Vort3x | Cybersalon | August 15, 2022
Vort3x, published on the 15th of each month, aims to pick out significant developments in the intersection of computers, freedom, privacy, and security for friends near and far. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of Cybersalon, either individually or collectively. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman.
Contents: Cybersalon events | News | Features | Diary | Jobs
Cybersalon Events
We have a new book out! 22 Ideas about The Future with introduction by Douglas Rushkoff
Look out for invites for the launch in the last week of September
NEWS
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UK data bill diverges from EU law
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Because it will cause UK law to diverge from EU law, the UK government’s proposed Data Protection and Digital Information bill could cost the UK its adequacy ruling under the General Data Protection Regulation, impeding data flows, Lindsay Clark reports at The Register. The bill would also change the requirement to obtain user consent to cookies, forcing browser manufacturers to grapple with two different regulatory regimes.
Electronic gadgets contain hidden death date
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An analysis of 14 popular consumer devices including Apple AirPods, Dyson rechargeable vacuum cleaners, and VanMoof ebikes found that the irreplaceable batteries inside doom them to die within three to four years, Geoffrey A. Fowler reports at the Washington Post. Few companies disclose the number of charging cycles users can expect, while disposable electronics frustrate consumers and are creating piles of ewaste that can’t be effectively recycled. France has begun requiring some gadgets to include repairability scores, and the US will soon pass right-to-repair laws.
France, Italy, and Spain demand Big Tech support for telecoms infrastructure
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France, Italy, and Spain are pressuring the European Commission to enact legislation that would require Big Tech firms to contribute to financing upgrades to telecoms infrastructure, Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte report at Reuters. EU regulators are considering the question. In a joint paper, the three governments say that the six biggest content providers account for 55% of Internet traffic. Digital rights activists warn that requiring such a contribution – envisioned to be in the realm of €20 billion a year – could threaten the principle of network neutrality in the EU.
Russians coopt Ukrainian Internet
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In a move without historical precedent, weeks after taking of the southern port city of Kherson, Ukraine, Russian soldiers entered the offices of local ISPs and ordered them at gunpoint to reroute mobile and Internet data through Russian networks, Adam Satariano reports at the New York Times. The soldiers also ordered the ISPs to block sources of independent information including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Ukrainian news websites. In other parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine, residents are being allowed access only to Russian state TV and radio. Kherson, Melitopol, and Mariupol are cut off from the rest of the country, and in some territories the Internet and cellular networks have been completely shut down. As of June, about 15% of Ukrainian Internet infrastructure had been damaged or destroyed.
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
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UK security specialists embrace client-side scanning
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In this Guardian article, Alex Hern summarizes a new paper from National Cyber Security Centre technical director Ian Levy and Crispin Robinson, in which they analyse the various aspects of child abuse on the Internet and try to pick a path between cryptographers, who insist that the laws of mathematics make it impossible to provide special access for law enforcement, and security agencies who continue to push for the ability to eavesdrop. Most noticed and most controversial is the paper’s embrace of client-side scanning for child sexual abuse material, an approach Apple proposed and then abandoned after protests. Levy believe this approach could protect both children and privacy. Critics argue, however, that child protection efforts should focus on non-technical approaches.
TikTok content moderators struggle with gruesome content
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In this article at Business Insider, Rosie Bradbury and Majd Al-Waheidi reveal the trauma of Middle Eastern and African TikTok content moderators, who report reviewing gruesome content such as suicides, child abuse material, and animal cruelty and insufficient psychological help to deal with the trauma. Many are hired through outsourcing companies such as Luxembourg-based Majorel, and are subject to NDAs. Those who have worked for both say that Facebook’s larger user base posts a larger volume of graphic material but TikTok’s rate of growth – an estimated 30% in the Middle East and North Africa in 2022 – means it is likely to catch up. At the New Yorker, Cal Newport writes about the threat Tiktok, which describes itself as entertainment and doesn’t have a social graph, poses to older social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, which depend on influencers. After Facebook parent Meta announced stalled user growth, it lost $230 billion in market capitalization in a single day. Newport hopes that TikTok’s undermining of the social Internet will return the Internet to being “weird, energetic, and exciting”.
Designers grapple with sounds for electronic vehicles
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In this New Yorker article, John Seabrook considers efforts to design pedestrian-warning sounds for electric vehicles, which provide an opportunity to reimagine how vehicles -and cities – sound. The launch of the Prius led to the 2011 passage of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, which requires vehicles to make sounds – but without specifying what kind of sound. It took the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration six years to develop the necessary rules and work out how to specify that a car should sound “like a car”. The final rules have left manufacturers free to develop branded alerts.
Chinese authors claim online novel drafts are being censored
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In this article at MIT Technology Review, Zeyi Yang tells the story of Chinese novelist Mitu, who was locked out of her draft in progress using the domestic WPS cloud-based word processor for incorporating “illegal content”. In Chinese literature forum Lkong, Mitu accused WPS of censorship; the resulting publicity turned up several other online novelists complaining of the same problem. WPS says it doesn’t censor locally stored files; users are demanding to know if it views documents stored online.
Google’s privacy researcher discovers Meta’s Insta and FB apps injecting tracking scripts into third-party websites from their In-App browser
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Meta’s Instagram and Facebook apps on iOS devices have been injecting JavaScript code into third-party websites from their custom in-app browser, gaining access to data that would be unavailable were those pages loaded in a stand-alone, WebKit-based iOS browser.
UK courts need new approach to presumption of computer reliability
In this briefing note at Evidence Critical Systems, a group of legal and technical experts including Nicholas Bohm, Harold Thimbleby, and Martyn Thomas consider the unforeseen and unjust consequences inherent in the legal rule of English and Welsh courts that computers are presumed to be working correctly unless there is countervailing evidence. The harm that this rule can cause was clearly exposed during the Post Office Horizon scandal, when postmasters were individually unable to counter charges of fraud that were based on computer errors. It took group litigation to rebut the presumption of reliable computer functionality. In part, the authors write, the rule reflects a failure to understand that computer failures are almost invariably software failures. They propose a new approach in which a party whose computer evidence is challenged is required to justify relying in it and disclose documentation.
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Residencies – still time to apply for Newspeak House residency for Political Technologists
for 2022/23 academic year
Contact [email protected] for details
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Need to brush up on your data skills? Check out City University Masters in Data Science
DIARY
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In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please check links to events listed below for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.
ONE-OFF EVENTS
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The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include anticipating future pandemics and a discussion of Michael Baxter’s new book, Living in the Age of the Jerk. Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude.
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The ODI’s Friday lunchtime (London time) talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, trust, and converting weather into music.
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The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG’s data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact-tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions.
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Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic.
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London’s Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring.
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Singularity University’s upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries.
JOBS – CYBERSECURITY/IT
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Sponsored by JobAt.BE
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