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The Age of Mass Surveillance Will Not Last Forever
by Giacomo Tesio July 29, 2020

July 29, 2020

What I showed those journalists was proof, in the form of the government’s own classified documents, that the self-described “Five Eyes”—the state security organs of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada—had together conspired to weaken their laws. They had forced clandestine access to the networks of their largest telecommunications and internet titans (some of whom hadn't needed much in the way of arm-twisting) in pursuit of a single goal: the transformation of the free and fragmented internet into history’s first centralized means of global mass surveillance. This violation of our fundamental privacy occurred without our knowledge or consent, or even the knowledge and consent of our courts and most lawmakers. Here’s the thing: Although the global response to this violation was furious, producing the largest intelligence scandal of the modern age, mass surveillance itself continues to work today, virtually unimpeded. Nearly everything you do, and nearly everyone you love, is being monitored and recorded by a system whose reach is unlimited, but whose safeguards are not. But while the system itself was not substantially changed—as a rule, governments are less interested in reforming their own behavior than in restricting the behavior and rights of their citizens—what did change was the public consciousness. The idea that the government was collecting the communications of those who had done nothing wrong had once been treated as a paranoid conspiracy theory (or as the subject of instructive fiction, such as the work you're about to read). Suddenly, this prospect had become all too real—the sort of universally acknowledged truth that can be so quickly waved away as obvious and unremarkable by the crooked timber of our political operators. Meanwhile, the corporations of the world digested the realization that their darkest shame—their willful complicity in crimes against the public—had not been punished. Rather, these collaborators had been actively rewarded, with either explicitly retroactive immunity or informal guarantees of perpetual impunity. They became our latest Big Brother, striving to compile perfect records of private lives for profit and power. From this emerged the contemporary corruption of our once-free internet, called surveillance capitalism. We are coming to see all too clearly that the construction of these systems was less about connection than it was about control: The proliferation of mass surveillance has tracked precisely with the destruction of public power. And yet despite this grim reading from my seven years in exile, I find more cause for hope than despair, thanks in no small part to those lasers and traffic cones in Hong Kong. My confidence springs not from how they are applied—to dazzle cameras and, with a little water, to contain and extinguish the gas grenades of a state gone wrong—but in what they express: the irrepressible human desire to be free. The problems that we face today, of dispossession by oligarchs and their monopolies, and of disenfranchisement by authoritarians and their comfortably captive political class, are far from new. The novelty is in the technological means by which these problems have been entrenched—to put it simply, the bad guys have better tools. You have heard that when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Herein lies the folly of every system of rule whose future relies more heavily on the omnipotence of its methods than the popularity of its mandate. There were times when empires were won by bronze and boats and powder. None survive. What outlasts each forgotten flag is our greatest technology, language: the empire of the mind. Continua su https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-mass-surveillance-will-not-last-fore… Giacomo

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I benefici del software libero per la PA, il caso Francese
by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) July 29, 2020

July 29, 2020

Segnalo questo paper, a carattere economico su ciò che è stato determinato dall’equivalente francese delle Linee Guida Acquisizione e Riuso, adeguatamente rispettate. “Impact of a change in France’s technology procurement policy that required government agencies to favor open source software (OSS) over proprietary software” https://forum.italia.it/t/i-benefici-del-software-libero-per-la-pa-il-caso-… Sarebbe molto interessante e stimolante raccogliere ulteriori esperienze ed analisi sull'OSS nella PA Francese, trasponendole a confronto con l'Italia per stimolare l'emulazione di un success case europeo. Queste basi, ulteriormente, per definire meglio i modelli econometrici di TCO obbligatori per l'analisi comparativa come da Linee Guida Acquisizione e Riuso. Fabio

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Google’s Top Search Result? Surprise! It’s Google – The Markup
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 28, 2020

July 28, 2020

https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2020/07/28/google-search-results-pri… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Facebook agrees to pay $650 million to end facial recognition lawsuit - Vox
by Alberto Cammozzo July 28, 2020

July 28, 2020

<https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/23/21335806/facebook-settlement-illinois-…> Facebook has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a years-long class action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition in what continues to be a less-than-great summer for the social media company. The lawsuit is over Facebook’s photo-tagging feature, which used facial recognition software to identify faces in users’ photos. The state of Illinois, however, has a law against businesses collecting biometric data — which includes facial recognition — without first obtaining consent. Illinois argued that Facebook didn’t get that consent before enabling the new feature by default to its millions of Illinois users, and sued the company in 2015. Facebook has denied it did anything wrong, but it tried to settle the suit for $550 million in January. That offer was rejected by a judge for not being enough; as NPR reported, the $550 million figure would result in payouts of just $150 to $300 per person. Facebook could have been on the hook for $47 billion if it lost the suit and affected users got the full payout of $5,000 per person allowed by the law. “It’s $550 million,” the judge said in a June 4 hearing, according to court documents obtained by Recode. “That’s a lot. But the question is, is it really a lot?” He continued, “That is a significant reduction from the $1,000 that the Illinois legislature set as the baseline. ... The Illinois legislature set this privacy expectation and privacy right as a serious one, and they put a high price tag on it for that reason.” So Facebook has now added an additional $100 million to its proposal. According to court documents, that will net each affected user $200 to $400 each. The settlement was agreed to by both sides of the suit but has yet to be approved by a judge. As it did back in January, Facebook told Recode, “We are focused on settling as it is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter.” The new settlement comes as facial recognition software is more controversial than ever. IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon are all pausing or limiting law enforcement’s access to their technology in response to anti-police protests, and the New York Times recently reported on the first known false arrest based on facial recognition. At the same time, private companies are increasingly turning to facial recognition software, using it in photo-tagging services (like the aforementioned Facebook) or identity verification to unlock devices (like Apple’s iPhone). There’s also proposed bicameral legislation from Democrats that would ban the use of facial recognition technology by federal law enforcement and withhold federal funding from state and local agencies that don’t enact similar bans. It also comes as Facebook weathers a summer that probably didn’t go as well as it once hoped. The company faces an antitrust investigation from Congress (along with Amazon, Apple, and Google), and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be testifying before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee on July 27. In June, Facebook’s own employees protested the company’s decision not to take action on posts from President Trump that threatened to respond to protests with gunfire, saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” That incident led to civil rights groups calling for an ad boycott from many major companies over its perceived inability (or lack of desire) to stop hateful content that proliferates on its platform. And, a few weeks ago, Facebook released the results of a civil rights audit — which it largely failed. Facebook has tried with varying success to respond to these controversies. The company cracked down on some Trump content, for instance, by removing campaign ads that featured possible Nazi imagery. Facebook also recently announced that it would be studying racial bias in Facebook’s and Instagram’s algorithms. And, at the end of June, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be doing more to remove or label posts that incite violence, contain hate speech, or suppress voting. But many still feel that these measures are too little and too late. One possible bright spot in all of this for Facebook, actually, is that $650 million settlement. While it’s obviously a lot of money, it’s far less than the $47 billion it could have lost if the case went to trial and, if accepted by the judge this time, means the end of a costly lawsuit. Facebook’s most recent quarterly earnings report showed revenue of nearly $18 billion, almost all of it from advertising. A $650 million loss will barely register.

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Facebook Sues EU Over ‘Irrelevant’ Demands in Antitrust Probes
by Giacomo Tesio July 28, 2020

July 28, 2020

Il bue che dice "cornuto" all'asino? The company challenged the European Commission’s requests for internal documents at the EU’s General Court earlier this month, a move that could thwart EU efforts to build cases into the company’s marketplace ads and how it uses data. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-27/facebook-fights-eu-antit… Giacomo

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New Zealand claims world first in setting standards for government use of algorithms | New Zealand | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 28, 2020

July 28, 2020

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/28/new-zealand-claims-world-firs…> New Zealand’s government says it is the first in the world to produce a set of standards for how public agencies should use the algorithms that increasingly drive decision-making by officials about every area of public life. The increasing application of algorithms by governments around the world – particularly when they are deployed to profile or generate decisions about citizens by law enforcement, immigration, welfare and health agencies – has proved controversial in recent years. Critics claim that decision-making driven by lines of code can be inaccurate and discriminatory and that their use is often kept secret from the public. A Dutch court ruled in February that an automated surveillance system to detect welfare fraud was unlawful – a decision that provoked debate about the need for greater scrutiny in other nations. New Zealand is no exception: a 2019 review of algorithm use in the public sector had found “huge variability as to the extent of the use and how they were being used”, said James Shaw, the statistics minister and co-leader of the left-leaning Green party. He said algorithms determined matters from the seemingly innocuous – such as when the traffic lights changed on a central Wellington street – to the more serious, including police decision-making for frontline officers, and their use was expanding. The New Zealand charter, which the Guardian has viewed, was due to launch on Tuesday with 19 government agencies as initial signatories. In it, departments pledge to be publicly transparent about how decision-making is driven by algorithms, including giving “plain English” explanations; to make available information about the processes used and how data is stored unless forbidden by law (such as for reasons of national security); and to identify and manage biases informing algorithms. Agencies must also consider te ao Māori, or Indigenous, worldviews on data collection – in New Zealand, Māori are disproportionately represented in the justice and prison system – and consult with groups affected by their equations. “Part of this is driven by the fact that because people are now increasingly aware of how Facebook operates and the extent to which our lives are shaped by the use of and the manipulation of data,” Shaw said, referring to the way social media companies use algorithms to direct users towards content. “This is a really important part of building public trust in government institutions.” Departments committed to the charter included New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme – which was criticised in 2017 for using algorithms to detect fraud among those on its books – and the corrections agency, which has deployed algorithms to determine an inmate’s risk of reoffending. But other bodies that have been the subject of high profile cases in which critics decried the use of algorithms – including the immigration agency, found in March to be profiling applicants by algorithm – and the police, who came under fire from privacy advocates in 2019 for introducing facial recognition technology without announcing it, were not among the signatories. Nor were the country’s spy agencies. A spokesman for Shaw’s office said no agency had ruled out the charter and that others were expected to sign on later. The standards do not include an enforcement mechanism. Shaw said he hoped that within months agencies that had signed the charter would provide information on their websites explaining how algorithms were used, even supplying source code – and that if they did not, the public could demand it. Colin Gavaghan, a law professor at the University of Otago, was involved in the 2019 review that suggested an independent regulator to oversee the use of algorithms by agencies – a move the government has stopped short of in its charter. He said there was “plenty to like” in the new standards and he hoped they could serve as a blueprint for other governments. “As ever, the devil’s in the detail and that means implementation,” he said. “We still feel like some kind of oversight and regulatory body that should have an all-of-government remit seems like a good idea.” Gavaghan praised a point in the charter that required agencies to provide a channel to appeal against decisions informed by algorithms, but added that “people might not always know” they had been subject to such decisions, even under the new standards. [...]

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Socialism’s DIY Computer
by Giacomo Tesio July 27, 2020

July 27, 2020

The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia, inspiring thousands of people to build versions in their own homes. The idea behind them was simple – to make technology available to everyone. [...] While most other machines would automatically run a program after loading the tape—a primitive anti-copy protection—Antonić’s commitment to open source meant that he had no desire to protect anything. After loading a program, users would have to type a “RUN” command to make it go. That extra step, though subtle, acted as a deterrent to programmers imposing any copy protection upon their work; the tape could just as easily be straightforwardly input as it could be edited or duplicated en masse. Free play was implicitly encouraged: the sharing, collaboration, manipulation, and proliferation of software was built into Galaksija’s very operation. [...] A computing enthusiast since 1979, Zoran Modli caught wind of Galaksija after the publication of Computers in Your Home. As host and DJ of Ventilator 202—a renowned New Wave radio show on Serbia’s Radio Beograd 202—Modli was something of a minor celebrity in Yugoslavia. This was the period in which the compact cassette tape had begun to usurp the 12-inch vinyl record as the listening medium of choice for audiophiles; portable pocket recorders like the Sony Walkman were in the ascendant. Sensing an opportunity in this media shift, Regasek called Modli one day in the autumn of 1983 with a pitch for a radically new Ventilator segment. Because all the day’s computers, including Galaksija, ran their programs on cassette, Regasek thought Modli might broadcast programs over the airwaves as audio during his show. The idea was that listeners could tape the programs off their receivers as they were broadcast, then load them into their personal machines. An overnight sensation, this DJing practice quickly became a staple on Modli’s show. In the ensuing months, Ventilator 202 broadcast hundreds of computer programs. During the hour, Modli would announce when the segment was approaching, signaling to his listeners that it was time for them to fetch their equipment, cue up a tape, and get ready to hit record. Fans began to write programs with the expressed intention of mailing them into the station and broadcasting them during the segment. Those programs included audio and video recordings but also magazines, concert listings, party promotions, study aids, flight simulators, and action-adventure games. In the case of games, users would “download” the programs off the radio and alter them—inserting their own levels, challenges, and characters—then send them back to Modli for retransmission. In effect, this was file transfer well before the advent of the World Wide Web, a pre-internet pirating protocol. Continua su https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/07/make-your-own-self-managed-socialist-micro… Un pezzo di storia che potrebbe (e dovrebbe) ispirare l'Unione Europea per ovvie ragioni geopolitiche. Ne cito solo due passaggi particolarmente illuminanti che sottolineano come la tecnologia sia SEMPRE uno strumento politico (il più potente di tutti). Può essere usata per diffondere conoscenza (e dunque libertà) o per accentrare potere. Oggi come allora. Giacomo

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Edizione italiana di "The Syllabus"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 27, 2020

July 27, 2020

Segnalo con piacere l'uscita dell'edizione italiana di "The Syllabus", la splendida iniziativa "editoriale" di Evgeny Morozov: https://app.the-syllabus.com/syllabus/iCWi8bLLwi juan carlos

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Tech Is About Power. And These Four Moguls Have Too Much of It.
by Giuseppe Attardi July 27, 2020

July 27, 2020

“We need to move from this disconnected set of grievances and scandals, that these problems are seemingly separate: tech addiction, polarization, outrage-ification of culture, the rise in vanities, micro-celebrity culture, everyone has to be famous. These are not separate problems. They’re actually all coming from one thing, which is the race to capture human attention by tech giants.” And it has become a completely fixed race. Because of their heft, these behemoths block every lane and there is no space for innovative small companies to pass them, especially those that are faster or with better ideas. The debate about breakup or levying fines or writing regulations should also be a debate about innovation. What about all of the useful inventions that do not happen when there is only one or maybe two real games in town in social media, in search, in online video, in apps and in e-commerce. Tech Is About Power. And These Four Moguls Have Too Much of It. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/opinion/tech-moguls-congressional-hearin…

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Modelli matematici e Covid. Intervista ad Andrea Crisanti.
by Luigi Scorca July 26, 2020

July 26, 2020

http://maddmaths.simai.eu/in-evidenza/intervista-con-andrea-crisanti/ Segnalo questa intervista. Buona serata. Luigi

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