deep fake detection
New method detects deepfake videos with up to 99% accuracy
Two-pronged technique detects manipulated facial expressions and identity swaps
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2022/05/03/new-method-detects-deepfake-videos-99-accuracy
Archive of ‘Library and information science’ category
India privacy
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/india-orders-vpn-companies-to-collect-and-hand-over-user-data/
A new government order will force virtual private networks to store user data for five years or longer.
The directive isn’t limited to VPN providers. Data centers and cloud service providers are both listed under the same provision. The companies will have to keep customer information even after the customer has canceled their subscription or account.
India has a history of applying a heavy hand to online activity.
In April, India banned 22 YouTube channels. In 2021, Facebook, Google Twitter ended a tense stand-off with the Indian government when they largely complied with the government’s expanded control over social media content in the country. In 2020, the country banned over 200 Chinese apps, including TikTok, and ultimately banned 9,849 social media URLs.
Blockchain and money
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https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=blockchain
deep fakes trusted more the real pictures
People trust AI fake faces more than real ones, research suggests
Researchers behind the study are calling for safeguards to prevent deep fakes.
https://www.freethink.com/technology/ai-fake-faces-trustwortiness
Ethical AI tools
Using AI responsibly is the “immediate challenge” facing the field of AI governance, the World Economic Forum says.
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more on deep fakes in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=deep+fakes
social media and social credit system
One of China’s biggest social networks is revealing user locations to head off ‘bad behaviour’
euters reports that Weibo will begin showing the rough locations of its users using IP addresses to combat “bad behaviour” online. The locations show up on both profiles and posts.
Chinese citizens have long resorted to using VPNs and other privacy tools to help either access non-Chinese services or speak freely online and you can see why.
In a similar view to the Panopticon, visibly showing users that the service knows where they are will lead to self-censorship, reducing the strain on Chinese censors to cover an internet with hundreds of millions of users.
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more on social credit system in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=china+social
autocrats and Soviet children’s literature
To understand modern autocrats, read Soviet children’s literature
The dragons are back, from Ankara to Moscow, hoodwinking their peoples while claiming to protect them from non-existent threats. Some of their subjects tolerate them; many cheer them on. Shvarts captures it all: the lies which tyrants spread to mask their depredations as patriotism, their cynical insistence that resistance is futile and their need to murder those who speak the truth.
Novoed.com and Miro
new EU legislation for Google, Meta
Google, Meta, and others will have to explain their algorithms under new EU legislation
The Digital Services Act will reshape the online world
The EU has agreed on another ambitious piece of legislation to police the online world.
- argeted advertising based on an individual’s religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity is banned. Minors cannot be subject to targeted advertising either.
- “Dark patterns” — confusing or deceptive user interfaces designed to steer users into making certain choices — will be prohibited. The EU says that, as a rule, canceling subscriptions should be as easy as signing up for them.
- Large online platforms like Facebook will have to make the working of their recommender algorithms (used for sorting content on the News Feed or suggesting TV shows on Netflix) transparent to users. Users should also be offered a recommender system “not based on profiling.” In the case of Instagram, for example, this would mean a chronological feed (as it introduced recently).
- Hosting services and online platforms will have to explain clearly why they have removed illegal content as well as give users the ability to appeal such takedowns. The DSA itself does not define what content is illegal, though, and leaves this up to individual countries.
- The largest online platforms will have to provide key data to researchers to “provide more insight into how online risks evolve.”
- Online marketplaces must keep basic information about traders on their platform to track down individuals selling illegal goods or services.
- Large platforms will also have to introduce new strategies for dealing with misinformation during crises (a provision inspired by the recent invasion of Ukraine).
hese tech companies have lobbied hard to water down the requirements in the DSA, particularly those concerning targeted advertising and handing over data to outside researchers.
Open Skills Management Toolkit (OSMT)
Western Governors University Releases Open-Source Code to Facilitate Universal Skills Language
he Open Skills Network (OSN), a community of practice focused on skills-based education and hiring that represents more than 1,200 employers, educational providers, and technology companies,
By launching OSMT as an open-source project, WGU has enabled any educational institution, training program, or employer to freely deploy and use OSMT to translate curriculum, training and development programs, and job profiles into real world skills statements to inform educational program and curriculum design, as well as job role and task definitions.
learner-workers are empowered to use their skills as currency. OSMT has been integrated into Concentric Sky’s Badgr micro-credentialing platform, facilitating the creation of digital credentials that align to Open Skills, creating the building blocks for the shift to skills-based education and hiring.
Earth Day
categories: academic library, information literacy