- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

The Dying Art of Instruction in the Digital Classroom | by Tim Parks | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
by J.C. DE MARTIN Aug. 1, 2019

Aug. 1, 2019

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/07/31/the-dying-art-of-instruction-in-th… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

1 0

Army fights fake news with propagandists and hackers in one unit | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Aug. 1, 2019

Aug. 1, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/31/army-fights-fake-news-wi…> Computer hackers and propaganda specialists working in the British army are to be placed in a single division, as part of a reorganisation designed to reflect a belief that the boundary between peace and war has become increasingly blurred. The cyber and intelligence experts will be consolidated into a reborn 6th Division – one of three in the army with a strength of 14,500 – which will also contain ground troops who can be used in secret, special forces-type operations. British special forces to get new mission to counter state actors Read more Lt Gen Ivan Jones, the commander of the British field army, said the plan reflected the fact that “the character of warfare continues to change” and “the boundaries between conventional and unconventional warfare” had become blurred. One of the early tasks for the rebranded unit is to better tackle disinformation and fake news emerging from Russia and elsewhere. For example, at the end of a recent exercise in Croatia, stories circulated that British soldiers had tried to abduct a native child only to be fought off by locals. “What happened was that a handful of incidents that happened after the exercise, regrettable stories of soldiers accused of vandalism or urinating in public, were exaggerated online locally and began to appear in local media. We need people on the ground from the new 6th Div who can quickly counter that,” a military source said. However, deliberate disinformation has been used in Mosul and northern Iraq “to great effect” to undermine Islamic State, army sources indicated, although they declined to provide further details for security reasons. British combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan finished 10 and five years ago, and while the military are now engaged in some covert missions such as in Yemen, conventional war fighting is currently rare. Troops are more likely to be engaged in peacekeeping and security operations, such as leading a Nato battlegroup on the Russian border in Estonia, or engaged in exercises in parts of the world where a visible UK presence is deemed politically desirable. [...]

1 0

"Billionaire Summer Camp: The Rich And Famous Flock To Sicily For The 7th Annual Google Retreat"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 31, 2019

July 31, 2019

*Billionaire Summer Camp: The Rich And Famous Flock To Sicily For The 7th Annual Google Retreat** * Jul 30, 2019, 08:29am Jim Dobson Senior Contributor Located on the southwest coast of Sicily, close to the seaside town of Sciacca, the wealthiest people have converged for the Annual Google Camp. Traditionally held every year at the end of July, the famed Verdura Resort hosts the most top-secret gathering in the world. Even though social media posts are forbidden, the superyacht owners enjoy showing off their celebrity guests throughout the week's activities and high profile lunches. […] Continua qui: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2019/07/30/billionaire-summer-camp-t…

1 0

Il predictive policing italiano - XLAW
by Antonio Vetro' July 31, 2019

July 31, 2019

Condivido un'interessante segnalazione del collega Antonio Servetti (con suo permesso) nell’ambito del c.d. "predictive policing": https://it.businessinsider.com/perla-il-dirigente-di-polizia-ha-creato-un-a… "Un algoritmo che è in grado di prevedere i reati predatori come rapine, furti, truffe, scippi e molto altro, ore prima che avvengano.” “Sovrapponiamo i dati criminali a questa città virtuale, ci accorgiamo che i reati avvengono in quelle riserve di caccia e combaciano proprio con le fasi a operazioni regolari all’interno della città.” Il sistema si chiama XLAW, e viene dato in comodato d’uso gratuito alle questure, secondo quanto riportato nell’articolo. Riporto la metafora usata per descrivere l'approccio: Territorio = Paziente Crimine Predatorio = Malattia Ogni altro dato acquisito = Sintomo/criterio Colleghi architetti mi riferiscono che l’analogia è usata da almeno 200 anni… XLaw ovviamente è in uso da meno tempo, secondo l’articolo è sperimentato dal 2004 a Napoli e dal 2011 funziona su tutta la città. Io ne vengo a conoscenza solo ora (sigh!) grazie alla segnalazione di Antonio, e le ricerche su Google datano notizie da circa un anno. Al di là dell’essere concordi o meno con questo tipo di approccio, sarebbe interessante poterci mettere le mani per verificare l’effetto dei cicli di feedback ed eventuali discriminazioni dettate da un approccio su serie storiche, come trovato in uno studio del 2016 fatto su un software simile, PredPol: https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2016.00960… Ringrazio in anticipo per suggerimenti utili a seguire questa pista. Un caro saluto, antonio vetrò

1 0

In Hong Kong Protests, Faces Become Weapons - The New York Times
by Alberto Cammozzo July 30, 2019

July 30, 2019

<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/technology/hong-kong-protests-facial-rec…> HONG KONG — The police officers wrestled with Colin Cheung in an unmarked car. They needed his face. They grabbed his jaw to force his head in front of his iPhone. They slapped his face. They shouted, “Wake up!” They pried open his eyes. It all failed: Mr. Cheung had disabled his phone’s facial-recognition login with a quick button mash as soon as they grabbed him. As Hong Kong convulses amid weeks of protests, demonstrators and the police have turned identity into a weapon. The authorities are tracking protest leaders online and seeking their phones. Many protesters now cover their faces, and they fear that the police are using cameras and possibly other tools to single out targets for arrest. And when the police stopped wearing identification badges as the violence escalated, some protesters began to expose officers’ identities online. One fast-growing channel on the social messaging app Telegram seeks and publishes personal information about officers and their families. The channel, “Dadfindboy,” has more than 50,000 subscribers and advocates violence in crude and cartoonish ways. Rival pro-government channels seek to unmask protesters in a similar fashion. Mr. Cheung, who was arrested last week on a suspicion of “conspiring and abetting murder,” subscribes to the “Dadfindboy” channel, although he denied being among its founders as the police have said and he condemned posts calling for violence. He believes he was targeted by the police because he developed a tool that could compare images against a set of photos of officers to find matches — a project he later abandoned. Interested in All Things Tech? The Bits newsletter will keep you updated on the latest from Silicon Valley and the technology industry. “I don’t want them to be like secret police,” said Mr. Cheung, who was released on bail and has not been charged with wrongdoing. “If law enforcement officers don’t wear anything to show their identity, they’ll become corrupt. They’ll be able to do whatever they want.” “With the tool, ordinary citizens can tell who the police are,” he added. Hong Kong is at the bleeding edge of a significant change in the authorities’ ability to track dangerous criminals and legitimate political protesters alike — and in their targets’ ability to fight back. Across the border in China, the police often catch people with digital fingerprints gleaned using one of the world’s most invasive surveillance systems. The advent of facial-recognition technology and the rapid expansion of a vast network of cameras and other tracking tools has begun to increase those capabilities substantially. The transformation strikes a strong chord in Hong Kong. The protests began over a proposed bill that would have allowed the city to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China, where the police and courts ultimately answer to the Communist Party. [...]

1 0

Conservatives Allege Big Tech Is Biased Against Them - The Atlantic
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 30, 2019

July 30, 2019

Why Conservatives Allege Big Tech Is Muzzling Them Google and Facebook aren’t infringing on the right’s freedom of expression, but insisting otherwise is politically convenient. JUL 28, 2019 Siva Vaidhyanathan https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/conservatives-pretend-big… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

1 0

How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong | WIRED
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 29, 2019

July 29, 2019

https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

1 0

Privacy group asks court to reconsider FTC’s $5 billion Facebook deal | Ars Technica
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 29, 2019

July 29, 2019

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/privacy-group-asks-court-to-rec… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

1 0

Mattarella, web rispetti i principi delle democrazie
by don Luca Peyron July 29, 2019

July 29, 2019

Le sagge parole del nostro presidente della Repubblica dl http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/tecnologia/tlc/2019/07/25/mattarella-web-ri… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

2 1

Sentenza del rinvio nel caso C‑40/17, Fashion ID GmbH & Co. KG v Verbraucherzentrale NRW e.V.
by Alberto Cammozzo July 29, 2019

July 29, 2019

Se metti il plugin di FB sei co-responsabile per il trattamento dei dati che elabora. <http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=216555> [...] 84 Par conséquent, il apparaît que Fashion ID peut être considérée comme étant responsable, au sens de l’article 2, sous d), de la directive 95/46, conjointement avec Facebook Ireland, des opérations de collecte et de communication par transmission des données à caractère personnel des visiteurs de son site Internet.[...] Accolta la posizione dell'avvocato generale Bobek <http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?docid=209357&doclang=EN> [...] A person that has embedded a third-party plug-in in its website, which causes the collection and transmission of the user’s personal data (that third party having provided the plug-in), shall be considered to be a controller within the meaning of Article 2(d) of Directive 95/46. However, that controller’s (joint) responsibility is limited to those operations for which it effectively co-decides on the means and purposes of the processing of the personal data. [...]

2 1