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Algoritmi, politica e democrazia sui social network | 28 febbraio 2019
by Nexa Media Feb. 20, 2019

Feb. 20, 2019

Nexa Center for Internet and Society Newsletter Se non visualizzi correttamente questo messaggio clicca qui <https://nexa.polito.it/2019/02/mperrin> NEXA Giovedì 28 febbraio 2019, ore 12.00 - 14.00 Centro Nexa su Internet e Società, Politecnico di Torino, Via Boggio 65/a, Torino (1° piano) https://nexa.polito.it/2019/02/mperrin Algoritmi, politica e democrazia sui social network: legami pericolosi? Speaker Marc Perrin (CNAM, Centro Nexa) This event will be webcast live: https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air Gli algoritmi hanno cominciato a regolare le nostre vite senza che noi ne fossimo completamente consapevoli, raggiungendo sempre con maggiore frequenza il campo della politica, attraverso l’ausilio dei social network. Il loro utilizzo apre una riflessione sul concetto di democrazia? *Gli algoritmi contribuiscono a cambiare il nostro rapporto con la società e con l'informazione?* Siamo tutti prigionieri delle filter bubble e delle fake news? Riusciamo ancora a governare le nostre decisioni senza avere il controllo totale sui nostri dati? A partire dagli ultimi studi e dalle ricerche svolte all’interno del Centro Nexa su Internet & Società, Marc Perrin proverà a fornire uno scenario delle possibili conseguenze politiche generate da queste innovazioni. /Il seminario, destinato in modo particolare agli studenti ESABAC di Torino, è aperto a tutti. Prenotazione obbligatoria delle classi *entro il 21/2/2018*/. Scrivere a: selina.fenoglietto(a)polito.it <mailto:selina.fenoglietto@polito.it> *Il seminario sarà tenuto in lingua francese.* BIOGRAFIE - e informazioni supplementari [PERRIN] Dr *Marc PERRIN* a partire da ottobre svolge al Centro Nexa lo stage "Il ruolo di internet, dei social media e dell'intelligenza artificiale nella formazione dell'opinione pubblica e nelle campagne elettorali" in collaborazione con il Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers di Parigi per il diploma magistrale in “Scienze, Tecniche e sociétà”. *Letture consigliate e link utili:* * Dominique Cardon, /A quoi rêvent les algorithmes?/, seuil, La République des idées 2015, trad. it, /Che cosa sognano gli algoritmi. Le nostre vite al tempo dei big data/, Mondadori 2018. * Eli Pariser, /The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You/, New York, Penguin Press, 2011, trad it, /Il filtro. Quello che internet ci nasconde/, Il Saggiatore 2012. * /Facebook menace-t-il la démocratie? /, "Le Monde", 1/11/2016. * Eytan Bakshy, Solomon Messing, Lada A. Adamic, /Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook/ <http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6239/1130>, "Science" 5/6/2015. * Cathy o’ Neil, /Algorithmes, la bombe à retardement/. éditions arène 2018, trad en, /Weapons of Math Destruction/, Crown 2016. Che cosa sono il Centro Nexa e i cicli di incontri “Mercoledì di Nexa” e “Nexa Lunch Seminar” Il Centro Nexa su Internet & Società del Politecnico di Torino (Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica) è un centro di ricerca indipendente e interdisciplinare che studia Internet e il suo effetto sulla società. Maggiori informazioni all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/about. Durante i “*Mercoledì di Nexa*”, che si tengono *ogni 2° mercoledì del mese* alle *ore 18 in punto*, il Centro Nexa su Internet e Società apre le sue porte non solo agli esperti e a tutti coloro i quali lavorano con Internet, ma anche a semplici appassionati e cittadini. Il ciclo di incontri intende approfondire, con un linguaggio preciso ma divulgativo, i temi legati alla Rete: motori di ricerca, Creative Commons, social networks, open source/software libero, neutralità della rete, libertà di espressione, privacy, file sharing, big e open data, smart cities e molto altro. Al centro di quasi tutti gli incontri un ospite pronto a dialogare con i direttori del Centro Nexa, il Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin del Politecnico di Torino e il Prof. Marco Ricolfi dell'Università di Torino, nonché lo staff e i Fellows del Centro Nexa. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa, incluso un elenco di tutti i “Mercoledì” passati, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi. Si segnala inoltre che dal maggio 2012 *ogni 4° mercoledì* del mese *dalle ore 13 alle ore 14* il Centro Nexa organizza anche i "*Nexa Lunch Seminar*". Una lista di tutti i “Lunch Seminar” passati è disponibile all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-seminars. See our events calendar <http://nexa.polito.it/events> if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Responsabile Comunicazione Centro Nexa su Internet & Società: *Francesco Ruggiero*, tel: +39 011 090 7219, Mob: +39 349 1335082, francesco.ruggiero(a)polito.it <mailto:francesco.ruggiero@polito.it>. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa e i Nexa Lunch Seminar, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/events. Weekly Events Newsletter. Sign up <http://nexa.polito.it/mailing-lists> to receive this newsletter if this email was forwarded to you. To manage your subscription preferences, please click here <https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa>. Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more <http://nexa.polito.it/get-involved>.

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How did the police know you were near a crime scene? Google told them
by Giacomo Tesio Feb. 20, 2019

Feb. 20, 2019

How did the police know you were near a crime scene? Google told them https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/07/google-location-police-search-warr… The suspects in an Eden Prairie home invasion last October wore gloves, dressed in black, and covered their faces with masks. But despite their efforts to remain unseen, a trail of evidence was left behind — not at the crime scene, but with Google. Knowing the Silicon Valley giant held a trove of consumer mobile phone location data, investigators got a Hennepin County judge to sign a "reverse location" search warrant ordering Google to identify the locations of cellphones that had been near the crime scene in Eden Prairie, and near two food markets the victims owned in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The scope of the warrant was so expansive in time and geography that it had the potential to gather data on tens of thousands of Minnesotans. The technique has caught the attention of civil liberties lawyers who worry such warrants — deployed increasingly by police in the Twin Cities and around the country — are a digital dragnet ripe for abuse, and that judges may not realize the technical details or broad scope of the searches they're authorizing. [...] The Eden Prairie detectives knew what most Google users should: that in exchange for the use of Google's devices and free services, users agree to let Google look over their shoulders. "[A] high percentage of the population regularly carries and uses a cellular phone," wrote a detective in one of these search warrant applications. "Google monitors its customers' activities and location through its free apps and services in order to provide more timely responses to queries and for targeted advertising ... [t]he services may be actively in use or running in the background on the device without the user's knowledge." Google's lengthy user agreement does specify that any data Google keeps may be provided to police in response to a legal demand. But the process by which a user consents to the data collection isn't always clear. "Google is sitting on an incredible amount of highly sensitive location data about millions and millions of people," said the ACLU's Wessler. "Some of that location data people may understand they're sharing with Google. And other parts of it, people almost certainly do not." [..] wo hard-to-find settings (se siete utenti Google: https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols?pli=1 ) — "Location History" and "Web and App Activity" — allow Google to keep track of everything their users search, and everywhere they go. It affects all Android users, and iPhone or iPad users with apps like Google Maps installed on their device. [...] Giacomo

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This week an EU ‘Big Brother’ administration became almost inevitable
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 20, 2019

Feb. 20, 2019

This week an EU ‘Big Brother’ administration became almost inevitable <https://www.shoeman.eu/this-week-eu-big-brother-administration/> [...] the EU Council quietly announced this week that it has reached preliminary agreement with the European Parliament on interoperable information systems in justice and home affairs. The very blandness of the Council’s press release hides the importance of the agreement reached. The focus is of course the perennial security threat – the intention is to detect potential terrorists. The Romanian Council Presidency said today, “To make sure we detect those who pose a security threat or who are lying about their identity, competent authorities carrying out checks need to have a full picture of the person in front of them.” What will this mean in practice? More comprehensive datasets on individuals will provide EU border-control officials with a detailed picture of each individual stood in front of them at an EU border. The rationale presented by the EU Council and Commission is that this interoperability meets the threats from terrorism and migration and will only affect non-EU nationals. So all well and good, you might think. As we travel within the European Union, we can be reassured that law-enforcement authorities are delivering on their duty to ensure the safety of EU citizens. But, and it is a big but, the Council and the Security Commissioner have made clear that any new centralised database will include all new and existing databases. So the contents of the EU PNR (Passenger Name Record) will be incorporated, as will those of the Prüm database (DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registrations of EU nationals). In effect, the new datasets will apply to EU citizens as well as those from other countries. But this is unavoidable, you might say. Maybe, but is it really the sign of a healthy democracy to make every detail of each individual’s life and liberties available to every border control official? As far as I can tell, there are no ‘layered rights’ of access to knowledge contained within these future datasets, which means every lowly customs official or border-force officer will know everything about you. It is kind of difficult to have an interesting or enjoyable life, when you consider that every incident and mistake made when you were in your teens or twenties will be available for just about everyone with any kind of official access to data, right up until the time you die. Really makes a mockery of the concept of personal privacy. [...] Press release UE: <http://statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/eu-trilogue-bb-policing-borders-migrati…>

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Fabula - Fake news and AI
by VALENTINA BORGESE Feb. 19, 2019

Feb. 19, 2019

Dear All, Michael Bronstein, professor and researcher at the USI Institute of Computational Science (ICS), together with fellow ICS researchers Federico Monti and Dr. Davide Eynard, has devised and developed a new method – based on algorithms and artificial intelligence – that could prove to be the most effective solution to the spreading of fake news through the Internet. The innovative approach is based on a new class of automatic learning algorithms, so-called “Geometric Deep Learning”, developed by the research group of Prof. Bronstein together with other researchers at EPFL Lausanne, NTU Nanyang Technology University Singapore, and Tel Aviv University. This new technology is patented by USI and it will be marketed by the spin-off company Fabula AI. Find more info at: https://www.usi.ch/en/feeds/7721 https://www.usi.ch/en/feeds/9771 https://fabula.ai/ Cheers Valentina Valentina Borgese Ph.D. Student in Ph.D. in Private Law, Roman Law and European Legal Culture at Pavia University *Specialization: Intellectual property law and unfair competition: copyright law, design right, inventions, unfair competition and antitrust* Visiting Ph.D. Student at Northumbria University Visiting Ph.D. Student at USI *Email*: Unipv <valentina.borgese01(a)universitadipavia.it> * / Northumbria <valentina.borgese(a)northumbria.ac.uk>/ USI <valentina.borgese(a)usi.ch>* *Skype*: *valentina.borgese01(a)universitadipavia.it <valentina.borgese01(a)universitadipavia.it>* *Tel*: +39 320 1477904 / +41 765 419 545

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Facebook labelled 'digital gangsters' by report on fake news / Facebook is out of control and politicians have no idea what to do
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 18, 2019

Feb. 18, 2019

Facebook labelled 'digital gangsters' by report on fake news <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/18/facebook-fake-news-inves…> Company broke privacy and competition law and should be regulated urgently, say MPs Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition law and should urgently be subject to statutory regulation, according to a devastating parliamentary report denouncing the company and its executives as “digital gangsters”. The final report of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee’s 18-month investigation into disinformation and fake news accused Facebook of purposefully obstructing its inquiry and failing to tackle attempts by Russia to manipulate elections. “Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised ‘dark adverts’ from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day,” warned the committee’s chairman, Damian Collins. The report: Accuses Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, of contempt for parliament in refusing three separate demands for him to give evidence, instead sending junior employees unable to answer the committee’s questions. Warns British electoral law is unfit for purpose and vulnerable to interference by hostile foreign actors, including agents of the Russian government attempting to discredit democracy. Calls on the British government to establish an independent investigation into “foreign influence, disinformation, funding, voter manipulation and the sharing of data” in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 general election. Labour moved quickly to endorse the committee’s findings, with the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, announcing: “Labour agrees with the committee’s ultimate conclusion – the era of self-regulation for tech companies must end immediately. “We need new independent regulation with a tough powers and sanctions regime to curb the worst excesses of surveillance capitalism and the forces trying to use technology to subvert our democracy.” [...] Facebook is out of control and politicians have no idea what to do <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/18/facebook-powerful-pol…> Death threats, bullying, mental torture, privacy invasion, election rigging, fake news, monopoly abuse: as was said of a medieval pope, this is merely to suppress more serious charges. It is hard to recall the social media of 15 years ago and its offer of universal love, democracy and global peace. Britain’s parliament has finally caught up, and today’s Commons report is at least unequivocal. A menace stalks the land, and must be curbed. Some of the report’s accusations are astonishing. Facebook “purposefully obstructed” the committee. Its boss, Mark Zuckerberg, who “continues to choose profit over data security,” held parliament in contempt. His rambling empire is portrayed as lying, thieving “digital gangsterism”. Yet British electoral law is puny. It is “unfit for purpose,” leaving elections “vulnerable to foreign influence, disinformation and voter manipulation”. Not a week passes without evidence that cybersecurity is inadequate and public services have been left vulnerable to hacking. So far, so familiar, as are the report’s proposals: the usual comfort blankets of a code of ethics, an independent regulator and “more transparency”. We have sought them for a decade and still not found them. The real question is, why not? What are the pressures, who are the lobbyists, why the inertia? As over Brexit, parliament is fine at demolition, hopeless at construction. The spirit fails at the door marked Something Must Be Done. [...] Il rapporto finale del parlamento britannico: <https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.…>

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This is how Google will collapse – Hacker Noon
by J.C. DE MARTIN Feb. 18, 2019

Feb. 18, 2019

https://hackernoon.com/how-google-collapsed-b6ffa82198ee (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Open Data Day 2019 | 2 marzo 2019, Torino
by Francesco Ruggiero Feb. 18, 2019

Feb. 18, 2019

Carissimi, vi segnalo che l'edizione torinese dell'*Open Data Day* *2019* si svolgerà il *2 marzo* dalle ore 09.30 alle ore 17.00, presso la sede di *Rinascimenti Sociali,* in via Maria Vittoria 38. *Open Data Day 2019 – Come monitorare i flussi dei soldi pubblici *è un’iniziativa organizzata da *Synapta* in collaborazione con *SocialFare* e il *Centro Nexa.* Nata per promuovere la trasparenza e dare ai cittadini la possibilità di capire qual è il ciclo di vita degli Open Government Data: come vengono generati e distribuiti, quali sono e a quali domande rispondono i diversi sistemi che ne consentono la fruizione. Ingresso libero fino a esaurimento posti. Sarà disponibile un piccolo rinfresco per tutti coloro che si registreranno all’indirizzo: https://bit.ly/2SuE6ZR Cordiali saluti, 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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Machines are not our masters – but the sinister side of AI demands a smart response | Will Hutton | Opinion | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 17, 2019

Feb. 17, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/17/machines-not-our-mast…> [...] Last week, OpenAI, a US-based nonprofit organisation, decided that its new AI model, GPT2, is so good at generating articles from just a few words and phrases that the model could be not be released until OpenAI better understood how it might be used. GPT2’s database is so sophisticated and its algorithms so smart that it has gone far beyond text prediction to writing readable and plausible text. The good news is that this means that computers, for example, could speed-read articles on our behalf, summarise them and answer our questions. Those chatbots that come to your aid when you are lost on some website could become really helpful. If you wear a watch that monitors your health, GPT2 could spell out warnings and diagnoses quickly in plain English. Interesting books in foreign languages will be translated more effectively. The bad news is that in the wrong hands the likes of GPT2 could flood every social media site on a grand scale with fake news or troubling comment. In one test carried out by the US news and technology network the Verge, which was given access to GPT2, a text prompt such as “Jews control the media” led to the following: “They control the universities. They control the world economy. How is this done? Through various mechanisms that are well documented in the book The Jews in Power by Joseph Goebbels, the Hitler Youth and other key members of the Nazi party.” [...]

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Come (e con chi) Trump sta spostando gli Stati Uniti verso un sistema basato sull'Intelligenza artificiale - Startmag
by J.C. DE MARTIN Feb. 16, 2019

Feb. 16, 2019

https://www.startmag.it/mondo/trump-stati-uniti-intelligenza-artificiale/ (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Revealed: Facebook enables ads to target users interested in 'vaccine controversies'
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 16, 2019

Feb. 16, 2019

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/15/facebook-anti-vaccinatio…> Facebook enables advertisers to promote content to nearly 900,000 people interested in “vaccine controversies”, the Guardian has found. Other groups of people that advertisers can pay to reach on Facebook include those interested in “Dr Tenpenny on Vaccines”, which refers to anti-vaccine activist Sherri Tenpenny, and “informed consent”, which is language that anti-vaccine propagandists have adopted to fight vaccination laws. Facebook’s self-serve advertising platform allows users to pay to promote posts to finely tuned subsets of its 2.3 billion users, based on thousands of characteristics, including age, location, gender, occupation and interests. In some cases, users self-identify their interests, but in other cases, Facebook creates categories based on users’ online activity. In 2017, after a controversy involving antisemitic interest categories, Facebook vowed to build “new guardrails” on its targeting categories. Facebook is already facing pressure to stop promoting anti-vaccine propaganda to users amid global concern over vaccine hesitancy and a measles outbreak in the Pacific north-west. Facebook under pressure to halt rise of anti-vaccination groups On Thursday, California congressman Adam Schiff, the chair of the House intelligence committee, cited the Guardian’s reporting on anti-vaccine propaganda on Facebook and YouTube in letters to Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai urging them to take more responsibility for health-related misinformation on their platforms. [...]

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