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The Innisfil experiment: the town that replaced public transit with Uber | Cities | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 18, 2019

July 18, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jul/16/the-innisfil-experiment-the-…> When Daniel Arrega, 19, heads to work at a mall in Innisfil, he has few options for his commute. Walking along the highway would take nearly three hours. A taxi is faster but expensive. So he takes the town’s public transit: Uber. “It’s great for young people, especially if you don’t have a licence,” he said after arriving at the branch of Tommy Hilfiger where he works. In 2017, the town in Ontario, Canada, embarked on an ambitious – and, to its critics, fraught – experiment. It handed responsibility for public transit to the ride-sharing app Uber. Innisfil Transit’s Uber network connects popular areas, called ‘hubs’ such as municipal buildings and leisure amenities. Innisfil Transit’s Uber network connects popular areas, called ‘hubs’ such as municipal buildings and leisure amenities. Instead of buses or trains plying regular routes, it is Uber’s roving cars that function as the transit fleet. When a rider opens the app, Innisfil Transit pops up as the cheapest option to travel between a network of popular areas called “hubs”, such as libraries, the recreation centre or municipal buildings. The costs per ride vary, but on average passengers pay an average of CAD$5 (£3), with the city subsiding the rest. Trips outside subsidised areas receive a flat $6 discount. Two years later, the Innisfil authorities argue that the project has been a success. Ridership is high – in 2018 there were 85,943 trips – and many residents have embraced the service. [...]

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'Wizard' hacker charged after financial records of nearly every Bulgarian exposed | World news | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 18, 2019

July 18, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/18/wizard-hacker-charged-after-f…> A 20-year-old cybersecurity worker has been arrested in Bulgaria and charged with hacking the personal and financial records of millions of taxpayers, as police continue to investigate the country’s biggest ever data breach. Bulgaria’s NRA tax agency is facing a fine of up to €20m ($22.43m) over the hack, which was revealed this week and is thought to have compromised the records of nearly every working adult among the country’s population of 7 million. Speaking at a government meeting on Wednesday, prime minister Boyko Borissov described the arrested man as a “wizard” hacker and said the country should hire similar “unique brains” to work for the state. But some experts who have examined the stolen data said the techniques used in the attack were relatively basic and spoke more to a lack of adequate data protection measures than the hacker’s ability. “The reason for the success of the attack does not seem to be the sophistication of the hacker, but rather poor security practices at the NRA,” said Bozhidar Bozhanov, chief executive at cybersecurity firm LogSentinel. Yavor Kolev, head of the police’s cybersecurity unit, said the male suspect was arrested on Tuesday afternoon. Officers raided his home and office in the capital, Sofia, and seized computer devices containing encrypted data. The investigation into the hack was still at an early stage, he added, and police were looking into the possibility that other people were involved. Bulgaria’s finance minister, Vladislav Goranov, has apologised for the attack, which exposed the names of millions of people and companies and revealed information about incomes, tax declarations, health insurance payments and loans. Sofia city prosecutors said the man had been charged with a computer crime, would be held for another three days and faced up to eight years in jail if found guilty. The attack has reignited a long-running debate about lax cybersecurity standards in Bulgaria. A person claiming to be a Russian hacker and responsible for the breach emailed local media on Monday and denounced the government’s cybersecurity efforts as a “parody”. [...]

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What the Superhuman Controversy Reveals About the Shifting Ethics of Software | The New Yorker
by Antonio Vetro' July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

"The defense of technologies like pixel-tracking has long been that they are designed to operate at scale, where they are said to be harmless. But technologies that are useful and morally permissible in that context may be harmful and unethical at the ordinary, human level. The question then is how and when to scale them back." https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/what-the-superhuman-con… AV

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Ue apre un’indagine antitrust su Amazon sull’uso dei dati dei dettaglianti indipendenti
by Luigi Scorca July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

https://www-lastampa-it.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.lastampa.it/economia/201…

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It’s not that we’ve failed to rein in Facebook and Google. We’ve not even tried | Surveillance | The Guardian
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

It’s not that we’ve failed to rein in Facebook and Google. We’ve not even tried Shoshana Zuboff The tech giants use our data not only to predict our behaviour but to change it. But we can resist this attack on democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/02/facebook-google-data-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Infografica: The big five technology firms have spent billions buying rivals in recent years
by antonio.vetro＠polito.it July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

Non è cosa nuova, ma l'infografica è a mio parere molto efficace https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/07/16/calls-to-rein-in-the-te… == Sent from my wireless device ==

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Onward! Another #GoogleWalkout Goodbye - Google Walkout For Real Change - Medium
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/onward-another-googlewalkout-goodbye-b733… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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”The Growing Skill Divide in the U.S. Labor Market”
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2017/may/growing-skill-divide-us-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Sole24: "Copyright, Agcom può chiedere il blocco di violazioni. Ma senza sanzioni"
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

*Copyright, Agcom può chiedere il blocco di violazioni. Ma senza sanzioni* di Alessandro Longo L'Autorità garante delle comunicazioni può continuare a chiedere agli operatori internet di bloccare l'accesso a siti o contenuti che violano il copyright. Ma non può più applicare sanzioni agli operatori che rifiutano di farlo. È l'effetto di una sentenza del Consiglio di Stato, appena pubblicata, che così annulla la famosa, quanto controversa Delibera Copyright di Agcom del 2013. […] Continua qui: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/copyright-agcom-puo-chiedere-blocco-violazi…

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Wall Street finds blockchain hard to tame after early euphoria | Article [AMP] | Reuters
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 16, 2019

July 16, 2019

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-finance-focus-idUSKCN1UB0YV (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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