On The Wire

The Algorithms Shaping Our World

Machine learning is supplementing or replacing human decision making in virtually all sectors of society. Law, medicine, education, insurance, banking, advertising, communication, dating. The list goes on. Netflix Recommendation Engine filters content and makes recommendations for subscribers. Google Street View images have been used to estimate the demographic makeup of ...
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Cyberespionage and the New Hacktivism

Cyberespionage is the act of obtaining information from individuals, governments and private-sector entities without permission for political or military advantage. In the cyber universe espionage involves access to computers or networks for a strategic gain. It is distinct from cyber threats motivated by theft or fraud. A hacker is someone ...
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Machine Learning: Privacy in Processing

Machine learning is shaping our society. It is used virtually everywhere. Simply living modern life has created an explosion of data. Improvements in processing capabilities allow for unprecedented levels of analysis. Machine learning is a core component of artificial intelligence. Advanced algorithms are capable of gleaning insights and correlations between ...
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Apple’s New iOS to End Invisible Tracking

We are tracked. All day, every day. We are tracked so that data brokers can learn what we are susceptible to and refine how to profit from exploiting what they know about us. The nature of this tracking is about to change. In the coming weeks, Apple is expected to ...
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Privacy and Aerial Surveillance

Aerial surveillance includes monitoring by drones, unmanned aircraft and surveillance planes operated by human pilots. The concern about the privacy implications arising from the warrantless use of aircraft to take photographs and videos has increased over the last year with their deployment by municipal law enforcement agencies. The concern is ...
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Dancing With Killer Robots

Lethal autonomous weapons are a type of robot that can independently search out and engage targets without meaningful human control. They are also called lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS), lethal autonomous robots (LAR) and autonomous weapons systems (AWS). The international non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch, has expressed "serious doubts" whether ...
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An Affront to Privacy: Clearview AI in Canada

Clearview AI scraped billions of photos from the internet and turned them into a powerful facial recognition tool used by at least 30 Canadian law enforcement agencies. Earlier this month, Canadian privacy officials released a report of their investigation into Clearview AI's activities. The message from Daniel Therrien, the Privacy ...
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Rudy Giuliani and the Big Lie

On January 25, 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Rudolph W. Giuliani who was a central figure in the efforts of former President Donald J. Trump to subvert the 2020 election in the United States. Dominion claims that Mr. Giuliani carried out a "viral disinformation campaign" comprised ...
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Dominion Voting Systems Sues pro-Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell

On January 8, 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against lawyer Sidney Powell demanding over $1.3 billion in damages caused by her proliferation of "wild" and "demonstrably false" accusations that it rigged the 2020 U.S. election, was created in Venezuela to manipulate elections for Hugo Chavez and that ...
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Canada’s New Data Protection Bill: Is It Adequate?

On November 17, 2020, the Canadian federal government tabled Bill C-11 in the House of Commons. If passed, the Digital Charter Implementation Act will enact two new pieces of legislation: the Consumer Privacy Protection Act and the Data Protection Tribunal Act. Together, they form a long-awaited overhaul to federal privacy legislation. 1 ...
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