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White House Establishes AI Advisory Committee (EPIC Alert 25.09 - May 16, 2018)
by Diego Latella May 16, 2018

May 16, 2018

From EPIC Alert 25.09 - May 16, 2018 4. White House Establishes AI Advisory Committee The White House has established <https://epic.org/SelectCommitteeonAI.pdf> the "Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence" to advise the President and formally coordinate artificial intelligence policies among executive branch agencies. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Science Foundation, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will lead the interagency committee. According to the White House, the goals <https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/artificial-intelligence-ame…> of the Committee are (1) prioritize funding for AI research and development; (2) remove barriers to AI innovation; (3) train the future American workforce; (4) achieve strategic military advantage; (5) leverage AI for government services; and (6) lead international AI negotiations. The Committee will also coordinate federal research and adoption of technologies such as autonomous systems, biometric identification, computerized image and video analysis, machine learning, and robotics. The Committee membership includes the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence as well as representatives from the Executive Office of the President such as the National Security Council and Office of Management and Budget. The Committee may also "interact with and receive ad hoc advice" from private sector groups, but it is unclear whether the Committee will include public perspectives in its work. In 2014, EPIC—joined by 24 consumer privacy, public interest, scientific, and educational organizations—petitioned the OSTP <https://epic.org/privacy/Ltr-to-OSTP-re-Big-Data.pdf> to accept public comments on a White House project concerning Big Data. The petition stated, "The public should be given the opportunity to contribute to the OSTP's review of 'Big Data and the Future of Privacy' since it is their information that is being collected and their privacy and their future that is at stake." EPIC launched an international campaign for Algorithmic Transparency <https://epic.org/algorithmic-transparency/> in 2015 and recently urged <https://epic.org/2018/04/epic-tells-house-committee-req.html> Congress to establish oversight mechanisms for the use of AI by federal agencies. 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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Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract
by Eleonora Panto May 16, 2018

May 16, 2018

" The employees who are resigning in protest, several of whom discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo, say that executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers’ objections than they once did. In the case of Maven, Google is helping the Defense Department implement machine learning to classify images gathered by drones. But some employees believe humans, not algorithms, should be responsible for this sensitive and potentially lethal work—and that Google shouldn’t be involved in military work at all." Ma e' sempre valido il motto "don't be evil"? https://gizmodo.com/google-employees-resign-in-protest-against-pentagon-con…

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Fwd: WiFi4EU: From tomorrow municipalities can start applying for EU financing of free wireless internet hotspots in public spaces
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 16, 2018

May 16, 2018

*WiFi4EU: From tomorrow municipalities can start applying for EU financing of free wireless internet hotspots in public spaces * The first call for municipality applications for free Wi-Fi hotspots will open tomorrow, Tuesday 15 May, at 13:00 (CEST). Through this call some 1,183 municipalities will receive a WiFi4EU voucher of €15,000 to finance Wi-Fi equipment and its installation in public spaces. Upon receiving the voucher, municipalities will have to offer secure Wi-Fi services, free-of-charge and without adverts, for at least 3 years. Funding will only be provided for networks that do not duplicate already existing private or public free Wi-Fi services of a similar quality in the same public spaces. To be eligible to apply, municipalities need to be registered on the WiFi4EU.eu <http://WiFi4EU.eu> web portal. This portal was opened on the 20 March (see the press release <http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-2065_en.htm>) and over 17,000 municipalities have already registered. The selection will be based on a 'first-come first-served' basis. To ensure a balanced geographical distribution among Members States, each country will obtain a minimum of 15 and maximum of 95 vouchers. This is the first of a total of five calls that will be published till 2020. More details are in the Questions and Answers <https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/faq/wifi4eu-questions-and-ans…>, Factsheet <https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/factsheet-wifi4eu>,and video <http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I152883>. (/For more information: Nathalie Vandystadt – Tel.: +32 229 67083; Inga Höglund Tel.: +32 229 55040/)

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Report: "Shining a Light on the Encryption Debate"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 15, 2018

May 15, 2018

*Shining a Light on the Encryption Debate A Canadian Field Guide** * By Lex Gill, Tamir Israel, and Christopher Parsons May 14, 2018 Access to strong encryption technology is integral to the defense of human rights in the twenty-first century. This technology is also essential for securing digital transactions, ensuring public safety, and protecting national security interests. Yet many state agencies have continued to argue that encryption poses an unacceptable barrier to their investigative and intelligence-gathering activities. In response, some governments have called for limits on the public availability and use of secure, uncompromised encryption technology. Shining a Light on the Encryption Debate: A Canadian Field Guide — co-authored by the Citizen Lab and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) — examines the parameters of this debate, paying particular attention to the Canadian context. It provides critical insight and analysis for policymakers, legal professionals, academics, journalists, and advocates who are trying to navigate the complex implications of these technologies. [...] continua qui: https://citizenlab.ca/2018/05/shining-light-on-encryption-debate-canadian-f…

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Lessons from global practices on “zero-rating” – Amba Kak – Medium
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 14, 2018

May 14, 2018

https://medium.com/@ambaonadventure/lessons-from-global-practices-on-zero-r… Lessons from global practices on “zero-rating” A new report on how regulators have picked ‘good’ from ‘bad’ Amba KakMay 14 I’m excited to announce my latest report on how regulators, globally, have assessed “zero-rating” offers and decided whether or not they violate net-neutrality rules. Read the full report Full report here Zero-rating, for the uninitiated, is a term of art that refers to charging discounted rates for internet access based on the content being accessed. It initially described content that had “zero” data charges but this discount now comes in a variety of ways — generous, or no data limits applicable to accessing particular content (this could be for a particular service, say “Facebook Free” in Nepal, or a class of services, say for music streaming like the “Music Freedom” offer in the US). It could also mean buying internet access plans restricted to certain sites, like social media internet packs. Most familiar to users in large parts of Asia and Africa was the model that provided entirely free access to a selection of web content — like, “Facebook Free Basics”. Facebook Free Basics became particularly controversial in India, and eventually, all forms of zero-rating were banned by the telecom regulatory authority (TRAI). [....]

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Report: Software bug led to death in Uber’s self-driving crash
by Alberto Cammozzo May 14, 2018

May 14, 2018

Sensors detected Elaine Herzberg, but software reportedly decided to ignore her. <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/report-software-bug-led-to-deat…> [...] If the software is programmed to be too cautious, the ride will be slow and jerky, as the car constantly slows down for objects that pose no threat to the car or aren't there at all. Tuning the software in the opposite direction will produce a smooth ride most of the time—but at the risk that the software will occasionally ignore a real object. According to Efrati, that's what happened in Tempe in March—and unfortunately the "real object" was a human being. [...]

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The Tech Industry’s War on Kids
by Giacomo Tesio May 14, 2018

May 14, 2018

Interessante articolo sul lavoro di B.J. Fogg, ricercatore a Stanford, sulla psicologia persuasiva e sul suo effetto sui bambini e sugli adolescenti. Giusto perché qualche tempo fa si parlava di etica della Silicon Valley. https://medium.com/@richardnfreed/the-tech-industrys-psychological-war-on-k… Qualche tempo fa, in un contesto diverso, parlavo di "pressione evolutiva". Queste tecniche funzionano benissimo sugli adulti, immaginate cosa possano fare a dei giovani privi di forti e complesse relazioni umane, che utilizzano i computer come canale di accesso alla realtà e di comunicazione con il resto del mondo. Intanto Google, intelligentemente, si muove in difesa del proprio bestiam... ehm della propria userbase, prima che qualcuno proponga di regolamentare per legge queste tecniche di manipolazione di massa: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90171307/googles-plan-to-make-tech-less-addict… Mi ricorda molto un bel film di qualche anno fa "Thank you for smoking". In Italia la locandina diceva "Nick Naylor non nasconde la verità... la filtra". Profetico! :-) Giacomo

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EDRi in cerca di un nuovo executive directory
by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) - lists May 14, 2018

May 14, 2018

Ciao a tutti, dopo le elezioni del nuovo board di EDRi del mese scorso e la celebrazione dei suoi 15 anni, si è avviato un percorso di avvicendamento che vedrà l'introduzione di un nuovo Executive Director (tutto fatto in modo graduale e sereno). EDRi a Bruxelles è quindi in cerca di un nuovo executive director https://edri.org/looking-new-executive-director/ Pregherei gli interessati di considerare di fare application o di inoltrare questo messaggio alle persone che ritenete abbiamo le caratteristiche salienti per questo ruolo, di fondamentale importanza per l'efficacia dell'operato di policy lobbying pro-digital-rights su bruxelles, ma anche per l'attuale focus di coordinamento del network con azioni comuni pan-europee di tutte le NGO aderenti. Fabio

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NYRB: "Big Brother Goes Digital"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 12, 2018

May 12, 2018

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/05/24/big-brother-goes-digital/ Simon Head recensisce e commenta i seguenti testi: *Self-Tracking ** *by Gina Neff and Dawn Nafus MIT University Press, 248 pp., $15.95 (paper) *Sociometric Badges: State of the Art and Future Applications** *by Daniel Olguín Olguín and Alex (Sandy) Pentland IEEE 11th International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Boston, October 2007, available at vismod.media.mit.edu/tech-reports/TR-614.pdf *Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future ** *by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Norton, 402 pp, $29.95 *The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies ** *by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee Norton, 306 pp, $26.95

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"Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 12, 2018

May 12, 2018

By ARMEN KETEYIAN CBS April 19, 2010, 6:12 PM *Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets** * At a warehouse in New Jersey, 6,000 used copy machines sit ready to be sold.*CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian*reports almost every one of them holds a secret. Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine. In the process, it's turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data. If you're in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold. […] Continua qui: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/digital-photocopiers-loaded-with-secrets/

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