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

Catch up with video from Cybersalon event Democracy 2030 with Areeq Chowdhury, Simon Wyatt, Gaye Dadabit, dr Paolo Gerbaudo, Stefan Luschinger and Dr Richard Barbrook

NEWS

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UK ICO Fines Clearview AI £7.5 Million and Orders Data Delection
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The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has fined Clearview AI £7.5 million for breaching privacy laws and ordered it to delete the data it holds on UK residents, Natasha Lomas reports at TechCrunch. Clearview claims its database has grown to 20 billion facial images, which it has scraped off the public internet. The UK action follows similar judgments in Australia, France, and Canada. The American Civil Liberties union has announced that in a settlement Clearview AI is banned permanently from selling its facial image database to most businesses and other private entities anywhere in the US, and will cease selling access to its database to any entity in Illinois, inclcuding law enforcement, for five years.

Internet Governance Needs Revitalization
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The many engineering organizations that manage various aspects of the internet and finds that they lack coordination, are internally disorganized, and have become resistant to new ideas and new blood, veteran journalist Kieren McCarthy finds in a report on internet governance for the Tony Blair Institute. McCarthy argues for the creation of a new oversight organization that could reverse these trends and help fill gaps in which otherwise governments may seek to impose control.

Tesla Faces Investigative Scrutiny Over Autopilot Crashes
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A US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into Tesla’s automated driving system has found 16 additional crashes, opening the possibility of a recall of 830,000 vehicles, almost all the cars that Tesla has sold since the beginning of the 2014 model year. In a one-hour documentary, New York Times reporters Cade Metz and Neal Boudette investigate the cause of the first crashes involving Tesla cars on autopilot. The same problem recurs: the company’s software struggles to distinguish between a truck crossing the road and a bridge. Also at the New York Times, Edward Niedermeyer, whose 2019 book, Ludicrous, recounts Tesla’s history, examines CEO Elon Musk’s apparent desire to renege on his bid to buy Twitter in the light of his previous behavior, which Niedermeyer believes indicates “a dysfunction behind the automaker’s veneer of technofuturism”. In dozens of interviews, Niedermeyer has found that Tesla’s employees pay the price; few last even the four years it takes for their stock to vest.

Technical Experts ask US Congress for Crypto-Asset Regulation
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Twenty-six technical experts including security expert Bruce Schneier and , joined by 1,500 additional signatories, have sent an open letter to US Congressional leaders asking them to adopt financial regulations to rein in hype and fraud surrounding crypto-assets. They argue that blockchain has few, if any, practical uses, and that crypto-assets in general are poorly suited to solve the real financial problems facing Americans.  In a Twitter thread, cryptographer Matthew Green critiques the letter, objecting to a number of its claims. In an article, The Economist examins the impact of the recent cryptocurrency crash on African-Americans, who are more likely to both be newcomers to investing and own cryptocurrencies – not because they have a high appetite for risk but because they are more likely to believe cryptocurrencies are safe. At Quartz, Scott Nover and Camille Squires find that the city of Miami’s MiamiCoin, created by an organization called CityCoins, has lost nearly all its value since September 2021.

Rising Costs Drive Chinese Sellers to Leave Amazon
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Chinese sellers are leaving Amazon because of the ever-rising costs and increasing restrictions on what they may sell on the platform, Rui Ma reports at Rest of World. While Amazon claims that it banned 3,000 Chinese sellers for manipulating product reviews, the sellers counter than when they have done so it has been solely in order to survive. Sellers wanting to leave are faced with few choices: either build international recognition for their brand, or find another platform on which to operate.

FEATURES AND ANALYSIS

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Britain’s Online Safety Bill
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In this article, The Economist argues that Britain should scrap the Online Safety Bill, which it calls illiberal, impractical, chilling of legitimate discussion, and, in some areas, redundant.  While the writers say that not everything is bad – they like proposals that would give users greater control over what material they see – their conclusion is simple: “The government should delete it.”

Nick Clegg Explains the Metaverse
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In this article at TechCrunch, Natasha Lomas summarises Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg’s 8,000-word Medium manifesto on the “metaverse”, which Lomas calls “sci-fi-inspired vapourware”. Among Clegg’s main points: there will be many multiverse spaces providing a universal layer on top of today’s physical world; the metaverse may be useful for education and training; it will create new digital divides; there will be a patchwork of varying terms of service; and it will take Meta at least ten to 15 years to build it.

Behavioral Study Finds Dark Patterns Widespread
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In this new report for the European Commission, the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers finds that “dark patterns” – deceptive and manipulative practices – are prevalent across across all sizes of business. A mystery shopping exercise showed that among the most popular websites and apps used by EU consumers, 97% used at least one dark patterns and usually more; the most common were hidden information, preselection, nagging, difficult cancellations, and forced registration. Consumers don’t easily recognize these patterns, but react negatively when they do. The authors believe this is the first study to test neurophysiological and psychological reactions to unfair practices.

Adversarial Attacks Poison Models’ Training Data
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In a blog posting, Cory Doctorow outlines research into adversarial attacks on the training data used to develop algorithmic models for modern machine learning systems. It isn’t enough, he finds, to check the data for bias; these new attacks experiment with subtly poisoning the data to manipulate the performance of models based on it.

Elsevier Becomes a Data Company
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In this episode of the Road to Science podcast, hosts Sanli Faez and Lieven Heeremans ask Dutch researchers Elko Fried and Robin Kok what data the journal publisher Elsevier is collecting on researchers and their subjects without their knowledge or consent. Elsevier, they explain, is becoming a data company.

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

Workshop on the Economics of Information Security
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June 21-22, 2022
Tulsa, OK, USA
The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS) is the leading forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security and privacy, combining expertise from the fields of economics, social science, business, law, policy, and computer science. Prior workshops have explored the role of incentives between attackers and defenders of information systems, identified market failures surrounding internet security, quantified risks of personal data disclosure, and assessed investments in cyber-defense. The 2022 workshop will build on past efforts using empirical and analytic tools not only to understand threats, but also to strengthen security and privacy through novel evaluations of available solutions.

ACM FAccT
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June 21-24, 2022
Seoul, South Korea and online
The fifth annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (formerly FAT*) brings together researchers and practitioners interested in fairness, accountability, and transparency in socio-technical systems. The online version of the conference – including both live-streamed elements of the in-person conference, and online-only content – will also begin on June 21, with content and discussion available for two weeks from that date, and a library of content available subsequently.

Hackers on Planet Earth
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July 22-24, 2022
New York, NY, USA
Four years after the last edition of the New York-based hacker conference,  A New HOPE promises to be transformational for the hacker community and the first in its new venue at Brooklyn’s St. John’s University.

Wikimania 2022
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August, 2022 (TBC)
Online
The seventeenth Wikimedia conference will be a virtual event organized by a diverse group of global volunteers with distributed in-person events if local and global circumstances allow.

Def Con 30
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August 11-14, 2022
Las Vegas, NV, USA
The largest hacking conference presents its 30th edition.

Internet Governance Forum
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November 28-December 2, 2022
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and online
IGF is a global multistakeholder platform that facilitates the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the Internet, The 17th IGF on Resilient Internet for a Shared Sustainable and Common Future will be a hybrid event. This year’s IGF program closely reflects the Global Digital Compact envisioned by the UN Secretary-General in his Our Common Agenda report. Accordingly the five themes are “Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights”; “Avoiding Internet Fragmentation”; “Governing Data and Protecting Privacy”; “Enabling Safety, Security and Accountability”; and “Addressing Advanced Technologies, including AI”.

Conference on Robot Learning
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December 14-18, 2022
Auckland, NZ
The Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) is an annual selective, single-track international conference addressing theory and practice of machine learning for robots (and automation: where robot prototypes are scaled for cost effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability in practice). CoRL publishes significant original research at the intersection of robotics and machine learning.

Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection 2023
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May 24-26, 2023
CPDP is a multidisciplinary conference offering 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.

ONGOING

Ada Lovelace Institute
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London’s Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic. Late-2020 events included discussions of regulating for algorithm accountability and “almost-future” AI.

Bace Cybersecurity Institute
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Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a “fireside” discussion with prominent women in security, security problems in online voting, methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing, advanced botnet researcher, and using marketing techniques to improve cybersecurity communication.

Benchmark Initiative
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The Benchmark Initiative is running regular events on topics such as the use of location data to end the global sanitation crisis, the safe use of location data in human migration; data, power, and the pandemic; and managing social distancing in public spaces. All events are posted on Vimeo soon after they conclude.

CAMRI
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The Communication and Media Institute (CAMRI) at London’s University of Westminster hosts a series of online events presenting the work of sociologists, historians, economists, and activists studying online developments around the world. Spring 2021 offerings include a reassessment of the 2010 Arab Spring and studies of internal communication connections within the Global South, the changing role of public service media, decolonizing the curriculum, and using Facebook to reduce polarization.

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
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The Carnegie Council runs frequent events on topics such as illiberal threats to democracy, the societal limits of AI ethics, AI and ethics in Africa, and inclusion. The Council posts audio and a transcript after each event.

Center for Data Innovation
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Ongoing series of events on topics such as new legislation, using data to combat counterfeit goods, and trends in online advertising.

Data & Society
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Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats. Its first event for 2021 examines digital technology and democratic theory.

DRAILS
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The Research Group on Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society is presenting a series of discussions on topics such as robotics (Frank Pasquale, April 1), rights, technology, and society (Anne-Sophie Hulin, May 19), and justifiability and contestability of algorithmic decision systems (Daniel Le Métayer, June 1).

EFF
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EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation.

European Internet Forum
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Frequent events on topics such as cybersecurity, digital tax, online content moderation, and upcoming EU legislation.

Future in Review
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Future in Review is running a series of online “FiReSide” events. Recent topics include Chinese-US relations after the presidential election, and the future technology struggle.

Geneva Internet Platform
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The Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), a Swiss initiative run by DiploFoundation is organizing monthly briefings on internet governance, providing updates and news and projections of how they will influence future developments.

Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Stanford
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HAI’s series of events covers AI-related topics such as upcoming regulation, issues with algorithms, health, and AI and society.

In Lieu of Fun
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Kate Klonick, an assistant professor at St John’s University School of Law who specializes in online speech and governance, and Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and co-founder and chief editor of Lawfare, hold a nightly discussion of current affairs, law, politics, and digital media with invited guests. Daily at 5pm Eastern Time.

Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020 
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The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s online seminars on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law include AI, privacy law, technology law as a vehicle for anti-racism, and a look ahead to the next telecommunications act.

London Futurists
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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.

Open Data Institute
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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.

Open Rights Group
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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.

Public Knowledge
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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.

RUSI
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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.

Singularity University
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Singularity University’s upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries.