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Automated racism : How tech can entrench bias - 2 mars 2021
Dutch benefits scandal highlights need for EU scrutiny.
In the run-up to parliamentary elections in the Netherlands this month, center-right and extreme right parties are outdoing one another in calling for a surveillance state that will come down on marginalized and minority groups in all its might.
This should (...)
plainte
WhatsApp facing up to €50M privacy fine - 26 janvier 2021
The draft penalty would be one of the largest under the European Union’s data protection rules.
Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp could be fined up to €50 million over violations of the European Union’s data protection rules, according to three people with direct knowledge of the procedure who spoke with (...)
information
Hacker seeks to extort Finnish mental health patients after data breach - 28 octobre 2020
Tens of thousands of patients concerned by massive hack.
A hacker is trying to blackmail tens of thousands of Finnish patients after gaining access to their medical records from therapy sessions, in what experts and the country’s top politicians called a "shocking" cyberattack.
Police said on Saturday that a (...)
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Why the right-wing has a massive advantage on Facebook - 27 septembre 2020
A company executive responds to claims of bias.
Throughout 2020, Democrats have denounced Facebook with growing ferocity as a "right-wing echo chamber" with a “conservative bias” that’s giving an edge to Donald Trump in November.
But Facebook says there’s a reason why right-wing figures are driving more engagement. (...)
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Delivery companies unveil labor deal with Italian far-right union - 24 septembre 2020
The deal could allow the likes of Uber Eats and Deliveroo to avoid additional regulation.
A coalition of food-delivery companies on Wednesday unveiled a deal with a far-right-affiliated Italian union, pushing through their version of employee protection for gig workers as an alternative to classifying them as (...)
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Facebook to stop moving data from EU to US : 5 things you need to know - 12 septembre 2020
Here’s what the pending decision means for transatlantic relations.
The countdown is on.
Facebook will be forced to stop moving data from its European users to the United States as early as next month after Ireland’s data protection watchdog told the social networking giant that its current means of transferring (...)
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UK government faces elitism row after algorithm downgrades pupils - 17 août 2020
The controversy has reignited a debate about education and class.
The U.K. government is facing a growing row over final-year school grades after thousands of pupils in England were downgraded by an algorithm.
Schools, educational-equality bodies and opposition politicians have called for the results to be (...)
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Why the tech giants may suffer lasting pain from their Hill lashing - 30 juillet 2020
Lawmakers investigating Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple made it clear that their allegations of antitrust abuses come with a lengthy paper trail.
Wednesday’s much-anticipated antitrust hearing subjected four of the tech industry’s most powerful CEOs to hours of aggressive questioning by Republicans and Democrats (...)
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Justice Department opposes Google, Facebook cable link to Hong Kong - 1er juillet 2020
Officials warn that if allowed to proceed, an underseas cable project could expose Americans’ data to China’s government.
A key group of Trump administration officials now formally opposes an effort involving Google and Facebook to activate an underwater cable network connecting the United States to Hong Kong.
In (...)
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How Google and Apple outflanked governments in the race to build coronavirus apps - 18 mai 2020
Tech giants played hardball in forcing policymakers to fall in line with their approach to building digital tracking tools.
In the digital fight against COVID-19, Big Tech squared off against governments — and won.
As policymakers around Europe pushed to develop smartphone apps to track the spread of the (...)
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Poland’s coronavirus app offers playbook for other governments – POLITICO - 9 avril 2020
Matylda Dobrowolska followed quarantine orders to the letter when she returned to Warsaw from a two-week vacation in Mexico.
But there was one thing the 25-year-old Pole would not do — download a government-backed smartphone app designed to track her movements during the 14-day period of isolation.
"The terms and (...)
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Donate data to health authorities to fight virus, says German epidemiologist – POLITICO - 28 mars 2020
Tapping into digital traces could give authorities valuable insights into the virus, Dirk Brockmann believes.
BERLIN — There’s a simple way people can help the fight against coronavirus, beyond washing their hands — donating their data.
That’s according to one of Germany’s leading experts in digital epidemiology, an (...)
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In fight against coronavirus, governments embrace surveillance – POLITICO - 26 mars 2020
Chinese-style surveillance is coming to a neighborhood near you.
From drones barking orders at park-goers to tracing people’s movements through cellphones, Western governments are rushing to embrace sophisticated surveillance tools that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
In the European Union, home (...)
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Commission tells carriers to hand over mobile data in coronavirus fight – POLITICO - 25 mars 2020
Thierry Breton held a conference call with telecoms executives to ask for greater access to people’s anonymized information.
The European Commission on Monday urged Europe’s telecoms giants including Deutsche Telekom and Orange to share reams of people’s mobile data from across the region to help predict the spread (...)
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Facebook can be forced to delete defamatory content worldwide, top EU court rules - 4 octobre 2019
The ruling paves the way for future EU legislation on illegal content online.
Europe’s highest court ruled Thursday that Facebook could be ordered to track down and remove content globally if it was found to be illegal in one EU country.
The decision represents a major step toward forcing social media companies (...)
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Google Is Building a City of the Future in Toronto. Would Anyone Want to Live There ? - 11 juillet 2018
It could be the coolest new neighborhood on the planet"”or a peek into the Orwellian metropolis that knows everything you did last night.
Even with a chilly mid-May breeze blowing off Lake Ontario, this city’s western waterfront approaches idyllic. The lake laps up against the boardwalk, people sit in colorful (...)
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Can Washington Be Automated ? - 25 janvier 2018
An algorithmic lobbyist sounds like a joke. But it’s already here. Here’s who the robots are coming for next.
It’s a brisk late November afternoon in an 8th-floor office overlooking downtown Washington’s Thomas Circle. The White House is an easy five block walk ; the Hart Senate Office Building, a 15-minute cab ride. (...)
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U.S. government begins asking foreign travelers about social media - 28 décembre 2016
The U.S. government quietly began requesting that select foreign visitors provide their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts upon arriving in the country, a move designed to spot potential terrorist threats that drew months of opposition from tech giants and privacy hawks alike.
Since Tuesday, (...)
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U.S. rallying to support Google as it faces EU Parliament vote - AWS-3 hits $37.5 billion - 28 novembre 2014
ACROSS THE POND : EU PARLIAMENT’S SET TO VOTE FOR A GOOGLE BREAKUP, BUT THE U.S. IS RALLYING ITS SUPPORT — The D.C. set has been pretty focused on turkey this week, but our European counterparts aren’t in the same tryptophan coma. On Thanksgiving, the European Parliament is set to vote on a controversial proposal (...)
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Google’s states of play - 23 juin 2014
Google is a Washington powerhouse that shapes federal law, rewards congressional allies and boasts a new 54,000-square-foot office, just down the road from the U.S. Capitol. But the Internet giant quietly has planted its political roots in places far beyond the Beltway "” in state legislatures and city councils (...)