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Submission + - Weapons systems that kill according to algorithms are coming. What to do? (sagepub.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Mark Gubrud has another great piece exploring the slippery slope we seem to be traveling down when it comes to autonomous weapons systems: Quote: 'Autonomous weapons are robotic systems that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator. Advances in computer technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics may lead to a vast expansion in the development and use of such weapons in the near future. Public opinion runs strongly against killer robots. But many of the same claims that propelled the Cold War are being recycled to justify the pursuit of a nascent robotic arms race. Autonomous weapons could be militarily potent and therefore pose a great threat.' This article is in a special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists subscription journal; articles in the section on Emerging Military Technologies are free access (five articles).

Submission + - Google fined by French Privacy regulator, notice to be published on homepage.

Submitted by L-One-L-One
L-One-L-One writes: Following similar decisions in Spain and the Netherlands, Google was fined today 150,000 euros by the French Data Protection authority for breaching data protection legislation. This sanction follows a long enquiry triggered by Google's decision to change its privacy policy in March 2012. The authority notably considers that the new policy "does not sufficiently inform its users of the conditions in which their personal data are processed, nor of the purposes of this processing", and that Google combines "all the data it collects about its users across all of its services without any legal basis". While the fine may be barely noticeable for Google, the authority requires the search giant to publish this decision on Google's French homepage, google.fr for 48 hours within the next 8 days.

Submission + - Yahoo's Email Encryption Needs Work (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: On Tuesday, Yahoo delivered on a promise that it made in October to enable email encryption for everyone by default by January 8. While this is a great step, the company's HTTPS implementation appears to be inconsistent across servers and even technically insecure in some cases, according to Ivan Ristic, director of application security research at security firm Qualys. For example, some of Yahoo's HTTPS email servers use RC4 as the preferred cipher with most clients. 'RC4 is considered weak, which is why we advise that people either don't use it, or if they feel they must, use it as a last resort,' Ristic said.

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