Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryData Privacy

female-scans-face-using-facial-recognition-system-on-smartphone-for-biometric-identification-future-digital-high-tech-technology-and-face-id-stockpack-adobe-stock
Female scans face using facial recognition system on smartphone for biometric identification. Future digital high tech technology and face id
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post
Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
February 16, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance
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IRS Backs Off on Facial Recognition Demand

Starting this summer, the IRS would have required all online users to submit a facial recognition scan. Now, they've changed their mind
Caitlin Cory
February 16, 2022
6
Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance

The IRS is abandoning a new security program that would have required all online users to submit facial recognition scans in order to access its online services. Last November, the IRS announced that in summer 2022, it would begin requiring all online patrons to verify their accounts via facial recognition. The program was to be operated by ID.me, a private, third-party partner of the IRS. ID.me also contracts with a select few other federal entities, as well as 27 U.S. states. Facial recognition technology is a controversial new form of security. It’s been widely embraced by the Chinese Communist Party in its effort to maintain social control over a large population, and it has begun to creep into some jurisdictions in Western Read More ›

identification-documents-stockpack-adobe-stock
Identification Documents
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post
Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
December 22, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Global Technology
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A French-Based Company Wants to Make Your IDs Digital

What kinds of security concerns should be addressed before we consent to their vision of convenience?
Caitlin Cory
December 22, 2021
4
Data Privacy, Global Technology

Imagine all of your information and documents – all of it – stored on your phone. We’ve grown accustomed to carrying around our banking and payment systems, address and phone books, and our social media apps on our phones, but now imagine even your passport and your driver’s license taking the form of a personal QR code. Imagine being asked to verify your identity not with a physical ID, but with the phone in your pocket. Thales Group, a French-based technology company, is asking you to imagine just such a reality. In October 2020, Thales posted a video to YouTube, showcasing their digital ID wallet and boasting of its many convenient qualities: The idea of storing your information in one Read More ›

thank-you-stockpack-adobe-stock
Thank You
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 17, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Education, Global Technology, Programming
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Search Engines: Closing the Gap for Minority Languages

Thousands of the world’s languages are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people. At COSM 2021, Phil Parker outlined a plan for giving them access to information
Heather Zeiger
November 17, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Education, Global Technology, Programming

We’ve all consulted “Dr. Google” for a health ailment or to find a recipe or learn how to fix something perhaps. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not. But what if you asked Google something — and it didn’t even recognize your language? Phil Parker, speaking at COSM 2021, told the story of a woman in Ethiopia searching for “lump in breast,” using one of the over 80 languages or dialects spoken in the region. Her language was one of thousands spoken by only a comparatively small population. The search engine did not recognize her input and returned no hits. She tried her query in Swahili, but there was nothing she found informative about “breast lumps” in Swahili. She finally tried her search Read More ›

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Composite image of hacker holding laptop and credir card
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post
Author
News
Date
November 16, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy
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Physicality Of Data: The Road To Inherently Safer Authentication

Even though the world is arguably far more at risk from uncontrolled data than from uncontrolled HHCs, there are no hordes of people demanding solutions — yet
News
November 16, 2021
7
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy

“The Physicality Of Data And The Road To Inherently Safer Authentication” was originally published by Forbes, (October 8, 2021) David Kruger is Co-Founder and VP of Strategy for Absio Corporation and a co-inventor of Absio’s Software-defined Distributed Key Cryptography (SDKC). Two different classes of identifiers must be tested to reliably authenticate things and people: assigned identifiers, such as names, addresses and social security numbers, and some number of physical characteristics. For example, driver’s licenses list assigned identifiers (name, address and driver’s license number) and physical characteristics (picture, age, height, eye and hair color and digitized fingerprints). Authentication requires examining both the license and the person to verify the match. Identical things are distinguished by unique assigned identities such as a Read More ›

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industry metallurgical plant dawn smoke smog emissions bad ecology aerial photography
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post
Author
News
Date
November 15, 2021
Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy
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Physicality Of Data And The Road To Inherently Safer Computing

The software industry today is precisely where the chemical industry was in 1978; hazard control is a mere afterthought
News
November 15, 2021
7
Business and Finance, Data Privacy

“The Physicality Of Data And The Road To Inherently Safer Computing” was originally published by Forbes, August 24, 2021. David Kruger is Co-Founder and VP of Strategy for Absio Corporation and a co-inventor of Absio’s Software-defined Distributed Key Cryptography (SDKC). Our current concept of cybersecurity is to defend against attacks and remedy failure by erecting more and better defenses. That’s a fundamental mistake in thinking that guarantees failure. Why? Because it’s mathematically impossible for a defensive strategy to fully succeed, as explained in the previous installment of this article series. Another even more fundamental mistake in thinking is that cyberattackers are the cause of our woes. They aren’t. They’re the effect. A hazard is a potential source of harm. Cyberattackers target certain Read More ›

water waves
Beautiful water waves - Splashed water wave in clean blue water, clean filtered water ready for drinking
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post
Author
News
Date
November 14, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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Why AI Can’t Really Filter Out “Hate News”

As Robert J. Marks explains, the No Free Lunch theorem establishes that computer programs without bias are like ice cubes without cold
News
November 14, 2021
12
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance

In Define information before you talk about it, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed engineering prof Robert J. Marks on the way information, not matter, shapes our world (October 28, 2021). In the first portion, Egnor and Marks discussed questions like: Why do two identical snowflakes seem more meaningful than one snowflake. Then they turned to the relationship between information and creativity. Is creativity a function of more information? Or is there more to it? And human intervention make any difference? Does Mount Rushmore have no more information than Mount Fuji? Does human intervention make a measurable difference? That’s specified complexity. Putting the idea of specified complexity to work, how do we measure meaningful information? How do we know Lincoln contained more Read More ›

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Global cyber attack around the world with planet Earth viewed from space and internet network communication under cyberattack with red icons, worldwide propagation of virus online
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post
Author
News
Date
November 11, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy
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The Physicality Of Data And The Road To Cybersecurity

With cyberattacks trending upward, remember that cyberattack potential is always greater than cyberdefense potential 
News
November 11, 2021
7
Data Privacy

“The Physicality Of Data And The Road To Cybersecurity” was originally published by Forbes, July 28, 2021. David Kruger is Co-Founder and VP of Strategy for Absio Corporation and a co-inventor of Absio’s Software-defined Distributed Key Cryptography (SDKC). This article is the second in a series on the physicality of data. The first part is here. Cybersecurity failures have been trending sharply upwards in number and severity for the past 25 years.   The target of every cyberattack is data — i.e., digitized information that is created, processed, stored and distributed by computers. Cyberattackers seek to steal, corrupt, impede or destroy data. Users, software, hardware and networks aren’t the target; they’re vectors (pathways) to the target. To protect data, the current strategy, “defense in Read More ›

dvd drive and pda
Laptop with pendrive, sd card, CD and portable hard drive. Concept of data storage
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post
Author
News
Date
November 10, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Economics
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The Physicality Of Data And The Road To Personal Data Ownership

News
November 10, 2021
8
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Economics

“The Physicality Of Data And The Road To Personal Data Ownership” was originally published by Forbes, July 2, 2021. David Kruger is co-founder and VP of Strategy for Absio Corporation, and a co-inventor of Absio’s Software-defined Distributed Key Cryptography (SDKC). This article is the first in a series on the physicality of data. I’ll follow up with additional installments of this series over the next several weeks, so check back to see those as they become available. All of us tend to conflate the word “data” with the word “information.” Usually, that’s OK, but collapsing data on a computer and information into one thing rather than two separate things makes thinking accurately about data ownership difficult. Here’s why: Information is Read More ›

machine-learning-systems-and-accurate-facial-recognition-concept-smart-phone-with-blue-screen-and-blur-human-faces-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Machine learning systems and accurate facial recognition concept , smart phone with blue screen and blur human faces background
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post
Author
News
Date
November 4, 2021
Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance
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Facebook (Meta) is strengthening, not dumping facial recognition

They’re getting rid of the annoying parts but read the fine print
News
November 4, 2021
5
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance

Jerome Pesenti, Facebook’s VP of Artificial Intelligence, explains the changes to the face recognition system that have accompanied the very recent brand name change from Facebook to Meta: In the coming weeks, Meta will shut down the Face Recognition system on Facebook as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products. As part of this change, people who have opted in to our Face Recognition setting will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos, and we will delete the facial recognition template used to identify them. This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history. Jerome Pesenti, “An Update On Our Use of Read More ›

group-young-people-using-mobile-smartphone-outdoor-millennial-generation-having-fun-with-new-trends-social-media-apps-youth-technology-addicted-red-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Group young people using mobile smartphone outdoor - Millennial generation having fun with new trends social media apps - Youth technology addicted - Red background
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post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
October 19, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Social Media
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Are We Really Luddites Just for Logging Off?

We can be wiser about boundaries for technology
Andrew McDiarmid
October 19, 2021
5
Data Privacy, Social Media

(This piece is reprinted with permission from the Houston Chronicle, October 7, 2021.) Have you ever been called a Luddite? If so, you were probably not being credited with fueling a skilled labor movement in 19th century England. You were being jabbed for your relationship to technology. Today, the term is largely pejorative and can be directed at anyone who questions, rejects or even fumbles with technology. If you resist a new technology in favor of an old one, you’re a Luddite. If the recent testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen persuaded you to quit social media, you’re a Luddite. If you don’t know how to use a newer technology efficiently, you’re a Luddite. You’re swimming upstream down the river Read More ›

desperate-woman-trying-to-log-into-her-computer-forgot-password-stockpack-adobe-stock
Desperate woman trying to log into her computer forgot password
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post
Author
News
Date
September 22, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Surveillance
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Forgot Your Password? Maybe You Can Forget It for Good! But Wait…

Tech companies are trying to develop workarounds for passwords via biometrics — facial recognition, fingerprints, and behavior patterns
News
September 22, 2021
6
Data Privacy, Surveillance

A tech writer — maybe not the sort of person you’d expect — confesses that he is terrible with passwords. But he is hardly alone: In 2019, a survey conducted by Google and The Harris Poll found that 24% of Americans use “password,” “123456,” or some other ridiculously easy combination as the key to their online world. More than a third of people in the U.S. and Canada keep their passwords in notebooks or on Excel, according to a 2019 study from HYPR, the self-anointed “passwordless company.” And the same report detailed how 72% of people reuse their passwords in their professional and personal lives, while 49% just add or change a particular digit or character in their passwords when Read More ›

terracotta-warriors-china-stockpack-adobe-stock
Terracotta warriors, China
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
August 30, 2021
Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Law
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China’s Data Laws Restrict Businesses and Favor the State

The Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law are part of the Chinese government’s plan to steer the private sector toward State goals
Heather Zeiger
August 30, 2021
8
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Law

In previous articles, I looked at how the Chinese government is reigning in China’s tech sector first of Jack Ma and Ant Group’s initial public offering on the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges and then Didi Global, Inc. The Chinese government has since passed two data laws and released an update that clarifies the 2017 Cybersecurity Law. The result is better protections of citizens’ data from being used, exploited, or sold by private companies, and encroaching government presumption of the private sector in which the State has virtually unrestricted access to and jurisdiction over private companies’ data.  Clarification of the 2017 Cybersecurity Law The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) gained oversight powers over other state agencies in 2014 under Xi Jinping. Jane Read More ›

Symbol of law and justice with China Flag on laptop. Studio shot.
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 29, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy
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Chinese Communist Party Called Out For Cyber Attacks

The DOJ has indicted members of state-backed hacker group APT40 for cyber crimes dating back to 2009
Heather Zeiger
July 29, 2021
8
Data Privacy

On the same day that several countries formally accused the Chinese government of malicious cyber behavior, the U.S. Department of Justice made public its indictment of four Chinese hackers who are part of the hacker group, APT40.* Deng Xiaoyang, Chen Qingmin, and Zhu Yunmin are associated with the Hainan providential arm of China’s Ministry of State Security, and Wu Shurong is a private contractor in Hainan. They are charged with Conspiracy to Damage Protected Computers, Conspiracy to Commit Economic Espionage, and Criminal Forfeiture. The unsealed grand jury indictment outlines cybercrimes dating back to July 2009 and continuing through September 2018.  From the indictment: The object of the conspiracy was to install malware and hacking tools on protected computers and to leverage such Read More ›

Chinese hacker. Laptop with binary computer code and china flag on the screen. Internet and network security.
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 22, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Events
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U.S. and Allies Formally Accuse China of Exchange Server Hack

This isn’t the first time the Chinese-backed hacker group has infiltrated organizations
Heather Zeiger
July 22, 2021
7
Data Privacy, Events

On Monday, July 19, three cybersecurity announcements were made: In response to the massive Microsoft Exchange Server hack, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, the E.U., and NATO formally accused the Chinese government of engaging in harmful cyberactivity. The U.S. Department of Justice published its indictment of four Chinese hackers associated with the Chinese government, known as APT40. The FBI, CSIS, and the NSA published a cybersecurity advisory cataloging the fifty tactics, techniques, and procedures used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. Then, on Tuesday, the CSIA and the FBI published a report on state-sponsored international hacking groups that included accusations that the Chinese state-backed hackers infiltrated thirteen oil and natural gas pipeline operators between 2011 and 2013. In Read More ›

dna-test-in-the-lab-a-laboratory-technician-with-a-dispenser-in-his-hands-is-conducting-dna-analysis-in-a-sterile-laboratory-behind-glass-stockpack-adobe-stock
Dna test in the lab. a laboratory technician with a dispenser in his hands is conducting dna analysis in a sterile laboratory behind glass
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 14, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics, Law, Medicine and Health, Surveillance
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China Is Building the World’s Largest Global DNA Database

The government violates the country’s own privacy laws in the name of security and stability
Heather Zeiger
July 14, 2021
7
Data Privacy, Ethics, Law, Medicine and Health, Surveillance

A January 2021 study by a U.K. cybersecurity and privacy watchdog, Comparitech, found that China was the world’s worst offender for “widespread and invasive biometric data collection” out of ninety-six countries studied. The Chinese government aspires to build the world’s largest police-run DNA database. Its Made in China 2025 plan places a priority on building its biotechnology industry, which involves collecting a large number of DNA samples. The way Chinese authorities obtain DNA is often intrusive and without consent. In a previous article, we looked at how U.S. companies’ DNA sequencing and identification technologies end up in Xinjiang despite U.S. sanctions. In this article, we will look at how China is using DNA collection to further its national goals. China’s Read More ›

apps-globe
Young man using modern mobile phone
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post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
May 31, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics, Programming, Surveillance
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Does the Company Selling You Tech Have the Same Worldview As You?

A worldview is how we view the world and our place in it.
Andrew McDiarmid
May 31, 2021
5
Data Privacy, Ethics, Programming, Surveillance

Much of the technology we interact with today is part of a larger group of ecosystems maintained by major tech companies. If you have an iPhone, for example, you’re often more likely to use a Macbook, watch AppleTV, or subscribe to Apple Music. If you shop on Amazon, you might also have their Echo digital assistant or a Ring video doorbell. And if you Chromebook, you’re likely to use Gmail and maybe have a Pixel. Fueled by brand loyalty, tech ecosystems are part of the workings of a healthy free market. But if you’re going to commit to a tech company by being part of their ecosystem, it’s important to compare the worldview of that company to your own and Read More ›

divided-young-couple-busy-with-their-smartphones-each-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Divided young couple busy with their smartphones each
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post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
May 28, 2021
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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The (Magnetic) Force Is Strong With Apple — Here’s How to Resist

To keep the magnetic force in check between Big Tech and us, we must first establish who is boss over our technology
Andrew McDiarmid
May 28, 2021
5
Arts & Culture, Data Privacy, Surveillance

With the iPhone 12, Apple has introduced a new line of accessories that use magnetism to quickly attach and charge the phone. The company has used magnets for years to connect charging adapters and cases. Now they’re adding it to more products with the bet that iPhone users will find the lure of magnetic connection irresistible. As a natural phenomenon, magnetism is as old as dirt and yet it still amazes us when we see it in action. There’s another kind of magnetism at work here, too. It’s the pull of attraction between Apple’s devices and the people who use them. Like many longtime Apple customers, I have felt this attraction since 2008 when I purchased my first iPhone, the 3G. Read More ›

black triangle colors.jpg
Couleur
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post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
May 26, 2021
Categorized
Data Privacy, Programming, Surveillance
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How Google’s Chromebook Erodes Your Digital Freedom

A Chromebook is designed to serve up Google services, allowing Google outsized control of your computing experience and your digital identity.
Andrew McDiarmid
May 26, 2021
6
Data Privacy, Programming, Surveillance

This month, Chromebook turns ten years old. It’s a good time to take a look at Google’s latest Chromebook offering and show you why you can do better. Much better. Although the Pixelbook Go has a hefty price tag and is lighter, thinner, and faster than ever, it’s still just a Chromebook. Here’s why using a Chromebook weakens your computing power, erodes your digital freedom, and reduces your ability to learn and think. “I’ve got the power,” goes the famous 90’s song by Snap!, but you wouldn’t be able to sing that with confidence holding a Chromebook. Somewhere between netbook and notebook, the Chromebook is a physical manifestation of the Google ecosystem, giving customers who already use Google services a Read More ›

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Social media concept.
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post
Author
News
Date
May 3, 2021
Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy
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Fallout From Facebook’s Huge Privacy Hack: A Serious Unfriending

The Big Hack in April, in which even Mark Zuckerberg’s data got scraped, was hardly the first one Facebook faced
News
May 3, 2021
6
Business and Finance, Data Privacy

We’ll let engineering prof Karl Stephan start the story, comparing Facebook to God: For purposes of discussion, we will compare Facebook to the traditional Judeo-Christian God of the Old and New Testaments. And we will restrict the comparison primarily to two matters: communication and trust (or faith). Users of Facebook communicate with that entity by entering personal information into Facebook’s system. That act of communication is accompanied by a certain level of trust, or faith. Facebook promises to safeguard one’s information and not to reveal it to anyone else without your permission… Karl D. Stephan, “In Facebook we trust” at MercatorNet Safeguard the information? As recent news reports revealed, a month ago today, a hacker released roughly 533 million users’ Read More ›