av Jonathan Turley 29 juli 2024
Below is my column in The Hill on the recent notice that this blog is now being formally "reviewed" by NewsGuard, a company that I just criticized in a prior Hill column as a threat to free speech. The questions from NewsGuard were revealing and concerning. Today, I have posted the response of NewsGuard's co-founder…
By Jonathan Turley (Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.)
I hope that our readers have read the response of NewsGuard's Gordon Crovitz to my recent criticism of the company's rating system for news sites. He makes important points, including the fact that the company has given high ratings to conservative sites and low ratings to some liberal sites. I have mutual friends of both…
I am particularly concerned over the reported government contracts given to NewsGuard by the Biden Administration as well as agreements with teacher unions to help filter or rate sites. The Twitter Files have shown an extensive system of funding and coordination between agencies and these companies. The funding of such private rating or targeting operations is precisely what I have warned about in congressional testimony as a type of “censorship by surrogate.” The government has been attempting to achieve forms of censorship indirectly that it is barred from achieving directly under the First Amendment.
In den USA ist ein «Agentengesetz» schon lange in Kraft. Das Gesetz über ausländische Agentenregistrierung (Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA) schreibt eine Meldepflicht vor. Wenn eine Organisation als «ausländische Agentin» im Sinne von FARA betrachtet wird, muss sie sich registrieren lassen und regelmässige Berichte über ihre Aktivitäten und Finanzierungen vorlegen. Dies dient der Transparenz und der Vermeidung von unlauteren Einflussnahmen aus dem Ausland.
DHS Dept of Homeland Security the biggest customer?
Face recognition.
The Verge, Oct 2023
New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill comes on Decoder to discuss her new book, Your Face Belongs to Us.
NYT article about Clearview AI Inc. and other face recognition tech companies including Chinese and South Korean ones , by Kashmir Hill, from Oct 2021. Testing f-r tech at NIST.
EFF Podcast on Kashmir Hill's book on Face recognition, Clear View AI Inc. .... it was interesting that her explanation of how it blew up so fast wasn't really a technical development as much as an ethical one.
Far From Over, Post-9/11 Wars Continue in 78 Countries Under President Biden
The Costs of War Project is a team of 35 scholars, legal experts, human rights practitioners, and physicians, which began its work in 2011
Iain Davis and Whitney Webb
June 5, 2023The United Nations claims that the purpose of Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG16) is to promote peaceful and inclusive societies and to provide access to justice for all. Hiding behind the rhetoric is the real objective: to strengthen and consolidate the power and authority of the "global governance regime" and to exploit threats—both real and imagined—in order to advance regime hegemony.
Last year, a government commission wanted the US to adopt AI-driven mass surveillance. Now, its happeing under a guise of combating the coronavirus crisis. An article by Whitney Webb 2020.
av Kate Fitz Gibbon, Artikel i Cultural Property News, maj 2019 om den kinesiska regeringens förtryck av uigurerna i Xinjang.
The Security State and Destruction of Uyghur Culture in Xinjiang
The Chinese government’s campaign to eradicate identity, religion, and culture.
The new compromise on the draft data law, seen by EURACTIV, further refines the protection of trade secrets and clarifies the relationship with data protection rules and the application of the cloud-switching provisions.
Presentation of Surveillance StateInside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control Author: Josh Chin and Liza Lin; read by Brian Nishii
The authors of Surveillance State" discuss what the West misunderstands about Chinese state control and whether the invasive trajectory of surveillance tech can still be reversed.
the old social contract, which promised better returns from an economy steered by an authoritarian government, is strained—and a new one is needed.
As Chin and Lin observe, the Chinese government is now proposing that by collecting every Chinese citizen’s data extensively, it can find out what the people want (without giving them votes) and build a society that meets their needs.
Helmet-kirjastojen verkkosivustolla on ollut käytössä seurantateknologioita, joiden kautta tietoja esimerkiksi käyttäjän hakemista kirjoista ja muusta aineistosta on voinut välittyä sivullisille. HS
Thomas Drake: The Edward Snowden revelations broke when I was serving as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. I experienced firsthand the reality that secrecy in the service of national security is sometimes necessary in our nation’s surveillance programs. Unfortunately, I also saw that claims of secrecy can be used by our intelligence agencies to spy on Americans without warrants and in violation of the Constitution.
"the government argues that upstream surveillance is too secret for Wikimedia’s case to go forward, invoking the “state secrets privilege” and claiming that any use of sensitive evidence to defend the case could hurt national security. In a split decision, a federal appeals court threw out the case citing state secrets."
Le scandale de surveillance contre des politiciens, des journalistes et des hommes d’affaires est une « tache » sur la démocratie grecque qui s’élargit chaque semaine, selon Reporters sans frontières. Les autorités grecques doivent enfin agir et l’Europe intervenir.
The EU Council formalised its position on the European digital identity at the Telecom Council meeting on Tuesday (6 December).
The European digital identity is intended to create a public version of digital wallets in each member state that can be used to identify, authenticate or verify certain aspects such as age in any other EU country.
These wallets will take the form of apps for smartphones. In the digital sphere, the EU’s ambition is to compete with the identification systems currently offered by Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook.
“We are looking at a massive advancement in how people use their identity and credentials in everyday contact with both public and private entities, and in how they use digital services,” said Ivan Bartos, Czech Deputy Prime minister for digitalisation.
WhatsApp, Telegram und andere Messenger sollen verpflichtet werden, Chats nach Missbrauchsbildern zu durchsuchen. Bürgerrechtler und Experten sind alarmiert – und selbst Ermittler nicht unbedingt glücklich.
Am Mittwoch, dem 11. Mai 2022 veröffentlicht die EU-Kommission voraussichtlich den Gesetzesentwurf zur sogenannten Chatkontrolle. Geplant ist eine KI-basierte Prüfung aller Nachrichteninhalte und Bilder direkt auf unseren Geräten. Das so genannte Client-Side-Scanning wäre ein Angriff auf jegliche vertrauliche Kommunikation.
This document pool contains analyses, updates and resources relating to EU rules on scanning private online communications, in particular the long-term ePrivacy derogation: the 'Legislation to effectively tackle child sexual abuse' (expected May 2022)
Europe can become a global leader in artificial intelligence, but only if it protects its citizens and involves workers in the regulatory and deployment process. In that regard, the European Commission’s recent draft regulation leaves much to be desired.
Employers using software to monitor workers’ every movement are likely to be in breach of EU privacy laws, trade unions warn today as they launch a new report on artificial intelligence at work.
The third-party cookie is dying, and Google is trying to create its replacement. No one should mourn the death of the cookie as we know it. For more than two decades, the third-party cookie has been the lynchpin in a shadowy, seedy, multi-billion dollar advertising-surveillance industry on the Web...
March 30th, 2019 By Whitney Webb The story behind the decision to shutter its Snowden archive suggests issues of cost were unlikely to have been behind the action.
Scholarly Networks Security Initiative (SNSI): working together to combat the threat of cybercrime
Cybercrime is a huge threat to the entire scholarly ecosystem and safeguarding data and privacy is paramount. Higher education institutions need protection from cyber-attacks. Their data and their users’ data must be protected.
Researchers need confidence that research they are using is correct, up to date and properly connected to the scientific record.
Cybersecurity isn’t just an issue for publishers. It isn’t just a challenge for librarians. It is not just an obstacle for institutions or nuisance for researchers. This is an issue for all of us, and a ...
Scholarly Networks Security Initiative (SNSI) brings together publishers and institutions to solve cyber-challenges threatening the integrity of the scientific record, scholarly systems and the safety of personal data.
Members include large and small publishers, learned societies and university presses and others involved in scholarly communications.
Using deep learning to understand the level of attention and engagement of students. Ensuring privacy, having real-time feedback on the delivery of coursework will help lecturers/presenters, make improvements vs. waiting once or twice a year for this information.
Khrono 26.11.2020
Från vaggan till graven. "Universiteter og høgskoler vil lagre informasjon om studenter og ansatte fra de begynner å studere til de er ferdige i arbeids- og utdanningslivet. Men personvernet har skapt implikasjoner.
A recent proposal recommending the deployment of surveillance software in order to monitor those accessing academic material has drawn fire from digital rights advocates and scientists.
The Data Detox Kit gives you simple tips and techniques to help you control your digital privacy, security, and wellbeing in ways that feel right to you.
2007-10-26 What was only a theoretical concept in 2001 has now become a reality with the latest development by Hitachi, and could find its way to intelligence agencies across the world. RFID chips are also a source for increasing controversy surrounding issues of privacy. An RFID chip can be used to track the location of unsuspecting individuals who have bought products that include RFID tags in their package. Having miniature cheap RFID chips, such as those developed by Hitachi, implanted inside anything we buy might make many people feel very uncomfortable. However, big businesses believe that consumers’ fears are dwarfed by the benefits of RFID chips, which include reduced theft, digital real time inventory, and better information on consumer shopping habits. This tech is now actively used in automatic dog feeders with RFID tags to feed multiple dogs at a schedule. The feeder identifies the dog with the unique RFID chip and dispenses the food. Multiple dogs in a house are fed even in the absence of dog owner.
USA Today 4 juni 2020:
The DOD and HHS did contract with ApiJect Systems, a company that makes pre-filled syringes, for a mass-production supply chain during an emergency. RFID/NFC tracking is an optional feature of the syringes, according to the RAPID Consortium.
But there is no evidence the contract is a precursor to law-enforced vaccination on the federal or state levels. Trump said that once the coronavirus vaccine becomes available, immunization will be optional. Moreover, generally states only require vaccinations for certain individuals.
We rate this claim as PARTLY FALSE because some of it was not supported by our research.
UAV Factory has been selected to supply the Latvian National Armed Forces (LNAF) with an undisclosed number of its latest Penguin C long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the company’s CEO, Konstantin Popiks, recently told Jane’s .
The Software Freedom Law Center provides legal representation and other law related services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software. Eben Moglen. The Freedom Box
Sege Halimi: Une fois cette tragédie surmontée, tout recommencera-t-il comme avant ? Depuis trente ans, chaque crise a nourri l'espérance déraisonnable d'un retour à la raison, d'une prise de conscience, d'un coup d'arrêt. On a cru au confinement puis à l'inversion d'une dynamique sociopolitique dont chacun aurait enfin mesuré les impasses et les menaces.
JBS Haldane FRS: 1892-1964. His communism and espionage, including the VENONA Intercepts and the MI5 file, the betrayal of Nikolai Vavilov and support for Trofim Lysenko. Includes a complete scientific bibliography and facsimiles of his major books.
2018
Amazon is the leading cloud provider for the United States intelligence community. In 2013, Amazon entered into a $600 million contract with the CIA to build a cloud for use by intelligence agencies working with information classified as Top Secret. Then, in 2017, Amazon announced the AWS Secret Region, which allows storage of data classified up to the Secret level by a broader range of agencies and companies. Amazon also operates a special GovCloud region for US Government agencies hosting unclassified information.
Carl Bernstein's website
After leaving The Washington Post in 1977, Carl Bernstein spent six months looking at the relationship of the CIA and the press during the Cold War years. His 25,000-word cover story, published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, is reprinted below.
THE CIA AND THE MEDIA
How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up
Meroe Park (SFS’89), former executive director of the CIA, will provide faculty, students and university leaders with insights and perspectives as the university’s newest Distinguished Executive-in-Residence.
The Georgetown alumna also served as the acting CIA director for a short time in 2017, maintaining the agency’s operations and providing a smooth transition for Mike Pompeo to take the helm as the new director.
As Distinguished Executive-in-Residence at Georgetown, she will provide faculty, students and university leaders with insights and perspectives based on her lengthy career in public service.
Former FBI director Robert Mueller and former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have held past residencies.
Park, a 27-year veteran of the agency, served in the position from 2013 to 2017 – acting as the agency’s chief operating officer.
In that role, she managed the day-to-day operations of the agency, guided the organization through its largest organizational and cultural change, modernized the agency’s information technology systems and helped revamp the CIA’s talent management and development system.
La captation des informations personnelles et la publicité ciblée sont une menace pour les droits humains, et pas seulement pour le droit au respect de la vie privée, met en garde un rapport de l’ONG rendu public ce jeudi.
"Shoshona (sic!) Zuboff frets that use of this surplus data is potentially destructive to people at personal, familial, and societal levels. And she has a point. De facto monopolies with overwhelming network effects can manipulate people into making unnecessary purchases or poor decisions that benefit large corporations (or governments)." But:
"As the age of customer experience takes hold, enterprises must do far more than collect and analyze customer data to enable the improvement of their products, services, and engagements. They must also tap the so-called behavioral surplus."
"The CX can be great, for example, when an insurance company tracks a driver. The company may use periodic or real-time summaries (objective or gamified) of vehicle data to reward drivers with reduced rates or other goodies for driving safely and efficiently (e.g., braking slowly, cornering gently, and accelerating evenly). For both the driver and the company, this saves money. The insurer will have fewer claims and reduced churn; the driver pays less for insurance and has fewer accidents. "
Youtube beslöt idag att åter öppna SwebbTV:s kanal på Youtube. Mikael Willgert på 9.8.19 SwebbTV skriver: “Avbrottet har visat hur sårbara vi är och hur viktigt det är att utforska alternativa lösningar, där vi inte är i händerna på olika intressen. Därför kommer arbetet för att finna alternativ fortsätta”.
Av
NewsVoice -
2 August, 2019 Youtube raderade idag SwebbTV. Mediejätten anger att SwebbTV brutit mot reglerna. Kanalchefen Mikael Willgert anser att kanalen inte gjort något fel.
Frances Coppola, Forbes 30 June 2019: From a financial perspective, Libra seems fairly harmless. Even if all 2bn of Facebook’s users adopted Libra for some transactions, and all 90m of its small businesses used Libra for purchases and sales, it is not going to pose a major threat to the financial system, let alone replace sovereign currencies. But Libra is in reality a vehicle for bringing about Facebook’s wider aim of becoming the standard setter for digital identity. And that is a much, much bigger issue. Facebook is the last organization on earth that should have anything to do with digital identity or standards setting. For that reason, Libra must be stopped.
In this interdisciplinary research project supported by the German-Polish Science Foundation, we examine processes of normalization of new surveillance technologies in contact centers.
Premier article d’une série consacrée aux algorithmes et à leur utilisation par les pouvoirs publics. Pour le sociologue Dominique Cardon, l’algorithme accompagne l’évolution d’une société marquée par une individualisation des rapports et une dérive vers la méritocratie.
Reportage från Rongcheng. Orwellian? "The party is using both coercion and cooperation to integrate the scheme into people’s lives and have it bring benefits to them. “To me, that’s what makes it Orwellian,” says Hoffman of IISS. The social credit system provides incentives for people to not want to be on a blacklist. “It’s a preemptive way of shaping the way people think and shaping the way people act,” she says. And to the extent that people believe they can benefit socially and economically from the Communist Party staying in power, the system is working."
SORM is the technical infrastructure for surveillance in Russia. It dates back to 1995 and has evolved from SORM-1 (capturing telephone and mobile phone communications) and SORM-2 (interception of Internet traffic, 1999) to the current SORM-3. SORM now collects information from all forms of communication, providing long-term storage of all information and data on subscribers, including actual recordings and locations. In 2014, the system was expanded to include social media platforms, and the Ministry of Communications ordered companies to install new equipment with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capability. In 2016, SORM-3 added additional classified regulations that apply to all Internet Service providers in Russia. The European Court for Human Rights deemed Russia's SORM legislation in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2015 (Zakharov v. Russia).
Finian Cunningham RT 18 Oct, 2017
Facebook, the world’s top social media platform, is reportedly seeking to hire hundreds of employees with US national security clearance licenses.
Bevisene som gjorde at FN gjenopptok undersøkelsene ble lagt fram i boka «Who killed Hammarskjöld» av Susan Williams i 2014. Hennes undersøkelser viser med stor tydelighet at vestmaktene og viktige finansinteresser må ha stått bak nedskytinga av Hammarskiölds fly for å bevare sin kontroll over Kongo og landets enorme rikdommer. Tidligere undersøkelser bærer preg av å dekke over fakta framfor å grave dem fram.
Jeanne Shaheen (D), in NYT: Kaspersky Lab, the cybersecurity company, is close to Putin’s government. So why is the U.S. government using its software?