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Techrights

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 16, 2024

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Contents

Leftovers

Cyble Inc ☛ Young Cyber Scammer Arrested For Attacks On 45 US Companies

> The modus operandi of the cybercriminal was simple: use phishing techniques to obtain access credentials from individuals,; use these credentials to infiltrate corporate work systems; exfiltrate sensitive company data that was likely monetized and put up for sale on dark web forums; and also access victims’ cryptocurrency wallets to siphon them off.

Standards/Consortia

Thomas Rigby ☛ Email is good actually

> I, like many people, hated email. Because, like many people, I hadn't tamed it.

> Using similar principles to social media; block and report liberally, email can become a calm and inviting place full of wonder instead of a cesspit of SPAM.

Digital Trends ☛ What is RCS messaging? A briefing on the SMS successor

> RCS is a carrier-side service, which means it still requires support from your carrier. While the RCS branding is gradually catching on, some carriers still use other terms like Advanced Messaging Services, Joyn, and SMS Plus (SMS+). These are largely just different names for RCS, and as of this writing, there are about 55 carriers worldwide that offer RCS support, including all the major North American ones.

Science

Science Alert ☛ Earth Possibly Exposed to Interstellar Anomaly Millions of Years Ago

> Did a freak event alter our destiny?

Science Alert ☛ Your Body's Internal Clock May Boost Cancer Treatments, Scientists Say

> Right on time.

Science Alert ☛ Mathematician Reveals 'Equals' Has More Than One Meaning in Math

Science Alert ☛ The Human Brain's Complexity Verges on The Brink of Chaos, Physicists Say

> It's not just you.

Science Alert ☛ The Blood of Exceptionally Long-Lived People Reveals Crucial Differences

Science Alert ☛ Mysterious, Rare Syndrome Causes The Human Body to 'Brew' Alcohol

> It makes you drunk from the inside.

Education

USMC ☛ Marine training shifts may add tech, change officer assignments

> The Training and Education 2030 planning document released in January 2023, under then-Commandant Gen. David Berger, laid out gaps in doctrine for such skills as drone and cyber operations, and emphasized modernizing training simulators and other education technologies.

Hardware

[Repeat] Tedium ☛ ARM Vs. Qualcomm: A Messy Fight That Benefits Consumers

> The emergence of a conflict between Qualcomm and Arm over desktop chip dominance feels like a revival of one of the PC industry’s most important conflicts.

[Repeat] Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel denies reports that it identified a root cause for Core i9 crashing issues — investigation continues

> Intel has confirmed to Tom's Hardware that reports it has solved the root cause of the Core i9 crashing issues are false. Intel's statement is counter to German publication Igor's Lab, which reported earlier today that Intel had discovered the root of the problems affecting the stability of 13th Raptor Lake and 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh Core i9 processors, spawning a wave of reporting that claimed a fix would arrive via a firmware patch.

The Verge ☛ Intel says it still doesn’t have the true fix for its crashing i9 desktop chips

> It continues: “The microcode patch referenced in press reports fixes an eTVB bug discovered by Intel while investigating the instability reports. While this issue is potentially contributing to instability, it is not the root cause.”

> Intel’s official statement references (and partially confirms) leaked internal Intel documents obtained by Igor’s Lab earlier today. Those documents suggest that part of the problem is how Intel’s chips have been erroneously overclocking their own cores, using a feature called Enhanced Thermal Velocity Boost (eTVB), even when they should have known they were running too hot to do that.

> “Root cause is an incorrect value in a microcode algorithm associated with the eTVB feature,” that leaked document began. It continued: [...]

The Verge ☛ Wells Fargo workers using ‘mouse movers’ are getting caught and fired

> According to a report from Bloomberg based on “disclosures filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority,” last month, Wells Fargo fired “more than a dozen employees” after an investigation revealed they were using devices or apps to simulate productivity on their computers. What’s not known is how over a dozen staffers had jobs where their productivity could be measured by mouse movements.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

Ness Labs ☛ Presenteeism: The Hidden Productivity Killer

> Much has been written about the cost of absenteeism, with some calling it The Bottom-Line Killer. For entrepreneurs who don’t have a boss tracking their work hours, absenteeism may simply mean being checked out and not showing up. But there’s a hidden productivity killer we should perhaps pay more attention to: presenteeism.

> Presenteeism is working longer hours than needed and showing up even when sick. Studies suggest that presenteeism can have a greater impact than absenteeism on your business in terms of performance and productivity. But, more importantly, it can have terrible consequences in terms of mental and physical health, to the point where researchers have even called it “a public health hazard.”

Los Angeles Times ☛ L.A. County COVID cases rise amid FLiRT variants summer uptick - Los Angeles Times

> While the numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are relatively low, the uptick is an indication of an expected summer wave, health experts say.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Derek Kędziora ☛ Burning through my Mac battery with iCloud drive

> TLDR: don’t use iCloud for files that you change a lot, such as complex notes in Obsidian, local builds of Jekyll or git repositories.

> The longer version: not really thinking about it, I had my jekyll projects in my documents folder, which is synced with iCloud drive. Even a small change when running a local build changes hundreds of files, and iCloud can neither keep up, nor does it stop trying. I noticed the same if I switched branches on a git repo (I use local git for versioning, so kept it iCloud as a backup).

Futurism ☛ It Turns Out Apple Is Only Paying OpenAI in Exposure

> But as Bloomberg reports, no hard cash changed hands as part of the deal, and neither party expects a direct boost in revenue. Apple isn't paying OpenAI, but the thinking goes that it's more than making up for this by giving the startup tons of exposure, according to Bloomberg's sources, as it thrusts ChatGPT into the hands of Apple's hundreds of millions of devices and customers.

Futurism ☛ Companies Find That AI Projects Have Had "Dismal" Financial Results

> Researchers at Lucidworks gathered survey responses from over 2,500 business heads in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region for this study, and found that only 63 percent are planning spending increases on AI products this year. That's a swift drop from last year, when 93 percent of surveyed companies were planning to increase their spending on AI.

> Another telling data point: this year, 36 percent of companies are planning to keep their spending on AI products "flat" versus 6 percent last year.

[Repeat] Tom's Hardware ☛ Minecraft players outraged as Microsoft deletes accounts that weren't transitioned

> What happened to accounts that weren’t migrated in time? According to Microsoft’s web page and emails to Mojang account. holders, they would not be able to sign in to Minecraft.net or the Minecraft launcher. Eventually, the accounts would be deleted.

Tom's Hardware ☛ Framework disses other PC makers about overuse of AI branding

> Framework made a snarky post on X last May 29, asking if it was the only laptop maker that doesn’t slap AI branding all over its landing page. This was probably made in regards to the upcoming Computex 2024, which started on June 3, and had AI everywhere. The company then made a follow-up post a couple of weeks later, saying that May was its highest revenue month since Framework started, meaning its non-use of AI branding isn’t having a negative effect on the company’s sales.

Scoop News Group ☛ Financial regulators have ‘insufficiently’ addressed hedge funds’ use of AI, report says

> In a 45-page report, shared exclusively with FedScoop and led by HSGAC Chair Gary Peters, D-Mich., staffers found the combination of recent regulatory actions and the current federal legal framework to “insufficiently address the evolving uses of AI in the financial services sector, including by hedge funds in trading decisions.”

Wired ☛ No Matter How You Package It, Apple Intelligence Is AI

> That conversation took place eight years ago, when the technology du jour was deep learning AI. But a year after that, a groundbreaking advance called Transformers led to a new wave of smart software called generative AI, which powered OpenAI’s groundbreaking ChatGPT. In an instant, people started judging tech companies by how aggressively they jumped on the trend. OpenAI’s rivals were quick to act. Apple, not so much. Many of its best AI scientists had been working on self-driving cars or its expensive mixed-reality Vision Pro headset. In the last year or so, Apple pulled its talent from such projects—no more autonomous cars—and instead came up with its own gen-AI strategy. And at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple revealed what it was up to.

Security

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

Vice Media Group ☛ The Teenager Who Lived a Secret Double Life as a Millionaire Crypto Bandit

> Marble didn’t know it yet, but he was the victim of a new and growing form of cyber crime called “sim swapping,” that’s been linked to huge crypto heists in which millions of dollars have been stolen.

Privacy/Surveillance

[Repeat] Reason ☛ Illinois License Plate Cameras Are Violating People's Constitutional Rights, Says New Suit

> The complaint—filed by two residents of Cook County, Stephanie Scholl and Frank Bednarz, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on May 30—names the Illinois State Police (ISP), ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker as the defendants.

> "Defendants are tracking anyone who drives to work in Cook County—or to school, or a grocery store, or a doctor's office, or a pharmacy, or a political rally, or a romantic encounter, or family gathering—every day," the lawsuit states, "without any reason to suspect anyone of anything, and are holding onto those whereabouts just in case they decide in the future that some citizen might be an appropriate target of law enforcement."

[Repeat] Security Week ☛ Vermont Governor Vetoes Data Privacy Bill, Saying State Would be Most Hostile to Businesses

> Vermont’s governor has vetoed a broad data privacy bill that would have been one of the strongest in the country to crack down on companies’ use of online personal data by letting consumers file civil lawsuits against companies that break certain privacy rules.

Patrick Breyer ☛ Council to greenlight Chat Control – Take action now!

> Tell your government that the current draft on Chat Control is unacceptable. Be polite but also resolute and ask them to clearly voice their disagreement against the proposal and to vote against the proposal.

> Further, ask them to insist on a formal vote and for the abstentions to be properly counted by the presidency. (Otherwiese, in the Permanent Representatives Committee, there sometimes is a procedural trick, where a presidency does not actively ask for abstentions, even though they would have to be counted as “No” votes otherwise).

India Times ☛ Microsoft to delay release of Recall AI feature on security concerns

> Privacy concerns were raised soon after the announcement of this feature, with some social media users expressing fears that it could enable spying, while billionaire technologist Elon Musk called it a "Black Mirror episode", making comparisons to the Netflix series that explores the harmful effects of advanced technology.

PC Mag ☛ Snowden: OpenAI Hiring Former NSA Director Is 'Willful, Calculated Betrayal'

> OpenAI has appointed a former director of the National Security Agency (NSA) to its board, and that's not sitting well with Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked the NSA's surveillance secrets a decade ago and now lives in Russia.

> "Do not ever trust OpenAI," Snowden tweeted today after the company named retired US Army General Paul Nakasone to the board's new Safety and Security Committee.

El País ☛ Apple’s new artificial intelligence leaves out more than 90% of current iPhone users

> The new Apple Intelligence system and the expected deep revamp of Siri — coming in the fall, and in testing phase, with the new iOS 18 operating system — will sideline well over 90% of current iPhone users, if they don’t buy a new smartphone. In the absence of official data from Apple, estimates indicate that there are about 1.5 billion active iPhone users worldwide, and different analysts estimate that iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max — the world’s best-selling phones — could number close to 100 million units. This means that Apple Intelligence would not even reach 7% of Apple’s total cell phone users. What’s more, users outside the U.S. will also be excluded from that percentage for now.

CBC ☛ Microsoft delays adding 'photographic memory' screenshot feature to Windows over privacy concerns

> Recall works by periodically taking snapshots of a computer screen to give Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot a "photographic memory" of a person's virtual activity, ostensibly to help someone remember what they did earlier.

> Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella touted the new feature at a showcase event last month, describing it as a step toward artificial intelligence machines that "instantly see us, hear, reason about our intent and our surroundings."

EDRI ☛ High-Level Group “Going Dark” outcome: A mission failure

> On 13 June, the Justice and Home Affairs Council, composed of EU Member States’ ministers of the Interior, will discuss the recommendations of the High-Level Group (HLG) on Access to Data for Effective Law Enforcement (“Going Dark”). This blogpost provides a short analysis of the HLG’s recommendations and a summary of its procedural flaws.

Futurism ☛ Microsoft Admits That Maybe Surveiling Everything You Do on Your Computer Isn’t a Brilliant Idea

> After announcing a new AI feature that records and screenshots everything you do, Microsoft is now delaying its launch after widespread objections.

> The company broke the news in a blog post detailing its decision not to ship the feature, dubbed Recall, on new computers so that it can continue to "leverage the expertise" of its Windows Insider Program (WIP) beta-testing community.

404 Media ☛ Cops Released a Car’s Travel History to a Total Stranger

> In a rare instance of too much transparency, an Ohio police department released the precise movements of a particular vehicle in response to a public records request, showing just how invasive license plate reading technology can be.

Defence/Aggression

The Straits Times ☛ Two killed in Johor Bahru suburb shootout with Malaysian police

> One of the suspects was a 42-year-old man with a criminal record involving 38 offences.

The Straits Times ☛ China Premier Li starts Australia trip with Adelaide panda announcement, winery visit

> Mr Li will also visit the capital Canberra on June 17 for a meeting with PM Anthony Albanese.

The Straits Times ☛ China views Taiwan’s ‘elimination’ as national cause, Taiwan president says

> He told cadets at a military academy that they must know their enemy & not give in to defeatism.

The Straits Times ☛ Philippines submits UN claim to extended continental shelf

> Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The Record ☛ European police tackle Islamic State and al-Qaida propaganda and recruitment websites

> Sites linked to Islamic State, al-Qaida and its affiliates, as well as the Syria-based rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham were referred for removal under European Union laws as part of a yearlong operation involving 10 law enforcement authorities across the continent.

> The EU laws require hosting service providers to remove the content within an hour of receiving a removal order, or face a penalty determined by the individual member state.

NL Times ☛ Netherlands among 13 countries in global terrorism propaganda busts; Spain arrests 9

> The investigations developed from a 2022 case investigated by the Guardia Civil, the national police service in Spain. They gradually expanded their investigation abroad as they traced a complex web of technological services which were used to distribute propaganda. The casework was divided into two investigations, one focused more on information communications technology, and the other examining channels disseminating propaganda from Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, and al-Qaeda affiliated groups.

Hindustan Times ☛ Kentucky man convicted of training with Islamic State group in Syria

> A jury in Bowling Green convicted Mirsad Hariz Adem Ramic, 34, of multiple counts of supporting and receiving military-type training from the Islamic State group, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The jury returned the verdict on Tuesday, according to a media release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

New Yorker ☛ Hunter Biden’s Conviction and Trump’s Risk to the Justice Department in 2024

> “It defies imagination to think that this is a case that would have existed in any other context than the context of Biden being in the White House,” Susan B. Glasser says.

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

RFERL ☛ World Leaders Converge For Ukraine Summit Shadowed By Putin's Hard-Line Demands

> Ukrainian President Volodymyz Zelenskiy hailed a gathering of world leaders in Switzerland tasked with helping develop a roadmap to end Europe’s biggest war in eight decades even as the absence of Russian and Chinese officials dampened prospects for a major breakthrough.

European Commission ☛ Speech by President von der Leyen at the opening plenary of the Summit on Peace in Ukraine

Atlantic Council ☛ The view from Kyiv: Why Ukrainian NATO membership is in US interests

> US President Joe Biden recently voiced his skepticism over Ukrainian NATO membership, but enabling Ukraine to join the alliance would be in American interests, writes Alyona Getmanchuk.

France24 ☛ Zelensky says will present peace plan to Russia once agreed by international community

> Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday he would present Moscow a proposal for ending the war once it had been agreed by the international community.

New York Times ☛ Ukrainian Refugees in Devon, England, Feel Safer but Lost

> “When you live in the past, the people around you hate you, don’t understand and don’t accept you,” Valentyna Odnoviu wrote.

New York Times ☛ Ukraine Peace Talks Held in Switzerland, Though Russia Isn’t Invited

> Kyiv hopes to garner nations’ support for three points in its peace proposal, but it’s a hard sell, with China and Brazil declining to send high-level delegations.

New York Times ☛ Western Anxiety Makes for an Unexpectedly Smooth G7 Summit

> Political weakness, intractable wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, and challenges from Russia and China combined to create solidarity behind American leadership.

Latvia ☛ Baiba Braže flags up threat of Russia's Baltic 'shadow fleet'

> Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže was in Porvoo, Finland on 13 and 14 June 2024, at the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) meeting, and used the opportunity to raise an important subject– Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" – a term usually used to refer to ships using a flag of convenience, fake paperwork or other underhand tactics to circumvent sanctions.

France24 ☛ IOC issues initial list of 14 Russians, 11 Belarusians given neutral status for Paris Olympics

> The IOC approved 14 athletes from Russia and 11 Belarusians with neutral status to compete at the Paris Olympics in a first list from some sports published Saturday.

RFERL ☛ Secretary Of Russia's Ruling Party Steps Down

> Andrei Turchak on June 15 resigned from his post as secretary of United Russia with Vladimir Yakushev, the presidential envoy in the Urals Federal District, appointed as the acting secretary.

RFERL ☛ Olympic Committee Approves 25 Russian, Belarusian Athletes For Paris Games

> The Olympics governing body on June 15 approved 14 Russians and 11 Belarusians with neutral status to compete at the Paris games this summer.

RFERL ☛ Sweden Says Russian Tactical Bomber Violates Airspace, Intercepted By Jets

> Sweden’s military said a Russian tactical bomber was intercepted by fighter jets after the bomber briefly violated Sweden's airspace.

New York Times ☛ It’s Not Just Russia: China Joins the G7’s List of Adversaries

> While not invited to the Group of 7 meeting, China was still a major presence, with the summit’s final communiqué referencing the country 28 times, almost always as a malign force.

RFERL ☛ Belarusian Journalist Facing Extradition Says Fighting To 'Save My Life'

> Belarusian journalist and opposition activist Andrey Hnyot, who is being held in Serbia, told RFE/RL’s Balkan Service on June 14 that he is fighting extradition to “save my life.”

Environment

The Atlantic ☛ One Satellite Crash Could Upend Modern Life

> A “Big One” in space would be a strangely quiet event. We would not see the swaying of the infrastructure that makes so much of our modern life possible; instead disaster would manifest right in the palms of our hands as our smartphones suddenly struggled to work. Satellite technology provides communications, GPS, and even an accounting of time to people, businesses, and governments around the world. If it fails, power grids, agricultural functions, shipping routes, and banking transactions could quickly falter too. New missions to restore technological normalcy would launch into a more perilous environment, one that may be too dangerous for astronauts to traverse. In the worst-case scenario, a hypothetical phenomenon called Kessler syndrome, space could become so overpopulated that collisions lead to a cascade of even more collisions, rendering low Earth orbit nearly impossible to navigate.

Truthdig ☛ How the Recycling Symbol Lost All Meaning

> Today, the recycling icon is omnipresent — found on plastic bottles, cereal boxes, and bins loitering alongside curbs across the country. The chasing arrows, though, are often plastered on products that aren’t recyclable at all, particularly products made of plastic, like dog chew toys and inflatable swim rings. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency said that the symbol’s use on many plastic products was “deceptive.”

Energy/Transportation

Jacobin Magazine ☛ Kathy Hochul’s Pause on Congestion Pricing Is Indefensible

> The idea behind New York’s congestion pricing program was to incentivize commuters to take other types of transportation into Lower Manhattan. Those who continue to drive would be charged a fee, and the program’s revenue would be directed toward the MTA for capital expansions. This approach would likely have persuaded some commuters to find other transportation options as a preliminary report estimated that the number of cars entering Lower Manhattan would drop by 17 percent, equal to 153,000 fewer automobiles. This would reduce traffic and carbon emissions while promoting safer streets and cleaner air within the congestion zone.

> Furthermore, the revenue gained from the congestion pricing would have been substantial, as the program was expected to generate $1 billion per year for the MTA, allowing it to invest upward of $15 billion in capital expansions over time. These investments would improve service and extend more affordable transportation options to residents. The decision to suspend congestion pricing indefinitely becomes inexcusable when considering what has already been invested in the program and who specifically would have benefitted from it.

Finance

Hong Kong Free Press ☛ HKFP Lens: Across Hong Kong, the streets bear the scars of a stubbornly weak retail sector – shuttered stores

> Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong was known as a “shopping paradise.” But since lifting all anti-epidemic measures early last year, the city has struggled to live up to its reputation.

Taler ☛ GNU Taler

> This thesis presents a solution for account-less and privacy-preserving subscriptions based on GNU Taler. The solution is convenient for customers, affordable for merchants, and resistant to abusive sharing of subscriptions. Subscriptions are valid during a configured timeframe, while usage during that timeframe is unlimited. The flexible design of the solution allows it to be used for a wide array of use cases beyond subscriptions, such as discounts, loyalty stamps, multi-entry event ticketing, membership programs, deposit systems, and privacy-preserving gifts. In addition, the solution's low operational costs, coupled with its built-in protection against abusive sharing of subscriptions, make it highly attractive to merchants.

> The solution is implemented in the GNU Taler merchant component as free and open source software. The integration into the GNU Taler wallets is subject to future work. Furthermore, to inform customers about the degree of anonymity for a given subscription, an additional service for authorizing the anonymity set size of subscriptions is proposed.

Taler ☛ GNU Taler

> In the context of this thesis, the GNU Taler auditor was improved, and now works in real-time, thus providing operators and regulators with more timely insights into the payment system. This was achieved by changing the existing logic, which would previously generate periodic JSON reports, to a database-centric approach. By implementing a REST API service for the newly generated database tables, the newly created single page application is able to visualize audit data in real-time on its dashboards.

> To achieve those changes, the six GNU Taler auditor helper programs, each responsible for analyzing different parts of a GNU Taler exchange, were adapted. The existing report generating logic was analyzed and the database was extended with tables to store the various findings generated by the auditor. This replaces the existing periodic report generating logic.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

Ed Zitron ☛ Silicon Valley's False Prophet

> The tech industry has craved a messiah since the death of Steve Jobs, but in OpenAI CEO Sam Altman they’ve discovered more of a false prophet — a seedy grifter that uses his remarkable ability to impress and manipulate Silicon Valley’s elite to mask a total lack of technical or business acumen.

> I realize that this sounds a little dramatic, and a little inflammatory, but the air around Altman has, for years, been that he’s somehow a magical, special creature — a man “wise beyond his years” at the tender age of 19 — who, to quote startup incubator Y Combinator’s Paul Graham, “could be parachuted into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and be king.” The Sam Altman myth is one of a person gifted with immense talent and ability, but without any demonstrations of where said talents and abilities have been employed.

International Business Times ☛ AI Candidate 'Vic' Is Running For Mayor In Wyoming: Can He Win?

> Officials in Wyoming, however, are sparing no effort to figure out whether an AI-backed candidate can run for mayor of the City of Cheyenne. "Can voters elect an AI for mayor?" the Wyoming Tribune Eagle asked.

> On Monday, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray called on the City Clerk of Cheyenne to deny VIC's candidacy. "Wyoming law does not permit an artificial intelligence bot to run for any office in the state, including municipal offices," Gray wrote.

International Business Times ☛ Pope Francis To Take Center Stage At G7 Summit, Urge Global AI Regulation

> However, his concerns about AI extend far beyond the unflattering image as AI is also the central focus at the Group of Seven summit. Having personally experienced the power of AI technology in 2023, he has joined calls for an international treaty on AI regulation. He is also raising important concerns about the development of AI.

> Pope Francis is scheduled to deliver a speech today, Friday, June 14, at the G7 summit in southern Italy. This marks the first time a pope has addressed the G7 leaders. His focus will be on advocating for stricter regulations on AI, particularly in light of the recent advancements in generative AI exemplified by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.

India Times ☛ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says company could become benefit corporation: report

> One scenario Altman said the board is considering is a for-profit benefit corporation, which rivals such as Anthropic and xAI are using, the report said, citing a person who heard the comments.

NL Times ☛ Dutch appeals court orders xHamster to remove unapproved adult content within 3 days

> According to Offlimits, the ruling applies to all content on the website, but in practice, it is especially relevant for videos from before October 2021. In that month, xHamster changed its terms and conditions so that uploads must be accompanied by a consent form. Worldwide, the ruling applies to videos featuring Dutch people who are not p*rn actors. In the Netherlands, it applies to all people who aren’t professionals in the p*rnography industry and who have not given permission for content of them to be online.

XBiz ☛ Court Orders xHamster to Remove Dutch Amateur Content

> An Amsterdam appeals court has upheld a lower-court decision ordering xHamster to remove all content featuring Dutch people who have not given explicit permission for their images to be posted.

[Old] XBiz ☛ Dutch Court Orders xHamster to Get Model Consent for All Amateur Content

> Last week’s decision confirms the previous ruling, but also establishes a precedent of jurisdiction for platforms located outside the Netherlands whose content can be accessed through the [Internet].

VOA News ☛ World leaders discuss AI as China’s digital influence in Latin America grows

> On Friday, Francis became the first pope to speak at a G7 summit. He spoke about AI and its ethical implications and the need to balance technological progress with values.

> “Artificial intelligence could enable a democratization of access to knowledge, the exponential advancement of scientific research, and the possibility of giving demanding and arduous work to machines,” he said.

> But Francis also warned that AI "could bring with it a greater injustice between advanced and developing nations, or between dominant and oppressed social classes.”

> Technology and security experts have noted that AI is becoming an increasingly geopolitical issue, particularly as the U.S. and China compete in regions such as Latin America.

The Register UK ☛ Stanford Internet Observatory wilts under legal pressure

> SIO came under fire last year from the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, overseen by House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Last summer the panel demanded documents from SIO related to its online speech moderation efforts and threatened legal action for non-compliance. Stanford is said to have partially complied.

> SIO participated in the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) and the Virality Project (VP), along with other organizations, in an effort to limit online misinformation. Those efforts made it the target of legal groups like America First Legal, which sued SIO and those involved last November claiming [PDF] that the EIP, as a public-private partnership, violates First Amendment free speech rights.

Scoop News Group ☛ CISA leads first tabletop exercise for AI cybersecurity

> CISA did not release the details of the three modules in the tabletop, but the exercise with industry focused on understanding what makes up AI-enabled or AI-related cybersecurity incidents, determining what types of information-sharing is needed and how industry can best work with the government, and vice versa.

Scoop News Group ☛ Bipartisan bill requiring agency CAIOs gets House companion

> In addition to requiring the position, the bill would similarly mandate that agencies create an AI board of senior officials to coordinate AI activities within the agency, codify the CAIO council, and require that agencies develop an AI strategy.

PC Mag ☛ Indonesia Threatens to Ban X for Allowing p*rn on the Platform

> X has long allowed adult content on the platform, but earlier this month, it made that official by introducing a new adult content policy. People can post p*rn on X, as long as they use a content warning. "We believe in the autonomy of adults to engage with and create content that reflects their own beliefs, desires, and experiences, including those related to sexuality," the company wrote in the new guidelines. "This also applies to AI-generated, photographic or animated content such as cartoons, hentai, or anime."

Reuters ☛ Indonesia minister threatens to shut down X over adult content

> Indonesia is prepared to shut down social media platform X if it does not comply with a regulation barring adult content, the country's communications minister said on Friday. Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, has strict rules that ban the sharing online of content deemed obscene.

> Minister Budi Arie Setiadi told Reuters he had sent a warning letter to X related to this matter.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

NPR ☛ A judge orders Alex Jones to sell personal assets, but Infowars can continue for now

> A trustee was appointed Friday afternoon to take over control of Jones’ personal estate. Liquidation means Jones' personal belongings — from his gun collection to his jewelry — will be auctioned to the highest bidder in something of a fire sale. He could even lose access to his account on X, where he currently has 2.3 million followers. However, Texas law allows him to keep his home, which is worth more than $2 million.

RTL ☛ Alex Jones: US court allows sale of conspiracy theorist's assets but spares business

> But the bankruptcy judge in Houston spared Jones from liquidating the parent company of his far-right website InfoWars -- long notorious for peddling misinformation -- in a reprieve that will allow it to remain in business.

> The serial provocateur had been ordered to pay the damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in the state of Connecticut –- which left 20 first graders and six adults dead -- a "hoax."

VOA News ☛ US warns of 'pernicious' Russian efforts ahead of Moldovan elections

> "They [the Russians] make this hybrid war more intense, with more disinformation, with more cyberattacks," Moldovan Internal Affairs Minister Adrian Efros told VOA last year. "They try to make the tension between different regions of Moldova, to make this tension internally."

> Thursday's statement from the U.S., Canada and Britain accused Russia of carrying out a yearslong plot in Moldova to influence the outcome of the October election in favor of pro-Russian candidates, "using disinformation and propaganda online, on the air, and on the streets to further their objectives."

NPR ☛ A major disinformation research team's future is uncertain after political attacks

> The Stanford Internet Observatory, a prominent research group at Stanford University studying how social media platforms are abused, has lost its top leadership and faces an uncertain future amid a sustained right-wing campaign targeting the study of online falsehoods.

Censorship/Free Speech

VOA News ☛ Myanmar cracks down on flow of information by blocking VPNs

> The attempt to restrict access to information began at the end of May, according to mobile phone operators, internet service providers, a major opposition group, and media reports.

> The military government that took power in February 2021 after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi has made several attempts to throttle traffic on the internet, especially in the months immediately after their takeover.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

The Hindu ☛ Journalist associations, digital rights groups demand withdrawal of laws aimed at ‘curbing freedom of press’

> Several journalist associations and digital rights organisations have endorsed a resolution to intensify their demand for the withdrawal of laws that they said were “aimed at curbing the freedom of press”.

> As stated in the resolution, passed at a meeting held on May 28, 2024, the provisions under laws such as the proposed Broadcast Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Press and Registration of Periodicals Act, 2023, and the Information Technology Amendment Rules, grant authority to the government to remove any online content pertaining to its business that it deems to be false or misleading.

BIA Net ☛ Prosecutor demands jail for journalists protesting detention of colleagues

> In the case being heard at the Istanbul Anadolu 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance, the prosecutor gave his opinion for ETHA editor Pınar Gayıp, Evrensel reporter Eylem Nazlıer, Direnişteyiz.org reporter Esra Soybir, Mücadele Birliği reporter Serpil Ünal, Gazete Patika reporter Yadigar Aygün, and journalist Zeynep Kuray.

"To protect the employees and her ability to report about jail conditions" ☛ https://www.voanews.com/a/reporter-s-lawsuit-secures-rights-for-us-jail-staff-to-speak-with-media/7656304.html | Source: VOA News

ANF News ☛ New call for the release of journalist Serdar Karakoç

> The statement added: "Serdar Karakoç is a colleague of ours who has worked as a journalist in Turkey for years. He worked in Kurdish newspapers and was in the newspaper building when Özgür Ülke was bombed. He survived the attack by chance and this is the most concrete proof of the difficult conditions he performed his profession in. Since he had no opportunity to continue his journalistic activities in the Turkey, he left and claimed asylum in the Netherlands. There he was granted asylum and he continued to work as a journalist in Europe. Karakoç has been a tireless defender of his profession and freedom of expression. We are witnesses to Serdar Karakoç's journalism.

VOA News ☛ Reporter's lawsuit secures rights for US jail staff to speak with media

> To protect the employees and her ability to report about jail conditions, Hailer filed a federal lawsuit in August 2023. At the time, she was director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. She recently joined The Marshall Project, a nonprofit that reports on the U.S. criminal justice system.

> Hailer sued the county over its 10-page policy that prevented employees from making statements on specific jail policies, facility operations or how events are handled without approval from the warden or a designee.

Civil Rights/Policing

JURIST ☛ UN Special Rapporteur says Taliban must provide detained US humanitarian worker with immediate medical treatment

> UN Special Rapporteur Alice Jill Edwardssaid Thursday that the Taliban must provide detained US humanitarian worker Ryan Corbett with immediate medical treatment in light of his deteriorating health. Corbett was allegedly detained by the Taliban on August 10, 2022. According to Edwards, Corbett was confined in a tiny, locked cell without sunlight in Afghanistan.

Modern Diplomacy ☛ Taliban assault on women’s rights continues in Afghanistan

> Three years on, steps to allow women civil servants to all return to the workplace have not been taken.

> “This latest discriminatory and profoundly arbitrary decision further deepens the erosion of human rights in Afghanistan, following decisions to restrict women and girls’ access to education and employment, limit their freedom of movement, and curtail their presence in public spaces, effectively entrenching the exclusion of women from public life,” Ms. Throssell said.

UNICEF ☛ 1,000 days of education – equivalent to three billion learning hours – lost for Afghan girls

> “Today marks a sad and sobering milestone: 1,000 days since the announcement banning girls in Afghanistan from attending secondary schools.

> “1,000 days out-of-school amounts to 3 billion learning hours lost.

> “For 1.5 million girls, this systematic exclusion is not only a blatant violation of their right to education, but also results in dwindling opportunities and deteriorating mental health.

Techdirt ☛ 11th Circuit Strips Immunity From Cop Who Shot And Killed Dog That Had Already Been Neutralized By A Taser

> In addition to the Fourth Amendment violation, the appeals court says the elements of state law are satisfied here. And that means Officer Cordova will also be facing intentional infliction of emotional distress allegations and will not be able to avail himself of immunity at the state level either.

> Given this, one would expect a settlement in the near future. Then again, cops are playing with house money, so if the state of Florida considers protecting a cop from the consequences of his unconstitutional actions, this case may still have a bit of run time before it reaches a resolution.

Los Angeles Times ☛ Why many California Indian tribes still lack U.S. recognition

> California has more tribes that are not federally recognized than any other state, raising questions about California Indians’ history with the U.S. government, the politics of Native American identity and the problems of the Department of the Interior’s proffered path to recognition, known as the federal acknowledgment process. Eighty-one California tribes have sought acknowledgment since 1978, but just one has secured federal recognition.

RFA ☛ Exiled Tibetan political leader honored with democracy medal

> The leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile on Thursday won the Democracy Service Medal from the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy, recognizing Sikyong Penpa Tsering’s commitment to advancing democracy and promoting the dignity of the Tibetan people.

[Repeat] ACLU ☛ This November, Freedom is on the Ballot

> While the ACLU does not endorse or oppose candidates for elected office, we know that a potential second Trump administration and a potential second Biden administration will be drastically different when it comes to our civil rights and civil liberties. A second Trump administration will be disastrous for our most fundamental rights and freedoms, while a second Biden administration will bring a mix of challenges and opportunities that largely leaves these rights and freedoms intact. At the ACLU, we’re prepared for either scenario. Our legal, policy, and advocacy experts have identified the constitutional challenges that each candidate will bring, and the concrete actions the ACLU will take in response.

Reason ☛ Federal Guilty Plea as to "Jane's Revenge" Threats and Vandalism Toward "Pro-Life Pregnancy Help Centers"

> From yesterday's Justice Department press release: Three Florida residents pleaded guilty today to conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate employees of pregnancy resource centers in the free exercise of the right to provide and seek to provide reproductive health services.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

APNIC ☛ RFC 9518 — What can Internet standards do about centralization?

> It’s no secret that most people have been increasingly concerned about Internet centralization over the last decade or so. Having one party (or a small number of them) with a chokehold over any important part of the Internet is counter to its nature. As a ‘network of networks’, the Internet is about fostering relationships between peers, not allowing power to accrue to a few.

> As I’ve discussed previously, Internet standards bodies like the IETF and W3C can be seen as a kind of regulator, in that they constrain the behaviour of others. So it’s natural to wonder whether they can help avoid or mitigate Internet centralization.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

PC Mag ☛ YouTube Tries a New, Harder-to-Bypass Method for Stopping Ad Blockers

> YouTube is continuing its ad blocker crackdown by testing server-side ad injection.

> Typically, a YouTube video will play and then YouTube pauses the video to run an advertisem*nt. Ad blockers can generally bypass the ad by blocking JavaScript that YouTube uses to inject the ads. With server-side ad injection, the user is fed one continuous stream of video with the ad included, thus bypassing the ad blocker.

Techdirt ☛ Roku Continues To Screw With Customers Via Firmware/Software Updates

> And that brings us to Roku. Roku, over recent months, appears to be fully engulfed in the process of ensh*ttification. The platform recently began the process of layering advertisem*nts foisted on customers where there once were none. They’re legal and communications teams are clearly not thinking things through when they pull stuff like sending out a new ToS requirement for already purchased devices with a threat to brick them if users don’t agree.

Jacobin Magazine ☛ The Great Video Game Swindle

> The video game industry is a mess — a massive, lucrative mess. Two years ago, a PwC report projected that video games would be worth $321 billion by 2026, up from $214 billion in 2021. This year, the market is set to hit $282 billion, so it’s more or less on pace, with an average revenue per user of over $200 accounting for console, computer, and mobile gaming.

> To get a sense of the scale here, video games are worth more than the film industry. And the music industry. In fact, the video game industry is bigger than both of those industries combined. That’s staggeringly big. The immense size and economic power of the industry, which is largely nonunionized, creates regulatory gaps, leading to inevitable dysfunction and exploitation. This makes life miserable for employees and consumers alike, both in the workplace and beyond.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

The Register UK ☛ Apple could be coming under fire from European Commission

> The European Commission is said to be preparing to file charges against Apple alleging that its "steering" rules, imposed on third-party developers distributing software through the App Store, violate Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

> The DMA, which took effect in March, is a European competition law that requires large gatekeepers – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft – to take steps to promote competition on certain platforms. Apple has been designated a gatekeeper for iOS, iPadOS, Safari, and the App Store by the EU.

Wired ☛ Sellers Call Amazon’s Buy Box ‘Abusive.’ Now They’re Suing

> Last week, retailers in the UK filed a $1.27 billion class action against Amazon, accusing the company of abusing a position of strength to squeeze third-party sellers on its marketplace and boost sales of its own products.

> The lawsuit, the largest class action ever filed by retailers in the UK, alleges that Amazon misused data belonging to sellers on its platform to selectively undercut them with competing products of its own. The retailers claim that Amazon used its Buy Box—which features the conspicuous “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons and through which the majority of sales are alleged to be made—to push those own-brand products, thereby unfairly depriving competitors of sales.

Copyrights

Torrent Freak ☛ Russia 'Humanizes' Criminal Copyright Law, 'Large Scale' Piracy Cut By 25%

> Criminal copyright infringement offenses prosecuted under Russia's Criminal Code are expected to plummet by a quarter, thanks to a new law signed by President Putin this week. The amendments aim to "liberalize and humanize" Russian legislation in the area of copyright and related rights, by drastically increasing the threshold for infringement to be considered 'large scale'.

Don Marti ☛ Block AI training on a web site

> I’m going to start with a warning. You can’t completely block “AI” training from a web site. Underground AI will always get through, and it might turn out that the future of AI-based infringement is bot accounts so that the sites that profit from it can just be "shocked" at what one of "their users" was doing—kind of like how big companies monetize copyright infringement.

> But there are some ways to tell the halfway crooks of the AI business to go away. Will update if I find others.

Futurism ☛ ChatGPT Is Hallucinating Fake Article Links by One of Its Publishing Partners

> The situation came to light in a letter penned by union members at Business Insider's Insider Union that sought details on the agreement signed late last year between its parent company Axel Springer and OpenAI, according to Nieman Lab, which acquired the document.

> In the missive, the union showed damning evidence that OpenAI isn't yet honoring its end of the contract, which requires the tech company to attribute Axel Springer publications on articles and link to them as well, while OpenAI gets to mine Business Insider and sister publications such as Politico to train its large language models.

The Register UK ☛ Meta hits pause on EU AI training plans under pressure

> Meta has caved to European regulators, and agreed to pause its plans to train AI models on EU users' Facebook and Instagram users' posts — a move that the social media giant said will delay its plans to launch Meta AI in the economic zone.

> For everyone else outside the EU, Meta will be going full steam ahead using your public social media posts to train its neural networks.

[Repeat] NYOB ☛ (Preliminary) noyb WIN: Meta stops AI plans in the EU

> DPC "U-turns" after initial improvement. While the DPC has initially approved the introduction of Meta AI in the EU/EEA, it seems that other regulators have pushed back in the past days and led the DPC to U-turn in its advice to Meta. The DPC now announced:

> "The DPC welcomes the decision by Meta to pause its plans to train its large language model using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram across the EU/EEA. This decision followed intensive engagement between the DPC and Meta. The DPC, in co-operation with its fellow EU data protection authorities, will continue to engage with Meta on this issue."

> There is so far no further context or information what this engagement looked like or why the DPC changed its mind.

Wired ☛ Publishers Target Common Crawl In Fight Over AI Training Data

> The Danish Rights Alliance (DRA), an association representing copyright holders in Denmark, spearheaded the campaign. It made the request on behalf of four media outlets, including Berlingske Media and the daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The New York Times made a similar request of Common Crawl last year, prior to filing a lawsuit against OpenAI for using its work without permission. In its complaint, the New York Times highlighted how Common Crawl’s data was the most “highly weighted data set” in GPT-3.

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