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More than 140 Zuckerberg-funded scientists call on Facebook to rein in Trump | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo June 7, 2020

June 7, 2020

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/06/mark-zuckerberg-facebook…> More than 140 scientists funded by Mark Zuckerberg have said Facebook should not be letting Donald Trump use the social media platform to “spread both misinformation and incendiary statements”. The researchers, who include more than 60 professors at leading US research institutions and one Nobel laureate, sent the Facebook CEO a letter on Saturday asking him to “consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people”, especially during the current turmoil over racial injustice. The letter calls the spread of “deliberate misinformation and divisive language” contrary to the researchers’ goals of using technology to prevent and eradicate disease, improve childhood education and reform the criminal justice system. Their mission “is antithetical to some of the stances that Facebook has been taking, so we’re encouraging them to be more on the side of truth and on the right side of history, as we’ve said in the letter”, said Debora Marks of Harvard Medical School, one of three professors who organized it. The others are Martin Kampmann of the University of California, San Francisco, and Jason Shepherd of the University of Utah. All have grants from a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative program working to prevent, cure and treat neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. They said the letter had more than 160 signatories. Shepherd said about 10% were employees of foundations run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The letter objects specifically to Zuckerberg’s decision not to act on a post by Trump that stated “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. The letter’s authors called the post “a clear statement of inciting violence”. [...]

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Peter Thiel’s Palantir Is Given Access to U.K. Health Data on Covid-19 Patients
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 7, 2020

June 7, 2020

conteBloomberg Peter Thiel’s Palantir Is Given Access to U.K. Health Data on Covid-19 Patients By Amy Thomson and Jonathan Browning June 5, 2020, 2:06 PM EDT Updated on June 6, 2020, 8:34 AM EDT Thiel-co-founded company gets contacts, race, religion info Data-mining company has drawn scrutiny of privacy advocates https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-05/u-k-shares-patient-data-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Contact tracing: to centralise or not to centralise, that is the question | Ada Lovelace Institute
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 6, 2020

June 6, 2020

https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/contact-tracing-to-centralise-or-not-t… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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A Single Company Will Now Operate Facial Recognition for Nearly 800 Million People
by Alberto Cammozzo June 6, 2020

June 6, 2020

<https://onezero.medium.com/idemia-will-operate-facial-recognition-for-nearl…> Idemia, a French company specializing in facial, fingerprint, and iris recognition, just scored a new contract with the European Union that will include processing images attached to more than 400 million people’s identities. The company’s algorithms will verify the identity of EU residents who were born elsewhere and work for non-EU companies as they enter from external borders. Idemia doesn’t have direct access to this data as an organization, and these aren’t contracts for live facial recognition for the surveillance of borders. But the company’s algorithms have now become the technology that decides if a person is allowed into much of the Western world. In the United States, Idemia already has contracts with the U.S. Department of State to manage its enormous passport database, in which data on more than 360 million people is stored in Idemia’s proprietary format. Add up those contracts and Idemia will control whether nearly 800 million people are allowed to enter the United States, European Union, and Australia. The new EU initiative is called the Shared Biometric Matching System, and it will eventually be linked to existing databases in the EU, including the Visa Information System and Entry/Exit System (EES). Idemia operates both of those systems. The Visa Information System helps determine which non-EU citizens can enter the Schengen Area and held more than 50 million face images and fingerprints as of 2018. Thales Group, which owns Idemia, wrote that facial recognition was the “key weapon” of the EES, which will track border crossings in the EU. It’s slated to become operational in 2022. The 400 million people cataloged in the new Shared Biometric Matching system will be third-country nationals, or people who aren’t from the EU who work for companies that are also not based in the EU. This would include, for instance, a Google employee working in the EU who is technically a citizen of Egypt. Idemia also runs much of the TSA PreCheck, which more than 9 million Americans utilize, and it is one of the facial recognition companies used by the New York Police Department. It’s hard to understate Idemia’s global reach. The company runs facial recognition for anyone applying for a visa or citizenship in Australia, has partnered with Chilean telecom Movistar so customers can pay in stores with facial recognition, and tests its products in airports around the world, including in Singapore and France. Idemia also sells live facial recognition, called Augmented Vision, which can be used to pick people out of a crowd in CCTV footage. [...]

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AI firm that worked with Vote Leave given new coronavirus contract | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo June 6, 2020

June 6, 2020

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/02/ai-firm-that-worked-with…> An artificial intelligence firm hired to work on the Vote Leave campaign may analyse social media data, utility bills and credit rating scores as part of a £400,000 contract to help the government deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The company, Faculty, was awarded the contract by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government last month. However the full details of its work for the government are unknown because the published version of the contract was partly redacted. The disclosure comes amid questions from civil liberties groups as to how private companies hired by the government during the pandemic are using confidential data. The unredacted portion of the contract shows that the MHCLG said such work was likely to require data from “social media, utility providers and telecom bills, credit rating agencies” as well as from the government, but provides few other specifics. It brings the number of government contracts awarded to Faculty to at least nine in the last two years. The contracts in total are worth at least £1.6m. [...]

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Una “Netflix” cattolica, nasce la piattaforma VatiVision
by don Luca Peyron June 5, 2020

June 5, 2020

L’iniziativa frutto di una collaborazione tra Vetrya e Officina della Comunicazione. Paolo Ruffini: il Vaticano non è né il censore né il detentore della linea editoriale ma guarda questa iniziativa con favore. Una piattaforma in cui avere... visioni ? dl https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/it/2020/06/04/news/una-netflix-catt… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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Gaia-X Technical Architecture
by Giuseppe Attardi June 5, 2020

June 5, 2020

I firmatari sono tutti tedeschi, eccetto gli. Spagnoli di Open Nebula, ta cui Ignacio Llorente. https://www.heise.de/downloads/18/2/9/0/6/1/1/7/gaia-x-technical-architectu… <https://www.heise.de/downloads/18/2/9/0/6/1/1/7/gaia-x-technical-architectu…> — Beppe

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Privacy, il Garante Soro: "Bene Immuni. Se le altre app non hanno valutato i rischi, interverremo" - Intervista ad Antonello Soro - Repubblica.it
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 5, 2020

June 5, 2020

*Privacy, il Garante Soro: "Bene Immuni. Se le altre app non hanno valutato i rischi, interverremo" - Intervista ad Antonello Soro - Repubblica.it * Parla il Garante per la protezione dei dati personali: "Le piattaforme online hanno troppo potere sui nostri dati. La questione va portata in Europa". E poi: "Il ricorso a sistemi autogestiti e autoprodotti è avvenuto con poche garanzie" Intervista ad Antonello Soro, Presidente del Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Di Arturo Di Corinto, La Repubblica, 5 giugno 2020) L'app Immuni ha avviato la settimana di sperimentazione in quattro regioni, la ministra Paola Pisano ieri sera in audizione parlamentare ha chiarito gli aspetti del suo utilizzo e annunciato perfino un voucher di 300 euro per pagare la connettività Internet a chi non può farlo da solo. Della norma riferita a Immuni il Parlamento si occupa già da due settimane, ma le opposizioni sono comunque sul piede di guerra tanto che la Lega ha disertato l'audizione. Sparuti ma aggressivi drappelli di critici dell'app di tracciamento nazionale continuano a puntare il dito contro il lavoro di Bending Spoons e dei 74 esperti, ma quasi nessuno discute dell'uso di decine di app regionali e comunali usate per la sorveglianza sanitaria. Come quella lombarda che nei termini di servizio chiarisce la sua funzione di controllo ad personam degli utilizzatori. *Ne abbiamo parlato con il Presidente dell'Autorità Garante della Privacy, Antonello Soro. E abbiamo cominciato proprio da qui. Presidente, ancora ci si chiede se Immuni manda i dati all'estero e se ci geolocalizza. Ma non lo fanno già le app regionali?* "Immuni non lo fa. Nelle prime settimane sotto la spinta emotiva, regioni, comuni e imprese hanno promesso il ricorso a un app salvifica usando come base giuridica l'ordinanza della Protezione civile recepita poi con decreto legge. Per alcuni è rimasto un progetto, altri ne hanno fatto uno strumento. Ma il ricorso a sistemi autogestiti e autoprodotti anche da società non italiane che hanno offerto tecnologie e servizi è avvenuto con poche garanzie". *Complice l'opinione pubblica che non dava valore alla Privacy?* "L'Italia sembrava innamorata della Corea del Sud e della Cina. Le misure di contrasto tecnologiche apparivano giustificate e illustri virologi hanno detto che era un babbeo chi si preoccupava della privacy e chi la definiva una fisima". [...] continua qui: https://www.gpdp.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9359888

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Why Slow Networks Really Cost More Than Fiber
by Giovanni Biscuolo June 5, 2020

June 5, 2020

Buongiorno nexiani, executive summary: «When Metrics Are Set Appropriately High, The Government Has Saved Money» ...ovvero pensare a infrastrutture di rete che durino più di 30 anni senza perdere in prestazioni... pare da visionari eh?!? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/why-slow-networks-really-cost-more-fi… --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- [...] So if you chose now, in 2020, to finance a broadband network delivering the federal standard of 25/3 as its top speed, you have already built an obsolete network that can not even keep up with normal usage of the Internet today. How many households could you get to recoup that $500 investment? The answer is zero, unless you have a monopoly. In places that have at least two choices for broadband Internet, market analysts are demonstrating that eventually no one will subscribe to DSL or advanced DSL networks, because they are not keeping up with consumption. That leaves the only real choices in broadband today as high-speed cable and fiber-to-the-home, for download purposes. The choices narrow even more if you’re prioritizing upload-based uses, like video conferencing. Only fiber-to-the-home works for this, until cable systems can be upgraded to be symmetrical. In essence, if you build a $500 connection giving a basic slow speed, no one would willfully pay for its use unless given no other choices. Furthermore, the network will eventually become so slow that it can’t even make use of the Internet—much like dialup today. In the end, you’ve spent $500 per household, with potentially no willing buyers. That’s a total loss. Now, take the same scenario and apply the $5,000 fiber investment. If you are patient with the pace the infrastructure investment has to be recovered, you can space out how many years you are willing to wait to recover that $5,000. If you can wait ten years, it is around $42 per month plus interest. If you can wait twenty years, it is a little past $20 per month plus interest. The more years you add, the lower that monthly payment can be stretched—and you get to use the network at the same time. And you have a network that can not only service the needs of today, but also handle the level of demand needed for tomorrow and the distant future, with very little additional money needed to upgrade. It can also be utilized to simultaneously deliver 5G and a whole ecosystem of wireless companies as follow on users to help cover your costs. When data consumption starts requiring 10 gigabit/10 gigabit connections, your same $5,000 investment remains useful, and in fact had that capacity ready five years ago. When average data consumption reaches 100 gigabit symmetrical or terabit symmetrical well into the future, your exact same network remains useful and ready for the challenge. You will still have willing buyers for its capacity because it remains relevant. And, given that broadband is an essential service that people will need their entire life, you will have a dedicated funding source. Even if it takes you 30 years to recover your costs, that still makes financial sense because fiber is expected to be useful for decades past those 30 years. That $5,000 cost can also be seen as a $10 per month for less than half of the asset’s usefulness, whereas a $500 cost in a slower speed will end being a $500 loss, and leaves you with a network that needs to be replaced by fiber anyway. When Metrics Are Set Appropriately High, The Government Has Saved Money North Dakota’s experience should be instructive for other state and federal policy makers. 60 percent of its households and businesses already have access to fiber to the home. An analysis by the consulting firm Conexon, which specializes in rural fiber by rural cooperatives, has found that while states across the country that received tens of millions of dollars from the federal government for broadband, almost all lack dense fiber networks—with the exception of a state like North Dakota. Blue areas represent high-speed. Source: Broadband map based off Conexon analysis of government spending in broadband found at https://nationalunbroadbandmap.com/ How did that happen? How did nearly identical amounts of public investments in broadband yield such massive discrepancies? It boils down to the decisions the local governments and small private ISPs in North Dakota made with that government money. The federal government had extremely low expectations on how the subsidies should be spent, sometimes approving of projects as slow as 10 mbps/1 mbps. Companies like AT&T and Frontier spent those dollars to slightly improve services in their legacy copper networks on the cheap to reach those low numbers, rather than take it to discount a transition to fiber. Frontier ignored profitably opportunities to deploy fiber for so long that it is now undergoing bankruptcy due to its neglect. Meanwhile, in North Dakota, the local government and small private ISPs made the decision to invest those federal government dollars, and their own local investments to match, into building out fiber networks. Now those networks are being paid off in the long run. And the local, state, and federal governments no longer need to come back and spend money to replace anything there. Those fiber networks will be able to offer symmetrical 10 gigabit services, 100 gigabit services, and terabit services well into the 21st century. And they will able to do so without government subsidies, but rather financed by typical monthly payments from users. Meanwhile, we’re going to have to spend another estimated $80 billion on the rest of the country that lacks fiber-to-the-home because we didn’t require fiber in the first place. [...] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Saluti, Giovanni -- Giovanni Biscuolo

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Mason: "We must be told what Cummings and Palantir are doing with NHS data"
by J.C. DE MARTIN June 5, 2020

June 5, 2020

*We must be told what Cummings and Palantir are doing with NHS data* Why is a firm backed by the CIA, and founded by a Trump-supporting billionaire, getting access to a massive store of our personal health information? Paul Mason 4 June 2020 https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/we-must-be-told-what-cummi…

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