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Triple threat: The all-in-one LPR, speedometer, and facial recognition scanner
by Alberto Cammozzo May 30, 2016

May 30, 2016

Call it the next generation of light bars. Ekin Technology, a Turkish law enforcement technology company, was recently granted an American patent for what just might be the surveillance trifecta: a light bar with an integrated license plate reader (LPR), speedometer, and facial recognition capability. If the "Ekin Patrol" catches on in the United States, it will facilitate a notable acceleration in the advancement of spy tech. While speedometers are relatively old and LPRs are increasingly catching on, facial recognition technology is not yet widespread in America. Agencies ranging from the FBI to the California attorney general's office have expressed their interest in the technology. [...] <http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/triple-threat-the-all-in-one-lpr…> Il video va visto per la retorica che mostra: la polizia degli Emirati Arabi usa riconoscimento automatico di targhe e riconoscimento facciale per dare la caccia (con elicotteri e decine di auto, stile Blues Brothers) a un cattivo che guida pericolosamente due diverse Ferrari. Non potremmo mai pensare al fatto che in EAU quella stessa tecnologia (turca) può essere usata contro altri reati quali l'omosessualità <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates> e nemmeno che il riconoscimento facciale in Turchia viene usato contro il PKK (che combatte contro l'ISIS) <http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-members-identified-with-facial-recogni…> Ciao, A

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Wwworkers Camp 2016: alla Camera dei Deputati i lavoratori della rete interrogano la politica
by Giampaolo Colletti May 30, 2016

May 30, 2016

Se non leggi correttamente questo messaggio, clicca qui Dall'inventore dell’app per aiutare gli stranieri che arrivano in Italia all'artigiana delle scarpe che presenta le sue creazioni su Instagram, dal vignaiolo siciliano che si racconta su Facebook agli architetti lucani che lavorano in ogni angolo del mondo grazie a Internet. E poi ancora l'ultimo maestro cartaio di Fabriano e le mamme venete che si sono inventate da zero un e-commerce. Sono alcuni dei venti wwworkers protagonisti della nuova edizione del Wwworkers Camp, il meeting dei lavoratori della rete che anche quest'anno torna alla Camera dei Deputati. Questi wwworkers racconteranno la loro storia e interrogheranno la politica. Perché esattamente tre anni fa, ad inizio legislatura, la community ha consegnato alla classe politica un manifesto per portare l’Italia nell'economia digitale: 10 azioni incentrate su connettività, cultura digitale, welfare. Dopo quasi trentotto mesi i wwworkers tornano a confrontarsi su cosa è stato fatto e a che punto siamo sulle azioni da fare. L’appuntamento con la nuova edizione del Wwworkers Camp è per giovedì 30 giugno dalle ore 14 presso la Sala Aldo Moro nella Camera dei Deputati (p.zza di Monte Citorio 1). La partecipazione è gratuita previa iscrizione e fino ad esaurimento posti (qui per registrarsi). Il Wwworkers Camp è promosso con l’Intergruppo Parlamentare Innovazione ed è sostenuto da Facebook, Google, eBay con la partnership dell'Ambasciata degli USA in Italia e dei giovani delle organizzazioni di categoria CNA, Coldiretti, Confindustria, Confcommercio, Confartigianato. Tutte le informazioni sul programma e i partner nel comunicato stampa. La community wwworkers è nata nel 2010 ed è stata raccontata nel libro "Wwworkers, i nuovi lavoratori della rete", edito da Gruppo24Ore. Ogni anno si confronta dal vivo: per saperne di più sulla passata edizione segnalo alcune recensioni: Rainews -La Stampa - Rai Parlamento - Millionaire Ti aspetto a Roma, spero tu possa esserci Giampaolo Colletti @gpcolletti Email inviata con Unsubscribe <http://customer35799.musvc5.net/e/r?q=Oo%3dFFOp_PmxP_aw_MQ1l_Wf_PmxP_Z285EU…> | Disiscriviti <http://customer35799.musvc5.net/e/r?q=Oo%3dFFOp_PmxP_aw_MQ1l_Wf_PmxP_Z285EU…>

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The secret army of cheerleaders policing China’s internet | John Naughton
by Fabio Chiusi May 29, 2016

May 29, 2016

http://gu.com/p/4jk3x/sbl F.

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Paper: "Hypernudge’: Big Data as a mode of regulation by design"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 28, 2016

May 28, 2016

*‘Hypernudge’: Big Data as a mode of regulation by design** * DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2016.1186713 Karen Yeungab* Received: 16 Oct 2015 Accepted: 2 May 2016 Published online: 22 May 2016 ABSTRACT This paper draws on regulatory governance scholarship to argue that the analytic phenomenon currently known as ‘Big Data’ can be understood as a mode of ‘design-based’ regulation. Although Big Data decision-making technologies can take the form of automated decision-making systems, this paper focuses on algorithmic decision-guidance techniques. By highlighting correlations between data items that would not otherwise be observable, these techniques are being used to shape the informational choice context in which individual decision-making occurs, with the aim of channelling attention and decision-making in directions preferred by the ‘choice architect’. By relying upon the use of ‘nudge’ – a particular form of choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, these techniques constitute a ‘soft’ form of design-based control. But, unlike the static Nudges popularised by Thaler and Sunstein [(2008). Nudge. London: Penguin Books] such as placing the salad in front of the lasagne to encourage healthy eating, Big Data analytic nudges are extremely powerful and potent due to their networked, continuously updated, dynamic and pervasive nature (hence ‘hypernudge’). I adopt a liberal, rights-based critique of these techniques, contrasting liberal theoretical accounts with selective insights from science and technology studies (STS) and surveillance studies on the other. I argue that concerns about the legitimacy of these techniques are not satisfactorily resolved through reliance on individual notice and consent, touching upon the troubling implications for democracy and human flourishing if Big Data analytic techniques driven by commercial self-interest continue their onward march unchecked by effective and legitimate constraints. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1186713

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I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb.
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 28, 2016

May 28, 2016

I’m a black man. Here’s what happened when I booked an Airbnb. by Rohan Gilkes (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Fwd: [IP] Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet // Study shows detailed, compromising inferences can be readily made with metadata
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016

-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [IP] Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet // Study shows detailed, compromising inferences can be readily made with metadata Resent-Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 18:23:46 +0200 Resent-From: d004620(a)polito.it Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 12:22:39 -0400 From: dfarber <dave(a)farber.net> Reply-To: dave(a)farber.net To: ip <ip(a)listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren(a)vortex.com> Subject: [ NNSquad ] Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet // Study shows detailed, compromising inferences can be readily made with metadata Date: May 27, 2016 at 12:08:12 PM EDT To: nnsquad(a)nnsquad.org Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet // Study shows detailed, compromising inferences can be readily made with metadata Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/27/11795248/facebook-ad-network-non-users-co… Facebook will now display ads to web users who are not members of its social network, the company announced Thursday, in a bid to significantly expand its online ad network. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook will use cookies, "like" buttons, and other plug-ins embedded on third-party sites to track members and non-members alike. The company says it will be able to better target non-Facebook users and serve relevant ads to them, though its practices have come under criticism from regulators in Europe over privacy concerns. Facebook began displaying a banner notification at the top of its News Feed for users in Europe today, alerting them to its use of cookies as mandated under an EU directive. Study shows detailed, compromising inferences can be readily made with metadata http://boingboing.net/2016/05/27/study-shows-detailed-compromi.html?utm_sou… In Evaluating the privacy properties of telephone metadata, a paper by researchers from Stanford's departments of Law and Computer Science published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors analyzed metadata from six months' worth of volunteers' phone logs to see what kind of compromising information they could extract from them. - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren(a)vortex.com) http://www.vortex.com/lauren

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New Report: "Perspectives on Big Data, Ethics, and Society"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016

*Perspectives on Big Data, Ethics, and Society* May 23, 2016 URL: http://bdes.datasociety.net/council-output/perspectives-on-big-data-ethics-… Download Full Report (PDF) http://bdes.datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Perspectives-on-Big-… The Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society publishes a comprehensive white paper consolidating conversations and ideas from two years of meetings and discussions. Report Prepared By: Jacob Metcalf, Emily F. Keller, and danah boyd I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society was convened to bring together researchers from diverse fields who were thinking deeply about ethical, social and policy challenges associated with the rise of “big data” research and industry, with an eye toward developing recommendations about future directions for the field. Our reports, meetings, and ongoing conversations have consistently indicated that there is a disjunction between the familiar concepts and infrastructures of science and engineering, on the one hand, and the epistemic, social, and ethical dynamics of big data research and practice, on the other. We contend that facilitating ethical conduct in data science and related endeavors requires careful consideration of big data’s broad technical, social, and political contexts. Big data is marked by technical advances in storage capacity, speed, and price points of data collection and analysis, and by a move towards understanding data as continuously collected, almost-infinitely networkable, and highly flexible. The ability to analyze datasets from highly disparate contexts and generate new, unanticipated knowledge sets the stage for both the power and peril of big data research and broader data science-related analysis. The conceptual, regulatory, and institutional resources of research ethics developed over the last 70 years were premised on assumptions about human data research practices that sometimes do not easily apply to data analytics work done under the umbrella of big data. This results in conflicts over whether big data research methods should be excluded from or forced to meet existing norms, whether existing norms should be made to accommodate the special circumstances of big data, or whether entirely new norms and institutional commitments are needed. The Council’s findings, outputs, and recommendations—including those described in this white paper as well as those in earlier reports—address concrete manifestations of these disjunctions between big data research methods and existing research ethics paradigms. We have identified policy changes that would encourage greater engagement and reflection on ethics topics. We have indicated a number of pedagogical needs for data science instructors, and endeavored to fulfill some of them. We have also explored cultural and institutional barriers to collaboration between ethicists, social scientists, and data scientists in academia and industry around ethics challenges. Overall, our recommendations are geared toward those who are invested in a future for data science, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence guided by ethical considerations along with technical merit.

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"Programmers Aren't Writing Green Code Where It's Most Needed"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016

*Programmers Aren't Writing Green Code Where It's Most Needed* Written by Michael Byrne May 22, 2016 // 09:00 AM EST Confession? I don't write green code. I mean, it might be green code just by coincidence, but I've never really thought too much about the relative energy consumption demanded by this design pattern or algorithm versus some other. Sadly, this is true even when I'm working with actual hardware and low-level software, such as that written in plain C for embedded devices (in my case, for an Arduino board or other microcontroller platform). What's more, I don't think the green code idea has ever come up in my years of computer science classes. I'm hardly the exception, according to a paper presented this week at the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering. In interviews and surveys conducted with 464 software engineers from a range of disciplines—including mobile, data center, embedded, and traditional software development—researchers found that where green coding most matters, its practice is rare. […] Continua qui: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/programmers-arent-writing-green-code-where…

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Google might just have built the internet of tyranny [Google Home]
by Alberto Cammozzo May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016

At Google’s most recent glitzy presentation, at it’s “I/O” developers conference, the company showed off new apps and features for many of its products, but what was most striking was the technology underlying it. Building on what it has shown previously, it demonstrated how advanced its machine learning techniques were, specifically their ability to understand and process natural language. And as Google Photos ably demonstrates, the technology is already increasingly good at recognising objects in photos. Moments after demonstrating this level of intelligence, the company revealed a new product called *Google Home*. This is a speaker that sits in your home and will respond to voice commands. In other words, it will listen to everything you say – using those advanced language processing abilities to figure out what you’re requesting. Google isn’t the only company working on this – Amazon, Facebook and others are all working on similar technology. Whether the company realises it or not, it is building the tools for perfect surveillance. Thanks to Google and the rest of the modern tech industry, the Internet of Things could easily become the Internet of Tyranny. You don’t have to think too hard to imagine how this same technology could be used for surveillance, especially when considering the technologies that we know governments are already employing in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. If there’s a microphone in every home, listening to everything we do, and some intelligent algorithms at work picking up on keywords and phrases, it would be easily for an aspiring totalitarian government to use such technologies to prevent legitimate political opposition, and not just crime. If a sufficiently malevolent government wanted to employ such surveillance it would make the East German secret police look like amateurs. [...] <http://www.alphr.com/technology/1003552/google-might-just-have-built-the-in…>

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NYT: "Google Prevails as Jury Rebuffs Oracle in Code Copyright Case"
by J.C. DE MARTIN May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016

*Google Prevails as Jury Rebuffs Oracle in Code Copyright Case* By NICK WINGFIELD and QUENTIN HARDY MAY 26, 2016 A jury ruled in favor of Google on Thursday in a long legal dispute with Oracle over software used to power most of the world’s smartphones. Oracle contended that Google used copyrighted material in 11,000 of its 13 million lines of software code in Android, its mobile phone operating system. Oracle asked for $9 billion from Google. Google said it made fair use of that code and owed nothing. The victory for Google cheered other software developers, who operate much the way Google did when it comes to so-called open-source software. Unlike traditional software created by corporations and tightly held, open-source products are released, often with some restrictions, for anyone to use and modify. […] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/technology/google-oracle-copyright-code.h…

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