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Biometrics entrepreneurs say they're talking to governments fighting Covid-19 | Biometric Update
by Alberto Cammozzo April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

<https://www.biometricupdate.com/202004/biometrics-entrepreneurs-say-theyre-…> Facial recognition was so hot for a while that most elevator pitches for biometrics seemed to at least name-checked it, hoping some cool would rub off. Now, facial recognition is hot in a different sense and some biometrics entrepreneurs are adamant that their idea is not facial recognition. Take for example the biometrics startup Traces AI (formally known as Traces Inc.), which sells services based on algorithms that track people appearing on video by noticing 2,000 parameters of a person, none of which is on their face. In an interview with Forbes.com, Traces AI Founders Veronika Yurchuk and Kostyantyn Shysh said they are talking with multiple Asian nations about using their service after the fact — to trace the contacts of people who test positive for the novel coronavirus. No further details have been released. Working from an image or a description, the software pores over frames from standard camera networks as small as eight (and with no top end). It searches for and tracks attributes including age and build, hair color and style, clothing and bags, watches and jewelry, phones and glasses. Faces are blurred. The Palo Alto, California company is a product of Y Combinator, which invested $150,000 in Traces AI last August. The founders have acknowledged in news coverage that during live searches, such as after a crime, its service’s usefulness degrades rapidly. Limitations on facial recognition continues to be debated, with a handful of states, cities and counties banning or debating a ban of the use by public agencies, businesses or both. Then there is the infamous case of web scraper Clearview AI, which has, without permission trawled social media to collect billions of face images posted to social media. But even factoring out opposition to face scanning, there still are practicalities to consider. Most significant, CCTV cameras as a rule are placed above people in order to monitor medium to large areas. And much of the urban population of Asia — especially in pollution-choked China — wear masks, making faces less useful in surveilling people. Traces AI is not the first player in biometrics to see bodies as valuable bits of evidence that artificial intelligence can gather. Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, for example, have developed an algorithm capable of correctly reading a person’s mood 82 percent of the time by analyzing how a person walks.

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epidemic control with digital contact tracing - Science
by Giuseppe Attardi April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

Articolo su Science. Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing A contact-tracing App which builds a memory of proximity contacts and immediately notifies contacts of positive cases can achieve epidemic control if used by enough people. By targeting recommendations to only those at risk, epidemics could be contained without need for mass quarantines (‘lock-downs’) that are harmful to society. We discuss the ethical requirements for an intervention of this kind. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/30/science.abb6936 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/30/science.abb6936>

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A few links of interest [notsp]
by Diego.Latella April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

Dear All, A few links of interest, I hope Diego 1) Interview by Lucas Perry with Paul Scharre: AI Alignment Podcast: On Lethal Autonomous Weapons with Paul Scharre https://futureoflife.org/2020/03/16/on-lethal-autonomous-weapons-with-paul-… 2) AI and Facial Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities https://edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/blog/ai-and-facial-rec… 3) It is useful to circulate this message from ACA https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2020-04/focus/pandemic-reveals-misplaced-pr… -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher - CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, IT (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]); FM&&T Laboratory (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) http://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - phone: +39 0503152982 - mob: +39 348 8283101 - fax +39 0503152040 Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Automated decision-making systems and the fight against COVID-19 – our position – AlgorithmWatch
by J.C. DE MARTIN April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

https://algorithmwatch.org/en/our-position-on-adms-and-the-fight-against-co… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Get Used to It: This Lockdown Won’t Be the Last
by Enrico Nardelli April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/lockdowns-hong-ko… HONG KONG—As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases exploded in China early this year, Hong Kong, densely populated and connected to the mainland, was able to largely contain the virus’s spread. A combination of community response and official action held back the pace of infections, with the number of patients discharged from treatment until recently outpacing those remaining in the hospital. This month, civil servants on work-from-home orders were allowed to return to their office. Soon, private businesses started to do the same. Commuters began to refill the buses and subways. Bars and restaurants left largely vacant for weeks saw patrons remerge. As reports of outbreaks abroad worsened, Hong Kong appeared to be slowly returning to form. In recent days, this semblance of normalcy has vanished. The number of confirmed cases here has ticked upward at a much quicker pace than before, worrying health experts. The government reversed course on its easing of restrictions, sending workers back home, closing parks and city facilities, and reiterating calls for social distancing. It also introduced newer, more stringent measures, barring tourists and transit passengers from Hong Kong’s airport, one of the world’s busiest, and quarantining those who are allowed in. (A large portion of the recent confirmed cases are imported.) Another cluster of confirmed cases has been linked to bars and live-music venues, so gatherings of more than four people have been deemed illegal for the next two weeks; restaurants will reduce their capacity, and entertainment areas like cinemas and arcades must temporarily close. -- 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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The EARN IT Act Violates the Constitution | Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Alberto Cammozzo April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution> Since senators introduced the EARN IT Act (S. 3398) in early March, EFF has called attention to the many ways in which the bill would be a disaster for Internet users’ free speech and security. We’ve explained how the EARN IT Act could be used to drastically undermine encryption. Although the bill doesn’t use the word “encryption” in its text, it gives government officials like Attorney General William Barr the power to compel online service providers to break encryption or be exposed to potentially crushing legal liability. The bill also violates the Constitution’s protections for free speech and privacy. As Congress considers the EARN IT Act—which would require online platforms to comply with to-be-determined “best practices” in order to preserve certain protections from criminal and civil liability for user-generated content under Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230)—it’s important to highlight the bill’s First and Fourth Amendment problems. [...]

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Tracking a Singapore
by Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

Buonasera a tutti, non essendo un tecnico apprezzo anche le informazioni minime che sono destinate agli utilizzatori e quindi condivido questa del Ministero della salute di Singapore sul funzionamento del sistema di tracciamento, sperando possa essere utile. [image: image.png] Un saluto, Vincenzo Giorgino -- A new book https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319665917 "One of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution." - Martin Luther King, Jr., "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino, Ph.D. Dept. of Economic and Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics University of Torino - Italy

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EDRi calls for fundamental rights-based responses to COVID-19 - FROM: EDRi-gram 18.6, 1 April 2020
by Diego Latella April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

FROM: EDRi-gram 18.6, 1 April 2020 Read online: https://edri.org/edri-gram/18-6/ <https://edri.org/edri-gram/18-6/> ======================================================================= Contents ======================================================================= 1. EDRi calls for fundamental rights-based responses to COVID-19 [ … OMISSIS …] 9. About ======================================================================= 1. EDRi calls for fundamental rights-based responses to COVID-19 ======================================================================= In a recent statement released on 20 March 2020, European Digital Rights (EDRi) calls on the Member States and institutions of the European Union (EU) to ensure that, while developing public health measures to tackle COVID-19, they: - Strictly uphold fundamental rights; - Protect data for now and the future; - Limit the purpose of data for COVID-19 crisis only; - Implement exceptional measures for the duration of the crisis only; - Condemn racism and discrimination; - Defend freedom of expression and information. EDRi’s Head of Policy, Diego Naranjo, explains that: "EDRi supports necessary, proportionate measures, fully in line with national and international human rights and data protection and privacy legislation, taken in order to tackle the COVID - 19 global pandemic. These measures must not, however, set a precedent for rolling back the fundamental rights obligations enshrined in European law." EDRi recognises that Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease poses a global public health challenge of unprecedented proportions. The use of good-quality data can support the development of evidence-based responses. However, we are witnessing a surge of emergency-related policy initiatives, some of them risking the abuse of sensitive personal data in an attempt to safeguard public health. When acting to address such a crisis, measures must comply with international human rights law and cannot lead to disproportionate and unnecessary actions. It is also vital that measures are not extended once we are no longer in a state of emergency. EDRi's Executive Director, Claire Fernandez, emphasises that: "In times of crisis, our authorities and communities must show responsibility, resilience, solidarity, and offer support to healthcare systems in order to protect our lives. States’ emergency responses to the COVID-19 pandemic must be proportionate, however, and be re-evaluated at specified intervals. By doing this, states will prevent the normalisation of rights-limiting measures, scope creep, data retention or enhanced surveillance that will otherwise be harmful long after the impacts of the pandemic have been managed." In these times of pandemic and emergency measures, EDRi expresses solidarity towards collective protection and support for our health systems. We will continue monitoring and denouncing abuses of human rights in times when people are particularly vulnerable. Read full statement "EDRi calls for fundamental rights-based responses to COVID-19": https://edri.org/covid19-edri-coronavirus-fundamentalrights/ <https://edri.org/covid19-edri-coronavirus-fundamentalrights/> EDRi Members and Observers' Responses to COVID-19: - Active overview of projects using personal data to combat SARS-CoV-2 (by noyb). https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=Data_Protection_under_SARS-CoV-2 <https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=Data_Protection_under_SARS-CoV-2> - Access Now - "Protect digital rights, promote public health: toward a better coronavirus response." https://www.accessnow.org/protect-digital-rights-promote-public-health-towa… <https://www.accessnow.org/protect-digital-rights-promote-public-health-towa…> - Article 19 - "Coronavirus: New ARTICLE 19 briefing on tackling misinformation." https://www.article19.org/resources/coronavirus-new-article-19-briefing-on-… <https://www.article19.org/resources/coronavirus-new-article-19-briefing-on-…> - Bits of Freedom - "Privacy is geen absoluut recht, maar wel een noodzaak." https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/2020/03/20/privacy-is-geen-absoluut-recht-maar… <https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/2020/03/20/privacy-is-geen-absoluut-recht-maar…> - Defesa dos Dereitos Digitais (D3) - " A pandemia COVID19 e os direitos digitais." https://direitosdigitais.pt/comunicacao/noticias/88-a-pandemia-covid19-e-os… <https://direitosdigitais.pt/comunicacao/noticias/88-a-pandemia-covid19-e-os…> - Digitalcourage - "Coronavirus: Tipps fürs Onlineleben und Grundrechtsfragen." https://digitalcourage.de/corona <https://digitalcourage.de/corona> - Digitale Gesellschaft - "Menschenrechte gelten nicht nur in „guten“ Zeiten." https://digitalegesellschaft.de/2020/03/menschenrechte-gelten-nicht-nur-in-… <https://digitalegesellschaft.de/2020/03/menschenrechte-gelten-nicht-nur-in-…> - EFF - "EFF and COVID-19: Protecting Openness, Security, and Civil Liberties." https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/eff-and-covid-19-protecting-openness-… <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/eff-and-covid-19-protecting-openness-…> - epicenter.works - "Digital rights implications of the COVID-19 crisis." https://en.epicenter.works/content/digital-rights-implications-of-the-covid… <https://en.epicenter.works/content/digital-rights-implications-of-the-covid…> - GFF - "Corona und Grundrechte: Fragen und Antworten." https://freiheitsrechte.org/corona-und-grundrechte/ <https://freiheitsrechte.org/corona-und-grundrechte/> - Hermes Center - "Il Centro Hermes chiede al governo una risposta all'emergenza COVID-19 nel pieno rispetto dei diritti umani." https://www.hermescenter.org/hermes-governo-emergenza-covid19-rispetto-priv… <https://www.hermescenter.org/hermes-governo-emergenza-covid19-rispetto-priv…> - Homo Digitalis - "Homo Digitalis για την πανδημία του Κορωνοϊού." https://www.homodigitalis.gr/posts/5340 <https://www.homodigitalis.gr/posts/5340> - noyb - "Data protection in times of corona: not a question of if, but of how." https://noyb.eu/en/data-protection-times-corona <https://noyb.eu/en/data-protection-times-corona> - Open Rights Group - "In the Coronavirus crisis, privacy will be compromised—but our right to know must not be." https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2020/in-the-coronavirus-crisis-privacy… <https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2020/in-the-coronavirus-crisis-privacy…> - Panoptykon - "Wolność i prywatność w dobie koronawirusa." https://panoptykon.org/wiadomosc/wolnosc-i-prywatnosc-w-dobie-koronawirusa <https://panoptykon.org/wiadomosc/wolnosc-i-prywatnosc-w-dobie-koronawirusa> - Privacy International - "Extraordinary powers need extraordinary protections." https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/3461/extraordinary-powers-ne… <https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/3461/extraordinary-powers-ne…> - SHARE Foundation - "Digitalna prava, pandemija i Balkan." https://www.sharefoundation.info/sr/digitalna-prava-pandemija-i-balkan/ <https://www.sharefoundation.info/sr/digitalna-prava-pandemija-i-balkan/> [ … OMISSIS …] ============================================================ 12. About ============================================================ EDRi-gram is a fortnightly newsletter about digital civil rights by European Digital Rights (EDRi), an association of civil and human rights organisations from across Europe. EDRi takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRi-gram. All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and are visible on the EDRi website. Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/> Newsletter editor: Guillermo Peris - edrigram(a)edri.org <mailto:edrigram@edri.org> Information about EDRi and its members: http://www.edri.org/ <http://www.edri.org/> European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. If you wish to help us promote digital rights, please consider making a private donation. https://edri.org/donate/ <https://edri.org/donate/> - EDRi-gram subscription information subscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)mailman.edri.org <mailto:edri-news-request@mailman.edri.org> Subject: subscribe You will receive an automated e-mail asking to confirm your request. Unsubscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)mailman.edri.org <mailto:edri-news-request@mailman.edri.org> Subject: unsubscribe - Newsletter archive Back issues are available at: http://www.edri.org/newsletters/ <http://www.edri.org/newsletters/> - Help Please ask edrigram(a)edri.org <mailto:edrigram@edri.org> if you have any problems with subscribing or unsubscribing. Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR-ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) http://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, mob: +39 348 8283101, fax: +390506212040 =================== The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than compulsion; if in the process we learn how to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task. Above all, remember your humanity. -- Sir Joseph Rotblat

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Considerazioni sul tempo presente
by don Luca Peyron April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

Nel ringraziare quanti di voi stanno fattivamente lavorando per risolvere problemi cruciali, mi permetto di condividere qualche considerazione sui nostri rapporti e su questo tempo recluso, ma digitalmente esuberante. Buon tutto, torneremo a riveder le stelle. dl https://www.vaticannews.va/it/chiesa/news/2020-04/pandemia-digitale-vademec… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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chiarimenti sull'approccio di Singapore
by diego di caro April 1, 2020

April 1, 2020

Rimando al testo contenuto nella petizione e link relativi, fortunatamente pare che stia per montare la copertura mediatica riguardo alla questione. Chi vuole firmi, male non fa, l'importante è accendere il rilfettore: https://www.change.org/p/giuseppe-conte-imitiamo-singapore-per-tracciare-il… Alcuni chiarimenti: 1 nel caso di Singapore i dati si trovano crittati direttamente nel telefono degli utenti, nessun server. 2 il servizio sanitario possiede solo l'elenco telefonico delle id anonimizzate corrispondenti ai numeri di telefono (anzi, la chiave per generare questo elenco da id temporanee generate on the fly, suppongo in modo simile a one time password) 3 l'incentivo per l'adozione è enorme: voi non deisderereste una app che vi notifica al più presto se siete stati in contatto con un infetto? accettereste che qualcuno vi si avvicini, entri nel vostro locale senza averla? La PA deve solo lanciare il prodotto, la pressione sociale farà il resto. 4 nel caso di Singapore è open source (dovrebbe essere rilasciato come tale a giorni, e non avrebbe senso agire diversamente) L'approccio di Singapore è estremamamente lucido: perchè fornisce un servizio essenziale, più del gel per le mani, senza chiedere dati e controllo in cambio. Figuriamoci se in Italia ci si arriva: Ecco, l'ho detto. d.

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