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A New York City lawmaker is taking on companies that mine your face
by Alberto Cammozzo Jan. 5, 2019

Jan. 5, 2019

<https://www.fastcompany.com/90281673/nyc-face-recognition-law-ritchie-torres> Ritchie Torres was appalled. In March, the New York City Council Member learned from the New York Times that the iconic sports and entertainment arena Madison Square Garden, the legendary home to the Knicks and the Rangers and an endless parade of arena performers, has used facial recognition software to scan the faces of spectators upon entrance. Details remain scant, but the technology is meant to identify “problem” attendees by matching their faces to those stored in a database. Using the largely unregulated technology–and not telling the public what was being done with their faces–“radically challenges privacy as we know it,” says Torres, who represents the Bronx. In October, he introduced a bill that aims to bring a modicum of transparency to businesses’ use of the biometric technology, as well as iris and fingerprint scanning, by requiring businesses to conspicuously disclose the use of the technology at business entrances. “We’re increasingly living in a marketplace where companies are collecting vast quantities of personal data without the public’s consent or knowledge,” he says. “In a free and open society, I have the right to know whether a company is collecting my personal data, why a company is collecting my data, and whether a company will retain my data and for what purpose.” Under the bill, companies would be required to disclose, with signs at every entrance, if and how they are collecting, retaining, converting, and storing the biometric data of their customers. The online component of the bill would require a company to disclose four pieces of information online: the amount of information it retains and stores; the kind of information it collects; a privacy policy; and, most critically for Torres, any information sharing with third parties. To Torres, facial recognition is the most intrusive yet least regulated form of a fast-growing swath of biometric technology he characterizes as being “shrouded in secrecy.” “It’s even more intrusive than fingerprinting, [which] is a tangible intrusion into my privacy,” Torres explains. “This facial recognition is an invisible and intangible intrusion–that’s what makes it more pernicious. Even more than that, you’re building a database of private information that can then be commercialized.” [...]

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To save us from a Kafkaesque future, we must democratise AI | Stephen Cave | Opinion | The Guardian
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 5, 2019

Jan. 5, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/04/future-democratise-ai… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Sacasas: "When VCRs Were New"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 5, 2019

Jan. 5, 2019

Non solo divertente, è anche occasione per riflettere su come pensiamo/reagiamo alla tecnologia. jc When VCRs Were New January 4, 2019 <https://thefrailestthing.com/2019/01/04/when-vcrs-were-new/>~ L. M. Sacasas <https://thefrailestthing.com/author/lmsacasas/> Yesterday, I posted <https://thefrailestthing.com/2019/01/03/new-media-and-the-recurring-crisis-…> some excerpts from history Carolyn Marvin’s /When Old Technologies Were New/, her study of late 19th century electronic media. In keeping with the spirit of her title, here’s a quick look at a more recent case of when old technologies were new: the VCR. [...] https://thefrailestthing.com/2019/01/04/when-vcrs-were-new/

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Novità editoriale "En attendant les robots. Enquête sur le travail du clic"
by Antonio Casilli Jan. 3, 2019

Jan. 3, 2019

Hello all, buon anno e, per coloro che leggono il francese, una buona notizia: il mio nuovo libro esce oggi in libreria. Le Monde ne pubblica un estratto in anteprima: https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2019/01/03/derriere-l-illusion-de-l-i…. Cheers, Antonio -- Antonio A. Casilli Associate Professor (HDR), Telecom ParisTech Member, Interdisciplinary Institute for Innovation (i3 UMR 9217 CNRS) Associate Member, LACI-IIAC (EHESS) Faculty Fellow, Nexa Center for Internet & Society

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Come bypassare firewall e proxy aziendali (e di PA, banche.. etc)
by Giacomo Tesio Jan. 2, 2019

Jan. 2, 2019

Salve, e' stato pubblicato un nuovo exploit del bug che ho recentemente segnalato a Mozilla e Google. Basically any old webpage can perform local network host discovery on you. > To implement this I made a webpage which attempts to load images from > addresses 192.168.1.x. If you watch in the browser console it’ll show > either net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED for a host that’s up or > net::ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE for a host that doesn’t exist. This is a CORS > error which the javascript on the webpage is not allowed to differentiate > by catching. But one error takes 3 ms to happen and the other takes 3 > seconds! > [...] > A related thing a webpage in your browser might do is connect to localhost > and control any unauthenticated local services. Taviso used this to great > effect here https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/3374 https://rain-1.github.io/in-browser-localhostdiscovery E con questo siamo a 2 exploit che vanificano firewall e proxy aziendali. E io ne ho descritti altri nel bug report! E Mozilla tace. Io sono allibito. Ricordate "this is the Web functioning as desinged"! Giacomo

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Funding Edsurge and 'the Future of Learning'
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 31, 2018

Dec. 31, 2018

http://funding.hackeducation.com/2018/12/29/edsurge (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Advertising and academia are controlling our thoughts. Didn’t you know? | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 31, 2018

Dec. 31, 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/31/advertising-academia-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Advertising and academia are controlling our thoughts. Didn’t you know? | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Dec. 31, 2018

Dec. 31, 2018

Ottimo contributo del sempre interessante Monbiot. Da tempo penso che lo status del marketing come disciplina accademica vada ripensato. Senza dubbio richiede un codice etico. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/31/advertising-academia-…> [...] The Enlightenment ideal, which all universities claim to endorse, is that everyone should think for themselves. So why do they run departments in which researchers explore new means of blocking this capacity? I ask because, while considering the frenzy of consumerism that rises beyond its usual planet-trashing levels at this time of year, I recently stumbled across a paper that astonished me. It was written by academics at public universities in the Netherlands and the US. Their purpose seemed to me starkly at odds with the public interest. They sought to identify “the different ways in which consumers resist advertising, and the tactics that can be used to counter or avoid such resistance”. Among the “neutralising” techniques it highlighted were “disguising the persuasive intent of the message”; distracting our attention by using confusing phrases that make it harder to focus on the advertiser’s intentions; and “using cognitive depletion as a tactic for reducing consumers’ ability to contest messages”. This means hitting us with enough advertisements to exhaust our mental resources, breaking down our capacity to think. Intrigued, I started looking for other academic papers on the same theme, and found an entire literature. There were articles on every imaginable aspect of resistance, and helpful tips on overcoming it. For example, I came across a paper that counsels advertisers on how to rebuild public trust when the celebrity they work with gets into trouble. Rather than dumping this lucrative asset, the researchers advised that the best means to enhance “the authentic persuasive appeal of a celebrity endorser” whose standing has slipped is to get them to display “a Duchenne smile”, otherwise known as “a genuine smile”. It precisely anatomised such smiles, showed how to spot them, and discussed the “construction” of sincerity and “genuineness”: a magnificent exercise in inauthentic authenticity. [...]

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Terrorist Content Regulation: Warnings from the UN and the CoE - EDRi
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 30, 2018

Dec. 30, 2018

https://edri.org/terrorist-content-regulation-warnings-from-the-un-and-the-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Fwd: [IP] ISOC Live 12 Streams 4 - Dr. Larry Roberts - 'The ARPANET & Computer Networks'
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 30, 2018

Dec. 30, 2018

> *From: *InternetPolicy <internetpolicy-bounces(a)elists.isoc.org > <mailto:internetpolicy-bounces@elists.isoc.org>> on behalf of Joly > MacFie <joly(a)punkcast.com <mailto:joly@punkcast.com>> > *Reply-To: *Joly MacFie <joly(a)punkcast.com <mailto:joly@punkcast.com>> > *Date: *Saturday, December 29, 2018 at 6:54 PM > *To: *"internetpolicy(a)elists.isoc.org > <mailto:internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org>" > <InternetPolicy(a)elists.isoc.org <mailto:InternetPolicy@elists.isoc.org>> > *Subject: *[Internet Policy] ISOC Live 12 Streams 4 - Dr. Larry > Roberts - 'The ARPANET & Computer Networks' > > Dr. Roberts is much mourned by those who knew him. This is a great > talk, not just historical -- he makes some predictions too. > Interesting to see the perspective from 1986. > > livestream <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12days04>Today, > *Saturday December 29 2018*, at *7pm EST* (00:00 UTC) the fourth > installment of the Internet Society Livestreaming > <https://isoc.live/>‘s ‘*12 days of Streams*‘ annual highlights is a > memorial and tribute to Internet Hall of Fame inductee *Dr. Lawrence > (Larry) Roberts > <https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/lawrence-roberts>*, who > *died on December 26, aged 82*. Larry Roberts was the leader of the > *ARPANET <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET>* project that gave > birth to the Internet as we know it. Today’s stream is a video that > the *Computer History Museum > <https://www.computerhistory.org/>* managed to archive of the *1986 > ACM Conference on the History of Personal Workstations > <https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-1986-acm-conference-on-the-histor…>*. > Dr. Roberts, one of a number of distinguished speakers, givea a talk > ‘*The ARPANET & Computer Networks <http://bit.ly/arpanethistory>*‘ in > which describes the network’s origin and evolution. As an > introduction, we will stream his *acceptance speech > <https://youtu.be/P7Pj1i6e0s4>* at the Internet Hall of Fame. > > *View on Livestream: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/12days04* > > *Twitter: #12streams http://bit.ly/2SgU9Gu* > *Larry Roberts http://bit.ly/larryroberts* > > *Permalink* > > > https://isoc.live/10751/ > > > http://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?blog=10787942&post=9709&subd=isoc-ny.org&ref=&ema… > >

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