Vort3x | Cybersalon | May 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.
Cybersalon Events
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Games Design & Democracy- with practitioners from Improbable, OffGridTheGame and many others
22nd June, Newspeak House, 7-8.30pm
Invites to follow
NEWS
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In post-Roe America, women will need app and smartphone privacy
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Internet searches, visits to abortion clinics, and period-tracking apps leave digital trails that can put women at risk in areas that restrict or criminalize abortion, Geoffrey A. Fowler and Tatum Hunter report at the Washington Post. The issue has come to the fore since the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft Supreme Court opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, the case that legalised abortion across the US. At Vice, Joseph Cox reports on two companies, SafeGraph and Placer.ai, that sell or give away location data relating to visits to clinics. SafeGraph has now promised to stop, and Placer.ai has removed the ability to search for Planned Parenthood-related data from its website. At Slate, Elizabeth Joh examines the privacy consequences that overturning Roe would bring and argues it shows why the US needs better protection for digital privacy.
Clearview AI reaches setllement with the state of Illinois
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The facial recognition company Clearview AI, which has amassed a database of more than 10 billion images by scraping social media sites, has agreed to a US-wide ban on selling its database as part of settling the case brought against it by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU has announced. The move is to bring Clearview into compliance with the groundbreaking Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Clearview has also promised to stop offering free trials to individual police officers without their employers’ knowledge, provide Illinois residents the ability to opt out, and to bar access to its database by any state or local government entity in Illinois, including law enforcement, for five years.
Kenyan ex-Facebook moderator is suing Meta Platforms
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A former Facebook moderator in Kenya is suing Meta Platforms and its local outsourcing company, Sama, alleging that contractors’ poor working conditions violate the Kenyan constitution, Reuters reports at the Guardian. The petition, which one individual has filed on behalf of a group, alleges that the moderators have suffered irregular pay, inadequate mental health support, union-busting, and violations of their privacy and dignity. Because the case will require Facebook to reveal a considerable amount of detail about how its moderation work, it’s expected to have reverberations across many other countries.
CJEU upholds “upload filter” but restricts impliementation
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The Court of Justice of the European Union has dismissed Poland’s legal challenge to Article 17 (the “upload filter”) of the Copyright Directive but made two comments that impose major constraints on its use, Glyn Moody reports at Walled Culture. In the comments, CJEU says that to be compatible with the right to freedom of expression and information filtering systems must be able to “distinguish adequately” between lawful and unlawful content, and that online service providers can’t be required to prevent the uploading and distribut9ion of content that requires an independent assessment – that is, that is not obviously infringing. In a video clip, Communia hosts a panel discussion of the CJEU decision on Article 17 that features João Pedro Quintais (Assistant Professor at the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam), Marco Giorello (Head of the European Commission’s Copyright Unit at DG CONNECT), Felix Reda (former MEP and Control © project lead at the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte), and |Eliška Pírková (Global Freedom of Expression Lead at Access Now). Reda here points out that only the Austrian and German implementations of Article 17 meet this standard, and Austria’s only with changes.
Elon Musk buys Twitter
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Tesla founder Elon Musk has reached a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, calling Twitter the “digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated”, Dan Milmo reports at the Guardian. Milmo also reports that Musk, a free-speech absolutist, is considering a “slight” fee for commercial and government users, as well as making the platform’s curation algorithms open source, defeating spambots, and “authenticating all humans”. The Washington Postprofiles Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer, who on January 8, 2021 agreed with then-CEO that Donald Trump’s tweets deserved a permanent ban. Right-wing critics have called her Twitter’s “top censorship advocate” and Musk has cited her in a tweet about the platform’s “left-wing bias”.
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
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AI disrupts US real estate market
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In this article at MIT Technology Review, Matthew Ponsford finds that AI-powered startups are engaging in “iBuying”, a high-tech form of flipping houses that uses automated valuation models to create a one-sided advantage over individuals and families. The leader, Opendoor, is operating in 44 cities and uses proprietary data systems that take in sale prices from real estate agents and other information from mortgage lenders, public data sets, map data, Yelp reviews, and private data sold by real estate analysts, as well as assessments provided by sellers.
Pandemic leaves behind an epidemic of employee monitoring
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In this article at the Guardian, Zoë Corbyn examines companies’ use of “bossware” – software and hardware tools to monitor workers – a trend that has grown enormously since the beginning of the pandemic and that combines dangerously with a second trend toward quantifying work. Without employees’ knowledge, tracking technology can log keystrokes, take screenshots, record mouse movements, turn on webcams and microphones and snap pictures. A September 2021 survey found that 60% of the 1,250 US companies sampled were using some form of worker monitoring software, and 90% of those had fired someone since installation.
Online paraphrase services assist plagiarists
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In this Twitter thread, Essex professor Matt Lodder writes about discovering a new trend in plagiarism: running published text through online paraphrasing services so that it will be passed as new by plagiarism detection services. The result is language that reads oddly to native English speakers. In 2021, at Nature, Holly Else picked up on this trend in an article on the “tortured phrases” that indicate fabricated work – and noted that computer science was the worst offender.
Schools’ use of biometrics places children at risk
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In this report, DefendDigitalMe finds that the 2012 Protection of Freedoms Act is not enough to protect children’s rights in educational settings and recommends that the ICO should follow the example already set in Sweden, France, and Poland and deem the use of biometrics in schools incompatible with both UK data protection laws and the updated Convention 108. DefendDigitalMe believes that the use of biometrics are in schools for building access, canteen payments, and library checkouts should cease. At the Guardian, Tim Lewis charts LSE professor Sonia Livingstone’s work studying the rise of phone apps that allow parents to track their kids’ every move. Family practices vary, and it’s not clear whether the apps keep children safer; there is considerable concern about how the collected data is used.
EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act fails to advance equity
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In this article at Medium, Jonathan Johnson summarizes a recent presentation by UCL associate professor Michael Veale analyzing the EU’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Act. The talk is available as a video clip. Although the AIA is intended to improve equality by regulating “high-risk” AI, Veale finds that the broad framework it creates, “has a flavor of fundamental rights but it is packed into a product standards lens” and its real focus is free movement of goods across borders.
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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
Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection
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May 23-25, 2022
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. The theme of the 2022 conference is “data protection and privacy in transitional times”.
Privacy Law Scholars Conference
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June 2-3, 2022
Boston, MA, USA
PLSC is the oldest and largest gathering of privacy scholars, researchers, and practitioners in the world. Run as a paper workshop, PLSC incubates and critiques scholarship at the vanguard of the field of law and technology.
RightsCon
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June 6-10, 2022
Online
Hosted by Access Now, RightsCon is the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age, drawing thousands of activists, academics, and policy makers. The 11th RightsCon will be a platform where stakeholders across regions and sectors can come together to address the most pressing human rights and technology issues.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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August 11-14, 2022
Las Vegas, NV, USA
The largest hacking conference presents its 30th edition.
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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”.
ONGOING
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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Frequent events on topics such as cybersecurity, digital tax, online content moderation, and upcoming EU legislation.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
