Posts Tagged ‘surveillance’
The Smoking Gun in the Facebook Antitrust Case
The government wants to break up the world’s biggest social network. Internal company emails show why.
https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-ftc-antitrust-case-smoking-gun/
At first blush, privacy and antitrust might seem like separate issues—two different chapters in a textbook about big tech. But the decline in Facebook’s privacy protections plays a central role in the states’ case. Antitrust is a complicated field built on a simple premise: When a company doesn’t face real competition, it will be free to do bad things.
a conceptual breakthrough on that front. In a paper titled “The Antitrust Case Against Facebook,” the legal scholar Dina Srinivasan argued that Facebook’s takeover of the social networking market has inflicted a very specific harm on consumers: It has forced them to accept ever worse privacy settings. Facebook, Srinivasan pointed out, began its existence in 2004 by differentiating itself on privacy. Unlike then-dominant MySpace, for example, where profiles were visible to anyone by default, Facebook profiles could be seen only by your friends or people at the same school
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Facebook hit with antitrust probe for tying Oculus use to Facebook accounts
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/10/facebook-hit-with-antitrust-probe-for-tying-oculus-use-to-facebook-accounts
In recent years Facebook has been pushing to add a ‘social layer’ to the VR platform — but the heavy-handed requirement for Oculus users to have a Facebook account has not proved popular with gamers.
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more on Facebook in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=facebook
Chris Hughes
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2019/05/09/break-up-facebook/
Message to SDSU students regarding RESPONDUS software. #1 We will not rely solely on faculty interpretation of video evidence from Respondus when evaluating claims of academic dishonesty. #2 – Beginning in Jan 2021, IT will not support the campuswide use of Respondus by faculty. pic.twitter.com/I2Ssim4LVW
— Dr. Luke Wood (@DrLukeWood) December 8, 2020
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more on proctoring in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=proctorio
more on proctoring in the Higher Ed Learning Collective
https://www.facebook.com/groups/539260760037960/search/?q=proctor
U.S. Policy on China May Move from ‘America First’ to America & Co.
A tech entrepreneur in the State Department is using network theory to counter Chinese pressure.
According to Krach, the Clean Network includes 180 telecom companies and 50 national governments that represent two-thirds of the world’s gross domestic product. Although that’s impressive, all countries aren’t equally committed.
The task of forming networks to counter China’s influence has been made easier by China itself, which has frightened and angered trading partners with its “wolf warrior” diplomacy, a newly belligerent pursuit of China’s national interests.
The Clean Network is to China what George Kennan’s “long telegram” [PDF] of 1946 was to the Soviet Union, wrote David Fidler, adjunct senior fellow for cybersecurity and global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, in a blog post in October.
But trade deals alone are not enough, says Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. For instance, they wouldn’t stop China from exporting its surveillance technology to countries such as Venezuela and Uganda, where it’s been used to target political activists, he says.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RemakingtheUniversity/permalink/1454440301415995/
proctoring software and surveillance in the COVID-19 era.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/teach-against-surveillance
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more on proctoring in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=proctor
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7wxvd/students-are-rebelling-against-eye-tracking-exam-surveillance-tools
Algorithmic proctoring software has been around for several years, but its use exploded as the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to quickly transition to remote learning. Proctoring companies cite studies estimating that between 50 and 70 percent of college students will attempt some form of cheating, and warn that cheating will be rampant if students are left unmonitored in their own homes.
Like many other tech companies, they also balk at the suggestion that they are responsible for how their software is used. While their algorithms flag behavior that the designers have deemed suspicious, these companies argue that the ultimate determination of whether cheating occurred rests in the hands of the class instructor.
As more evidence emerges about how the programs work, and fail to work, critics say the tools are bound to hurt low-income students, students with disabilities, students with children or other dependents, and other groups who already face barriers in higher education.
“Each academic department has almost complete agency to design their curriculum as far as I know, and each professor has the freedom to design their own exams and use whatever monitoring they see fit,” Rohan Singh, a computer engineering student at Michigan State University, told Motherboard.
after students approached faculty members at the University of California Santa Barbara, the faculty association sent a letter to the school’s administration raising concerns about whether ProctorU would share student data with third parties.
In response, a ProctorU attorney threatened to sue the faculty association for defamation and violating copyright law (because the association had used the company’s name and linked to its website). He also accused the faculty association of “directly impacting efforts to mitigate civil disruption across the United States” by interfering with education during a national emergency, and said he was sending his complaint to the state’s Attorney General.
here is a link to a community discussion regarding this and similar software use:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RemakingtheUniversity/permalink/1430416163818409/
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more on Proctorio in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=proctorio
“Some of the more prominent companies offering these services include Proctorio, Respondus, ProctorU, HonorLock, Kryterion Global Testing Solutions, and Examity.”
Software can spy on what you type in video calls by tracking your arms
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2258682-software-can-spy-on-what-you-type-in-video-calls-by-tracking-your-arms/
A computer model can work out the words that the person is typing just by tracking the movement of their shoulders and arms in the video stream.
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more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy
More on surveillance in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance
Facial recognition has been used unlawfully and violated human rights, UK Court of Appeal rules in landmark case from r/technology
A British police force violated human rights by unlawfully using facial recognition technology, the Court of Appeal has ruled in a landmark case.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/facial-recognition-unlawful-violation-human-rights-court-of-appeal-a9664441.html
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more on facial recognition in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=facial+recognition
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-06-26-researchers-raise-concerns-about-algorithmic-bias-in-online-course-tools
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Students fear for their data privacy after University of California invests in private equity firm
A financial link between a virtual classroom platform and the University of California system is raising eyebrows
https://www.salon.com/2020/07/28/students-fear-for-their-data-privacy-after-university-of-california-invests-in-private-equity-firm/
Instructure has made it clear through their own language that they view the student data they aggregated as one of their chief assets, although they have also insisted that they do not use that data improperly. My note: “improperly” is relative and requires defining.
Yet an article published in the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology, titled “Transparency and the Marketplace for Student Data,” pointed out that there is “an overall lack of transparency in the student information commercial marketplace and an absence of law to protect student information.” As such, some students at the University of California are concerned that — despite reassurances to the contrary — their institution’s new financial relationship with Thoma Bravo will mean their personal data can be sold or otherwise misused.
The students’ concerns over surveillance and privacy are not unwarranted. Previously, the University of California used military surveillance technology to help quell the grad student strikes at UC Santa Cruz and other campuses
25 US Congress members urge President Donald Trump to follow India’s lead and ban TikTok from r/technology
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/25-us-congress-members-urge-president-donald-trump-to-follow-india-s-lead-and-ban-tiktok-11594882269517.html
25 US Congressmen and Congresswomen have urged President Donald Trump… In a letter to the US President, dated July 15, they also pointed out that India took the “extraordinary step” of banning several “Chinese affiliated mobile apps including TikTok due to national security concerns”.
India had recently banned 59 Chinese mobile applications including the widely-used social media platforms such as TikTok, WeChat, and Helo within view of the threat to the nation’s sovereignty and security.
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more on Tik Tok in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=tik+tok
New anti-encryption bill worse than EARN IT. Act now to stop both. from r/technology
https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/lawful-access-encrypted-data-act-backdoor/
Once surveillance laws such as an encryption backdoor for the “good guys” is available, it’s just a matter of time until the “good guys” turn bad or abuse their power.
By stressing the fact that tech companies must decrypt sensitive information only after a court issues a warrant, the three Senators believe they can swing the public opinion in favor of this encryption backdoor law.