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We Are Tenants on Our Own Devices
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 22, 2019

May 22, 2019

https://www.wired.com/story/right-to-repair-tenants-on-our-own-devices/ (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Far-right Facebook groups 'spreading hate to millions in Europe' | World news | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo May 22, 2019

May 22, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/22/far-right-facebook-groups-spr…> A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz. Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said. In total, the group reported more than 500 suspect groups and Facebook pages operating across France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland and Spain. Most were either spreading fake news or using false pages and profiles to artificially boost the content of parties or sites they supported, in violation of Facebook’s rules. The networks were far more popular than the official pages of far-right and anti-EU populist groups in those countries. The pages taken down by Facebook so far had been viewed half a billion times, Avaaz estimated[...]

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High-tech Estonia votes online for European Parliament
by Enrico Nardelli May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019

Estonia was crippled by cyberattacks on government networks during a dispute with Russia in 2007. Today the tiny tech-savvy nation is so certain of its cyber defenses that it is the only country in the world to allow internet voting for the entire electorate, in every election, and thousands have already done so in the European Parliament elections. Internet voting — or i-voting —has been available since 2005 in the nation that gave the world Skype, and the percentage of voters using the internet to cast ballots has increased with each election, reaching 44% of voters in national election in March. Associated Press, David Keyton, May 20, 2019 https://www.apnews.com/3feb42f649de47788c5bf45a27a6cba5 -- 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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Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy
by don Luca Peyron May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019

*The initiative is just one layer of a multi-pronged, cross-sector approach the country is taking to prepare citizens of all ages for the complex digital landscape of today – and tomorrow. * An interesting approach, have nice time dl https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/europe/finland-fake-news-intl/?… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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Re: [nexa] High-tech Estonia votes online for European Parliament
by Diego Latella May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019

Carissimi, Sinceramente mi preoccupa molto di piu’ la possibilita’ che l’i-vote abbatta completamente pilastri concettuali delle libere elezioni come, ad es. l’assenza di coercizione (o quanto meno le misure per garantirla, o cercare di garantirla), oltre, ovviamente, tutta la questione dell’adeguatezza tecnica del sistema (security etc). Diego PS: e by the way, anche quando voto su carta in cabina, ci metto all’incirca 30 secondi, e in quei 30 secondi votano tante altre persone; non so se 2000 o di piu’ (ok … poi devo aspettare il conteggio ecc ecc, ma penso di potermelo permettere, senza troppa frenesia ;-) > From: Giacomo Tesio <giacomo(a)tesio.it <mailto:giacomo@tesio.it>> > To: Enrico Nardelli <nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it <mailto:nardelli@mat.uniroma2.it>> > Cc: Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it>> > Subject: Re: [nexa] High-tech Estonia votes online for European > Parliament > Message-ID: > <CAHL7psE9bWKBZX4hj9RSrUdJXBTLQvTFR8Tg4Y6bVGOLSnjvUA(a)mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAHL7psE9bWKBZX4hj9RSrUdJXBTLQvTFR8Tg4Y6bVGOLSnjvUA@mail.gmail.com>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Al di là delle questioni di sicurezza informatica (non puoi fidarti di > computer general purpose che con fondi adeguati potrebbero essere > stati compromessi in vari modi ed in massa), un passaggio ha colpito > molto la mia attenzione: > >> It took Lainvoo about 30 seconds to vote and by the >> time she had finished, around 2,000 others in Estonia >> had also voted. > > 30 secondi per votare ogni 2-4 anni. > > 30 secondi. > > Soggettivamente, quanto diventano importanti quei 30 secondi? > > > Giacomo 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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Fwd: Journal Launch: Technology and Regulation (TechReg)
by Alberto Cammozzo May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019

-------- Original Message -------- From: Bryce Newell <bcnewell(a)UOREGON.EDU> Sent: May 21, 2019 1:15:25 PM UTC To: SURVEILLANCE(a)JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Journal Launch: Technology and Regulation (TechReg) Dear Colleagues, We are happy to announce the launch of the international, open-access, and peer-reviewed journal Technology and Regulation, a new interdisciplinary journal of law, technology, and society. Please see the announcement below. The inaugural issue of the journal is now online at https://techreg.org and the journal is also open for submissions. --- Technology and Regulation (TechReg) An interdisciplinary journal of law, technology and society Technology and Regulation (TechReg) is an international journal of law, technology and society, with an interdisciplinary identity. The inaugural issue of the journal is now online at https://techreg.org/. TechReg provides an online platform for disseminating original research on the legal and regulatory challenges posed by existing and emerging technologies (and their applications) including, but by no means limited to, the Internet and digital technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, neurotechnology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy and climate change technology, and health and food technology. We conceive of regulation broadly to encompass ways of dealing with, ordering and understanding technologies and their consequences, such as through legal regulation, competition, social norms and standards, and technology design (or in Lessig’s terms: law, market, norms and architecture). We aim to address critical and sometimes controversial questions such as: * How do new technologies shape society both positively and negatively? * Should technology development be steered towards societal goals, and if so, which goals and how? * What are the benefits and dangers of regulating human behavior through technology? * What is the most appropriate response to technological innovation, in general or in particular cases? It is in this sense that TechReg is intrinsically interdisciplinary: we believe that legal and regulatory debates on technology are inextricable from societal, political and economic concerns, and that therefore technology regulation requires a multidisciplinary, integrated approach. Through a combination of monodisciplinary, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary articles, the journal aims to contribute to an integrated vision of law, technology and society. We invite original, well-researched and methodologically rigorous submissions from academics and practitioners, including policy-makers, on a wide range of research areas such as privacy and data protection, security, surveillance, cybercrime, intellectual property, innovation, competition, governance, risk, ethics, media and data studies, and others (submission information at https://techreg.org/index.php/techreg/about/submissions)<https://techreg.org/index.php/techreg/about/submissions> TechReg is double-blind peer-reviewed and completely open access for both authors and readers. TechReg does not charge article processing fees. Professor Ronald Leenes is the journal's Editor-in-Chief. Our editors and Editorial Board Committee comprise a distinguished panel of international experts in law, technology, and society across different disciplines and domains: Editor-in-Chief Ronald Leenes, Professor, Tilburg University Managing Director Aaron Martin, Tilburg University Editors * Raphaël Gellert, Post-doctoral Researcher, Tilburg University * Inge Graef, Assistant Professor, Tilburg University * Eleni Kosta, Professor, Tilburg University * Giorgio Monti, Professor, European University Institute * Robin Peirce, Associate Professor, Tilburg University * Nadezhda Purtova, Associate Professor, Tilburg University * Leonie Reins, Assistant Professor, Tilburg University * Bart van der Sloot, Assistant Professor, Tilburg University Junior Editors * Shazade Jameson, Tilburg University * Hellen Mukiri-Smith, Tilburg University Editorial Board Committee * Jean-François Blanchette, Associate Professor of Informatics, UCLA * Lyria Bennett Moses, Professor and Director of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation, University of New South Wales * Ian Brown, Senior Fellow, Research ICT Africa * Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology, University of Vienna * Michael Froomkin, Full Professor of Law, U. Miami School of Law * Michiel Heldeweg, Full Professor of Law, Governance and Technology, University of Twente * Veerle Heyvaert, Associate Professor (Reader) of Law, London School of Economics * Mireille Hildebrandt, Professor of Smart Environments, Data Protection and the Rule of Law, Radboud University * Fleur Johns, Professor, Associate Dean (Research), University of New South Wales * Tim Kelly, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, World Bank * Bert-Jaap Koops, Full Professor, Tilburg University * Pierre Larouche, Full Professor in Law and Innovation, University of Montreal * Deirdre Mulligan, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley * Andrew Murray, Professor of Law, London School of Economics * Bryce Clayton Newell, Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky * Carly Nyst, Director, Ada Lovelace Institute * René von Schomberg, Guest Professor, Technische Universität Darmstadt * Karen Yeung, Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellow in Law, Ethics and Informatics, Birmingham Law School --- Sincerely, Bryce Clayton Newell, Ph.D., J.D. Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky As of August 2019: Assistant Professor of Media Law and Policy School of Journalism and Communication University of Oregon **************************************************** This is a message from the SURVEILLANCE listserv for research and teaching in surveillance studies. To unsubscribe, please send the following message to <LISTSERV(a)jiscmail.ac.uk>: UNSUBSCRIBE SURVEILLANCE For further help, please visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help ****************************************************

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China’s new ‘social credit system’ is a dystopian nightmare
by Giacomo Tesio May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019

https://nypost.com/2019/05/18/chinas-new-social-credit-system-turns-orwells… Imagine calling a friend. Only instead of hearing a ring tone you hear a police siren, and then a voice intoning, “Be careful in your dealings with this person.” [...] Say you arrive at the Beijing airport, intending to catch a flight to Canton 1,200 miles south. The clerk at the ticket counter turns you away because — you guessed it — your social credit score is too low. [...] you are then forced to travel by slow train. What should have been a three-hour flight becomes a 30-hour, stop-and-go nightmare. All because the government has declared you untrustworthy. Perhaps you defaulted on a loan, made the mistake of criticizing some government policy online or just spent too much time playing video games on the internet. All of these actions, and many more, can cause your score to plummet, forcing citizens onto the most dreaded rung on China’s deadbeat caste system, the laolai. [...] The government algorithm will go as far as to install an “embarrassing” ring tone on the phones of laolai, shaming them every time they get a call in public. “Tapping on a person marked on the map reveals their personal information, including their full name, court-case number and the reason they have been labeled untrustworthy. Identity-card numbers and home addresses are also partially shown,” ABC reported. [...] The government claims that its purpose is to enhance trust and social stability by creating a “culture of sincerity” that will “restore social trust.” [...] Individuals can earn points, for example, for reporting those who violate the new restrictions on religious practice, such as Christians who illegally meet to pray in private homes, or the Muslim Uyghurs and Kazakhs in China’s far west whom they spot praying in public, fasting during Ramadan or just growing a beard. [...] Western criticism of the new system has been intense, with Human Rights Watch describing it as “chilling.” In response, Chinese Communist Party publications scoff that Westerners are simply too unsophisticated to understand the wonders of the new system. In the words of China’s Global Times, “The hypothetical theories of the West are based on their ignorance.” The massive social credit system, it goes on to say, is simply “beyond the understanding of Western countries.”

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Three conclusions to draw from Google denying Huawei access to software
by Giacomo Tesio May 21, 2019

May 21, 2019

https://fsfe.org/news/2019/news-20190520-01.html Following the U.S. administration's decision to effectively ban American companies from doing trade with the Chinese company Huawei, Google suspended all business with the company. This affects all software which is not covered under Free Software licences. In practice, Huawei's upcoming and potentially also current phones will no longer get support and updates for the Android operating system. They will also not have access to the proprietary Google apps and services like Gmail and Google Play. [...] without access to the default app store on most stock Android phones they will miss important security updates for the apps installed through it. [...] The following lessons can be drawn from this case: 1. The FSFE urges users to use Free Software operating systems and applications on their computing devices. [...] 2. Governments and especially the European Union should invest more resources in Free Software to gain independence from large enterprises and other states. 3. The FSFE urges companies to use as much Free Software as possible in their supply chains. [...] The earlier allegations against Huawei already showed that code for all critical infrastructure should be published under a Free Software licence. The latest episode of the Huawei affair illustrates that the same applies to apps and services. Just days before the European Elections, this should be a wake-up call for the next constituent Parliament to ask the European Commission for European directives that foster independence of European technical infrastructure and that build on Free Software, starting with the demand to release publicly funded software as public code.

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Nanni Balestrini (1935-2019)
by Francesco Ruggiero May 20, 2019

May 20, 2019

Gentilissimi, ho pensato di condividere il ricordo del poeta e artista Nanni Balestrini, scomparso ieri sera a Roma. Pioniere della poesia elettronica e autore, fin dal 1961, di macchinazioni testuali realizzate con l’ausilio di calcolatori. Balestrini ha attraversato l’opacità del presente cercando “punti di risveglio” nelle forme contraddittorie e combinatorie della lingua/codice. http://www.nannibalestrini.info/ Buona serata, Francesco -- Francesco Ruggiero Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino web: http://nexa.polito.it mail: francesco.ruggiero(a)polito.it tel: 011 090 7219

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Paper: “Urbanism Under Google: Lessons from Sidewalk Toronto” by Ellen P. Goodman, Julia Powles :: SSRN
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 20, 2019

May 20, 2019

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3390610 Urbanism Under Google: Lessons from Sidewalk Toronto Fordham Law Review, Forthcoming 45 Pages Posted: 20 May 2019 Ellen P. Goodman Rutgers Law School Julia Powles UWA Law School Date Written: May 16, 2019 Abstract Cities around the world are rapidly adopting digital technologies, data analytics, and the trappings of “smart” infrastructure. No company is more ambitious about exploring data flows and seeking to dominate networks of information than Google. In October 2017, Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs embarked on its first prototype smart city in Toronto, Canada, planning a new kind of data-driven urban environment: “the world’s first neighborhood built from the internet up.” Although the vision is for an urban district foregrounding progressive ideals of inclusivity, for the crucial first 18 months of the venture, many of the most consequential features of the project were hidden from view and unavailable for serious scrutiny. The players defied public accountability on questions about data collection and surveillance, governance, privacy, competition, and procurement. Even more basic questions about the use of public space went unanswered: privatized services, land ownership, infrastructure deployment and, in all cases, the question of who is in control. What was hidden in this first stage, and what was revealed, suggest that the imagined smart city may be incompatible with democratic processes, sustained public governance, and the public interest. This article analyzes the Sidewalk project in Toronto as it took shape in its first phase, prior to the release of the Master Innovation and Development Plan, exploring three major governance challenges posed by the imagined “city of the future”: privatization, platformization, and domination. The significance of this case study applies well beyond Toronto. Google and related companies are modeling future business growth embedded in cities and using projects like the one in Toronto as test beds. What happens in Toronto is designed to be replicated. We conclude with some lessons, highlighting the precarity of civic stewardship and public accountability when cities are confronted with tantalizing visions of privatized urban innovation. Keywords: surveillance, democracy, data, smart city, urban, privacy, infrastructure, governance, municipal, cities, privatization, procurement, planning, autonomous vehicles (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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