News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending April 23, 2021
====================================================
The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman.
Current and former grantees featured in this issue: BEUC, Bits of Freedom, Communia International, EFF, Homo Digitalis, Open Rights Group, Panoptykon, Privacy International, and Ranking Digital Rights.
NEWS
=====
US Supreme Court Rules That Google API Is Fair use
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The US Supreme Court has ruled six to two that Google's copying of application programming interfaces (APIs) from Oracle's Java SE was fair use, Brian Fung reports at CNN. Allowing Oracle to enforce its copyright claim would "risk harm to the public," the majority opinion said, because it would make Oracle a new gatekeeper for software code. At EFF's blog, Michael Barclay provides the case background, outlines the lower court rulings, and explains why EFF supported Google in an amicus brief. On YouTube, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology presents an initial appraisal of the case and its significance with professors Pamela Samuelson, Peter Menell, and Sean O'Connor, and Tom Goldstein, who argued the case for Google in the Supreme Court.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/05/tech/google-oracle-supreme-court-ruling/index.html
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/eff-asks-supreme-court-clean-oracle-v-google-mess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDLTOwoSRNg&feature=youtu.be
Facebook Allows Return of State-Backed Azerbaijan Harassment Campaign
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A state-backed troll network that targets independent news outlets and opposition politicians in Azerbaijan, which Facebook banned less than six months ago, has been allowed to return to the platform, Julia Carrie Wong and Luke Harding report at the Guardian. The result, they write, appears to allow the country's authoritarian regime to drown out debate in one of the country's only venues for free expression. The campaign was originally allowed to continue for 14 months after data scientist Sophie Zhang warned managers and executives of its existence in August 2019. Many of Facebook's tools have not been translated into Azeri, none of the company's staff speak the language, and neither the eastern European nor the Middle Eastern policy teams claims responsibility for Azerbaijan. In a second Guardian article Wong details Zhang's experience, first reported in leaks of her September 2020 7,800-word departure memo, which describes the company's failure to respond when she reported evidence of large-scale manipulation of its platform by foreign governments. Zhang's new information tells of political manipulation in Honduras, Mexico, and the UK, among others. Zhang calls Facebook "complicit by inaction".
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/13/facebook-azerbaijan-ilham-aliyev
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-fake-engagement-whistleblower-sophie-zhang
Two Die in Tesla Autonomous Driving Crash
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Two men were killed in Spring, Texas after a 2019 Tesla crashed into a tree and burst into flames that took many hours to put out because the battery kept reigniting, Lora Kolodny reports at CNBC. No one was driving; both occupants were found in passenger seats. In the February 11 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Autopilot was getting good enough that "you won't need to drive most of the time unless you really want to." However, the company told the California Division of Motor Vehicles in late 2020 that "neither Autopilot nor Tesla's [Full-Service Driving] Capability is an autonomous system". Nonetheless, many social media videos show Teslas on the road with the driver hands-free, asleep at the wheel, or not in the driver's seat.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/18/no-one-was-driving-in-tesla-crash-that-killed-two-men-in-spring-texas-report.html
EU Proposes Regulations for "High-Risk" AI Systems
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The EU is proposing to require human oversight and a "kill switch" for "high-risk" AI systems such as algorithms used by police and in recruitment for decision making, generalized and indiscriminate AI surveillance systems, and social scoring, the BBC reports. The military is exempt, as are systems used by authorities to safeguard public security. At Bloomberg, Natalia Drozdiak reports that companies could be fined as much as 4% of global revenue if they fail to comply. In a Twitter thread, UCL lecturer Michael Veale dissects the proposals to identify strengths and weaknesses. At the Guardian, Zoë Corbyn interviews MIT ethicist Kate Darling, whose new book, The New Breed, compares the arrival of robots to the history of domesticating animals. Darling argues that we will be better served by thinking of robots as partners rather than competitors.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56745730
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-13/eu-poised-to-set-ai-rules-that-would-ban-surveillance-scoring
https://twitter.com/mikarv/status/1382261746736455684
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/17/ai-ethicist-kate-darling-robots-can-be-our-partners
Australia Considers Compulsory ID Verification for Social Media
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Australia is considering a compulsory, points-based ID verification system for users of social media and online dating sites, Sarah Coble reports at Infosecurity Magazine. Sites would also be required to provide identifying details when requested by the eSafety Commissioner or law enforcement, or if directed to do so by a court. The proposal is one of 88 recommendations in a recent federal parliamentary report proposing strategies for decreasing family, domestic, and sexual violence; the report also recommends considering regulations to enable law enforcement access to end-to-end encrypted data, and to increasing criminal and civil penalties for technology-facilitated abuse.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/australia-considers-social-media/
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportrep/024577/toc_pdf/Inquiryintofamily,domesticandsexualviolence.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
Apple and Google Block UK Contact Tracing App Update
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple and Google have blocked an update to the UK's contact tracing app because it breaks agreed terms and conditions by asking those who test positive for covid to upload the list of location QR codes they have collected via venue check-ins, Jane Wyatt reports at the BBC. The update was intended to coincide with reduced restrictions on movement and mixing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56713017
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
====================
Library Vendors Build and Sell Surveillance Systems
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, SPARC examines library vendors' increasing involvement in building and selling surveillance systems to governments and government agencies. These sophisticated, global surveillance systems include online tracking technologies, massive aggregation of user data, and services based on the results, and their development is supported by revenues from library subscriptions paid to vendors such as RELX, Thomson Reuters, and LexisNexis.
https://sparcopen.org/news/2021/addressing-the-alarming-systems-of-surveillance-built-by-library-vendors/
How QAnon Stays Online
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this article at Bloomberg, William Turton and Joshua Brustein profile 23-year-old Nick Lim, whose 18-month-old company, VanwaTech, is crucial to keeping extremist right-wing sites like Daily Stormer and 8kun - and therefore QAnon - online. Lim, who tells Bloomberg he intends to branch out into hosting pornography, relies on Russian service providers for technical infrastructure. At the New York Times, Caolan Robertson, a filmmaker who produced videos for numerous extreme right-wing YouTube personalities who now works for Byline TV, explains to Cade Metz the key ingredients for attracting attention on social media.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-14/qanon-daily-stormer-far-right-have-been-kept-online-by-nick-lim-s-vanwatech
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/technology/alt-right-youtube-algorithm.html
Open Letter Asks European Parliament to Deliver ePrivacy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, the Open Rights Group introduces an open letter, signed by Panoptykon, Privacy International, Ranking Digital Rights, BEUC, Bits of Freedom, Communia International, Homo Digitalis, EFF, and 20 other organizations, which asks the European Parliament to ensure that the ePrivacy Regulation delivers on its intended objectives. The EU Council has approved a draft that legitimizes online tracking practices and removes provisions to make users' settings legally enforceable.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/adtech-an-open-letter-to-the-european-parliament/
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/eprivacy-regulation-an-open-letter-from-30-civil-society-organisations/
Colorization APIs Falsify History
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this Twitter thread, artist and game designer Gwen C. Katz studies colorization APIs, which are being increasingly used on historical photographs. To test the APIs' accuracy, Katz first digitally desaturated early 20th-century color photos, and then colorized them using the DeepAI Image Colorization API. The results, which Katz posts, show that the API replaces the vivid colors of reality with a misleading drabness. At Smithsonian Magazine, Elizabeth Gamillo discusses MyHeritage's AI program Deep Nostalgia, which animates images of historical figures, some of whom were careful to control how and when they were photographed. At the Irish Times, art historian Emily Mark-FitzGerald argues that colorizing old photos always falsifies history; as examples FitzGerald cites projects to colorize photos of victims of the 1975-1979 Cambodian genocide and registration photographs taken by the Nazis at Auschwitz before killing Jewish and other prisoners. In both cases photos were not only colorized but digitally altered to appear cheerful and calm.
https://twitter.com/gwenckatz/status/1381652071695351810
Legal Approaches to Online Harassment
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this episode of the University of Virginia Media Lab's "Democracy in Danger" podcast series, "The Wild Web", hosts Siva Vaidhyanathan and Will Hitchcock interview MacArthur Fellow Danielle Citron. Among the subjects she discusses are her years of work opposing online harassment and pushing US states to pass laws to outlaw online attacks such as defamation, doxxing, rape and death threats, and revenge porn, Section 230, and the opposition she met from libertarian internet culture. Citron argues that it's now time for government to enforce these laws to rein in cyberspace aggression.
https://medialab.virginia.edu/wild-web
IETF Struggles to Agree on New Technical Language
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In this article at the New York Times, Kate Conger discusses the Internet Engineering Task Force's efforts to make technical language more inclusive. While there is general agreement that terms like "master", "slave", "whitelist", and "blacklist" should be deprecated, stakeholders are finding it difficult to reach consensus on their replacements.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/technology/racist-computer-engineering-terms-ietf.html
***
DIARY
==============
*** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.***
If you would like your event listed in this mail, email
info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org.
ONE-OFF EVENTS
TICTec 2021
----------------------------------------
March-May 2021
Online
In lieu of its usual two-day annual conference, mySociety will instead host a series of short, energetic, and to-the-point online TICTeC "Show and Tell" presentations that will feature speakers from around the world talking about the impacts of digital tools intended to empower citizens.
https://tictec.mysociety.org/showandtells/2021
Bringing Dark Patterns to Light
----------------------------------------
April 29, 2021
Online from Washington, DC, USA
"Bringing Dark Patterns to Light: An FTC Workshop" will explore the ways in which user interfaces can have the effect, intentionally or unintentionally, of obscuring, subverting, or impairing consumer autonomy, decision-making, or choice. The workshop will bring together researchers, legal experts, consumer advocates, and industry professionals to examine what dark patterns are and how they might affect consumers and the marketplace. Some of the topics the workshop will examine include:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/bringing-dark-patterns-light-ftc-workshop
TILTing Perspectives
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May 19-21, 2021
Online from Tilburg, the Netherlands
TILTing perspectives 2021 brings together, for the seventh time, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and civil society at the intersection of law and regulation, technology, and society to share insights, exchange ideas, and formulate, discuss, and suggest answers to contemporary challenges related to technological innovation.
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/tilt/events/tilting-perspectives
Privacy Law Scholars 2021
----------------------------------------
June 3-4, 2021
Online from Washington, DC, USA
Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers.
https://privacyscholars.org/
RightsCon
----------------------------------------
June 7-11, 2021
Online
AccessNow's tenth RightsCon will bring together business leaders, policy makers, general counsels, technologists, advocates, academics, government representatives, and journalists from around the world to tackle the most pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology.
https://www.rightscon.org/
CPDP LatAm 2021
----------------------------------------
July 2021
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. The conference will especially focus on data protection at a time of social emergency - COVID-19, democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America.
https://cpdp.lat/en/
DEF CON 29
----------------------------------------
August 5-8, 2021
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers.
https://www.defcon.org
SOUPS 2021
----------------------------------------
August 8-10, 2021
Vancouver, BC, Canada
The 17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, security, and privacy. It will be colocated with USENIX 2021.
https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2021
Singularity University Global Summit 2021
----------------------------------------
August 23-25, 2021
Los Angeles, California, USA
Global Summit 2021
Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 change-makers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual reality, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more.
https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/
Wikimania 2021
----------------------------------------
August, 2021
Online from Bangkok, Thailand
Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020
World Library and Information Congress 2021
----------------------------------------
August 2021
Rotterdam, Netherlands
WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
https://2020.ifla.org/
Modern Law Review: Are We Owned?
----------------------------------------
October 8, 2021
Stirling, Scotland, UK
The Modern Law Review will present a one-day conference, "Are We Owned? A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Conversation on Intellectual Property in the Algorithmic Society". The conference will discuss the future of autonomy as the terms of service that apply to phones and computers become embedded in "smart" physical objects throughout our environment and within our bodies.
https://guidonotoladiega.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/call-for-abstracts-are-we-owned-a-multidisciplinary-and-comparative-conversation-on-intellectual-property-in-the-algorithmic-society/
OAI12
----------------------------------------
September 6-10, 2021
Online from Geneva, Switzerland
The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication will focus on scholarly publishing, digital research data, reproducibility and research integrity, diversity, inclusivity and collaboration, and the future of open science.
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015275/
ALPSP Annual Conference
----------------------------------------
September 15-17, 2021
Online from UK
The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers' annual conference provides a friendly forum to share information, learn about new initiatives and engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing the scholarly publishing community. The main themes for 2021 are "Discoverability and Accessibility" and "The Great Reset: Scenario planning for life after COVID".
https://alpsp.cventevents.com/event/5a76c9bf-384d-433c-8719-104efee5daff/summary
Open Education Global
----------------------------------------
September 27-October 1, 2021
Online
Each day of the 2021 2021 conference program will have webinars comprised of five presentations and interactive asynchronous activities focused on that day's action area. Sessions may be in any of the six official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish.
https://conference.oeglobal.org/2021/online-conference/
Thotcon
----------------------------------------
October 8-9, 2021
Chicago, Illinois, USA
The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience.
https://thotcon.org/
ONGOING
Ada Lovelace Institute
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/
Bace Cybersecurity Institute
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/webinars.
Benchmark Initiative
----------------------------------------
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.
https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event
https://vimeo.com/user40391998/videos
CAMRI
----------------------------------------
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.
https://camri.ac.uk/events/?mc_cid=81df08bfcd&mc_eid=901b84981a
Data & Society
----------------------------------------
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.
https://datasociety.net/events/
DRAILS
----------------------------------------
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).
https://drails.org/
EFF
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.eff.org/events/
Future in Review
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/
Geneva Internet Platform
----------------------------------------
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.
https://dig.watch/events
In Lieu of Fun
----------------------------------------
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.
https://inlieuof.fun/
Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/
London Futurists
----------------------------------------
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.
https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/
https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/
Open Data Institute
----------------------------------------
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.
https://theodi.org/events/talks/
Open Rights Group
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/
Public Knowledge
----------------------------------------
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.
https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/
RUSI
----------------------------------------
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.
https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19
Singularity University
----------------------------------------
Singularity University's upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries.
https://su.org/events/
***
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News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending April 23, 2021
====================================================
The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman.
Current and former grantees featured in this issue: BEUC, Bits of Freedom, Communia International, EFF, Homo Digitalis, Open Rights Group, Panoptykon, Privacy International, and Ranking Digital Rights.
NEWS
=====
US Supreme Court Rules That Google API Is Fair use
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The US Supreme Court has ruled six to two that Google's copying of application programming interfaces (APIs) from Oracle's Java SE was fair use, Brian Fung reports at CNN. Allowing Oracle to enforce its copyright claim would "risk harm to the public," the majority opinion said, because it would make Oracle a new gatekeeper for software code. At EFF's blog, Michael Barclay provides the case background, outlines the lower court rulings, and explains why EFF supported Google in an amicus brief. On YouTube, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology presents an initial appraisal of the case and its significance with professors Pamela Samuelson, Peter Menell, and Sean O'Connor, and Tom Goldstein, who argued the case for Google in the Supreme Court.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/05/tech/google-oracle-supreme-court-ruling/index.html
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/eff-asks-supreme-court-clean-oracle-v-google-mess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDLTOwoSRNg&feature=youtu.be
Facebook Allows Return of State-Backed Azerbaijan Harassment Campaign
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A state-backed troll network that targets independent news outlets and opposition politicians in Azerbaijan, which Facebook banned less than six months ago, has been allowed to return to the platform, Julia Carrie Wong and Luke Harding report at the Guardian. The result, they write, appears to allow the country's authoritarian regime to drown out debate in one of the country's only venues for free expression. The campaign was originally allowed to continue for 14 months after data scientist Sophie Zhang warned managers and executives of its existence in August 2019. Many of Facebook's tools have not been translated into Azeri, none of the company's staff speak the language, and neither the eastern European nor the Middle Eastern policy teams claims responsibility for Azerbaijan. In a second Guardian article Wong details Zhang's experience, first reported in leaks of her September 2020 7,800-word departure memo, which describes the company's failure to respond when she reported evidence of large-scale manipulation of its platform by foreign governments. Zhang's new information tells of political manipulation in Honduras, Mexico, and the UK, among others. Zhang calls Facebook "complicit by inaction".
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/13/facebook-azerbaijan-ilham-aliyev
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-fake-engagement-whistleblower-sophie-zhang
Two Die in Tesla Autonomous Driving Crash
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Two men were killed in Spring, Texas after a 2019 Tesla crashed into a tree and burst into flames that took many hours to put out because the battery kept reigniting, Lora Kolodny reports at CNBC. No one was driving; both occupants were found in passenger seats. In the February 11 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Autopilot was getting good enough that "you won't need to drive most of the time unless you really want to." However, the company told the California Division of Motor Vehicles in late 2020 that "neither Autopilot nor Tesla's [Full-Service Driving] Capability is an autonomous system". Nonetheless, many social media videos show Teslas on the road with the driver hands-free, asleep at the wheel, or not in the driver's seat.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/18/no-one-was-driving-in-tesla-crash-that-killed-two-men-in-spring-texas-report.html
EU Proposes Regulations for "High-Risk" AI Systems
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The EU is proposing to require human oversight and a "kill switch" for "high-risk" AI systems such as algorithms used by police and in recruitment for decision making, generalized and indiscriminate AI surveillance systems, and social scoring, the BBC reports. The military is exempt, as are systems used by authorities to safeguard public security. At Bloomberg, Natalia Drozdiak reports that companies could be fined as much as 4% of global revenue if they fail to comply. In a Twitter thread, UCL lecturer Michael Veale dissects the proposals to identify strengths and weaknesses. At the Guardian, Zoë Corbyn interviews MIT ethicist Kate Darling, whose new book, The New Breed, compares the arrival of robots to the history of domesticating animals. Darling argues that we will be better served by thinking of robots as partners rather than competitors.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56745730
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-13/eu-poised-to-set-ai-rules-that-would-ban-surveillance-scoring
https://twitter.com/mikarv/status/1382261746736455684
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/17/ai-ethicist-kate-darling-robots-can-be-our-partners
Australia Considers Compulsory ID Verification for Social Media
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Australia is considering a compulsory, points-based ID verification system for users of social media and online dating sites, Sarah Coble reports at Infosecurity Magazine. Sites would also be required to provide identifying details when requested by the eSafety Commissioner or law enforcement, or if directed to do so by a court. The proposal is one of 88 recommendations in a recent federal parliamentary report proposing strategies for decreasing family, domestic, and sexual violence; the report also recommends considering regulations to enable law enforcement access to end-to-end encrypted data, and to increasing criminal and civil penalties for technology-facilitated abuse.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/australia-considers-social-media/
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportrep/024577/toc_pdf/Inquiryintofamily,domesticandsexualviolence.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
Apple and Google Block UK Contact Tracing App Update
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple and Google have blocked an update to the UK's contact tracing app because it breaks agreed terms and conditions by asking those who test positive for covid to upload the list of location QR codes they have collected via venue check-ins, Jane Wyatt reports at the BBC. The update was intended to coincide with reduced restrictions on movement and mixing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56713017
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
====================
Library Vendors Build and Sell Surveillance Systems
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this blog posting, SPARC examines library vendors' increasing involvement in building and selling surveillance systems to governments and government agencies. These sophisticated, global surveillance systems include online tracking technologies, massive aggregation of user data, and services based on the results, and their development is supported by revenues from library subscriptions paid to vendors such as RELX, Thomson Reuters, and LexisNexis.
https://sparcopen.org/news/2021/addressing-the-alarming-systems-of-surveillance-built-by-library-vendors/
How QAnon Stays Online
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this article at Bloomberg, William Turton and Joshua Brustein profile 23-year-old Nick Lim, whose 18-month-old company, VanwaTech, is crucial to keeping extremist right-wing sites like Daily Stormer and 8kun - and therefore QAnon - online. Lim, who tells Bloomberg he intends to branch out into hosting pornography, relies on Russian service providers for technical infrastructure. At the New York Times, Caolan Robertson, a filmmaker who produced videos for numerous extreme right-wing YouTube personalities who now works for Byline TV, explains to Cade Metz the key ingredients for attracting attention on social media.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-14/qanon-daily-stormer-far-right-have-been-kept-online-by-nick-lim-s-vanwatech
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/technology/alt-right-youtube-algorithm.html
Open Letter Asks European Parliament to Deliver ePrivacy
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In this blog posting, the Open Rights Group introduces an open letter, signed by Panoptykon, Privacy International, Ranking Digital Rights, BEUC, Bits of Freedom, Communia International, Homo Digitalis, EFF, and 20 other organizations, which asks the European Parliament to ensure that the ePrivacy Regulation delivers on its intended objectives. The EU Council has approved a draft that legitimizes online tracking practices and removes provisions to make users' settings legally enforceable.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/adtech-an-open-letter-to-the-european-parliament/
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/eprivacy-regulation-an-open-letter-from-30-civil-society-organisations/
Colorization APIs Falsify History
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In this Twitter thread, artist and game designer Gwen C. Katz studies colorization APIs, which are being increasingly used on historical photographs. To test the APIs' accuracy, Katz first digitally desaturated early 20th-century color photos, and then colorized them using the DeepAI Image Colorization API. The results, which Katz posts, show that the API replaces the vivid colors of reality with a misleading drabness. At Smithsonian Magazine, Elizabeth Gamillo discusses MyHeritage's AI program Deep Nostalgia, which animates images of historical figures, some of whom were careful to control how and when they were photographed. At the Irish Times, art historian Emily Mark-FitzGerald argues that colorizing old photos always falsifies history; as examples FitzGerald cites projects to colorize photos of victims of the 1975-1979 Cambodian genocide and registration photographs taken by the Nazis at Auschwitz before killing Jewish and other prisoners. In both cases photos were not only colorized but digitally altered to appear cheerful and calm.
https://twitter.com/gwenckatz/status/1381652071695351810
Legal Approaches to Online Harassment
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In this episode of the University of Virginia Media Lab's "Democracy in Danger" podcast series, "The Wild Web", hosts Siva Vaidhyanathan and Will Hitchcock interview MacArthur Fellow Danielle Citron. Among the subjects she discusses are her years of work opposing online harassment and pushing US states to pass laws to outlaw online attacks such as defamation, doxxing, rape and death threats, and revenge porn, Section 230, and the opposition she met from libertarian internet culture. Citron argues that it's now time for government to enforce these laws to rein in cyberspace aggression.
https://medialab.virginia.edu/wild-web
IETF Struggles to Agree on New Technical Language
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In this article at the New York Times, Kate Conger discusses the Internet Engineering Task Force's efforts to make technical language more inclusive. While there is general agreement that terms like "master", "slave", "whitelist", and "blacklist" should be deprecated, stakeholders are finding it difficult to reach consensus on their replacements.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/technology/racist-computer-engineering-terms-ietf.html
***
DIARY
==============
*** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.***
If you would like your event listed in this mail, email
info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org.
ONE-OFF EVENTS
TICTec 2021
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March-May 2021
Online
In lieu of its usual two-day annual conference, mySociety will instead host a series of short, energetic, and to-the-point online TICTeC "Show and Tell" presentations that will feature speakers from around the world talking about the impacts of digital tools intended to empower citizens.
https://tictec.mysociety.org/showandtells/2021
Bringing Dark Patterns to Light
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April 29, 2021
Online from Washington, DC, USA
"Bringing Dark Patterns to Light: An FTC Workshop" will explore the ways in which user interfaces can have the effect, intentionally or unintentionally, of obscuring, subverting, or impairing consumer autonomy, decision-making, or choice. The workshop will bring together researchers, legal experts, consumer advocates, and industry professionals to examine what dark patterns are and how they might affect consumers and the marketplace. Some of the topics the workshop will examine include:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/bringing-dark-patterns-light-ftc-workshop
TILTing Perspectives
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May 19-21, 2021
Online from Tilburg, the Netherlands
TILTing perspectives 2021 brings together, for the seventh time, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and civil society at the intersection of law and regulation, technology, and society to share insights, exchange ideas, and formulate, discuss, and suggest answers to contemporary challenges related to technological innovation.
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/tilt/events/tilting-perspectives
Privacy Law Scholars 2021
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June 3-4, 2021
Online from Washington, DC, USA
Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers.
https://privacyscholars.org/
RightsCon
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June 7-11, 2021
Online
AccessNow's tenth RightsCon will bring together business leaders, policy makers, general counsels, technologists, advocates, academics, government representatives, and journalists from around the world to tackle the most pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology.
https://www.rightscon.org/
CPDP LatAm 2021
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July 2021
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. The conference will especially focus on data protection at a time of social emergency - COVID-19, democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America.
https://cpdp.lat/en/
DEF CON 29
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August 5-8, 2021
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers.
https://www.defcon.org
SOUPS 2021
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August 8-10, 2021
Vancouver, BC, Canada
The 17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, security, and privacy. It will be colocated with USENIX 2021.
https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2021
Singularity University Global Summit 2021
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August 23-25, 2021
Los Angeles, California, USA
Global Summit 2021
Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 change-makers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual reality, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more.
https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/
Wikimania 2021
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August, 2021
Online from Bangkok, Thailand
Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020
World Library and Information Congress 2021
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August 2021
Rotterdam, Netherlands
WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).
https://2020.ifla.org/
Modern Law Review: Are We Owned?
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October 8, 2021
Stirling, Scotland, UK
The Modern Law Review will present a one-day conference, "Are We Owned? A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Conversation on Intellectual Property in the Algorithmic Society". The conference will discuss the future of autonomy as the terms of service that apply to phones and computers become embedded in "smart" physical objects throughout our environment and within our bodies.
https://guidonotoladiega.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/call-for-abstracts-are-we-owned-a-multidisciplinary-and-comparative-conversation-on-intellectual-property-in-the-algorithmic-society/
OAI12
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September 6-10, 2021
Online from Geneva, Switzerland
The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication will focus on scholarly publishing, digital research data, reproducibility and research integrity, diversity, inclusivity and collaboration, and the future of open science.
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015275/
ALPSP Annual Conference
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September 15-17, 2021
Online from UK
The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers' annual conference provides a friendly forum to share information, learn about new initiatives and engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing the scholarly publishing community. The main themes for 2021 are "Discoverability and Accessibility" and "The Great Reset: Scenario planning for life after COVID".
https://alpsp.cventevents.com/event/5a76c9bf-384d-433c-8719-104efee5daff/summary
Open Education Global
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September 27-October 1, 2021
Online
Each day of the 2021 2021 conference program will have webinars comprised of five presentations and interactive asynchronous activities focused on that day's action area. Sessions may be in any of the six official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish.
https://conference.oeglobal.org/2021/online-conference/
Thotcon
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October 8-9, 2021
Chicago, Illinois, USA
The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience.
https://thotcon.org/
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.
https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/
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.
https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/webinars.
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.
https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event
https://vimeo.com/user40391998/videos
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.
https://camri.ac.uk/events/?mc_cid=81df08bfcd&mc_eid=901b84981a
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.
https://datasociety.net/events/
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).
https://drails.org/
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.
https://www.eff.org/events/
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.
https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/
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.
https://dig.watch/events
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.
https://inlieuof.fun/
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.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/
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.
https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/
https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/
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.
https://theodi.org/events/talks/
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.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/
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.
https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/
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.
https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19
Singularity University
----------------------------------------
Singularity University's upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries.
https://su.org/events/
***
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