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Germany’s data ethics commission releases 75 recommendations with EU-wide application in mind
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 24, 2019

Oct. 24, 2019

Germany’s data ethics commission releases 75 recommendations with EU-wide application in mind *A new document presented to the German government argues for more regulations in automated decision-making. AlgorithmWatch welcomes some proposals.* This Wednesday, the “data ethics commission” of the German government released a 240-page report <https://datenethikkommission.de/wp-content/uploads/191015_DEK_Gutachten_scr…> (pdf). It contains 75 concrete recommendations regarding the digitization of society, many of which have to do with algorithmic decision-making. The 16-strong commission, which included 9 men, started work in 2018. It brought together a majority of scholars, data protection officers andsome representatives of the industry. While their work addressed several aspects of digitization, in particular a recommendation to abandon any plan to treat personal data as pieces of property that could be bought and sold, the third part of their report was entirely devoted to algorithmic systems. On this point, the central recommendation of the commission is to apply different regulations to autonomous systems based on a 5-point scale: 1. Systems with low potential harm such as drink dispensers should not be regulated. 2. Systems with some potential harm such as dynamic pricing in e-commerce should be lightly regulated and post-hoc controls should be set up. 3. Systems with regular or obvious potential harm such as personalized pricing should undergo an approval procedure associated to regular controls. 4. Systems with considerable potential harm, such as companies that have quasi-monopolies in credit scoring, should publish the details of their algorithms, including the factors used in the calculations and their weights, the data processed and an explanation of their inner logic. Controls should be possible via a real-time interface. 5. Systems with unwarranted potential harm such as autonomous weapons should be “fully or partially”forbidden. [...] continua qui: https://algorithmwatch.org/en/germanys-data-ethics-commission-releases-75-r…

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Re: [nexa] nexa Digest, Vol 126, Issue 39
by Agata Lo Tauro Oct. 24, 2019

Oct. 24, 2019

Ma J.C. DE MARTIN mi manda un video su https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dUgrN9Vqow ? e qualcuno mi aveva sconsigliato... "non si può fare"? :-) Anyway ... Bello! We are trying to implement Novel international... Pluridisciplinary Cultural Event... In Sicily :-) We will let you know... "Si fa quel che si può" Thanks a lot David... http://www.fig.net/organisation/comm// (you are reading in cc.) The Best Ways of Becoming a More Empathetic <https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/6-ways-becoming-a-more-empathetic-tea…>Prof.... ??? :-) All the best and take care... Agata Il giorno gio 24 ott 2019 alle ore 08:47 <nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it> ha scritto: > Send nexa mailing list submissions to > nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > You can reach the person managing the list at > nexa-owner(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of nexa digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: "Unix 50" (Giacomo Tesio) > 2. Facebook must face $35B facial-recognition lawsuit following > court ruling | Ars Technica (Alberto Cammozzo) > 3. NordVPN, TorGuard, and VikingVPN VPN providers disclose > security breaches (Giacomo Tesio) > 4. Tribute to the Life of Giovanni Buttarelli - YouTube > (J.C. DE MARTIN) > 5. The Impact of Machine Learning & AI on Geomatics (Agata Lo Tauro) > 6. Inside the Phone Company Secretly Run By Drug Traffickers > (Giacomo Tesio) > 7. Mind-reading tech: how private companies work to gain access > to our brains (Alberto Cammozzo) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:17:27 +0200 > From: Giacomo Tesio <giacomo(a)tesio.it> > To: "J.C. DE MARTIN" <demartin(a)polito.it> > Cc: ego(a)atrent.it, Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: Re: [nexa] "Unix 50" > Message-ID: > <CAHL7psGd6WeEUJXhEuiocvqWhO4t_xvDvMg5= > jZZJzwW_ZCLoQ(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > On 23/10/2019, J.C. DE MARTIN <demartin(a)polito.it> wrote: > > Preciso solo che - vista l'età - la sua partecipazione > > sarà da remoto. > > Ops... scusate... l'entusiasmo mi ha evidentemente accecato. > Sto diventando vecchio... :-) > > Rimane comunque una sessione molto interessante. > > > Giacomo > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:46:29 +0200 > From: Alberto Cammozzo <ac+nexa(a)zeromx.net> > To: Center Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] Facebook must face $35B facial-recognition lawsuit > following court ruling | Ars Technica > Message-ID: <badbff72-caa1-5cf3-70b2-bfd390616847(a)zeromx.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > < > https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/35-billion-facial-recognition-l… > > > > > Facebook's most recent attempt to extricate itself from a potentially > landmark lawsuit has come to a dead end, as a federal court declined to > hear another appeal to stop the $35 billion class action. > > In San Francisco last week, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit > denied Facebook's petition for an en banc hearing in the case. Usually, > appeals cases are heard by a panel of three judges out of all the judges > who work in a given circuit. An en banc hearing is a kind of appeal in > which a much larger group of judges hears a case. In the 9th Circuit, 11 > of the 29 judges sit on en banc cases. > > Facebook had requested an en banc hearing to appeal the 9th's Circuit's > August ruling, in which the court determined that the plaintiffs had > standing to sue, even though Facebook's alleged actions did not cause > them any quantifiable financial harm. The class-action suit can now move > forward. > Further Reading > Facebook’s new facial recognition feature finds you in untagged photos > > Three different Illinois residents filed suit against Facebook back in > 2015. The suits, which were eventually rolled together into one single > class-action complaint, argue that Facebook's collection of users' faces > for tagging purposes violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy > Act, a law that requires businesses to gather consent from state > residents before their biometric data is collected or used. > > The penalty Facebook would face for violating the Illinois law is up to > $5,000 for each knowing violation. There are about 7 million Facebook > users in Illinois, meaning Facebook could face a maximum fine of around > $35 billion if the case goes to trial and the company loses. > Facial recognition: Far from flawless > > While one tech giant faces a lawsuit over facial recognition that works > too well, another is facing criticism over facial recognition that > doesn't work well enough. > > The Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union this week > released the results of a test it ran on Amazon's Rekognition software, > in which it mistakenly matched many New England professional athletes to > mugshots from a database. The ACLU compared images of 188 athletes from > the Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, and New England > Patriots teams against a database of about 20,000 public arrest photos. > The ACLU found that 27 of the athletes, more than 14%, were falsely > identified in the mugshots. > > [...] > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 17:30:48 +0200 > From: Giacomo Tesio <giacomo(a)tesio.it> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > Subject: [nexa] NordVPN, TorGuard, and VikingVPN VPN providers > disclose security breaches > Message-ID: > < > CAHL7psH0DnHo7zeBEMdr5V_2M3_KaKHsLAfnKtvfp7N73mypgQ(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > > https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/92808/hacking/nordvpn-torguard-vikingv… > > NordVPN and TorGuard VPN firms were hacked, threat actors leaked the > private keys used to secure their web servers and VPN configuration > files. > > Hackers have breached the systems used by NordVPN and TorGuard VPN > companies and leaked the private keys used to secure their web servers > and VPN configuration files. > > The information belonging to the NordVPN company that was leaked > online were stolen from the server of the VPN provider last year. > [...] > > > A bigger problem was that they weren't practicing secure PKI > management because the CA private key was stupidly on the same server. > With that private key, an attacker could easily generate their own > server cert/key and MiTM any other server. [...] > > > The keys could be used for a man-in-the-middle attack. In addition, it > can be assumed that the attacker was able to access traffic during the > hack. [...] > > > “A few months ago, we became aware that, on March 2018, one of the > datacenters in Finland we had been renting our servers from was > accessed with no authorization.” reads the statement published by the > VPN provider. “The attacker gained access to the server by exploiting > an insecure remote management system left by the datacenter provider. > We were unaware that such a system existed. [...] > > > The incident also impacted other VPN providers using the same data > center, such as VikingVPN and TorGuard. > > TorGuard was the only VPN provider of the three impacted by the > incident to be implementing secure PKI management this means that its > main CA key was not on the affected VPN server. > > > > Giacomo > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 19:54:14 +0200 > From: "J.C. DE MARTIN" <demartin(a)polito.it> > To: Center Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] Tribute to the Life of Giovanni Buttarelli - YouTube > Message-ID: <3193909C-A6F5-4BDA-8102-B7A4F86A31C9(a)polito.it> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dUgrN9Vqow > > > (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any)) > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:58:52 +0200 > From: Agata Lo Tauro <agatalotauro(a)gmail.com> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > Subject: [nexa] The Impact of Machine Learning & AI on Geomatics > Message-ID: > <CAF0XQCSDU6N3OAutTFmiXPp7RLcBJW= > Ff6G+5YPOT8TKTYCUsg(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > The Impact of Machine Learning & AI on Geomatics > > https://gogeomatics.ca/the-impact-of-machine-learning-ai-on-geomatics/ > > PS_perdonate, spesso scrivo velocemente e non faccio caso agli orrori di > spelling... etc, sorry! :-) > > Cari saluti a voi tutti, > Agata >

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Google Accused of Creating Spy Tool to Squelch Worker Dissent
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 24, 2019

Oct. 24, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-23/google-accused-of-creati… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Mind-reading tech: how private companies work to gain access to our brains
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 24, 2019

Oct. 24, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/24/mind-reading-tech-privat…> It’s raining on your walk to the station after work, but you don’t have an umbrella. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a rain jacket in a shop window. You think to yourself: “A rain jacket like that would be perfect for weather like this.” 'You're trying to help drug dealers': Zuckerberg faces angry lawmakers at Libra hearing. Later, as you’re scrolling on Instagram on the train, you see a similar-looking jacket. You take a closer look. Actually, it’s exactly the same one – and it’s a sponsored post. You feel a sudden wave of paranoia: did you say something out loud about the jacket? Had Instagram somehow read your mind? While social media’s algorithms sometimes appear to “know” us in ways that can feel almost telepathic, ultimately their insights are the result of a triangulation of millions of recorded externalized online actions: clicks, searches, likes, conversations, purchases and so on. This is life under surveillance capitalism. As powerful as the recommendation algorithms have become, we still assume that our innermost dialogue is internal unless otherwise disclosed. But recent advances in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, which integrates cognitive activity with a computer, might challenge this. In the past year, researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to translate directly from brain activity into synthetic speech or text by recording and decoding a person’s neural signals, using sophisticated AI algorithms. While such technology offers a promising horizon for those suffering from neurological conditions that affect speech, this research is also being followed closely, and occasionally funded, by technology companies like Facebook. A shift to brain-computer interfaces, they propose, will offer a revolutionary way to communicate with our machines and each other, a direct line between mind and device. But will the price we pay for these cognitive devices be an incursion into our last bastion of real privacy? Are we ready to surrender our cognitive liberty for more streamlined online services and better targeted ads? [...]

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Inside the Phone Company Secretly Run By Drug Traffickers
by Giacomo Tesio Oct. 23, 2019

Oct. 23, 2019

All over the world, in Dutch clubs like the one Kok frequented, or Australian biker hangouts and Mexican drug safe houses, there is an underground trade of custom-engineered phones. These phones typically run software for sending encrypted emails or messages, and use their own server infrastructure for routing communications. Sometimes the devices have the microphone, camera, and GPS functionality removed. Some also have a dual-boot mode, where powering on the device as normal will show an innocuous menu screen with no sensitive information. But if certain buttons are held down when turning the phone on, it will reveal a secret file system containing the user’s encrypted text messages and other communications. With these tweaks, the ordinary methods for law enforcement to intercept messages are cut-off—police can’t simply get an ordinary phone tap or subpoena messages from a company; the texts are typically only available in a readable form on the users’ devices. [...] For MPC, the process of setting up the devices was relatively simple: MPC would take a Google Nexus 5 or Nexus 5X Android phone, and then add its own security features and operating system, according to social media posts from MPC and a source with knowledge of the process. MPC then created the customer’s messaging accounts, added a data-only SIM card (which MPC paid about £20 a month for), and then sold the phone to the customer at £1,200. Six-month renewals cost £700, the source added. MPC only sold around 5,000 phones, the source said, but that still indicates the business netted the company some £6 million. At one point, a version of MPC's phones also used code from an open-source, security-focused Android fork called CopperheadOS, three sources said. [...] Initially, The Brothers were clients of the encrypted phone industry, and used to buy their specialized BlackBerry devices from a company called Ennetcom, according to a source with knowledge of their operations. Dutch police say they have linked Ennectom, run by a man called Danny Manupassa, to cases of assassination, armed robbery, and drug trafficking. The Brothers, not wanting to trust others with their security, decided to create their own devices. They hired developers to make a custom operating system. Motherboard confirmed the name of one of those developers with three sources in the secure phone industry; the developer did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Continua su http://web.archive.org/web/20191023140835/https://www.vice.com/en_us/articl… Giacomo

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The Impact of Machine Learning & AI on Geomatics
by Agata Lo Tauro Oct. 23, 2019

Oct. 23, 2019

The Impact of Machine Learning & AI on Geomatics https://gogeomatics.ca/the-impact-of-machine-learning-ai-on-geomatics/ PS_perdonate, spesso scrivo velocemente e non faccio caso agli orrori di spelling... etc, sorry! :-) Cari saluti a voi tutti, Agata

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Tribute to the Life of Giovanni Buttarelli - YouTube
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 23, 2019

Oct. 23, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dUgrN9Vqow (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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NordVPN, TorGuard, and VikingVPN VPN providers disclose security breaches
by Giacomo Tesio Oct. 23, 2019

Oct. 23, 2019

https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/92808/hacking/nordvpn-torguard-vikingv… NordVPN and TorGuard VPN firms were hacked, threat actors leaked the private keys used to secure their web servers and VPN configuration files. Hackers have breached the systems used by NordVPN and TorGuard VPN companies and leaked the private keys used to secure their web servers and VPN configuration files. The information belonging to the NordVPN company that was leaked online were stolen from the server of the VPN provider last year. [...] A bigger problem was that they weren't practicing secure PKI management because the CA private key was stupidly on the same server. With that private key, an attacker could easily generate their own server cert/key and MiTM any other server. [...] The keys could be used for a man-in-the-middle attack. In addition, it can be assumed that the attacker was able to access traffic during the hack. [...] “A few months ago, we became aware that, on March 2018, one of the datacenters in Finland we had been renting our servers from was accessed with no authorization.” reads the statement published by the VPN provider. “The attacker gained access to the server by exploiting an insecure remote management system left by the datacenter provider. We were unaware that such a system existed. [...] The incident also impacted other VPN providers using the same data center, such as VikingVPN and TorGuard. TorGuard was the only VPN provider of the three impacted by the incident to be implementing secure PKI management this means that its main CA key was not on the affected VPN server. Giacomo

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Facebook must face $35B facial-recognition lawsuit following court ruling | Ars Technica
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 23, 2019

Oct. 23, 2019

<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/35-billion-facial-recognition-l…> Facebook's most recent attempt to extricate itself from a potentially landmark lawsuit has come to a dead end, as a federal court declined to hear another appeal to stop the $35 billion class action. In San Francisco last week, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied Facebook's petition for an en banc hearing in the case. Usually, appeals cases are heard by a panel of three judges out of all the judges who work in a given circuit. An en banc hearing is a kind of appeal in which a much larger group of judges hears a case. In the 9th Circuit, 11 of the 29 judges sit on en banc cases. Facebook had requested an en banc hearing to appeal the 9th's Circuit's August ruling, in which the court determined that the plaintiffs had standing to sue, even though Facebook's alleged actions did not cause them any quantifiable financial harm. The class-action suit can now move forward. Further Reading Facebook’s new facial recognition feature finds you in untagged photos Three different Illinois residents filed suit against Facebook back in 2015. The suits, which were eventually rolled together into one single class-action complaint, argue that Facebook's collection of users' faces for tagging purposes violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, a law that requires businesses to gather consent from state residents before their biometric data is collected or used. The penalty Facebook would face for violating the Illinois law is up to $5,000 for each knowing violation. There are about 7 million Facebook users in Illinois, meaning Facebook could face a maximum fine of around $35 billion if the case goes to trial and the company loses. Facial recognition: Far from flawless While one tech giant faces a lawsuit over facial recognition that works too well, another is facing criticism over facial recognition that doesn't work well enough. The Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union this week released the results of a test it ran on Amazon's Rekognition software, in which it mistakenly matched many New England professional athletes to mugshots from a database. The ACLU compared images of 188 athletes from the Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, and New England Patriots teams against a database of about 20,000 public arrest photos. The ACLU found that 27 of the athletes, more than 14%, were falsely identified in the mugshots. [...]

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"Unix 50"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 23, 2019

Oct. 23, 2019

https://www.bell-labs.com/unix50/event/ Celebrating 50 years of Unix We are commemorating Unix’s anniversary with the Unix50 event, a two-day celebration that will reflect on Unix’s past and explore the future of computing. Speakers and panelists include many of the original team that built Unix and designed the C programming language, as well as luminaries in the fields of computing and robotics. The event will also feature a gallery of Unix artifacts, a coding challenge requiring students to program robots to navigate the industrial spaces of the future, and numerous other activities drawing on Unix’s rich and colorful history at Bell Labs. Check back soon for videos and photos captured from the event.

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