News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending March 29, 2019 ==================================================== 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 OSF. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Communia, EDRi, mySociety, Open Rights Group. CALL FOR PROPOSALS ============================== The newly-launched Indela Fund has issued its first of at least three calls for proposals in English, Spanish, or Portuguese for digital rights projects in Latin America. Projects will be funded for up to US$75,000 over or up to 18 months. The fund seeks to reduce the barriers to funding and broaden the pool of applicants. It offers to cover the costs of professional support to assist grantees. The submission deadline is March 31. https://indela.fund/en/home-2/ NEWS ===== European Parliament votes to adopt controversial copyright reform ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The European Parliament has voted 348-274 to adopt the Copyright Directive, including Article 11 ("link tax") and Article 13 ("upload filter"), James Temperton reports at Wired. MEP refused, by just five votes, to consider any amendments. Member states now have two years to pass national legislation putting the directive into effect. Seconds after the vote, MEP Julia Reda tweeted to call it a "dark day for internet freedom". Communia provides an analysis of the directive's intense journey through the European legislative process, and calls the result "a lost opportunity for Europe". https://www.wired.co.uk/article/eu-article-13-vote-article-17 https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/1110509970213294081 https://www.communia-association.org/2019/03/26/new-copyright-directive-lost-opportunity-europe/ AI research mines training data without permission ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Facial recognition training datasets are made up of whatever images researchers can grab from public websites without permission, Olivia Solon reports at NBC News, calling the situation AI's "dirty little secret". In January, IBM released a set of nearly 1 million images taken from the photo hosting site Flickr that it had coded to describe the subjects' appearance. For minorities, the practice raises surveillance concerns. At his blog, Andres Guadamuz responds with a discussion of the copyright status of AI training data, whether IBM's use of these photographs violated their Creative Commons licenses, and the need for a data-mining exception. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/facial-recognition-s-dirty-little-secret-millions-online-photos-scraped-n981921 https://www.technollama.co.uk/using-creative-commons-images-to-train-artificial-intelligence EU regulators fine Google €1.5 billion for antitrust violations ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On March 20, the EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, fined Google €1.5 billion for engaging in "illegal practices" to "cement its dominant market position" in search and advertising, Tony Romm reports at the Washington Post. At issue is Google's relationships with third-party websites via its "AdSense for Search" program, which in 2016 required Google's ads to receive prominent placement and prohibited participating sites from using other ad services. Vestager indicated that Google faces further antitrust scrutiny. The new fine brings the total that has been levied against Google to more than $9 billion; several past fines are still under appeal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/20/google-fined-nearly-billion-ad-practices-that-violated-european-antitrust-laws/ Africa risks spying to gain internet access ---------------------------------------------------------------------- African countries are willing to trade the risk of spying for Chinese investment providing them with internet access, Amy Mackinnon reports at Foreign Policy. Huawei has built about 70% of the continent's 4G networks, and Chinese banks provide loans that are approved faster and with fewer conditions than from their Western competitors. "Everybody spies on Africa," says one journalism professor in Nigeria. In a long posting, Bright Simons uses Uber as an example to discuss the reasons why "leapfrogging" is not working in frontier markets. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/19/for-africa-chinese-built-internet-is-better-than-no-internet-at-all/ https://www.cgdev.org/publication/why-leapfrogging-frontier-markets-isnt-working Norwegian universities drop Elsevier subscriptions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Norwegian research institutions have joined the lengthening list of organizations that have declined to renew their agreements with Elsevier, Catherine Offord reports at The Scientist. The Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research (UNIT) said that although Elsevier offered to lower some of its costs for Norwegian institutions, who pay the company nearly €10 million a year, it refused to meet UNIT's requirements for open access. Researchers will still be able to publish in Elsevier journals, but will not have access to articles dated after 2018. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/norway-joins-list-of-countries-canceling-elsevier-contracts-65594 Russia tests out a disconnected, sovereign internet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Between the end of March 2019 and mid-April, Russia is planning to test whether it can disconnect electronically from the rest of the world while keeping the internet running for its own citizens, Charlotte Jee reports at MIT Technology Review. Although the technical challenge is "fiendishly difficult" and may cost as much as $304 million, the test is key to a "sovereign internet" law the Russian parliament appears likely to pass. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613138/russia-wants-to-cut-itself-off-from-the-global-internet-heres-what-that-really-means/ EU: Government sites filled with adtech trackers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A scan of 184,683 EU government webpages carried out by EDRi and Cookiebot in mid-March found that the government websites of 25 of the 28 EU member countries - missing only Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands - host undisclosed commercial adtech trackers, many based on third-party scripts, Rebecca Hill reports at The Register. Overall, the practice enables 112 companies to collect data on EU citizens' browsing habits. Google was present on 82% of the sites and accounted for three of the top five trackers (YouTube, DoubleClick, and Google). In addition, 52% of public health sites host commercial trackers even though these sites do not rely on advertising revenue. Separately, Hill reports that the advocate general to the Court of Justice of the European Union has issued an opinion that requiring someone to untick a pre-checked box does not count as valid freely-given consent to the use of cookies. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/18/cookie_government_tracking_report/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/22/eu_cookie_preticked_box_not_valid_consent/ FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== Facebook's News Feed algorithm change one year on ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Nieman Lab, Laura Hazard Owen discusses the impact of Facebook's year-old change to its News Feed algorithm to prioritize personal postings and "meaningful interactions" rather than publisher content. Based on a new report from the social media tracking company NewsWhip, Owen finds that the result has been to push up articles on divisive topics and politics. Engagement is much higher but much angrier, and the most-shared story of 2019 to date warns that a sex offender may be lurking near Waco, Texas. http://www.niemanlab.org/2019/03/one-year-in-facebooks-big-algorithm-change-has-spurred-an-angry-fox-news-dominated-and-very-engaged-news-feed/ Acceptable voting machines ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting at Freedom to Tinker, Andrew Appel specifies acceptable voting machines. Among his requirements: it must be possible to detect cheating, audit the results, and be robust enough to manage unexpectedly high turnouts. In a blog posting, the managers of the UK government's petitions site explain how they deal with similar issues of scaling and fraud when petitions, such as March 2019's "Revoke Article 50", attract a huge response as people from all over the UK try to sign it at once. https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2019/03/14/voting-machines-i-recommend https://technology.blog.gov.uk/2016/08/16/scaling-the-petitions-service-following-the-eu-referendum/ The new ecosystem of trust ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this paper at Nesta, Geoff Mulgan and Vincent Straub discuss data governance for public benefit and survey the landscape of options that's opening up, from legislative moves such as the General Data Protection Regulation to technology solutions such as personal data stores and public data trusts. No one model will suit all situations; the authors attempt to provide a framework for designing a family of new institutions. https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/new-ecosystem-trust/ Identifying the impact of Brexit on data flows ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, technology policy specialist Monica Horten discusses what Brexit would mean for data flows and the regulatory burden businesses face. World Trade Organization rules can't help because they are more than 20 years old; in January 2019, 76 WTO members agreed to start talks on ecommerce, a process that will take years. At the Open Rights Group blog, Javier Ruiz outlines concerns about ongoing US-UK trade negotiations, in which the US wants unimpeded cross-border data flows, confidentiality for source code and algorithms, limited liability for online platforms, and no cross-border taxes on digital goods. http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php/brexit/1100-data-and-brexit-a-mis-calculation https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2019/us-red-lines-for-digital-trade-with-the-uk-cause-alarm UK's Furman report recommends improving competition ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Computer Weekly, Angelica Mari summarizes the Furman report, which recommends changes to the UK's competition policy and suggests that a code of conduct should be introduced for large technology companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The report also recommends giving the Competition and Markets Authority greater powers to block mergers and acquisitions and give people greater control over their own data. At TACD, Gene Kimmelman argues that antitrust action to break up the large technology companies, as some US politicians are demanding, is not enough to protect consumers on its own; also needed are additional accountability tools and enforcement practices. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252459377/Furman-Review-urges-greater-competition-for-tech-giants http://tacd.org/to-make-the-tech-sector-competitive-antitrust-is-only-half-the-answer/ Omidyar Network changes focus to civic empowerment ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, Stacy Donohue presents the new strategy being adopted by funders at Omidyar Network spin-off Luminate, based on what they have learned over the last ten years by investing in civic technology organizations in 18 countries, including Code for America, mySociety, Nossas, and amandla.mobi. With trust in government in decline in many countries, technology itself is insufficient to effect sustained change. Without complementary real-world efforts, under-represented groups continue to be disempowered. And, because many governments are actively working to curtail civic space, civic technology is becoming increasingly politicized. https://luminategroup.com/posts/blog/from-civic-tech-to-civic-empowerment-luminates-strategic-shift *** DIARY ============== If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. Internet Freedom Festival 2019 ---------------------------------------- April 1-5, 2019 Valencia, Spain The Internet Freedom Festival is one of the largest, most diverse, and most inclusive unconferences in the world. Every year, 1000+ activists, journalists, technologists and human rights defenders from over 100 countries gather for a week of sharing and learning. Made by the community for the community, the IFF is known for creating a positive and inclusive environment for hands-on, multidisciplinary collaboration. As an example of this, women make up 50% of participants and presenters, while every year some of the most affected communities get assistance to participate through IFF's well-known Diversity and Inclusion Fund. https://internetfreedomfestival.org/ International Privacy+Security Forum ---------------------------------------- April 3-5, 2019 Washington, DC, USA Organized bylaw professors Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz, the International Privacy+Security Forum brings together global leaders in privacy and security. The 2019 conference offers an opportunity to learn in detail about Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, and privacy and security in Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere. https://privacyandsecurityforum.com/ WSIS ---------------------------------------- April 8-12, 2019 Geneva, Switzerland The tenth World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum represents the world's largest annual gathering of the ICT for development community. WSIS provides an opportunity to exchange information, create knowledge, and share best practices while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships and taking into account the evolving Information and Knowledge Societies. By following up on the outcomes of the UN General Assembly Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (Res. A/70/125) and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1), the WSIS Forum is constantly evolving and strengthening the alignment between the WSIS Action Lines and the United Nations' sustainable development goals. WSIS Forum continues to provide a platform for a "just and equal information society" for all WSIS stakeholders as set by the Geneva Plan of Action. https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2019/ We Robot 2019 ---------------------------------------- April 11-13, 2019 Miami, Florida, US We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and the people who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate. http://robots.law.miami.edu/2019/ Theorizing the Web ---------------------------------------- April 12-13 New York, NY, USA Theorizing the Web is an inter- and non-disciplinary annual conference that brings together scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and technology practitioners to think conceptually and critically about the interrelationships between the web and society. We deeply value public engagement, and consider insights from academics, non-academics, and non-"tech theorists" alike to be equally valuable. https://theorizingtheweb.org/ Global Privacy Summit 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 2-3, 2019 Washington, DC, USA The annual conference of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Intended for anyone who works in privacy anywhere across the globe, whether they work in the public or private sector. https://iapp.org/conference/speak-at-an-iapp-conference/proposals/ re:publica 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 6-8, 2019 Berlin, Germany The re:publica in Berlin is Europe's biggest conference on topics concerning digitization and society while also being one of the world's most exceptional festivals on digital culture. Since its beginnings in 2007 with 700 bloggers in attendance, it has grown into an international society conference. In 2017 it had 9,000 national and international participants from all areas of society. https://re-publica.com/en Creative Commons Summit ---------------------------------------- May 9-11, 2019 Lisbon, Portugal The five tracks at the 2019 Creative Commons Summit will include Creators; Building the Commons; Ethics of Openness; Open Education, Open Science, and Open Access; Galleries; and Legal, Policy, and Copyright Reform. https://summit.creativecommons.org/ TILTing Perspectives 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 15-17, 2019 Tilburg, Netherlands TILTing Perspectives 2019, "Regulating a world in transition", brings together for the sixth 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. The conference will include plenary sessions, parallel sessions, and panel discussions with invited speakers, as well as presentations from respondents to a call for papers. http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/tilt/events/tilting-perspectives/ Stockholm Internet Forum ---------------------------------------- May 16-17. 2019 Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF) is a platform for advancing a free, open, and secure internet as a driver of development. The SIF 2019 theme is the shrinking online democratic space. Both online and offline, repressive measures against civil society have grown both in geographic spread and in the diversity of measures that are applied. Despite many worldwide similarities, the expression of threats to democracy and the phenomenon of "shrinking space" varies depending on the regional and national context, the level, and the target actors. Shrinking online space often has negative consequences for not only political rights, but also social and economic rights and development. SIF 2019 will offer an opportunity to explore the shrinking democratic space, share experiences, and identify effective responses. http://www.stockholminternetforum.se/ Privacy Law Scholars 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 23-24, 2019 Berkeley, California, USA Organized jointly by BCLT and the George Washington University Law School, PLSC assembles a wide array of privacy law scholars and practitioners from around the world to discuss current issues and foster greater connections between academia and practice. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2019annual-privacy-law-scholars-conference/ International Communication Association Conference ---------------------------------------- May 23-27, 2019 Washington, DC, USA The International Communication Association Conference Washington, organized by the International Communication Association (ICA) will take place from 23rd May to the 27th May 2019 in Washington, USA. The conference will cover areas like Digital media and social change, information media and digital journalism, and entertainment media and culture.. https://10times.com/icawashington GigaNet ICA Pre-conference ---------------------------------------- May 24, 2019 Washington, DC, USA Organized by the Internet Governance Lab at the American University and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) and co-sponsored by the ICA Communication Law and Policy and Communication and Technology divisions, this pre-conference aims to bring together ICA participants interested in questions of governance, GigaNet members from other disciplines, and the Washington, DC community of practitioners and policymakers. The goal is to provide a mutual learning process and exchange of ideas and challenges for the further development of internet governance research. https://www.giga-net.org/call-for-papers-ica-pre-conference-washington-dc-usa/ AI for Good Global Summit ---------------------------------------- May 28-31, 2019 Geneva, Switzerland The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on artificial intelligence. The summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union in partnership with UN sister agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM. https://aiforgood.itu.int/ WEIS 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 3-4, 2019 Boston, Massachusetts, USA The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security is is the leading annual forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security and privacy, combining expertise from the fields of economics, social science, business, law, policy, and computer science. https://weis2019.econinfosec.org/ 19th TACD Public Forum ---------------------------------------- June 4, 2019 Washington, DC, US The theme of Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue's 19th public forum will be consumer protection in the public sphere. http://tacd.org/events/19th-tacd-public-forum/ Data for Policy ---------------------------------------- June 11-12, 2019 London, UK The fourth international Data for Policy conference has "Digital Trust and Personal Data" as its main theme. The conference will also welcome contributions in the broader data science for government and policy discussions. In particular, the organizers encourage submissions around the value and harm of using data in the public sector, deployment experience in government, "digital ethics" and "ethics engineering" concepts, personal data sharing frameworks and technologies, transparency in machine learning processes, analytics at source, and secure data transaction methodologies. http://dataforpolicy.org/ RightsCon 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 11-14, 2019 Tunis, Tunisia RightsCon Tunis will continue to be a space for civil society, technologists, businesses, startups, public servants, and lawyers to connect, collaborate, build strategies, draft declarations, and move forward real-world change. Whether in provocative plenaries, intimate roundtables, informal meetings, or the lively Community Village, RightsCon Tunis will help shape the future of human rights in the digital age. https://www.rightscon.org/about/ The Web That Was ---------------------------------------- June 19-21, 2019 Amsterdam, Netherlands As the first generation of web users ages, the early web has become simply another object of nostalgia. The third biennial Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Materials (RESAW) conference will rethink our relationship to the web's past and the past web, and consider how to reconstruct and re-evaluate its history. The conference will host a lecture-performance by Geert Lovink and guests on the history and preservation of Amsterdam's early internet culture. https://thewebthatwas.net LIBER 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 26-28, 2019 Dublin, Ireland The LIBER Conference 2019 will be held in collaboration with CONUL, the Consortium of National and University Libraries for the island of Ireland. The conference brings library directors and their staff together for three days of networking and collaboration. The goal of the conference is to identify the most pressing needs for research libraries, and to share information and ideas for addressing those needs. https://liberconference.eu/dublin2019/ ORGCon ---------------------------------------- July 13, 2019 London, UK Themes for this year's shortly-to-be-announced ORGCon are digital privacy; free speech, censorship, and the role of algorithms; mass government surveillance; and data and democracy. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Wikimania ---------------------------------------- August 14-18, 2019 Stockholm, Sweden Wikimania 2019 will be the 15th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 85th World Library and Information Congress ---------------------------------------- August 24-30, 2019 Athens, Greece The theme of IFLA's 2019 conference, "Libraries: dialogue for change", invites the library and information science international community to discuss, re-examine, re-think and re-interpret the role of libraries as promoters of change. In an era of rapid changes in the socio-economic-technological sphere, libraries ought to define their role as information providers, promoters of reading, settlers for the community they serve, key players in innovation, and leading actors for changes in society. A constant, open dialectic relationship between libraries and society will lead to well-informed citizens facilitating progress and development, implementing the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development and leading to prosperity in all fields of the democratic society. https://2019.ifla.org/#news Web Summit ---------------------------------------- November 4-7. 2019 Lisbon, Portugal The Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers, and heads of state to ask a simple question: where to next? In 2018, speakers included Margrethe Vestager, Tim Berners-Lee, and Microsoft CEO Brad Smith. https://websummit.com/ IGF Global ---------------------------------------- November 25-29, 2019 Berlin, Germany The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was set up in 2006 as an open discussion platform of the United Nations for key legal, political, social and technical issues relating to the internet. IGF's multi-stakeholder model aims to ensure that all relevant societal groups are equally involved in preparations and implementation: governments, civil society, business, academia, international organizations, and the technical community. This is particularly of note in terms of representatives from developing and newly industrializing countries, which otherwise tend to be under-represented. https://www.igf2019.berlin/ CPDP 2020 ---------------------------------------- January 22-24, 2020 Brussels, Belgium The 2020 edition of Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection has issued a call for panels in all areas related to technological privacy and data protection. https://www.cpdpconferences.org/call-for-panels FAT* 2020 ---------------------------------------- January 27-30, 2020 Barcelona, Spain ACM FAT* is an annual conference dedicating to bringing together a diverse community to investigate and tackle issues in this emerging area. Topics of interest include the theory and practice of fair machine learning, measurement and auditing of deployed systems, users' experience of algorithms, and the ethical, moral, social, and policy implications of big data and ubiquitous intelligent systems. https://fatconference.org/ *** This list is now managed by MailChimp. Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. 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Wendy M. Grossman: March 2019 Archives
News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending March 15, 2019 ==================================================== 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 OSF. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Open Markets Institute, Privacy International. CALL FOR PROPOSALS ============================== The newly-launched Indela Fund has issued its first of at least three calls for proposals in English, Spanish, or Portuguese for digital rights projects in Latin America. Projects will be funded for up to US$75,000 over or up to 18 months. The fund seeks to reduce the barriers to funding and broaden the pool of applicants. It offers to cover the costs of professional support to assist grantees. The submission deadline is March 31. https://indela.fund/en/home-2/ NEWS ===== University of California terminates Elsevier subscriptions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The University of California, which produces almost 10% of US research output, has concluded months of negotiations with the academic publisher Elsevier by deciding not to renew its journal subscriptions, Benedicte Page reports at The Bookseller. UC said Elsevier was unwilling to meet the goal of securing universal open access to UC research while containing journal costs. UC's proposed terms would have integrated subscription charges and open access publishing fees. Elsevier said it hoped to reach agreement "soon". https://www.thebookseller.com/news/university-california-boycotts-elsevier-965166 Facebook claims it will pivot to embrace privacy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Facebook will pivot to privacy by changing its focus to end-to-end encryption and auto-deletion of messages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the Facebook blog. At the Guardian, Julia Carrie Wong lists former FTC chief technologist Ashkan Soltani among the numerous skeptics that Facebook's version of "privacy" will include privacy from its own data collection. At the New York Times, Zeynep Tufecki calls the plan "shrewd competitive positioning, dressed up in privacy rhetoric" intended to help it side-step threatened government regulation. At the Guardian, Siva Vaidhyanathan suggests that Facebook is positioning itself to compete head-on with China's dominant WeChat. At the Observer, Carole Cadwalladr and Duncan Campbell analyze leaked court documents that expose global leaders' accommodating response to Facebook's lobbying to block data privacy legislation. In a video clip Zuckerberg discusses encryption, whether Facebook is an information fiduciary for its users, and targeted advertising with Jonathan Zittrain. Finally, at TheNextWeb, Arhimanyu Ghoshal advises users that the company makes phone numbers submitted for two-factor authentication publicly searchable with no way to opt out, and suggests alternatives. https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/opinion/zuckerberg-privacy-facebook.html https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/07/facebook-privacy-domination https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-global-lobbying-campaign-against-data-privacy-laws-investment https://cyber.harvard.edu/story/2019-02/zittrain-and-zuckerberg-discuss-encryption-information-fiduciaries-and-targeted https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2019/03/04/psa-dont-give-out-your-phone-number-for-facebook-2fa-use-an-app-instead/ Thailand's cybersecurity law poses threat to user privacy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thailand has passed a cybersecurity law that will grant the government, which came to power via a 2014 military coup, broad access to internet user data, Skylar Lindsay reports at Asean Today. Critics complain that the law's definition of a "cyber threat" is vague and overbroad, and could be used to target the posters of a wide range of content even though the government claims it will not be used to regulate social media. https://www.aseantoday.com/2019/03/thailands-new-cybersecurity-law-lets-authorities-violate-privacy/ UK, Canada: Predictive algorithms spread among police forces and local councils ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The UK human rights group Liberty finds that predictive policing is spreading to 14 police forces, Rebecca Hill writes at The Register. Liberty warns that the practice "lends unwarranted legitimacy to biased policing strategies" that disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and lower-income communities, and calls for forces to reevaluate their use of data for policing. Liberty also wants London's Metropolitan Police to conduct a full review of its Gangs Matrix database, which the Information Commissioner recently dubbed "unjustifiably excessive". Sky News adds that 53 local councils are using predictive algorithms to target their services. At Motherboard, Nathan Munn finds that police in at least two Canadian provinces - Ontario and Saskatchewan - are tracking "negative behavior" in a risk database; the age group most often added is children aged 12 to 17. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/05/cops_told_to_scrap_algorithms_for_policing_work/ https://news.sky.com/story/predictive-algorithms-hidden-revolution-taking-place-in-uks-councils-and-police-forces-11650160 https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzdp5v/police-in-canada-are-tracking-peoples-negative-behavior-in-a-risk-database Vermont law exposes hidden ecology of data brokers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Under a groundbreaking new law in the US state of Vermont, 121 data brokers have registered with the Secretary of State, Steven Melendez and Alex Pasternack report at Fast Company. Firms that buy and sell third-party data - such as Axciom, Oracle, Equifax, and Spokeo - are required to register, but do not have to disclose what data they collect or who buys it, nor to provide subjects access or opt-out rights. First-party data holders such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google are not required to register. https://www.fastcompany.com/90310803/here-are-the-data-brokers-quietly-buying-and-selling-your-personal-information Chinese social credit system blocks travelers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In 2018 people were blocked 17.5 million times from purchasing airplane tickets and 5.5 million times from buying high-speed train tickets because of social credit offenses such as failure to pay taxes and fines, Joe McDonald reports for the Associated Press, based on a report from China's National Public Credit Information Center. In addition, individuals were blocked from accepting senior management jobs or acting as a company's legal representative 290,000 times. The report added that since the launch of these punishments 3.5 million people have "voluntarily" fulfilled legal obligations, including 37 people who paid $22 million in overdue fines or confiscations. https://www.apnews.com/9d43f4b74260411797043ddd391c13d8 FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== Rethinking the meaning of privacy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this report, Privacy International examines the reality of the right to privacy for women, trans, and gender-diverse people in a world where historically privacy has been appropriated by patriarchal rule and systems of oppression. Digital rights conferences tend to attract those who share a particular notion of privacy; however, issues of privacy and surveillance look very different to lower-income individuals. Automated forms of decision-making in particular demand strict and normative categories in which to place people. At the net.wars blog, Wendy M. Grossman discusses Victoria Schwartz's work on reconceiving privacy for the "reasonable woman". https://www.privacyinternational.org/report/2457/report-oppression-liberation-reclaiming-right-privacy https://www.pelicancrossing.net/netwars/2015/06/the_reasonable_woman.html Child "influencers" command substantial sums on social media ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at the New York Times, Sapna Maheshwari investigates the world of child social media influencers. Advertisers like Walmart, Staples, and Mattel provide "kidfluencers" too young to have their own accounts on sites like YouTube and Instagram with endorsement deals. The two-year-old identical Fisher twins have more than 2 million Instagram followers and are paid $10,000 to $20,000 for each sponsored post. Rules that control children's TV advertising do not apply to the internet, and social media stars are not covered by laws passed to protect child actors. At Privacy News Online, Glyn Moody asks how much privacy children should have from their parents, considering examples such as GPS trackers, children-tracking apps, and headbands that read brain signals. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/business/media/social-media-influencers-kids.html https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/01/how-much-privacy-should-children-have-from-their-own-parents/ Reassessing the "tragedy of the commons" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this posting at BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow discusses new thinking about Garrett Hardin's 1968 "Tragedy of the Commons" paper, whose argument that the commons led to overuse by selfish actors is widely taught and used to justify the privatization of public goods. Political scientist Matto Mildenberger explains that in reality the commons were stable and well-managed until (typically rich) outsiders destabilized them. Hardin, Mildenberger argues, was a racist and eugenicist, and his paper was a piece of intellectual fraud. https://boingboing.net/2019/03/07/scientific-fraud.html EU: Internet platforms fail to meet agreed voluntary code of conduct ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Ars Technica, Sean Gallegher summarizes the European Commission's six-month review of the voluntary code of conduct major internet platforms and advertising trade organizations signed in October 2018 to reduce the threat of political and other disinformation. With EU-wide parliamentary elections looming in May, the EC complains that Facebook offers insufficient transparency, Google's metrics are not specific or clear enough, and Twitter failed to provide a report. The Commission threatened to introduce regulation if its next review of the code, due in October, shows insufficient progress. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/eu-officials-say-facebook-twitter-google-failing-in-fake-news-battle/ Trump administration's actions belie its anti-tech company rhetoric ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this op-ed at the New York Times, the Open Markets Institute's Matthew Buck and Sandeep Vaheesan argue that although US president Donald Trump and newly-confirmed Attorney General William Barr criticize the size and power of the US's biggest technology corporations, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division head, Makan Delrahim, consistently promotes their interests. Other than the AT&T-Time Warner merger, Delrahim has consistently favored legal interpretations that enhance the power of the dominant companies and is effectively revising antitrust law by filing amicus briefs supporting monopolists in court cases and interfering with municipal efforts to curb companies like Uber and Lyft. Ignore tweets, watch actions, they conclude. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/opinion/trump-antitrust-laws.html US cities struggle with 1980s software infrastructure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Bloomberg Businessweek, Romy Varghese exposes the aging software estate that runs America's cities. Many systems - even in San Francisco - date to the 1980s, frustrating both staff and citizens, but upgrade costs are out of reach for many jurisdictions. The move to the cloud makes it even harder to fund upgrades, because services must be paid out of operating funds where physical equipment could be funded by issuing municipal bonds. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-28/america-s-cities-are-running-on-software-from-the-80s *** DIARY ============== If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. AI: Innovation and Governance Summit ---------------------------------------- March 18-19, 2019 Brussels, Belgium The POLITICO AI Summit will gather global leaders to discuss issues at the intersection of innovation and governance and provide a launching point for solutions-driven conversations among policymakers, scientists, innovators, industry representatives, entrepreneurs, and academics. Issues to be considered will include: Europe's impact on the AI world order; the impact of machine learning on work in Europe and policymakers' response; education for success in the evolving jobs market; and ethics and regulations, and their enforcement. https://diievents.dii.eu/ai-summit/ TicTec 2019 ---------------------------------------- March 19-20, 2019 Paris, France TiCTeC 2019 will bring together individuals from academic and applied backgrounds as well as businesses, public authorities, NGOs, funders and education institutions to discuss ideas, present research and build a network of individuals interested in the civic technology landscape. https://www.mysociety.org/2018/09/03/join-us-in-paris-for-tictec-2019/ Data Privacy Summit ---------------------------------------- March 27, 2019 Washington, DC, US This full-day event, convened by Access Now, will examine the contours of the data ecosystem in the United States and the need for a legislative response by bringing together privacy experts across different fields for an interactive dialogue to map the current data privacy debate, identify where consensus exists, and clarify existing questions where needed. The ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive, rights-respecting data protection framework in the United States. https://www.accessnow.org/data-privacy-summit/ Internet Freedom Festival 2019 ---------------------------------------- April 1-5, 2019 Valencia, Spain The Internet Freedom Festival is one of the largest, most diverse, and most inclusive unconferences in the world. Every year, 1000+ activists, journalists, technologists and human rights defenders from over 100 countries gather for a week of sharing and learning. Made by the community for the community, the IFF is known for creating a positive and inclusive environment for hands-on, multidisciplinary collaboration. As an example of this, women make up 50% of participants and presenters, while every year some of the most affected communities get assistance to participate through IFF's well-known Diversity and Inclusion Fund. https://internetfreedomfestival.org/ International Privacy+Security Forum ---------------------------------------- April 3-5, 2019 Washington, DC, USA Organized bylaw professors Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz, the International Privacy+Security Forum brings together global leaders in privacy and security. The 2019 conference offers an opportunity to learn in detail about Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, and privacy and security in Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere. https://privacyandsecurityforum.com/ WSIS ---------------------------------------- April 8-12, 2019 Geneva, Switzerland The tenth World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum represents the world's largest annual gathering of the ICT for development community. WSIS provides an opportunity to exchange information, create knowledge, and share best practices while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships and taking into account the evolving Information and Knowledge Societies. By following up on the outcomes of the UN General Assembly Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (Res. A/70/125) and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1), the WSIS Forum is constantly evolving and strengthening the alignment between the WSIS Action Lines and the United Nations' sustainable development goals. WSIS Forum continues to provide a platform for a "just and equal information society" for all WSIS stakeholders as set by the Geneva Plan of Action. https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2019/ We Robot 2019 ---------------------------------------- April 11-13, 2019 Miami, Florida, US We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and the people who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate. http://robots.law.miami.edu/2019/ Theorizing the Web ---------------------------------------- April 12-13 New York, NY, USA Theorizing the Web is an inter- and non-disciplinary annual conference that brings together scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and technology practitioners to think conceptually and critically about the interrelationships between the web and society. We deeply value public engagement, and consider insights from academics, non-academics, and non-"tech theorists" alike to be equally valuable. https://theorizingtheweb.org/ Global Privacy Summit 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 2-3, 2019 Washington, DC, USA The annual conference of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Intended for anyone who works in privacy anywhere across the globe, whether they work in the public or private sector. https://iapp.org/conference/speak-at-an-iapp-conference/proposals/ re:publica 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 6-8, 2019 Berlin, Germany The re:publica in Berlin is Europe's biggest conference on topics concerning digitization and society while also being one of the world's most exceptional festivals on digital culture. Since its beginnings in 2007 with 700 bloggers in attendance, it has grown into an international society conference. In 2017 it had 9,000 national and international participants from all areas of society. https://re-publica.com/en Creative Commons Summit ---------------------------------------- May 9-11, 2019 Lisbon, Portugal The five tracks at the 2019 Creative Commons Summit will include Creators; Building the Commons; Ethics of Openness; Open Education, Open Science, and Open Access; Galleries; and Legal, Policy, and Copyright Reform. https://summit.creativecommons.org/ TILTing Perspectives 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 15-17, 2019 Tilburg, Netherlands TILTing Perspectives 2019, "Regulating a world in transition", brings together for the sixth 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. The conference will include plenary sessions, parallel sessions, and panel discussions with invited speakers, as well as presentations from respondents to a call for papers. http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/tilt/events/tilting-perspectives/ Stockholm Internet Forum ---------------------------------------- May 16-17. 2019 Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF) is a platform for advancing a free, open, and secure internet as a driver of development. The SIF 2019 theme is the shrinking online democratic space. Both online and offline, repressive measures against civil society have grown both in geographic spread and in the diversity of measures that are applied. Despite many worldwide similarities, the expression of threats to democracy and the phenomenon of "shrinking space" varies depending on the regional and national context, the level, and the target actors. Shrinking online space often has negative consequences for not only political rights, but also social and economic rights and development. SIF 2019 will offer an opportunity to explore the shrinking democratic space, share experiences, and identify effective responses. http://www.stockholminternetforum.se/ Privacy Law Scholars 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 23-24, 2019 Berkeley, California, USA Organized jointly by BCLT and the George Washington University Law School, PLSC assembles a wide array of privacy law scholars and practitioners from around the world to discuss current issues and foster greater connections between academia and practice. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2019annual-privacy-law-scholars-conference/ International Communication Association Conference ---------------------------------------- May 23-27, 2019 Washington, DC, USA The International Communication Association Conference Washington, organized by the International Communication Association (ICA) will take place from 23rd May to the 27th May 2019 in Washington, USA. The conference will cover areas like Digital media and social change, information media and digital journalism, and entertainment media and culture.. https://10times.com/icawashington GigaNet ICA Pre-conference ---------------------------------------- May 24, 2019 Washington, DC, USA Organized by the Internet Governance Lab at the American University and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) and co-sponsored by the ICA Communication Law and Policy and Communication and Technology divisions, this pre-conference aims to bring together ICA participants interested in questions of governance, GigaNet members from other disciplines, and the Washington, DC community of practitioners and policymakers. The goal is to provide a mutual learning process and exchange of ideas and challenges for the further development of internet governance research. https://www.giga-net.org/call-for-papers-ica-pre-conference-washington-dc-usa/ AI for Good Global Summit ---------------------------------------- May 28-31, 2019 Geneva, Switzerland The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on artificial intelligence. The summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union in partnership with UN sister agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM. https://aiforgood.itu.int/ WEIS 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 3-4, 2019 Boston, Massachusetts, USA The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security is is the leading annual forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security and privacy, combining expertise from the fields of economics, social science, business, law, policy, and computer science. https://weis2019.econinfosec.org/ 19th TACD Public Forum ---------------------------------------- June 4, 2019 Washington, DC, US The theme of Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue's 19th public forum will be consumer protection in the public sphere. http://tacd.org/events/19th-tacd-public-forum/ Data for Policy ---------------------------------------- June 11-12, 2019 London, UK The fourth international Data for Policy conference has "Digital Trust and Personal Data" as its main theme. The conference will also welcome contributions in the broader data science for government and policy discussions. In particular, the organizers encourage submissions around the value and harm of using data in the public sector, deployment experience in government, "digital ethics" and "ethics engineering" concepts, personal data sharing frameworks and technologies, transparency in machine learning processes, analytics at source, and secure data transaction methodologies. http://dataforpolicy.org/ RightsCon 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 11-14, 2019 Tunis, Tunisia RightsCon Tunis will continue to be a space for civil society, technologists, businesses, startups, public servants, and lawyers to connect, collaborate, build strategies, draft declarations, and move forward real-world change. Whether in provocative plenaries, intimate roundtables, informal meetings, or the lively Community Village, RightsCon Tunis will help shape the future of human rights in the digital age. https://www.rightscon.org/about/ The Web That Was ---------------------------------------- June 19-21, 2019 Amsterdam, Netherlands As the first generation of web users ages, the early web has become simply another object of nostalgia. The third biennial Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Materials (RESAW) conference will rethink our relationship to the web's past and the past web, and consider how to reconstruct and re-evaluate its history. The conference will host a lecture-performance by Geert Lovink and guests on the history and preservation of Amsterdam's early internet culture. https://thewebthatwas.net LIBER 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 26-28, 2019 Dublin, Ireland The LIBER Conference 2019 will be held in collaboration with CONUL, the Consortium of National and University Libraries for the island of Ireland. The conference brings library directors and their staff together for three days of networking and collaboration. The goal of the conference is to identify the most pressing needs for research libraries, and to share information and ideas for addressing those needs. https://liberconference.eu/dublin2019/ ORGCon ---------------------------------------- July 13, 2019 London, UK Themes for this year's shortly-to-be-announced ORGCon are digital privacy; free speech, censorship, and the role of algorithms; mass government surveillance; and data and democracy. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Wikimania ---------------------------------------- August 14-18, 2019 Stockholm, Sweden Wikimania 2019 will be the 15th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 85th World Library and Information Congress ---------------------------------------- August 24-30, 2019 Athens, Greece The theme of IFLA's 2019 conference, "Libraries: dialogue for change", invites the library and information science international community to discuss, re-examine, re-think and re-interpret the role of libraries as promoters of change. In an era of rapid changes in the socio-economic-technological sphere, libraries ought to define their role as information providers, promoters of reading, settlers for the community they serve, key players in innovation, and leading actors for changes in society. A constant, open dialectic relationship between libraries and society will lead to well-informed citizens facilitating progress and development, implementing the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development and leading to prosperity in all fields of the democratic society. https://2019.ifla.org/#news Web Summit ---------------------------------------- November 4-7. 2019 Lisbon, Portugal The Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers, and heads of state to ask a simple question: where to next? In 2018, speakers included Margrethe Vestager, Tim Berners-Lee, and Microsoft CEO Brad Smith. https://websummit.com/ IGF Global ---------------------------------------- November 25-29, 2019 Berlin, Germany The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was set up in 2006 as an open discussion platform of the United Nations for key legal, political, social and technical issues relating to the internet. IGF's multi-stakeholder model aims to ensure that all relevant societal groups are equally involved in preparations and implementation: governments, civil society, business, academia, international organizations, and the technical community. This is particularly of note in terms of representatives from developing and newly industrializing countries, which otherwise tend to be under-represented. https://www.igf2019.berlin/ CPDP 2020 ---------------------------------------- January 22-24, 2020 Brussels, Belgium The 2020 edition of Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection has issued a call for panels in all areas related to technological privacy and data protection. https://www.cpdpconferences.org/call-for-panels FAT* 2020 ---------------------------------------- January 27-30, 2020 Barcelona, Spain ACM FAT* is an annual conference dedicating to bringing together a diverse community to investigate and tackle issues in this emerging area. Topics of interest include the theory and practice of fair machine learning, measurement and auditing of deployed systems, users' experience of algorithms, and the ethical, moral, social, and policy implications of big data and ubiquitous intelligent systems. https://fatconference.org/ *** This list is now managed by MailChimp. Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. You can also read more about our work on the Open Society Foundations website: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/programs/information-program Our mailing address is: Open Society Foundations, 7th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP, United Kingdom This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending March 1, 2019 ==================================================== 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 OSF. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Center for Democracy and Technology, EDRi, EFF, Open Rights Group, Panoptykon, Witness. PLEASE TAKE PART IN OUR SURVEY ============================== The Information Program and Data Protection Support & Management are jointly conducting a survey of NGOs and their funders in order to understand the impact of the GDPR on civil society as the law approaches its first anniversary. The survey data will be used in a report to be published in May. The survey is open to all civil society organizations and their funders, and OSF and DPSM encourages them to share it widely across their own networks. https://dpsm.formstack.com/forms/gdpr_survey NEWS ===== UK: Parliamentary committee calls Facebook "digital gangsters" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The final report from the UK Department of Culture, Media, and Sport's 18-month investigation into disinformation and fake news finds that Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition law and should be urgently regulated, reports David Law at the Guardian. The report accuses Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of holding parliament in contempt by refusing three times to appear in person to testify, recommends electoral law reform, and calls for independent investigations into foreign influence, disinformation, voter manipulation, and data sharing in three British polls: the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, the 2016 EU referendum, and the 2017 general election. The report also warns that Facebook is using its dominance to shut out competitors. Separately, Jim Waterson reports at the Guardian that the independent Cairncross Review concludes that the collapse of the British media threatens the long-term sustainability of democracy, and recommends a public investigation into the dominance of Facebook and Google in advertising as well as direct funding and tax relief for public interest news outlets. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/18/facebook-fake-news-investigation-report-regulation-privacy-law-dcms https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/feb/11/public-funds-should-be-used-to-rescue-local-journalism-says-report US pushes global passenger surveillance and profiling ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The US is pushing the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to adopt a standard mandating government access to passenger name record data and the creation of airline passenger surveillance and profiling units in all ICAO member countries, Edward Hasbrouck reports at the Identity Project. Because many countries legally require airlines to comply with ICAO standards in the interests of aviation safety, the requirements would override national laws prohibiting governments from using commercial data about travelers for surveillance purposes. https://papersplease.org/wp/2019/01/23/new-us-push-for-an-icao-air-travel-surveillance-mandate/#comments Kenya rolls out National Integrated Identity Management system ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kenya has begun rolling out the National Integrated Identity Management system, which stores all types of biometrics as well as DNA samples and location information, and links that data to identity cards and use of health, education, and social services, Abdi Latif Dahir reports at Quartz. The project, costed at KES6 billion ($60 million) will give all citizens and foreign residents above six years of age a unique "service number", and is intended to introduce what president Uhuru Kenyatta has called a single "source of truth" on personal identity in Kenya. The Kenya Human Rights commission is suing to block the project's installation and implementation. https://qz.com/africa/1555938/kenya-biometric-data-id-not-with-mastercard-but-faces-opposition https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019/02/19/rights-group-seeks-to-block-access-to-private-information_c1896484 Data protection complaint focuses on real-time bidding ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EDRi members Panoptykon (Poland) and Open Rights Group (UK) have joined Michael Veale of University College London and Johnny Ryan at the browser company Brave in filing a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Authority that the real-time bidding (RTB) standards defined by Google and the Internet Advertising Bureau violate the General Data Protection Regulation, Yannic Blaschke reports at EDRi. RTB systems broadcast highly sensitive personal data to thousands of companies in order to solicit bids on opportunities to show targeted ads. In his newly-published PhD thesis, Rob van Eijk concludes that RTB as presently conducted violates the requirements for consent as stipulated in the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive. https://edri.org/google-and-iab-knowingly-enabling-intrusive-profiling/ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3319284 NGOs ask EU to reconsider approach to taking down terrorist content ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EFF has signed onto letters sent by the NGOs Witness and the Center for Democracy and Technology asking the European Commission to reconsider proposals that would require companies to take down "terrorist content" within one hour, Jillian C. York reports at EFF's blog. EFF calls the one-hour requirement "absurd", and argues that filters neither work nor reflect the reality of how violent groups recruit and share information, and that the proposals will require companies to make hasty, unaccountable, and automated decisions. EDRi reports that the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights have published opinions that the proposals violate fundamental human rights and likely fail to comply with the GDPR. At the VOX-Pol project, Kyle Matthews and Nicolai Pogadl warn that the big technology companies have oversold their AI capabilities, and that regulating the companies themselves is essential to counteract the spread of social polarization and mistrust. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/eus-proposal-curb-dissemination-terrorist-content-will-have-chilling-effect-speech https://edri.org/fra-edps-terrorist-content-regulation-fundamental-rights-terreg/ https://www.voxpol.eu/big-tech-is-overselling-ai-as-the-solution-to-online-extremism/ India: Pre-election rise in fact checkers offers little transparency ---------------------------------------------------------------------- As India prepares for May's general election, a growing landscape of fact-checking initiatives have been certified by the International Fact Checking Network, Cyril Sam reports at Splice. However, although the certification requirements stress non-partisanship and transparency surrounding sourcing, funding, and methodology, most fact-checking initiatives only partially disclose their funding sources, and politically partisan schemes are rising in response to those run by journalists. https://www.thesplicenewsroom.com/fact-checking-india-election/ FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== Mueller investigation studies Israel's Psy-Group pitches to 2016 Trump campaign ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article for The New Yorker, Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow examine the activities of Israeli private intelligence company Psy-Group, which recruits its staff from the ranks of Israel's secret services and specializes in using technological innovations to influence people's beliefs and behavior. Psy-Group's 2016 pitches to Trump campaign members now form part of the investigation being carried out by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/18/private-mossad-for-hire Increased funding risks destroying the open source community ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Motherboard, Daniel Oberhaus looks at progress in funding the open source projects on which the internet infrastructure depends. The influx of funding since the 2014 discovery of the Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL risks destroying the open source community by altering motivations, fostering disagreements about distribution, and creating dependency on funding that may be withdrawn in future. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43zak3/the-internet-was-built-on-the-free-labor-of-open-source-developers-is-that-sustainable Trust and the public blockchain ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this review of Wharton School professor Kevin Werbach's new book, Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust, Bruce Schneier discusses the feasibility of the idea that the public blockchain can provide a way of bypassing trust. In his book, Werbach outlines four trust architectures: peer-to-peer (morals and reputation systems), leviathan (institutions), intermediary (for example, credit cards), and distributed (blockchain). Blockchains cannot eliminate the need for trust, Schneier writes, and code cannot replace the social value of trust. At his blog, Ivan Ivanitskiy considers eight popular use cases for blockchain and explains why they don't work. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/02/blockchain_and_.html https://blog.smartdec.net/you-do-not-need-blockchain-eight-popular-use-cases-and-why-they-do-not-work-f2ecc6cc2129 The invisible woman and the gender data gap ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this Guardian article, Caroline Criado Perez summarizes her forthcoming book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, the results of three years of research into the many ways design fails to take account of women's different size, strength, and shape. Thinking of taller-than-average men as the norm means more than inconvenience: women are under-represented in all areas of design and data collection, from studies of poverty to medical testing. In some cases, such as crash tests and police body armor, women's lives are placed at risk by their omission from design specifications. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/23/truth-world-built-for-men-car-crashes The problem with Silicon Valley's favorite business model ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this Quartz review of Blitzscaling, by LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Chris Yeh, Tim O'Reilly deplores Silicon Valley's favorite business model, in which companies' goal from the outset is to become monopolies. Cheap capital that subsidizes losses has led investors to pick winners rather than allow markets to develop organically. O'Reilly discusses the benefits and flaws of the approach, and its application in the Code for America project. https://qz.com/1540608/the-problem-with-silicon-valleys-obsession-with-blitzscaling-growth/ *** DIARY ============== If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. T3chFest ---------------------------------------- March 14-15, 2019 Madrid, Spain The T3chFest of Computers and New Technologies brings together a variety of students, researchers, start-ups, companies and specialists in new technologies that are or are intended to be an element in our daily lives. https://t3chfest.uc3m.es/2019/ AI: Innovation and Governance Summit ---------------------------------------- March 18-19, 2019 Brussels, Belgium The POLITICO AI Summit will gather global leaders to discuss issues at the intersection of innovation and governance and provide a launching point for solutions-driven conversations among policymakers, scientists, innovators, industry representatives, entrepreneurs, and academics. Issues to be considered will include: Europe's impact on the AI world order; the impact of machine learning on work in Europe and policymakers' response; education for success in the evolving jobs market; and ethics and regulations, and their enforcement. https://diievents.dii.eu/ai-summit/ TicTec 2019 ---------------------------------------- March 19-20, 2019 Paris, France TiCTeC 2019 will bring together individuals from academic and applied backgrounds as well as businesses, public authorities, NGOs, funders and education institutions to discuss ideas, present research and build a network of individuals interested in the civic technology landscape. https://www.mysociety.org/2018/09/03/join-us-in-paris-for-tictec-2019/ Internet Freedom Festival 2019 ---------------------------------------- April 1-5, 2019 Valencia, Spain The Internet Freedom Festival is one of the largest, most diverse, and most inclusive unconferences in the world. Every year, 1000+ activists, journalists, technologists and human rights defenders from over 100 countries gather for a week of sharing and learning. Made by the community for the community, the IFF is known for creating a positive and inclusive environment for hands-on, multidisciplinary collaboration. As an example of this, women make up 50% of participants and presenters, while every year some of the most affected communities get assistance to participate through IFF's well-known Diversity and Inclusion Fund. https://internetfreedomfestival.org/ International Privacy+Security Forum ---------------------------------------- April 3-5, 2019 Washington, DC, USA Organized bylaw professors Daniel Solove and Paul Schwartz, the International Privacy+Security Forum brings together global leaders in privacy and security. The 2019 conference offers an opportunity to learn in detail about Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, and privacy and security in Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere. https://privacyandsecurityforum.com/ WSIS ---------------------------------------- April 8-12, 2019 Geneva, Switzerland The tenth World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum represents the world's largest annual gathering of the ICT for development community. WSIS provides an opportunity to exchange information, create knowledge, and share best practices while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships and taking into account the evolving Information and Knowledge Societies. By following up on the outcomes of the UN General Assembly Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes (Res. A/70/125) and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1), the WSIS Forum is constantly evolving and strengthening the alignment between the WSIS Action Lines and the United Nations' sustainable development goals. WSIS Forum continues to provide a platform for a "just and equal information society" for all WSIS stakeholders as set by the Geneva Plan of Action. https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2019/ We Robot 2019 ---------------------------------------- April 11-13, 2019 Miami, Florida, US We Robot is an interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere - from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield - disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues. The conference fosters conversations between the people designing, building, and deploying robots, and the people who design or influence the legal and social structures in which robots will operate. http://robots.law.miami.edu/2019/ Theorizing the Web ---------------------------------------- April 12-13 New York, NY, USA Theorizing the Web is an inter- and non-disciplinary annual conference that brings together scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and technology practitioners to think conceptually and critically about the interrelationships between the web and society. We deeply value public engagement, and consider insights from academics, non-academics, and non-"tech theorists" alike to be equally valuable. https://theorizingtheweb.org/ Global Privacy Summit 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 2-3, 2019 Washington, DC, USA The annual conference of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Intended for anyone who works in privacy anywhere across the globe, whether they work in the public or private sector. https://iapp.org/conference/speak-at-an-iapp-conference/proposals/ re:publica 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 6-8, 2019 Berlin, Germany The re:publica in Berlin is Europe's biggest conference on topics concerning digitization and society while also being one of the world's most exceptional festivals on digital culture. Since its beginnings in 2007 with 700 bloggers in attendance, it has grown into an international society conference. In 2017 it had 9,000 national and international participants from all areas of society. https://re-publica.com/en Creative Commons Summit ---------------------------------------- May 9-11, 2019 Lisbon, Portugal The five tracks at the 2019 Creative Commons Summit will include Creators; Building the Commons; Ethics of Openness; Open Education, Open Science, and Open Access; Galleries; and Legal, Policy, and Copyright Reform. https://summit.creativecommons.org/ TILTing Perspectives 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 15-17, 2019 Tilburg, Netherlands TILTing Perspectives 2019, "Regulating a world in transition", brings together for the sixth 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. The conference will include plenary sessions, parallel sessions, and panel discussions with invited speakers, as well as presentations from respondents to a call for papers. Stockholm Internet Forum ---------------------------------------- May 16-17. 2019 Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF) is a platform for advancing a free, open, and secure internet as a driver of development. The SIF 2019 theme is the shrinking online democratic space. Both online and offline, repressive measures against civil society have grown both in geographic spread and in the diversity of measures that are applied. Despite many worldwide similarities, the expression of threats to democracy and the phenomenon of "shrinking space" varies depending on the regional and national context, the level, and the target actors. Shrinking online space often has negative consequences for not only political rights, but also social and economic rights and development. SIF 2019 will offer an opportunity to explore the shrinking democratic space, share experiences, and identify effective responses. http://www.stockholminternetforum.se/ Privacy Law Scholars 2019 ---------------------------------------- May 23-24, 2019 Berkeley, California, USA Organized jointly by BCLT and the George Washington University Law School, PLSC assembles a wide array of privacy law scholars and practitioners from around the world to discuss current issues and foster greater connections between academia and practice. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/2019annual-privacy-law-scholars-conference/ International Communication Association Conference ---------------------------------------- May 23-27, 2019 Washington, DC, USA The International Communication Association Conference Washington, organized by the International Communication Association (ICA) will take place from 23rd May to the 27th May 2019 in Washington, USA. The conference will cover areas like Digital media and social change, information media and digital journalism, and entertainment media and culture.. https://10times.com/icawashington GigaNet ICA Pre-conference ---------------------------------------- May 24, 2019 Washington, DC, USA Organized by the Internet Governance Lab at the American University and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) and co-sponsored by the ICA Communication Law and Policy and Communication and Technology divisions, this pre-conference aims to bring together ICA participants interested in questions of governance, GigaNet members from other disciplines, and the Washington, DC community of practitioners and policymakers. The goal is to provide a mutual learning process and exchange of ideas and challenges for the further development of internet governance research. https://www.giga-net.org/call-for-papers-ica-pre-conference-washington-dc-usa/ AI for Good Global Summit ---------------------------------------- May 28-31, 2019 Geneva, Switzerland The AI for Good Global Summit is the leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on artificial intelligence. The summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the International Telecommunications Union in partnership with UN sister agencies, the XPRIZE Foundation, and ACM. https://aiforgood.itu.int/ WEIS 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 3-4, 2019 Boston, Massachusetts, USA The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security is is the leading annual forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security and privacy, combining expertise from the fields of economics, social science, business, law, policy, and computer science. https://weis2019.econinfosec.org/ Data for Policy ---------------------------------------- June 11-12, 2019 London, UK The fourth international Data for Policy conference has "Digital Trust and Personal Data" as its main theme. The conference will also welcome contributions in the broader data science for government and policy discussions. In particular, the organizers encourage submissions around the value and harm of using data in the public sector, deployment experience in government, "digital ethics" and "ethics engineering" concepts, personal data sharing frameworks and technologies, transparency in machine learning processes, analytics at source, and secure data transaction methodologies. http://dataforpolicy.org/ RightsCon 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 11-14, 2019 Tunis, Tunisia RightsCon Tunis will continue to be a space for civil society, technologists, businesses, startups, public servants, and lawyers to connect, collaborate, build strategies, draft declarations, and move forward real-world change. Whether in provocative plenaries, intimate roundtables, informal meetings, or the lively Community Village, RightsCon Tunis will help shape the future of human rights in the digital age. https://www.rightscon.org/about/ The Web That Was ---------------------------------------- June 19-21, 2019 Amsterdam, Netherlands As the first generation of web users ages, the early web has become simply another object of nostalgia. The third biennial Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Materials (RESAW) conference will rethink our relationship to the web's past and the past web, and consider how to reconstruct and re-evaluate its history. The conference will host a lecture-performance by Geert Lovink and guests on the history and preservation of Amsterdam's early internet culture. https://thewebthatwas.net LIBER 2019 ---------------------------------------- June 26-28, 2019 Dublin, Ireland The LIBER Conference 2019 will be held in collaboration with CONUL, the Consortium of National and University Libraries for the island of Ireland. The conference brings library directors and their staff together for three days of networking and collaboration. The goal of the conference is to identify the most pressing needs for research libraries, and to share information and ideas for addressing those needs. https://liberconference.eu/dublin2019/ ORGCon ---------------------------------------- July 13, 2019 London, UK Themes for this years ORGCon are digital privacy; free speech, censorship, and the role of algorithms; mass government surveillance; and data and democracy. Wikimania ---------------------------------------- August 14-18, 2019 Stockholm, Sweden Wikimania 2019 will be the 15th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 85th World Library and Information Congress ---------------------------------------- August 24-30, 2019 Athens, Greece The theme of IFLA's 2019 conference, "Libraries: dialogue for change", invites the library and information science international community to discuss, re-examine, re-think and re-interpret the role of libraries as promoters of change. In an era of rapid changes in the socio-economic-technological sphere, libraries ought to define their role as information providers, promoters of reading, settlers for the community they serve, key players in innovation, and leading actors for changes in society. A constant, open dialectic relationship between libraries and society will lead to well-informed citizens facilitating progress and development, implementing the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development and leading to prosperity in all fields of the democratic society. https://2019.ifla.org/#news Web Summit ---------------------------------------- November 4-7. 2019 Lisbon, Portugal The Web Summit gathers the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers, and heads of state to ask a simple question: where to next? In 2018, speakers included Margrethe Vestager, Tim Berners-Lee, and Microsoft CEO Brad Smith. https://websummit.com/ IGF Global ---------------------------------------- November 25-29, 2019 Berlin, Germany The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was set up in 2006 as an open discussion platform of the United Nations for key legal, political, social and technical issues relating to the internet. IGF's multi-stakeholder model aims to ensure that all relevant societal groups are equally involved in preparations and implementation: governments, civil society, business, academia, international organizations, and the technical community. This is particularly of note in terms of representatives from developing and newly industrializing countries, which otherwise tend to be under-represented. https://www.igf2019.berlin/ *** This list is now managed by MailChimp. Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. You can also read more about our work on the Open Society Foundations website: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/programs/information-program Our mailing address is: Open Society Foundations, 7th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP, United Kingdom This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
