Vort3x | Cybersalon | December 15, 2023
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
Cybersalon Events
Future of Coding – exploring new tools
Newspeak House
6.30- 9pm
NEWS
Epic Games win against Google over antitrust accusation
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Hot off the press, the first signs from US that Big Tech like Google can’t bully games companies. CEO of Epic took a big gamble against search giant and challenged their monopoly on Google Play. The jury took a short look and agreed with Epic.
Appeal will follow but we are encouraged with the direction of this judgement. Apple App store next?
European Parliament Votes to Exempt Encryption from Chat Control
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In mid-November, the European Parliament voted to incorporate protection for end-to-end encryption into its version of the proposed “Chat Control” regulation, which is intended to combat child sexual abuse material, Andy Yen reports at Proton. The European Commission’s version threatened encryption by giving law enforcement the power to demand access to all communications, encrypted or not. At EDRi, Netpolitik explains why the original Chat Control proposals are so dangerou. At the Guardian, Josh Taylor reports that Meta has begun rolling out end-to-end encryption to its more than 1 billion Messenger and Facebook users.
Google versus Journalists – Google Agrees to Pay $100 Million to Canadian News Publishers
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After months of saying it would remove Canadian news sources from its search results rather than pay the “link tax” enshruned in the Online News Act (C-18), Google has agreed to pay Canadian news businesses C$100 million (about US$74 million) a year, Jon Brodkin reports at Ars Technica. Google will have the option to negotiate with a single collective representing all eligible businesses and base its payments on the number of full-time equivalent journalists they engage.
Big Brother in UK Government Departments Monitor Critics to stop them from public speaking
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Human rights law firm Leigh Day has discovered that 15 UK government departments have been compiling secret files and monitoring potential critics on social media in order to keep them from speaking at government-sponsored public events, Anna Fazackerley reports at the Guardian. Leigh Day is pursuing a legal action against the government on behalf of two of the experts affected.
A blow to gamers-Amazon Twitch Leaves South Korea, Citing extortionate Network Access Costs
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Amazon’s Twitch game streaming subsidiary will quit South Korea, saying the network access costs are ten times what it pays in most other countries and make the service unsustainble, Simon Sharwood reports at The Register. South Korean carriers are allowed to charge producers of heavy traffic for access to their networks, a system that has been proposed but so far explicitly rejected in the EU, UK, and US in favor of network neutrality.
California Regulators Allege Cruise Lied About Pedestrian Accident
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California regulators, which recently suspended the Cruise robotaxi service’s California license, allege that the company misled them about the severity of an accident on October 2 in which one of its cars drove for 20 feet while pinning down a pedestrian who had already been struck by a human-driven car, Michael Liedtke reports at the LA Times. The penalty could be a fine of around $1.5 million. Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, has lost nearly $6 billion since 2019; GM hoped it would generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025. At the New York Times, Neal E. Boudette and Yiwen Lu report that Cruise is cutting spending while GM reviews its operations.
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
Big Win for Open Source AI as EU Negotiates to Finalize the AI Act – not everyone is happy
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In this blog posting at the International Association of Privacy Professionals, Jedidiah Bracy outlines the ongoing trilogue negotiations as the EU finalizes the AI Act and the risk that time is running out for its passage in 2023. Sticking points have been general-purpose AI systems, law enforcement’s use of remote biometric identification of individuals in public places, and access to source code. At the Washington Post, Anthony Faiola and Cat Zakrzewski report that as of December 8 agreement has been reached, but that details are not yet available.
Not Terminator but an average Homing Pigeon is close to the model of how AI Models Learn
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A new study by psychology researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Iowa finds that the trial-and-error way pigeons, which are highly intelligent and have served humans throughout history, learn challenging tasks closely matches the way AI models work, Aliya Utenova reports at the Guardian. Both recognize patterns and use them to make decisions.
Thieves at Warner Brothers as Licensing Change Removes Playstation Owners’ own Content
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In this essay at Pluralistic, Cory Doctorow rails against technology companies that design devices to allow the removal of features and content at will. The latest instance is the news that PlayStation owners will lose access to thousands of platform TV shows and movies they had paid to keep because Warner Brothers Discovery, which owns the rights, ended the content licensing arrangement. At the net.wars blog, Wendy M. Grossman sums up the same case: “…the entertainment industry has taken the old anarchist slogan property is theft and turned it into a business model.”
Schneier on Trust in AI – pleads for Government Rules as Essential to Making AI Trustworthy
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In this essay at his blog, Bruce Schneier enumerates actions governments can take to increase social trust as generative AI becomes pervasive. Among his recommendations: transparency laws covering how an AI is trained and used, and what biases it has; create data fiduciaries whose primary responsibility is to the public; and support and build public models that have political, as well as market, accountability.
Citizens take policing in their own hand in SF with Pervasive Citzen Surveillance Blanket attack
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In this article at Wired, Lauren Smiley paints a detailed picture of life in the pervasive privatized surveillance of San Francisco, where there is always another video, whether it’s a neighbor’s Ring camera or a network funded by crypto entrepreneur Chris Larsen or a self-driving Waymo car. The footage can solve crimes or set people free, depending on the angle and time frame; few engaged in what Smiley calls “citizen surveillance” realize what all those watching cameras mean.
DIARY
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January 24, 2024
Brussels, Belgium
Privacy Camp brings together digital rights advocates, activists as well as academics and policy-makers from all around Europe and beyond to discuss the most pressing issues facing human rights online. It is jointly organised by EDRi, VUB-LSTS, Privacy Salon vzw and the Institute for European Studies at USL-B. The 2024 edition invites investigations into systems that shape the field of privacy and digital rights. The organizers also invite discussions and propositions about what systemic and transformative change can look like.
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February 6-7, 2024
London, UK
The UK’s open technology conference – open source software, open hardware, and open data.
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February 12, 2024
Washington, DC, USA
The State of the Net Conference Series is hosted by the Internet Education Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public and policymakers about the potential of a decentralized global Internet to promote communications, commerce and democracy. Annually attracting over 600 attendees, the State of the Net Conference provides unparalleled opportunities to network and engage on key policy issues. It is also the only Internet policy conference with over 50 percent of Congressional staff and government policymakers in attendance, making it the perfect setting to explore important, emerging trends.
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March 2024
Boston, Massachusetts, USA and online
LibrePlanet provides an opportunity for activists, hackers, law professionals, artists, educators, students, developers, policymakers, tinkerers, and anyone looking for technology that respects the users freedom to come together in order to discuss current issues in technology and ethics. For 2024, the theme will be “Cultivating Community”.
Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection
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May 22-24, 2024
Brussels, Belgium
CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP gathers academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry and civil society from all over the world in Brussels, offering them an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world.
Wikimania 2024 – please get in touch to apply for travel grants to Cybersalon.org
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Summer 2024
Krakow, Poland
Wikimania is the annual conference celebrating all the free knowledge projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation with days of conferences, discussions, meetups, training, and workshops. Hundreds of volunteers and Free Knowledge leaders from around the world gather to discuss issues, report on new projects and approaches, and exchange ideas.
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June 3-6, 2024
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The seventh annual ACM FAccT conference will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 3rd to June 6th, 2024. The conference brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, and transparency in socio-technical systems.
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June 17-19, 2024
Vilnius, Lithuania
The European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) is an open multi-stakeholder platform to exchange views about the Internet and how it is governed. First organised in 2008 by several organisations, government representatives and experts, it fosters dialogue and collaboration with the Internet community on public policy for the Internet – culminating in an annual conference that takes place in a different European city every year. EuroDIG ‘Messages’ are prepared and presented to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
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July 11-13, 2024
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Since 2006, Netroots Nation has hosted the largest annual conference for progressives, drawing up to 4,000 attendees from around the country and beyond. The annual event brings together diverse voices from around the country and beyond.
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August 8-11, 2024
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Def Con is the world’s largest hacker conference.
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September 6-8, 2024
Nairobi, Kenya and online
State of the Map 2024 will bring together passionate mappers, data enthusiasts, technologists, and community members from all corners of the globe to celebrate the spirit of collaboration and open mapping. Building on the valuable lessons and experiences from the previous events, SotM is committed to making this edition even more accessible to everyone who wishes to partake in this grand celebration of open mapping, sharing passionate voices with the entire community.
JOBS
Remote/Slovenia
Role: Senior DevOps Engineer – help to migrate services to Kubernetes from other Container Systems
London
Role: Front Line Support Engineer Web3 – helping to solve challenges and complex problems in the DiFi and Web3 product
