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

EVENTS

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Happy 30th Birthday to Mosaic, the first internet browser that brought Internet experience to users
beyond academia and military settings. It enabled opening of the Internet Cafes (starting from Cyberia
Café) worldwide, democratizing access to data.

Hold the date – 27th Sept 7pm we will hold VR (Cyberia Café) and IRL/London hybrid celebrations
to mark the occasion and reflect on the last three decades of digital revolution, from Mosaic to Chat
GPT.

Here more on Cybercafes as their morph to serve new audiences in exotic parts of the world:

The World’s Last Internet Cafes
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In this group of articles, Rest of World provides profiles of the world’s last working Internet cafes after
tipping its hat to London’s Cyberia, which kicked off a global trend from its opening in September
1994. Included and photographed are sites in Uganda, Hong Kong, Nepal, Nigeria, Mexico, and
Argentina.

NEWS

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Hot off the Press: Newspeak House and Nesta combine forces to create AI for Civic Use

The Civic AI Observatory will host events tailored to diverse groups from civil society, from leaders, to funders and capability-builders, to practitioners.

Google Claims All Public Data for AI Training

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Google has recently updated its privacy policy to explicitly allow it to use all data posted anywhere online for developing its AI models, Thomas Germain reports at Gizmodo. Separately, German also reports that a class action suit has been filed in response to the change that accuses Google of “stealing everything ever shared on the Internet”. A similar case has already been filed against OpenAI. Also at Gizmodo, Kyle Barr reports that Google has responded to an Australian government proposal to ban “high-risk” AI by offering to allow publishers to opt out of having their data scraped. Finally, still at Gizmodo, Nikki Main reports that Google is negotiating with Universal Music to build an AI tool to use artists’ voices and melodies to generate deepfakes; copyright owners would have to opt in and would be paid for the use.

CBCs progressing in Phillipines as Digital Dollar pilot with Western Union completes tests

The Digital Dollar Project (DDP) announced the completion of a pilot study of remittance payments to the Philippines using a simulated retail central bank digital currency (rCBDC). Western Union and BDO Unibank were partners in the project.The project used a version of the DDP’s “Champion Model”. It paves the way for more Digital Dollar defensive moves to stop progress of Digital Yuan in Asian markets

Keep Up with Cybersalon UK CBDC proposal – here is our take on it

Driverless Taxis Threaten Safety in San Francisco

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Incidents caused by Waymo and Cruise driverless taxis have “skyrocketed” this year in  Francisco, Ricardo Cano reports at the San Francisco Chronicle. Robotaxis have gotten stuck in low-hanging wires after thunderstorms, driven through caution tape, blocked emergency vehicles and emergency responders, and behaved erratically enough to endanger cyclists, pedestrians, and other vehicles. At Axios, Megan Rose Dickey reports that in a ten-day study in May Waymo’s driverless cars found that human drivers speed 33% of the time. A similar exercise in Phoenix, Arizona observed human drivers speeding 47% of the time on roads with a 35mph speed limit.

DisInfo Risk increases as UK Voter Data Breached in Electoral Data Hack

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The UK’s Electoral Commission was hacked by unknown attackers, who were able to access data pertaining to millions of voters, many of whom choose to stay off the public register, Heather Stewart reports at the Guardian. Security experts suggest that the breach risks exposing the people concerned to disinformation attacks, which should serve as a reminder to focus on strengthening and protecting the democratic system rather than fixes such as voter ID, which address negligible risks.

Are you a speedy driver? Now AI Tells Police if It Spots You Breaking Speed Limits

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Evidence presented in a New York State drug trafficking case has revealed that US police are adopting tools that use historical data collected by Automatic License Plate Readers to spot patterns of driving indicating criminal behavior, Thomas Brewster reports at Forbes.  Used without oversight, critics argue that the technology violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. Several companies offer this technology, which takes advantage of existing cameras and therefore is relatively cheap to adopt.

Chinese Censors Erase Queer Internet 

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Chinese censors are shutting down the country’s queer Internet, removing access to queer, or “tongzhi”,  societies at colleges, banning accounts, and making offline meetings more difficult to arrange, Lavender Au and Weiqi Liu report at Rest of World. Online queer communities in China predate 1997, when gay sex was decriminalized, but the environment became more hostile around 2016, and increasingly postings relating to rights and advocacy have become unacceptable. Now, allowable topics are constrained to those aligned with government priorities such as HIV/AIDS.