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Rick Zeman writes:
The Washington Post reports on how starting in 201 Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook rewrote their rules in order to not sanction then-candidate Donald Trump.
From the article: "The concessions to Trump have led to a transformation of the world’s information battlefield. They paved the way for a growing list of digitally savvy politicians to repeatedly push out misinformation and incendiary political language to billions of people. It has complicated the public understanding of major events such as the pandemic and the protest movement, as well as contributed to polarization."
In addition to the growing advertiser boycotts, "It also places Facebook in growing conflict with its counterparts in Silicon Valley. Twitter has labeled several presidential tweets as abusive and misleading, and social media platform Snapchat curtailed the reach of the president’s account."
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Rick Zeman writes:
Wired has a thought-provoking article on when online English teachers see child abuse at the other end of their cameras. In the cited cases (abused Chinese children with Western teachers), there seems to be a collision of cultural mores, values, what is and isn't permissible, and how far companies will go to do the right thing--even though it could affect their bottom line. From the article: "The teachers post in these private Facebook groups because they aren’t sure how to process, much less report, what they saw. They ask one another the same few questions in many different ways: Has this ever happened to you? Is what I’m feeling normal? How should I respond? Will the company do something about it?"
In addition, the online educational companies are wholly unprepared to address the cases that come are brought to their attention and are struggling to adapt. "Adam Steinberg, a spokesman at VIPKid’s US office in San Francisco, said in a written statement that “the safety and security of teachers, students, and parents is a top priority for VIPKid and we take these matters very seriously." Anyone familiar with infosec knows that "safety and security" and "...take these matters very seriously" are just PR fluff words. In addition, "VIPKid declined repeated requests for further interviews on this topic and would not elaborate on its procedure for referring reports of abuse to local agencies" even though that level of child abuse is illegal in China, as it also is in the civilized world.
There also seems to be a disconnect in what the companies are attempting to do with one company not following up with the complaining teacher ("student privacy") to deleting the video (isn't that proof?), to not knowing what happens when a monitor is brought into the session.
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Rick Zeman writes:
Astronomers in Hawaii have discovered the furthest object in our solar system, a dwarf planet aptly named "Farout." This planet, at 96 Astronomical Units away from Earth, is nearly 3x further away from Earth, and is thought to be composed of ice.
103781177
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Rick Zeman writes:
According to The New York Times, the Chinese are regularly listening to Donald Trump's cell phone calls. While he has two NSA-hardened iPhones, and a secure landline, he insists on using a consumer-grade iPhone, even while knowing he's being eavesdropped upon...because it has his contact list on it. 'White House officials say they can only hope he refrains from discussing classified information when he is on them.' But, officials were also confident that '...he was not spilling secrets because he rarely digs into the details of the intelligence he is shown and is not well versed in the operational specifics of military or covert activities'; in other words, security through ignorance.
The article mentions the rationale is to be able to listen to his calls to find out what and whom influences him, and that the Russians also listen in, albeit with less frequency because of his unique relationship with Vladimir Putin.
96305879
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Rick Zeman writes:
The New York Times (may be paywalled) has an article describing how some applications track TV and movie viewing even when the loaded app isn't currently active. These seemingly innocuous games, geared towards both adults and children work by '...using a smartphone’s microphone, Alphonso’s software can detail what people watch by identifying audio signals in TV ads and shows, sometimes even matching that information with the places people visit and the movies they see. The information can then be used to target ads more precisely...." While these apps, mostly available on Google play, with some available on the Apple Store, do offer an opt opt, it's not clear when consumers see "...‘permission for microphone access for ads,’ it may not be clear to a user that, Oh, this means it’s going to be listening to what I do all the time to see if I’m watching ‘Monday Night Football.”'
One advertising executive summarizes thusly: “It’s not what’s legal. It is what’s not creepy.”
92573979
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Rick Zeman writes:
The Washington Post writes the that the US General Services Administration has dumped Kaspersky products because of their alleged ties to the Russian Government saying, "... the agency’s statement suggested a vulnerability exists in Kaspersky that could give the Russian government backdoor access to the systems it protects, though they offered no explanation or evidence of it." Kaspersky, of course, denies this, offering their source code up for US Government review, but "Three current and former defense contractors told The Post that they knew of no specific warnings circulated about Kaspersky in recent years, but it has become an unwritten rule at the Pentagon not to include Kaspersky as a potential vendor on new projects."
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Rick Zeman writes:
Mats Jarlstrom, a Beaverton, Oregon traffic light gadfly crusading against red light cameras and their timings was accused of the “'practice of engineering;” without a license while pressing his cause by doing simple math. So last week, Mr. Jarlstrom filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying, charging the state’s licensing panel with violating his First Amendment rights.
“I was working with simple mathematics and applying it to the motion of a vehicle and explaining my research...By doing so, they declared I was illegal.”
84530363
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Rick Zeman writes:
According to the New York Times, "In its early conception, Bitcoin was to exist beyond the control of any single government or country. It would be based everywhere and nowhere."
Yet despite the talk of a borderless currency, a handful of Chinese companies have effectively assumed majority control of the Bitcoin network. They have done so through canny investments and vast farms of computer servers dispersed around the country and that "...there are fears that China’s government could decide, at some point, to pressure miners in the country to use their influence to alter the rules of the Bitcoin network. The government’s intervention in 2013 suggests that Bitcoin is not too small to escape notice."
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Rick Zeman writes:
Creepy British startup Score Assured has brought the power of "big data" to plumb new depths. In order to rent from landlords who use their services, potential renters are "...required to grant it full access to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Instagram profiles. From there, Tenant Assured scrapes your site activity, including entire conversation threads and private messages; runs it through natural language processing and other analytic software; and finally, spits out a report that catalogues everything from your personality to your “financial stress level.”"
This "stress level" is a deep dive to (allegedly) determine whether the potential renter will pay their bills using vague indicators like "online retail social logins and frequency of social logins used for leisure activities." To make it worse, the company turns over to the landlords indicators that the landlords aren't legally allowed to consider (age, race, pregnancy status), counting on the landlords to "do the right thing." As if this isn't abusive enough, the candidates are not allowed to see nor challenge their report, unlike with credit reports.
Landlords first, employers next...and then? As the co-founder says, "People will give up their privacy to get something they want" and, evidently, that includes a place to live and a job.
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Rick Zeman writes:
Since the beginnings of the public Internet on Usenet, and now following on comments boards worldwide, lives the troll, the online creature dedicated to stirring up trouble with their versions of online flaming, fact-twisting, and overall being a menace to online society. Russia, by paying state-sponsored trolls has elevated the troll to the level of professional propagandists spewing the party line.
In neighboring Finland, a country again precariously balanced between Europe and the Russian bear, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro's investigations have opened a new front in the (dis)information war where "“There are so many layers of fakery you get lost,” said Ms. Aro, who was awarded the Finnish Grand Prize for Journalism in March." All because " A member of the European Union with an 830-mile-long border with Russia, Finland has stayed outside the United States-led military alliance but, unnerved by Russian military actions in Ukraine and its saber-rattling in the Baltic Sea, has expanded cooperation with NATO and debated whether to apply for full membership."
The Times article explores many of the actions that the Russian propagandists use to keep Finland out of NATO, and some of the more indefensible ones directed personally at Aro. As she says, "“They get inside your head, and you start thinking: If I do this, what will the trolls do next?” she said."
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Rick Zeman writes:
The Washington Post has an lengthy article on Linus Torvalds and his thoughts on linux security.
From the article: "...while Linux is fast, flexible and free, a growing chorus of critics warn that it has security weaknesses that could be fixed but haven’t been. Worse, as Internet security has surged as a subject of international concern, Torvalds has engaged in an occasionally profane standoff with experts on the subject. One group he has dismissed as “masturbating monkeys.” In blasting the security features produced by another group, he said in a public post, “Please just kill yourself now. The world would be a better place.”
There are legitimate philosophical differences amid the harsh words. Linux has thrived in part because of Torvalds’s relentless focus on performance and reliability, both of which could suffer if more security features were added."
Of course, contradictory points of view are presented, too.
“While I don’t think that the Linux kernel has a terrible track record, it’s certainly much worse than a lot of people would like it to be,” said Matthew Garrett, principal security engineer for CoreOS, a San Francisco company that produces an operating system based on Linux. At a time when research into protecting software has grown increasingly sophisticated, Garrett said, “very little of that research has been incorporated into Linux.”
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Rick Zeman writes:
On this 4th of July, the day that Americans flock to their grills and smokers, Wired has a fascinating article on a computerized smoker designed by Harvard engineering students. They say, "In prototype form, the smoker looks like a combination of a giant pepper mill, a tandoori oven, and V.I.N.CENT from The Black Hole. It weighs 300 pounds. It has a refueling chute built into the side of it. And it uses a proportional-integral-derivative controller, a Raspberry Pi, and fans to regulate its own temperature, automatically producing an ideal slow-and-low burn."
After cooking >200 lbs of brisket fine-tuning the design, the students concluded, "“Old-school pitmasters are like, ‘I cook mine in a garbage can,’ and there’s a point of pride in that,” Parker says. “A lot of the cutting edge is when you take an art form and drag it back onto scientific turf and turn it into an algorithm. I don’t think we’ve diluted the artistic component with this."
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Rick Zeman writes:
John F. Nash Jr., who revolutionized the mathematical field of game theory, was endowed with a mind that was highly original and deeply troubled. But it became known to most people by its Hollywood description. His mind was beautiful.
Dr. Nash...died May 24 in a two-car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. He was 86. His wife, Alicia, who was 82, also died.
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Rick Zeman writes:
Amazon, perhaps historically only second to NewEgg in the IT nerdling's online shopping heart, not only has treated their warehouse workers to appalling working condtions, but they're also making them sign a non-compete agreement for the privilege. Excerpt from the agreement:
During employment and for 18 months after the Separation Date, Employee will not, directly or indirectly, whether on Employee’s own behalf or on behalf of any other entity (for example, as an employee, agent, partner, or consultant), engage in or support the development, manufacture, marketing, or sale of any product or service that competes or is intended to compete with any product or service sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon (or intended to be sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon in the future)....
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Rick Zeman writes:
The Center for Public Integrity has a comprehensive article showing how Big Telecom (aka, AT&T, Comcast, Charter, Time Warner) use lobbyists, paid-for politicians, and lawsuits (both actual and the threat thereof) in their efforts to kill municipal broadband. From the article: "The companies have also used traditional campaign tactics such as newspaper ads, push polls, direct mail and door-to-door canvassing to block municipal networks. And they’ve tried to undermine the appetite for municipal broadband by paying for research from think tanks and front groups to portray the networks as unreliable and costly. " Unfortunately, those think tanks and front groups are also paid for by the companies.
