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PayPal allows Bitcoin and crypto spending
by gianlucaquaglia＠gmail.com Oct. 22, 2020

Oct. 22, 2020

PayPal allows Bitcoin and crypto spending PayPal has entered the cryptocurrency market, announcing that its customers will be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other virtual currencies using their PayPal accounts. Those virtual coins could then be used to buy things from the 26 million sellers which accept PayPal, it said. PayPal plans to roll out buying options in the US over the next few weeks, with the full rollout due early next year. Bitcoin prices rose alongside the news, breaking the $12,000 (£9,170) mark. The other cryptocurrencies to be added first will be Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash (a spin-off from Bitcoin). All could be stored "directly within the PayPal digital wallet", the company said. [...] continua qui https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54630283

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European Commission Open source software strategy 2020-2023
by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) Oct. 22, 2020

Oct. 22, 2020

E’ stata pubblicata la European Commission Open source software strategy 2020-2023 https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/informatics/open-source-software-stra… Sarebbe certamente interessante per gli interessati e appassionati: 1. Effettuarne una traduzione in Italiano 2. Effettuare una riflessione comparata rispetto agli elementi equivalenti nel piano triennale Agid Fabio

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Flamethrowers and Fire Extinguishers – a review of “The Social Dilemma”
by Antonio Iacono Oct. 22, 2020

Oct. 22, 2020

Torno sull'argomento per segnalarvi un articolo (sotto le conclusioni) e un incontro online di un gruppo di lavoro che stasera dialogherà sul documentario. - https://librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/flamethrowers-and-fire-… - https://twc-italia.org/events/12 Antonio ... The Social Dilemma responds to the question of “what kind of technology do we really need?” by saying “humane technology.” After all, the organization The Center for Humane Technology is at the core of the film, and Harris speaks repeatedly of “humane technology.” At the surface level it is hard to imagine anyone saying that they disapprove of the idea of “humane technology,” but what the film means by this (and what the organization means by this) is fairly vacuous. When the Center for Humane Technology launched in 2018, to a decent amount of praise and fanfare, it was clear from the outset that its goal had more to do with rehabilitating Silicon Valley’s image than truly pushing for a significant shift in technological forms. Insofar as “humane technology” means anything, it stands for platforms and devices that are designed to be a little less intrusive, that are designed to try to help you be your best self (whatever that means), that try to inform you instead of misinform you, and that make it so that you can think nice thoughts about the people who designed these products. The purpose of “humane technology” isn’t to stop you from being “the product,” it’s to make sure that you’re a happy product. “Humane technology” isn’t about deleting Facebook, it’s about renewing your faith in Facebook so that you keep clicking on the “like” button. And, of course, “humane technology” doesn’t seem to be particularly concerned with all of the inhumanity that goes into making these gadgets possible (from mining, to conditions in assembly plants, to e-waste). “Humane technology” isn’t about getting Ben or Isla off their phones, it’s about making them feel happy when they click on them instead of anxious. In a world of empowered arsonists, “humane technology” seeks to give everyone a pair of asbestos socks. Many past critics also argued that what was needed was to place a new word before technology – they argued for “democratic” technologies, or “holistic” technologies, or “convivial” technologies, or “appropriate” technologies, and this list could go on. Yet at the core of those critiques was not an attempt to salvage the status quo but a recognition that what was necessary in order to obtain a different sort of technology was to have a different sort of society. Or, to put it another way, the matter at hand is not to ask “what kind of computers do we want?” but to ask “what kind of society do we want?” and to then have the bravery to ask how (or if) computers really fit into that world—and if they do fit, how ubiquitous they will be, and who will be responsible for the mining/assembling/disposing that are part of those devices’ lifecycles. Certainly, these are not easy questions to ask, and they are not pleasant questions to mull over, which is why it is so tempting to just trust that the Center for Humane Technology will fix everything, or to just say that the problem is Silicon Valley. Thus as the film ends we are left squirming unhappily as Netflix (which has, of course, noted the fact that we watched The Social Dilemma) asks us to give the film a thumbs up or a thumbs down – before it begins auto-playing something else. The Social Dilemma is right in at least one regard, we are facing a social dilemma. But as far as the film is concerned, your role in resolving this dilemma is to sit patiently on the couch and stare at the screen until a remorseful tech insider tells you what to do.

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EU shoots for €10B ‘industrial cloud’ to rival US
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 22, 2020

Oct. 22, 2020

<https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-pledges-e10-billion-to-power-up-industri…> BERLIN — The European Union aims to spend up to €10 billion over the next seven years to help build up a homegrown cloud computing sector that could rival foreign corporations such as Amazon, Google and Alibaba. Twenty-five EU countries signed a joint declaration Thursday pledging public money to power up the cloud sector and establishing the "European Alliance on Industrial Data and Cloud," a partnership geared toward facilitating such projects. The alliance — whose funding is to be drawn from existing EU programs and hoped-for pledges from industry and national capitals — will be launched by the end of the year. Cyprus and Denmark were the only EU member countries not to sign the declaration due to “technical reasons.” The declaration “is a foundation stone for the establishment of European cloud technology, which will be very high performing,” said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, following a meeting of European telecoms ministers organized by the German government, which currently holds the EU’s rotating Council presidency. “Contrary to the prejudices, we are not late [on cloud development]. We are the first to get involved in the industrial cloud,” he added. “EU governments and the public sector need to be fully committed to the initiative by fully shifting to cloud services” — Lise Fuhr, ETNO’s director general The cloud alliance is a key part of the European Commission’s data strategy, which aims to create a single market for industrial data. Commissioner Breton in particular has lobbied hard to make the EU a worldwide data hub, and to develop data processing capabilities that would give Europe an edge over foreign rivals that currently dominate the cloud business. It also fits in with broader efforts by European policymakers to make the Continent less dependent on foreign technology. Currently, U.S. technology firms dominate the global market for cloud storage. In the same vein, the bloc is set to unveil by December a rulebook for platforms dubbed the “Digital Services Act," as well as binding laws for artificial intelligence that are set to be released early next year. The new alliance will have the mandate to develop business, investment and implementation plans for European cloud technologies in the public and private sectors. Signatories also pledge to create common European standards and policy norms to create pan-European cloud services, and help small and medium-sized businesses, startups and the public sector embrace cloud technology. “In order to achieve digital sovereignty, we need to start approaching data processing the way major American and Chinese companies — the hyper-scalers — approach it,” said German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier. “This is an area where we’re far from being equals,” he added. Money, money, money The Commission’s plan is to invest up to €10 billion to develop Europe's cloud and data infrastructures. The EU’s executive arm would invest €2 billion from programs in its long-term budget such as the Digital Europe Programme, Connecting Europe Facility 2 and InvestEU. The rest of the money will come from both industry and member countries. National governments will be able to fund these projects through the EU’s coronavirus recovery plan, which has earmarked 20 percent toward digital projects. The joint cloud declaration also issues demands to non-European cloud companies. Cloud providers must “guarantee European standards in terms of security, data protection, consumer protection, data portability and energy efficiency and contribute to European digital sovereignty.” The companies must offer “adequate assurance” that the EU will maintain control over its strategic and sensitive data. “While all cloud providers are welcome in European cloud federation, the resulting cloud capacities should not be subject to laws of foreign jurisdictions,” the declaration read. One of the first initiatives to come out of Europe’s cloud push is Gaia-X, a much-hyped European effort spearheaded by Germany and France to build up a European platform that sets common standards for cloud technology. Gaia-X has limited the voting rights of non-European cloud computing companies, and they cannot become directors of the association. ETNO, the association representing Europe’s leading telecom operators, applauded the move. “EU governments and the public sector need to be fully committed to the initiative by fully shifting to cloud services. We call for EU targets and commitments that reflect the demand side of the cloud investment story,” said Lise Fuhr, ETNO’s director general.

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Data Breach: esperienze di DPO a confronto
by Antonio Iacono Oct. 22, 2020

Oct. 22, 2020

Oggi pomeriggio, alle 15, webinar su https://youtu.be/ch0gkYM8As4. Tra i relatori che conosco, Guido Scorza e Corrado Giustozzi. Antonio

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Forecasting for COVID-19 has failed
by Enrico Nardelli Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

by John P.A. Ioannidis, Sally Cripps , and Martin A.Tanner ABSTRACT Epidemic forecasting has a dubious track-record, and its failures became more prominent with COVID-19. Poor data input, wrong modeling assumptions, high sensitivity of estimates, lack of incorporation of epidemiological features, poor past evidence on effects of available interventions, lack of transparency, errors, lack of determinacy, consideration of only one or a few dimensions of the problem at hand, lack of expertise in crucial disciplines, groupthink and bandwagon effects, and selective reporting are some of the causes of these failures. Nevertheless, epidemic forecasting is unlikely to be abandoned. Some (but not all) of these problems can be fixed. Careful modeling of predictive distributions rather than focusing on point estimates, considering multiple dimensions of impact, and continuously reappraising models based on their validated performance may help. If extreme values are considered, extremes should be considered for the consequences of multiple dimensions of impact so as to continuously calibrate predictive insights and decision-making. When major decisions (e.g. draconian lockdowns) are based on forecasts, the harms (in terms of health, economy, and society at large) and the asymmetry of risks need to be approached in a holistic fashion, considering the totality of the evidence. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207020301199#! -- 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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Virtual Reality the Next Big Step in Mental Health Treatment
by don Luca Peyron Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

VR isn’t just capable of helping us with what seem like more straightforward phobias and anxiety disorders. It can also help with depression, schizophrenia, paranoia. Interessante, buona lettura dl https://medium.com/illumination-curated/virtual-reality-the-next-big-step-i… _________________________ don Luca Peyron Direttore Ufficio per la Pastorale Universitaria Arcidiocesi di Torino www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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Does Palantir See Too Much? - The New York Times
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/21/magazine/palantir-alex-karp.…> [...] Yet Palantir’s work on the coronavirus has also highlighted the mistrust that trails the company. In Europe, it is viewed with suspicion because of the C.I.A. connection. But the main source of apprehension is simply the nature of Palantir’s work. Although Palantir claims it does not store or sell client data and has incorporated into its software what it insists are robust privacy controls, those who worry about the sanctity of personal information see Palantir as a particularly malignant avatar of the Big Data revolution. Karp himself doesn’t deny the risk. “Every technology is dangerous,” he says, “including ours.” The fact that the health records of millions of people are now being funneled through Palantir’s software has only added to the unease. That’s especially true in the United States, where the Department of Health and Human Services is using Palantir’s software to analyze virus-related data. Palantir’s work with H.H.S. has become bound up in the biggest controversy that the company has faced, over its relationship with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Progressive activists and members of Congress have expressed fear that the information collected by H.H.S. could be used by the Trump administration to expand its immigration crackdown, in which Palantir’s technology has played a part. And the fact that Palantir was awarded a pair of no-bid contracts valued at nearly $25 million by H.H.S. has amplified concerns that it has benefited from Thiel’s support of President Trump. Thiel was one of his most prominent backers in 2016, even speaking at the Republican National Convention. Palantir’s perceived links to the president have made it an object of suspicion among liberals, which frustrates Karp. In contrast to Thiel, the 53-year-old Karp is a self-described “progressive warrior” who says he voted for Hillary Clinton and who has expressed antipathy for Trump. His greatest fear, he says, is the rise of fascism. Although Karp’s political views are widely shared in Silicon Valley, he is one of the tech industry’s unlikeliest chief executives. He co-founded Palantir with no background in computer science or business. Instead, he holds a law degree from Stanford University and a doctorate in social theory from Goethe University in Frankfurt, where for a time his thesis adviser was Jürgen Habermas, possibly Europe’s most celebrated living social philosopher. On the corporate scene, Karp is a sui generis figure, a fact vividly on display that autumn afternoon in the Luxembourg Gardens. Until recently, it could be argued that his intellectual pedigree and political leanings were a kind of shield for Palantir, deflecting criticism of its work — or at least keeping critics off balance. But fairly or not, Palantir has come to be regarded as an enabler and prime beneficiary of Trump’s presidency, which has rendered the company toxic in the eyes of many progressives. In response to the criticism of Palantir’s relationship with ICE, Karp has attacked the tech industry over what he sees as its insufficient patriotism. Palantir recently relocated its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver, a move that seemed partly rooted in the contempt that Karp and Thiel have for Silicon Valley. The company, which has yet to turn a profit, went public last month amid concerns that its prospects in Washington could be diminished under a Biden administration. Palantir says that its software solves “the world’s hardest problems.” Removing the stain of Trumpism may prove to be an especially hard one. [...]

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The Citizen Browser Project—Auditing the Algorithms of Disinformation
by Antonio Vetro' Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

The Citizen Browser Project—an initiative designed to measure how disinformation travels across social media platforms over time. […] At the center of The Citizen Browser Project is a custom web browser designed by The Markup to audit the algorithms that social media platforms use to determine what information they serve their users, what news and narratives are amplified or suppressed, and which online communities those users are encouraged to join. Initially, the browser will be implemented to glean data from Facebook and YouTube. https://themarkup.org/citizen-browser av

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Paul-Olivier Dehaye, sua attività e coinvolgimento da parte delle autorità svizzere
by Roberto Resoli Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

Paul-Olivier Dehaye è un matematico e attivista per i diritti digitali. Ieri è stato ingaggiato dall'unità per il tracciamento contatti del Cantone di Ginevra. Ho appena letto un suo articolo[1] in cui riassume la sua attività ed espone un suo possibile conflitto di interessi. Tra l'altro, spicca l'apprezzamento, che condivido in pieno, per un recente articolo[2] di Zeynep Tufekci su theAtlantic circa l'emergere di una spiccata stocasticità dei meccanismi di trasmissione della pandemia, e il miglioramento conseguente delle strategie per combatterla. Mi piace notare come ci siano luoghi in cui chi solleva problematiche, e indica possibili alternative e correzioni alle strategie in corso, sia ascoltato e coinvolto dalle autorità. rob [1] https://medium.com/@pdehaye/conflict-of-interest-disclosure-34197aca13d8 [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overlooked-variable-dr…

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