- nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

'Fiction is outperforming reality': how YouTube's algorithm distorts truth | Technology
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 3, 2018

Feb. 3, 2018

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/02/how-youtubes-algorithm-d…> [...] The software Chaslot wrote was designed to provide the world’s first window into YouTube’s opaque recommendation engine. The program simulates the behaviour of a user who starts on one video and then follows the chain of recommended videos – much as I did after watching the Logan Paul video – tracking data along the way. It finds videos through a word search, selecting a “seed” video to begin with, and recording several layers of videos that YouTube recommends in the “up next” column. It does so with no viewing history, ensuring the videos being detected are YouTube’s generic recommendations, rather than videos personalised to a user. And it repeats the process thousands of times, accumulating layers of data about YouTube recommendations to build up a picture of the algorithm’s preferences. Over the last 18 months, Chaslot has used the program to explore bias in YouTube content promoted during the French, British and German elections, global warming and mass shootings, and published his findings on his website, Algotransparency.com. Each study finds something different, but the research suggests YouTube systematically amplifies videos that are divisive, sensational and conspiratorial. [...]

1 0

The Face Value of Bitcoin: Proof of Work and the Labour Theory of Value
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 2, 2018

Feb. 2, 2018

Bitcoin non sarebbe denaro per i teorici libertari capitalisti, ma dovrebbe esserlo è per quelli marxisti... <https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/face-value-bitcoin-proof-work-labour-theory-…> Bitcoin was created to be a new kind of money rooted in a vision of a market not bound by geography, banks and governments. Despite the intentions of its creators, Bitcoin is not money. It was designed with a faulty understanding of money, and as a result has a bug, a kind of a short circuit that kick-started an asset bubble and that will eventually turn Bitcoin into a toxic asset. In order to to fix this bug we need to employ the labour theory of value. Writing at New Economic Perspectives, Eric Tymoigne, a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute, argues that the fair price of Bitcoin is zero. Tymoigne’s reasoning is based on the the fact that money is a financial instrument. The value of a financial instrument can come from being redeemable to its issuer, from providing an income stream or from having a collateralized value. For example US Dollars are redeemable against taxes. Bonds bear interest and stocks pay dividends. Gold coins contain gold, which can be sold as a commodity. Since Bitcoin is not redeemable, provides no income and has no collateralized value, it is worthless as a financial instrument. Thus, its “fair price” is zero. Eric concludes that “Bitcoins are purely speculative assets.” >From the point of view of modern finance, Bitcoin is not money at all. [...] Ironically, while libertarian capitalist theories of money can not account for Bitcoin, Marxist theories of money can. The face value of Bitcoin represents a certain worth in terms of the labour time embedded in the computation power used to mine it. The Marxist theory of money is a Proof of Work theory. For Marx, the value of all commodities is not subjective, but objective; all commodities have a value that is created by the labour required to produce them. The reason that money can be used as a way to express the price of other commodities is because it represents a certain amount of labour, which is also what the worth of the other commodities is based on. As Marx states in Grundrisse “1/x ounce of gold is in fact nothing more than 1/x hours of labour time materialized, objectified.” For Marx, the value of all commodities is not subjective, but objective; all commodities have a value that is created by the labour required to produce them. The reason that money can be used as a way to express the price of other commodities is because it represents a certain amount of labour, which is also what the worth of the other commodities is based on. As Marx states in Grundrisse “1/x ounce of gold is in fact nothing more than 1/x hours of labour time materialized, objectified.” Marx illustrates that the face value of money is a rational number. It always represents a specific ratio. In the case of gold, Marx employs the ratio between the amount of gold and the amount of labour, the work:gold ratio. The value of the total volume of gold is derived from the amount of work required to produce it. [] While the libertarian capitalist theory is not useful in determining the value of Bitcoin, Marxist theory is. Bitcoin does not need to be backed or collateralized in any reserve of useful commodities, but instead in the labour time required to produce it. Proof of work. The Bitcoin software employs an algorithm that increases the difficulty of the work needed as more mining capacity is added to the pool to keep the rate at the current limit that is configured in the software. This means that while the face value of Bitcoin represents a certain worth in terms of labour, this worth is not consistent. There is no fixed ratio between work and coin. More work creates more value, but instead of creating more coins with the same value each, it creates the same number of coins. Each coin has more value.

2 1

Connected toys violate European consumer law
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 2, 2018

Feb. 2, 2018

Rapporto dell'organizzazione governativa norvegese di protezione del consumeatore Forbrukerrådet (fondata nel 1954 !) <https://www.forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/connected-toys-violate-consumer-la…> The internet-connected toys My Friend Cayla and i-Que fail miserably when it comes to safeguarding basic consumer rights, security, and privacy. The Norwegian Consumer Council has looked at the terms and the technical features of selected connected toys. The findings show a serious lack of understanding of children’s rights to privacy and security. Based on what was discovered, consumer organizations in Europe and the United States in cooperation file formal complaints to relevant authorities on what seems to be obvious breaches of several consumer laws. – Children are especially vulnerable, and are entitled to products and services that safeguard their rights to security and privacy. As long as the manufacturers are not willing to take these issues seriously, Internet of things-technologies are not suited for toys, says Finn Myrstad, Head of section, digital services in the Norwegian Consumer Council. [] The toys fail at several points In their review of the toys, the Consumer Council has found several serious issues: Lack of security With simple steps, anyone can take control of the toys through a mobile phone. This makes it possible to talk and listen through the toy without having physical access to the toy.This lack of security could easily have been prevented, for example by making physical access to the toy required, or by requiring the user to press a button when pairing their phone with the toy. Illegal user terms Before using the toy, users must consent to the terms being changed without notice, that personal data can be used for targeted advertising, and that information may be shared with unnamed 3rd parties.This and other discoveries are, in the NCC’s opinion, in breach of the EU Unfair Contract Terms Directive, the EU Data Protection Directive, and possibly the Toy Safety Directive. Kids’ secrets are sharedAnything the child tells the doll is transferred to the U.S.-based company Nuance Communications, who specialize in speech recognition technologies. The company reserves the right to share this information with other third parties, and to use speech data for a wide variety of purposes. Kids are subject to hidden marketingThe toys are embedded with pre-programmed phrases, where they endorse different commercial products. For example, Cayla will happily talk about how much she loves different Disney movies. Meanwhile, the app-provider has a commercial relationship with Disney. []

1 0

Facebook to French court: nude painting did not prompt account's deletion | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Feb. 2, 2018

Feb. 2, 2018

Facebook to French court: nude painting did not prompt account's deletion <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/01/facebook-nude-painting-g…> Teacher says his account was shut down because he posted a Gustave Courbet painting of a woman’s genitals

1 0

"California Senate defies FCC, approves net neutrality law"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 31, 2018

Jan. 31, 2018

*California Senate defies FCC, approves net neutrality law** * /Net neutrality takes big step forward in California, but lawsuits loom./ JON BRODKIN - 1/30/2018, 5:09 PM The California State Senate yesterday approved a bill to impose net neutrality restrictions on Internet service providers, challenging the Federal Communications Commission attempt to preempt such rules. The FCC's repeal of its own net neutrality rules included a provision to preempt state and municipal governments from enforcing similar rules at the local level. But the governors of Montana and New York have signed executive orders to enforce net neutrality, and several states are considering net neutrality legislation. Continua qui: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/california-senate-approves-net-…

1 0

Re: [nexa] The Latest Data Privacy Debacle - The New York Times
by Diego Latella Jan. 31, 2018

Jan. 31, 2018

Bell’articolo. Sull’argomento suggerisco (non mi ricordo se l’ho gia’ fatto, nel qual caso mi scuso per le ripetizioni): Weapons of Math Destruction di Cate O’ Nail https://weaponsofmathdestructionbook.com/ <https://weaponsofmathdestructionbook.com/> (ne esiste anche la traduzione italiana “Armi di distruzione matematica”), e The Black Box Society di Franck Pasquale http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368279&content=reviews <http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368279&content=reviews> Diego > On 31 Jan 2018, at 12:00, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: > > Send nexa mailing list submissions to > nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > You can reach the person managing the list at > nexa-owner(a)server-nexa.polito.it > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of nexa digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Opinion | The Latest Data Privacy Debacle - The New York > Times (J.C. DE MARTIN) > 2. Re: Opinion | The Latest Data Privacy Debacle - The New York > Times (Alberto Cammozzo) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:33:22 +0100 > From: "J.C. DE MARTIN" <demartin(a)polito.it> > To: Center Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] Opinion | The Latest Data Privacy Debacle - The New > York Times > Message-ID: <0E6DCF35-523F-4566-AC6C-7FB453DA60F1(a)polito.it> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/opinion/strava-privacy.html > > > (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any)) > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 19:54:18 +0100 > From: Alberto Cammozzo <ac+nexa(a)zeromx.net> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > Subject: Re: [nexa] Opinion | The Latest Data Privacy Debacle - The > New York Times > Message-ID: <606b93fa-e9d9-a263-0a6c-73d3e2098236(a)zeromx.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Anche i francesi si preoccupano delle loro basi segrete. > > <http://mobile.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2018/01/29/la-securite-des-bases-mi…> > > Une application de jogging menace la sécurité des bases militaires > > La carte mondiale du jogging, publiée en septembre, fait apparaître des > bases militaires, dont certaines sensibles. > > > > Curioso caso di dati dati anonimi e aggregati, ma comunque sensibili. > Alberto > > > > > > > On 30/01/2018 18:33, J.C. DE MARTIN wrote: >> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/opinion/strava-privacy.html >> >> >> (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any)) >> _______________________________________________ >> nexa mailing list >> nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it >> https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > nexa mailing list > nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > > > ------------------------------ > > End of nexa Digest, Vol 105, Issue 48 > ************************************* 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

1 0

Opinion | The Latest Data Privacy Debacle - The New York Times
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 30, 2018

Jan. 30, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/opinion/strava-privacy.html (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

2 1

La prova documentale nell'epoca della sua costruibilità tecnica.
by Alberto Cammozzo Jan. 29, 2018

Jan. 29, 2018

AI-powered face swapping has taken a dystopian turn Now it's being used to make revenge porn of people's friends and acquaintances. <https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/26/ai-face-swap-deepfakes/> As if the issues like revenge porn and AI-powered facial recognition searches <https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/pornhub-computer-vision-ai-database/> weren't creepy enough, a /Motherboard/ <https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ev5eba/ai-fake-porn-of-friends-d…> report reveals yet another unsettling use of technology: "deepfakes." Within a month of locating a Redditor who used machine learning to swap pictures of mainstream actresses onto the bodies of women performing in porn movies, the outlet has found people using an app based on his techniques to create videos using images of women they know. By scraping social media accounts for a full library of photos and using web apps that find porn with women who have faces that resemble the person they're basing it on, it's automating a process that some revenge porn sites had already been doing manually. We've seen similar technology used in movies for years <https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/27/how-rogue-one-resurrected-a-dead-actor-…>, but with AI running on desktop GPUs or using cloud computing, random people suddenly have access and are using it in unsettling ways (like the Nicholas Cage-on-Amy Adams scene shown here). [...] e anche People Can Put Your Face on Porn—and the Law Can't Help You <https://www.wired.com/story/face-swap-porn-legal-limbo/> The grosser parts of the internet have a new trick: Using machine learning and AI to swap celebrities’ faces onto porn performers’. The result? Fake celebrity porn seamless enough to be mistaken for the real thing. Early victims include Daisy Ridley, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson, and Taylor Swift. Originally reported by Motherboard <https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gydydm/gal-gadot-fake-ai-porn>, this nasty trend has been brewing for months, acquiring its own subreddit. And now that someone has made an app <https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjye8a/reddit-fake-porn-app-dais…>—drastically lowering the technical threshold would-be creators have to clear— it’s presumably about to become much more prevalent. For reasons that are eye-poppingly obvious, these videos—which their creators refer to as "deepfakes," after the redditor who created the process—are terrible. It’s a noxious smoothie made of some of today's worst internet problems. It’s a new frontier for nonconsensual pornography and fake news alike. (Doctored videos of political candidates saying outlandish things in 3, 2... .) And worst of all? If you live in the United States and someone does this with your face, the law can’t really help you. [...] Domande: Cosa resterà del video (ma soprattutto della registrazione audio) come prova processuale se questa può essere costruita senza fatica e spesa con una app? Magari la perizia la facciamo fare ad una AI? E fuori dal processo? Cosa resterà del giornalismo di inchiesta e denuncia? "quello nel video non ero io, è un fake" Chi tra voi avvocati sarà il primo in Italia a contestare l'attendibilità di un video portato come prova ? Alberto

2 1

The UX of AI
by Giacomo Tesio Jan. 29, 2018

Jan. 29, 2018

Salve, vi consiglio una lettura che mi ha sorpreso, un documento di Google relativo alla interfaccia utente dell-intelligenza artificiale. https://design.google/library/ux-ai/ Alcuni passaggi interessanti: > - If the goals of an AI system are opaque, and the user’s > understanding of their role in *calibrating *that system are unclear, > they will develop a mental model that suits their folk theories about AI, > and their trust will be affected. > - In order to thrive, machine learning must become *multi-disciplinary* > . > > Il prodotto in discussione è veramente interessante. E' però molto sospetto come la soluzione proposta per incrementare la fiducia nei sistemi di ML e AI consista dal lasciare sempre la telecamera accesa e permettere alla intelligenza artificiale di selezionare i momenti più felici. Si cerca di stabilire un rapporto affettivo, di gratitudine, con la intelligenza artificiale. Cioè si sfrutta un bias cognitivo umano, non le sue capacità logiche e razionali. Mi torna in mente il saggio di Thompson, "Riflessioni sul fidarsi della fiducia" ( http://vxer.org/lib/pdf/Reflections%20on%20Trusting%20Trust.pdf ). Come decidere se possiamo fidarci? Qualche tempo fa, la panettiera mi ha proposto il pagamento attraverso un App del cellulare, SatisPay. Ho chiesto numi, perché avevo visto volantini di questa App anche da altri esercenti della mia città. Dopo aver ascoltato la spiegazione (che non ho successivamente approfondito), le ho fatto notare che si stava fidando dei "due ragazzi" che avevano creato l'app. Ora magari queste sono bravissime persone. Ma quando ha capito che a loro basta fallire per tenersi i 25 euro che ciascun utente gli affida, il suo entusiasmo tecnologico si è un po' smorzato Ora, non è tanto importante se in effetti vi siano garanzie di legge a tutela degli utenti di quell'app (ci sono? ne io ne la panettiera ne eravamo informati). Il punto è che la fiducia che la panettiera poneva nell'app non era coerente con la sua comprensione della App stessa, ed era anzi in contraddizione con essa. Giacomo

1 0

togliere dalla mailing list
by Marcella Barolo Jan. 29, 2018

Jan. 29, 2018

Buongiorno Vorrei che il mio indirizzo barolo(a)studiotorta.it<mailto:barolo@studiotorta.it> venisse tolto dalla mailing list del gruppo nexa. Cordiali saluti. Marcella BAROLO Consulente in Marchi Via Viotti, 9 10121 TORINO Tel. +39 0115611320 Fax +39 0115622102 www.studiotorta.com<http://www.studiotorta.com/> [001.jpg]<http://www.studiotorta.it/> La presente e-mail e i suoi allegati contengono informazioni private e confidenziali indirizzate al solo destinatario. Se ricevete la presente e-mail senza esserne il destinatario, non siete autorizzati a leggere, copiare o usare la presente e-mail o i suoi allegati. Se la presente e-mail è stata ricevuta per errore, siete invitati a distruggerla e a darne avviso al mittente con e-mail di ritorno

1 0