wired
plainte
Couriers say Uber’s ‘racist’ facial identification tech got them fired - 21 mars 2021
BAME couriers working for Uber Eats and Uber claim that the company’s flawed identification technology is costing them their livelihoods
Uber Eats couriers say they have been fired because the company’s “racist” facial identification software is incapable of recognising their faces. The system, which Uber describes (...)
analyse
Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked—Including Private Data - 1er mars 2021
The transparency group DDoSecrets says it will make the 70GB of passwords, private posts, and more available to researchers, journalists, and social scientists.
When Twitter banned Donald Trump and a slew of other far-right users in January, many of them became digital refugees, migrating to sites like Parler and (...)
analyse
China Hijacked an NSA Hacking Tool in 2014—and Used It for Years - 25 février 2021
The hackers used the agency’s EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency’s zero-day arsenal online.
More than four years after a mysterious group of hackers known as the Shadow Brokers began wantonly leaking secret NSA hacking tools onto the internet, the question that (...)
analyse
Facebook’s Australia news ban is the best decision it’s ever made - 20 février 2021
Facebook and Google are giant advertising platforms, not tenets of an open web. It’s time to start treating them as such
Facebook did the right thing. Its decision to ban all Australian media organisations from its platform has been derided as a brazen act of censorship. It isn’t. For too long Facebook founder and (...)
analyse
Inside the warehouses where dud Amazon orders go to be reborn - 9 février 2021
As online shopping thrives during the pandemic, so does the market for mystery boxes filled with our unwanted goods
Just after Christmas 2019, Neil Barker was scrolling on his phone when he stumbled across videos of Americans buying and opening pallets of returned Amazon goods on YouTube.
Curious, he decided to (...)
analyse
The Capitol Attack Doesn’t Justify Expanding Surveillance - 9 janvier 2021
The security state that failed to keep DC safe doesn’t need invasive technology to meet this moment—it needs more civilian oversight.
They took our Capitol, stormed the halls, pilfered our documents, and shattered the norms of our democracy. The lasting damage from Wednesday’s attack will not come from the mob (...)
analyse
WhatsApp Has Shared Your Data With Facebook for Years, Actually - 8 janvier 2021
A pop-up notification has alerted the messaging app’s users to a practice that’s been in place since 2016.
Since Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, users have wondered and worried about how much data would flow between the two platforms. Many of them experienced a rude awakening this week, as a new in-app (...)
analyse
Police Want Your Smart Speaker—Here’s Why - 25 décembre 2020
Requests are rising from law enforcement for information on the devices, which can include internet queries, food orders, and overheard conversations.
In July 2019, police rushed to the home of 32-year-old Silvia Galva. Galva’s friend, also in the home, called 911, claiming she overheard a violent argument between (...)
analyse
As Cities Curb Surveillance, Baltimore Police Took to the Air - 11 décembre 2020
In a program that overcame three court challenges this year, planes with high-tech cameras circled the city up to 40 hours a week.
In August 2016, a Bloomberg report revealed a secret aerial surveillance program in Baltimore led by the city’s police department. Over eight months, planes equipped with cameras (...)
plainte
The Smoking Gun in the Facebook Antitrust Case - 11 décembre 2020
The government wants to break up the world’s biggest social network. Internal company emails show why.
Imagine a popular social network that takes privacy super seriously. By default, your posts are visible only to people in your real-life community. Not only does the company not use tracking cookies, but it (...)
analyse
Covid-19 has made ending online abuse even more urgent - 5 décembre 2020
Seyi Akiwowo started Glitch ! to hold tech platforms to account when it comes to online abuse – a mission that is more important than ever
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced countries into lockdown and more of our lives moved online, alarm bells rang for Seyi Akiwowo, founder and executive director of UK charity (...)
analyse
AI Can Run Your Work Meetings Now - 25 novembre 2020
A new wave of startups is trying to optimize meetings, from automated scheduling tools to facial recognition that measures who’s paying attention.
Julian Green was explaining the big problem with meetings when our meeting started to glitch. The pixels of his face rearranged themselves. A sentence came out as (...)
analyse
Huawei, 5G, and the Man Who Conquered Noise - 19 novembre 2020
How an obscure Turkish scientist’s obscure theoretical breakthrough helped the Chinese tech giant gain control of the future. US telecoms never had a chance.
“The city of Shenzhen in July. The weather is hot, the trees brimming with life … ”
So begins the baritone voice-over in a video shot in the summer of 2018 by (...)
analyse
Amazon wants to win Sweden. The Swedes have other ideas - 15 novembre 2020
Amazon faces an uphill struggle to dominate a market that plans to fight back
At the Malmö offices of online department store CDON, preparations have long been afoot for the Swedish launch of the retail giant Amazon. Scrawled on a giant whiteboard in the main meeting room are the words : “Bezos backs out ! Amazon (...)
analyse
Defending Black Lives Means Banning Facial Recognition - 13 novembre 2020
What’s happening in Detroit should be a wakeup call for the nation. We can’t stop police violence without ending police surveillance.
Uprisings for racial justice are sweeping the country. Following the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, named and unnamed, America has finally (...)
analyse
Police are using fingerprint scanners to target Black Britons - 4 novembre 2020
Police use of mobile fingerprint scanners is soaring. But as with stop-and-search, stop-and-scan is disproportionately being used against ethnic minorities
Three quarters of police forces in England and Wales now have access to mobile fingerprint scanners issued by the Home Office, new data reveals. In total, 28 (...)
analyse
How an Algorithm Blocked Kidney Transplants to Black Patients - 27 octobre 2020
A formula for assessing the gravity of kidney disease is one of many that is adjusted for race. The practice can exacerbate health disparities.
Black people in the US suffer more from chronic diseases and receive inferior health care relative to white people. Racially skewed math can make the problem worse. (...)
analyse
How Police Can Crack Locked Phones—and Extract Information - 26 octobre 2020
A report finds 50,000 cases where law enforcement agencies turned to outside firms to bypass the encryption on a mobile device.
Smartphone security measures have grown increasingly sophisticated in recent years, evolving from passcodes to thumbprints to face recognition and advanced encryption. A new report from (...)
analyse
Politicians have made an algorithm to fix the housing crisis. It’s bad - 16 octobre 2020
Politicians believe an algorithm can solve England’s housing woes. The problem ? It’s making things worse, not better
In Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s new-look Whitehall, spin doctors, civil servants and political strategies are out and algorithms are in.
Nothing has exposed how badly that ideology is faring (...)
analyse
Meet the Excel warriors saving the world from spreadsheet disaster - 15 octobre 2020
Spreadsheets run the world. When they break, governments and companies turn to an elite group of experts to save the day
David Lyford-Smith is an expert at solving spreadsheet mysteries. Once, in a previous job, he was sent a payroll form to look over for a new starter. It had the number 40,335 in a random box, (...)
