizing that <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clearview-ai-google-youtube-send-cease-and-des…> Clearview uses only publicly available photos and arguing that there is a First Amendment right to public information. MOST READ Sen. Joe Manchin arrives to chair the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. <https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/25/democrats-bill-joe-manchin-514152> 1. As Dems race forward, Manchin pumps brakes: ‘There is no timeline’ <https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/25/democrats-bill-joe-manchin-514152> 2. ‘The No. 1 issue’: Trump whips up election falsehoods after flawed Arizona report <https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/24/trump-election-falsehoods-arizona-…> 3. ‘You’ve disgraced this country’: Judge rips Capitol riot defendant <https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/24/judge-rips-capitol-riot-defendant-…> 4. Opinion | The Roots of Democratic Disarray <https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/25/biden-agenda-democrats-co…> 5. Opinion | Why the Fear of Trump May Be Overblown <https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/24/why-the-fear-of-trump-may…> Public backlash to the technology has prompted tech giants like Microsoft and IBM to pull out of the market for good, and Amazon has halted police use of its Rekognition product indefinitely to give Congress time <https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/we-are-implementing-a-on…> to implement safeguards. But federal laws governing the technology are far off, and momentum on the issue seen last Congress has largely petered out. And even as action to regulate or ban the technology grows at the state and local levels, an August report <https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-526> from the Government Accountability Office shows that almost half of federal agencies plan to expand their use of facial recognition in the next two years. At the same time, Clearview is building up its presence in Washington. The company hired its first lobbyistsearlier this year <https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2021/05/10/k-street…>, bringing on Klein/Johnson Group, which was started by aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to provide “education” about facial recognition software, according to a disclosure filing.

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Björn Brembs sul capitalismo della sorveglianza nella ricerca accademica
by MORRIELLO ROSSANA Sept. 25, 2021

Sept. 25, 2021

In questa lista di parla spesso del "capitalismo della sorveglianza" ma raramente declinato in ambito di ricerca accademica. Un recente articolo di Björn Brembs spiega bene come i grossi editori scientifici commerciali si stiano spostando dall'editoria all'analisi e capitalizzazione dei dati http://bjoern.brembs.net/2021/09/algorithmic-employment-decisions-in-academ… Un saluto Rossana Morriello

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Nasce Idmo, un osservatorio per distinguere il vero dal falso.
by 380° Sept. 24, 2021

Sept. 24, 2021

Buongiorno, Executive summary: EDMO, di cui fa parte IDMO, combatterà la disinformazione in (per ora) otto paesi UE insegnando ai cittadini - che hanno la cattiva abitudine di non fidarsi della scienza, della stampa e dei loro governi - a distinguere il vero dal falso; la campagna si avvarrà anche di avanzati strumenti di AI, che coadiuveranno l'Osservatorio nel suo compito di aiutare a diffondere notizie sempre certificate. (se non vi fidate del mio executive summary fate bene, leggete l'articolo) «Nasce Idmo, un osservatorio per distinguere il vero dal falso. Gentiloni: "La disinformazione mina la democrazia"» https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/nasce-idmo-un-osservatorio-per-distingu… --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Nasce l’Italian Digital Media Observatory dell’Unione Europea, l’osservatorio ideato dalla Commissione Europea con l’obiettivo di costituire un punto di riferimento per l’analisi e il contrasto alla disinformazione. [...] Il coordinatore dell’evento Gianni Riotta, [...] “Lavoreremo per insegnare a distinguere il vero dal falso” – ha dichiarato – “e se qualcuno pensa che il problema non sia diffuso basti pensare che il 20% dei cittadini americani non crede alla scienza, il 50% dei cittadini britannici non crede alla stampa insieme al 48% degli americani e il 42% degli inglesi pensa che il governo menta. [...] [1] Gli hub nazionali dell’Osservatorio combatteranno in otto paesi UE la disinformazione [...] [...] l’amministratore delegato RAI Carlo Fuortes [...] far parte di questo consorzio è per noi la naturale prosecuzione di un servizio già lanciato AlertFakeNews [...] La vicepresidente Luiss Paola Severino [...] questa scuola, che deve insegnare che la verità è uno dei punti di riferimento di chiunque, sia esso giornalista o persona qualunque che scrive sui social”. [...] Luigi Gubitosi, amministratore delegato TIM [...] “In TIM utilizziamo anche sistemi di intelligenza artificiale per monitorare cosa accade in rete, spesso molti utenti che diffondono disinformazione sono finti”, ha detto. “Questo ci spinge a interrogarci su un tema fondamentale che è quello della responsabilità sulle piattaforme [...] Giuseppe Moles, sottosegretario alla Presidenza del Consiglio, ha infine sottolineato come l’Osservatorio sarà “uno strumento utile nell’affrontare una minaccia enorme, che può accompagnare il paese nell’avere delle notizie sempre certificate”. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- ATTENZIONE, il video completo dell'evento è disponibile via Youtube a questo URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u7j97C6m0E; io ho scorso rapidamente il video per cercare l'intervento di Giuseppe Morales perché, incredulo, volevo sentire con le mie orecchie le parole "notizie sempre certificate": /mi pare/ che quelle tre parole non le abbia mai dette, mi è sfuggito qualcosa o l'ultima frase riportata è falsa?!? [2] Ulteriori riferimenti: - https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/european-digital-media-ob… - https://edmo.eu/ Stiamo sereni? Saluti, 380° [1] e siccome la pensano così allora è /scontato/ che non sanno distinguere il vero dal falso :-D (n.d.r) [2] e in questo caso, cioè se a me NON è sfuggito che il sottosegretario NON ha detto quelle cose, siamo (di nuovo) di fronte a un problemome: la notizia NON è... certificata, ROTFL. -- 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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[selfie] "Digital machines interest me"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Sept. 23, 2021

Sept. 23, 2021

Carissimi, consentitemi di segnalarvi una testo un po' particolare che ho scritto di recente, una paginetta vagamente rapsodica che sintetizza (ovviamente con molte semplificazioni) come penso alle macchine digitali e che cosa mi interessa quando penso a loro: https://demartin.polito.it/digitalmachines L'occasione che mi ha spinto a fare questo tentativo di sintesi è l'avvicinarsi dei 15 anni dalla fondazione del centro Nexa (30 novembre 2006). Eventuali commenti ovviamente benvenuti. jc

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EPIC Obtains Documents About DC's Use of Automated 'Risk Scores' for Public Benefit Recipients
by Diego.Latella Sept. 23, 2021

Sept. 23, 2021

From the web site of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (and Issue 28-07 of EPIC Alert) EPIC Obtains Documents About DC's Use of Automated 'Risk Scores' for Public Benefit Recipients https://epic.org/2021/08/epic-obtains-documents-about-d-3.html Diego From the web site of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (and Issue 28-07 of EPIC Alert) EPIC Obtains Documents About DC's Use of Automated 'Risk Scores' for Public Benefit Recipients https://epic.org/2021/08/epic-obtains-documents-about-d-3.html Diego -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) CNR/GI-STS (http://gists.pi.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, mob: +39 348 8283101, fax: +390506212040 =================== I don't quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and so readily of computer systems that understand, that see, decide, make judgments, and so on, without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use. […] One can't escape this state without asking, again and again: "What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?" and ultimately, "am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?" -- Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum ["Not without us", ACM SIGCAS 16(2-3) 2--7 - Aug. 1986] Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Fuori i dati! Rompere i monopoli sulle informazioni per rilanciare il progresso | 27 settembre, ore 17:30
by Nexa Media Sept. 22, 2021

Sept. 22, 2021

Gentilissimi, vi segnaliamo che *lunedì **27 settembre**, alle ore 17:30*, si terrà, presso la Sala Consiglio di Facoltà del Politecnico di Torino, la presentazione del libro:/*"Fuori i dati! Rompere i monopoli sulle informazioni per rilanciare il progresso"*/. Ospiti dell'incontro, organizzato da Biennale Tecnologia, e in collaborazione con Egea: l'autore*Viktor Mayer-Schönberger* (Università di Oxford), in dialogo con Alessandro Mantelero (Politecnico di Torino) e Juan Carlos De Martin (Codirettore Centro Nexa). / / La diretta streaming dell'incontro: https://polito-it.zoom.us/j/85639766773 <https://polito-it.zoom.us/j/85639766773> Maggiori informazioni sono disponibili alla pagina: https://nexa.polito.it/fuori-i-dati-rompere-i-monopoli-sulle-informazioni-r… <https://nexa.polito.it/fuori-i-dati-rompere-i-monopoli-sulle-informazioni-r…> Cordiali saluti,   -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino _web:_ https://nexa.polito.it/ <https://nexa.polito.it/> _mail:_anita.botta@polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it> tel: 011 090 7219

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controllo del green-pass e privacy
by Enrico Nardelli Sept. 22, 2021

Sept. 22, 2021

A quanto mi risulta le scuole ricevono dal ministero ogni giorno l'elenco dei green pass "verdi" e "rossi" ed usano queste informazione per facilitare lo screening dei docenti che entrano. Per quanto ho capito io, la norma del green pass prevede la sua verifica al momento in cui la persona entra nel luogo soggetto a controllo, mentre farlo indipendentemente dalla sua presenza (p.es., il docente può avere un giorno libero) mi sembra sia una violazione della privacy. Sarei lieto di avere un chiarimento da qualche giurista... Ciao, Enrico -- EN ===================================================================== Prof. Enrico Nardelli 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 home page: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~nardelli blog: http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/blog/enardelli/ http://link-and-think.blogspot.it/ ===================================================================== --

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An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2
by 380° Sept. 21, 2021

Sept. 21, 2021

Buongiorno, so che è un palese off-topic per questa lista, anche se /vagamente/ tratta di fake-news e disinformazione diffusa anche per mezzo del web. Ovviamente tratta sì di tecnologia, la tecnologia delle ricerche di laboratorio sugli agenti patogeni, editing genetico incluso. Secondo voi che SARS-CoV-2 sia zoonotico o no fa davvero la differenza, sapendo quello che (non) sappiamo dei centri di ricerca che trattano questi agenti patogeni? «An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2» Published:September 17, 2021 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02019-5 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02019-5/… --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- [...] There is so far no scientifically validated evidence that directly supports a natural origin. [...] The fact that the causative agent of COVID-19 descends from a natural virus is widely accepted, but this does not explain how it came to infect humans. [...] supports the natural origin hypothesis, but suffers from a logical fallacy: it opposes two hypotheses—laboratory engineering versus zoonosis—wrongly implying that there are no other possible scenarios. [...] the absence of traces of reverse-engineering systems does not preclude genome editing, which is performed with so-called seamless techniques. Finally, the absence of a previously known backbone is not a proof, since researchers can work for several years on viruses before publishing their full genome (this was the case for RaTG13, the closest known virus, which was collected in 2013 and published in 2020). [...] documented cases of laboratory escapes of SARS-CoV [...] Although considerable evidence supports the natural origins of other outbreaks (eg, Nipah, MERS, and the 2002–04 SARS outbreak) direct evidence for a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2 is missing. After 19 months of investigations, the proximal progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 is still lacking. Neither the host pathway from bats to humans, nor the geographical route from Yunnan (where the viruses most closely related to SARS-CoV-2 have been sampled) to Wuhan (where the pandemic emerged) have been identified. [...] the international research community has no access to the sites, samples, or raw data. [...] A research-related origin is plausible. Two questions need to be addressed: virus evolution and introduction into the human population. [...] Some unusual features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence suggest that they may have resulted from genetic engineering, an approach widely used in some virology labs. Alternatively, adaptation to humans might result from undirected laboratory selection during serial passage in cell cultures or laboratory animals, including humanised mice. Mice genetically modified to display the human receptor for entry of SARS-CoV-2 (ACE2) were used in research projects funded before the pandemic, to test the infectivity of different virus strains. Laboratory research also includes more targeted approaches such as gain-of-function experiments relying on chimeric viruses to test their potential to cross species barriers. A research-related contamination could result from contact with a natural virus during field collection, transportation from the field to a laboratory, characterisation of bats and bat viruses in a laboratory, or from a non-natural virus modified in a laboratory. There are well-documented cases of pathogen escapes from laboratories. Field collection, field survey, and in-laboratory research on potential pandemic pathogens require high-safety protections and a strong and transparent safety culture. However, experiments on SARS-related coronaviruses are routinely performed at biosafety level 2, which complies with the recommendations for viruses infecting non-human animals, but is inappropriate for experiments that might produce human-adapted viruses by effects of selection or oriented mutations. [...] Beyond this issue, it is important to continue debating about the risk–benefit balance of current practices of field and laboratory research, including gain-of-function experiments, as well as the human activities contributing to zoonotic events. [...] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- «This time you've gone too far, I told you, I told you, I told you, I told you» [Digging In The Dirt by Peter Gabriel, 1992] -- 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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