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Submission + - Allstate patents physiological data collection 1

Submitted by TigerPlish
TigerPlish writes: According to the Chicago Tribune, Allstate has been granted a patent — no. US 20140080100 A1 — that covers a "driving-behavior database that it said might be useful for health insurers, lenders, credit-rating agencies, marketers and potential employers."

The article continues, "...the invention has the potential to evaluate drivers' physiological data, including heart rate, blood pressure and electrocardiogram signals, which could be recorded from steering wheel sensors."

Imagine a world where you are denied employment or credit based on the information obtained from your car and sold by your insurer. Imagine a world where your insurer predicts how you may act or react in the future. Imagine your personal physiological information in Allstate's hands.

Good hands, indeed, right? What could possibly go wrong?

Submission + - What is Facebook not telling us about machiavellian censorship? (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Just a few days ago the Electronic Frontier Foundation published its annual Who Has Your Back report looking at how various technology companies treated customer privacy. The report makes for interesting reading, but it also raises some questions. One question that has cropped up several times is "how the hell did Facebook get a rating of 4 out of 5!?"

As well as rating Mark Zuckerberg's social network in terms of its privacy policies and how it responds to government data request, the EFF also probes the hidden censorship that appears to be going on. There have been numerous examples of blatant censorship from Facebook — including blocking certain pages in Turkey — and while this is worrying (particularly when the social network's founder is looking to connect the world to the web with Internet.org) but what is perhaps more concerning is the censorship we don't know about. The silent censorship that's going on the in the background. What are we *not* being told about?

Submission + - Turning neural networks upside down produces psychedelic visuals (blogspot.co.uk)

Submitted by cjellibebi
cjellibebi writes: Neural networks that were designed to recognise images, when run backwards, turn out of being capable of enhancing existing images to resemble the images they were meant to try and recognise. The results are pretty trippy. This blog-post explains the research in great detail. There are pictures, and even a video. The Guardian has a digested article for the less tech-savvy.

Submission + - Fwknop on OpenWrt and Android

Submitted by Jonathan P. Bennett
Jonathan P. Bennett writes: Fwknop is a great way to maintain remote access into a network without leaving ports open, and now there are tools that make it much easier to use. We've put together a demonstration of how the newly released android client, fwknop2 (also on F-droid), can import encryption and HMAC keys using QR codes via the phone's camera, and provide nat access back into other devices on the internal network.
More information can be found on the Cipherdyne site or in my blog post on the matter.

Submission + - Researchers Claim A Few Cat Videos Per Day Helps Keep The Doctor Away

Submitted by bigwophh
bigwophh writes: A study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior suggests that watching videos of cats may be good for your health. The study pinged nearly 7,000 people and asked them how viewing cat videos affected their moods. Of those surveyed, over a third (36 percent) described themselves as a "cat person" and nearly two-thirds (60 percent) said they have an affinity for both dogs and cats. Survey subjects noted less tendencies towards feeling anxious, sad, or annoyed after watching cat videos, including times when they viewed the videos while at work or trying to study. They also reported feeling more energetic and more positive afterwards. There may have been some guilt from putting off work or studying to watch Internet videos, but the amusement they got from seeing the antics of cats more than made up for it.

Submission + - Orbiting 'Rest Stops' to Repair Crumbling Satellites? (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: More than 1,100 satellites are orbiting the Earth right now transmitting TV shows and phone calls, collecting rainforest data and spying on missile bases around the planet. Most are expensive, costing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to build, launch and operate. Now NASA wants to build a satellite service station that can gas up and repair aging birds, giving them a few years more life before they fall into the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate. “Is there a way working with humans and robots together to extend the useful life of satellites, by fixing them and by not allowing fuel to spill out, but give it more propellant, close it up and send it on its way?,” said Benjamin Reed, deputy director of the Satellite Servicing Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Yes, We have the technologies to be able to do it.”

Submission + - How Google thinks it can knock one of Oracle's main technologies off the charts (businessinsider.com) 1

Submitted by mattydread23
mattydread23 writes: For the last 20 years, Java has been unstoppable. But Google's Go is trying to give it a run for the money. Business Insider interviewed Go chief Jason Buberel about why he thinks Go has a fighting chance: It's simple to use, and Buberel says it isn't adding any more features. "He says that he would describe the average Go developer as "pragmatic and productive. They just want to look good to their bosses."

Submission + - 'Let's Encrypt' project to issue first free digital certificates next month (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Let’s Encrypt, the first free and open certification authority, will launch to the general public in September, with its first digital certificates issued over the next month. The project is funded by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), a new Californian public-benefit group backed by leading tech firms including Mozilla, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Cisco. The platform was announced by the consortium last year with the goal of offering SSL certificates free of charge, promoting the importance of encryption and HTTPS for a secure cyberspace. Let’s Encrypt’s root certificate will be cross-signed by IdenTrust, a public key CA owned by smartphone government ID card provider HID Global. Website operators are generally hesitant to use SSL/TLS certificates due to their cost. An extended validation (EV) SSL certificates can cost up to $1,000. It is also a complication for operators to set up encryption for larger web services. Let’s Encrypt aims to remove these obstacles by eliminating the related costs and automating the entire process.

Submission + - Privacy Advocates Walk Out in Protest Over U.S. Facial Recognition Code of Condu (firstlook.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Nine privacy advocates involved in the Commerce Department process for developing a voluntary code of conduct for the use of facial recognition technology withdrew in protest over technology industry lobbyists' overwhelming influence on the process

“At a base minimum, people should be able to walk down a public street without fear that companies they’ve never heard of are tracking their every movement — and identifying them by name — using facial recognition technology,” the privacy advocates wrote in a joint statement. “Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain agreement even with that basic, specific premise”
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7cd...

The Commerce Department, through its National Telecommunications and Information Administration, brought together “representatives from technology companies, trade groups, consumer groups, academic institutions and other organizations” early last year “to kick off an effort to craft privacy safeguards for the commercial use of facial recognition technology”

The goal was “to develop a voluntary, enforceable code of conduct that specifies how the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights applies to facial recognition technology in the commercial context”

But after a dozen meetings, the most recent of which was last week, all nine privacy advocates who have participated in the entire process concluded that they were thoroughly outgunned

“This should be a wake-up call to Americans: Industry lobbyists are choking off Washington’s ability to protect consumer privacy,” Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, said in a statement

“People simply do not expect companies they’ve never heard of to secretly track them using this powerful technology. Despite all of this, industry associations have pushed for a world where companies can use facial recognition on you whenever they want — no matter what you say. This position is well outside the mainstream”

Submission + - USAF Cuts Drone Flights as Stress Drives Off Operators

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: The NYT reports that the US is being forced to cut back on drone flights as America’s drone operators are burning out and the Air Force is losing more drone pilots than they can train. “We’re at an inflection point right now,” says Col. James Cluff, the commander of the Air Force’s 432nd Wing. Drone missions increased tenfold in the past decade, relentlessly pushing the operators in an effort to meet the insatiable demand for streaming video of insurgent activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones, including Somalia, Libya and now Syria. The biggest problem is that a significant number of the 1,200 pilots are completing their obligation to the Air Force and are opting to leave. Colonel Cluff says that many feel “undermanned and overworked,” sapped by alternating day and night shifts with little chance for academic breaks or promotion.

What had seemed to be a benefit of the job, the novel way that the crews could fly Predator and Reaper drones via satellite links while living safely in the United States with their families, has created new types of stresses as they constantly shift back and forth between war and family activities and become, in effect, perpetually deployed. “Having our folks make that mental shift every day, driving into the gate and thinking, ‘All right, I’ve got my war face on, and I’m going to the fight,’ and then driving out of the gate and stopping at Walmart to pick up a carton of milk or going to the soccer game on the way home — and the fact that you can’t talk about most of what you do at home — all those stressors together are what is putting pressure on the family, putting pressure on the airman," says Cruff. The colonel says the stress on the operators belied a complaint by some critics that flying drones was like playing a video game or that pressing the missile fire button 7,000 miles from the battlefield made it psychologically easier for them to kill. “Everyone else thinks that the whole program or the people behind it are a joke," says Brandon Bryant, a former drone camera operator who worked at Nellis Air Force Base, "that we are video-game warriors, that we’re Nintendo warriors."

Submission + - European Court: Websites Are Responsible For Users' Comments (arstechnica.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new ruling from the European Court of Human Rights found it perfectly acceptable to hold websites responsible for comments left by users. Experts are worried the ruling will encourage websites to censor content posted by users out of concern that they're opening themselves up to legal liability. The judgment also seems to support the claim that "proactive monitoring" can be required of website owners. Peter Micek of digital rights group "Access" said, "This ruling is a serious blow to users’ rights online. Dissenting voices will have fewer outlets in which to seek and impart opinions anonymously. Instead, users at risk will be dragged down by a precedent that will keep them from accessing the open ocean of ideas and information."

Submission + - Does Edward Snowden Trust Apple to Do the Right Thing? (alternet.org)

Submitted by Nicola Hahn
Nicola Hahn writes: As American lawmakers run a victory lap after passing the USA Freedom Act of 2015, Edward Snowden has published an op-ed piece which congratulates Washington on its "historic" reform. He also identifies Apple Inc. as a champion of user privacy. Snowden states:

"Basic technical safeguards such as encryption — once considered esoteric and unnecessary — are now enabled by default in the products of pioneering companies like Apple, ensuring that even if your phone is stolen, your private life remains private."

This sort of talking point encourages the perception that Apple has sided with users in the battle against mass surveillance. But there are those who question Snowden's public endorsement of hi tech monoliths. Given their behavior in the past is it wise to assume that corporate interests have turned over a new leaf and won't secretly collaborate with government spies?

Submission + - IBM accelerates Apache/Spark; Linux redux? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From the NYT:

"In 2000, the open-source operating system Linux was viewed askance in many corporations as an oddball creation and even legally risky to use, since the open-source ethos prefers sharing ideas rather than owning them. But IBM endorsed Linux and poured money and people into accelerating the adoption of the open-source operating system.

On Monday, IBM is to announce a broadly similar move in big data software. The company is placing a large investment — contributing software developers, technology and education programs — behind an open-source project for real-time data analysis, called Apache Spark.

The commitment, according to Robert Picciano, senior vice president for IBM’s data analytics business, will amount to “hundreds of millions of dollars” a year. ...................................

"IBM said it will put more than 3,500 of its developers and researchers to work on Spark-related projects. It will contribute machine-learning technology to the open-source project, and embed Spark in IBM’s data analysis and commerce software. IBM will also offer Spark as a service on its programming platform for cloud software development, Bluemix. The company will open a Spark technology center in San Francisco to pursue Spark-based innovations.

And IBM plans to partner with academic and private education organizations including UC Berkeley’s AMPLab, DataCamp, Galvanize and Big Data University to teach Spark to as many as 1 million data engineers and data scientists."

Submission + - Encrypted social network 'Minds' gains Anonymous backing (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new free, open-source social network Minds.com has gone live this week, which promises its users a completely secure, private and unrestricted platform. Available online and across mobile devices, the new site has attracted the support of online activists including hacking collective Anonymous who praise the network’s focus on end-to-end encrypted private messaging and prioritizing freedom of expression. The hacker group posted a call on Facebook to “hackers, designers and creators” to join Minds.com – to help “co-create a top site of the people, by the people and for the people.” Another feature that marks Minds from other social networking sites is the ability for its users to control their reach across the platform. The more active an individual is on the network, the more they are rewarded with a greater reach to control.

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