Dossiers 2020 11 page 1

Digital Ethics
Friction and the aesthetics of the smooth
The worship of data tries to eliminate friction: an ideology of the lesser resistance. However, friction is the key to dismantle this new wave of postivism.
Ajla Nesimovic🧑🏼🎄 on Twitter
How can we build machines that act rational, if the human, computing the machine, is boundedly rational?#Foucault pic.twitter.com/iXq9y8MVBm— Ajla Nesimovic🧑🏼🎄 (@EilerNemo) November 4, 2020
Ethical concerns mount as AI takes bigger decision-making role
Harvard experts examine the promise and potential pitfalls as AI takes a bigger decision-making role in more industries.
platformabuse.org
platformabuse.org is a knowledge source of technological harms and mitigations to guide safer product development.
If Your iPhone Has a Green Dot in iOS 14, Your Camera May Be Spying On You
If you've upgraded your iPhone to iOS 14 already, you may have noticed a little green dot at the top of your screen when using certain apps. It's a new
Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges
Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers were fired in the wake of employee organizing efforts. Now, the NLRB says the terminations violated labor law.
How a young, queer Asian-American businesswoman is rethinking user safety at Twitter
Transformative and procedural justice are the foundation of Christine Su's vision for a safer site.
A.R. Moxon on Twitter
If the only answer to abusive people is successfully persuading them not to be abusive...Then the abuse becomes everyone else’s fault, for not catering to the abuser sufficiently enough to persuade him.Which is exactly the way an abusive person wants you to think.So, don’t.— A.R. Moxon (@JuliusGoat) December 5, 2020
Cory Doctorow #BLM on Twitter
The Shitty Tech Adoption Curve describes the process by which oppressive technology is normalized and distributed through all levels of society. The more privilege someone has, the harder it is to coerce them to use dehumanizing tech, so it starts with marginalized people.1/ pic.twitter.com/9saW0H95OI— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) November 25, 2020
Facial recognition software has a gender bias problem
The issue of machine learning systems perpetuating bias, not reducing it, remains as alive as ever.
E-waste becoming a massive issue for businesses, so what can be done?
E-waste is a global concern, and is quickly becoming a crisis of its own, the researchers state. In fact, more than 53 million metric tons of e-waste was produced in 2019.
Can deepfake tech be used for good? Artist creates 'imaginary reckoning' for public figures | CBC Radio
Deepfake technology can make it seem like people are saying and doing things they aren't. Can it be used for good? Deep Reckonings, a series created by artist Stephanie Lepp, imagines controversial public figures having reckonings using synthetic videos.
Four reasons why hyping AI is an ethical problem
Bias, discrimination, privacy violations, lack of accountability — AI entails a lot of ethical problems. Hyping AI creates additional…
People proving to be weakest link for apps tracking COVID-19 exposure
The system works only if a lot of people buy into it, but people will buy into it only if they know it works.
The Last Children of Down Syndrome
Prenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t. This is just the beginning.
How Western companies undermine African democracy
As the recent election campaign in Tanzania reached a climax, opposition supporters began to notice something strange.
Open letter from content moderators re: pandemic
Foxglove is supporting social media content moderators in their fights for fair treatment from the platforms they work for, and for safe working conditions during the pandemic. Here is the full text of an open letter which over 200 Facebook content moderators from across the world have just addres
Asimov’s Three Laws Helped Shape A.I. and Robotics. We Need Four More.
Frank Pasquale, an expert in the emergent field of A.I. law, argues it’s high time to update Asimov’s three laws of robotics
Bots Grade Your Kids’ Schoolwork—and They’re Often Wrong
Auto-grading systems adopted in many districts were supposed to save time by using bots to score tests. But parents and teachers say the software leads to grading errors and requires them to double-check the bots’ work.
Abeba Birhane on Twitter
I kid you not! They don't even pretend not to do phrenology anymore (ht @vinayprabhu) pic.twitter.com/zSmZZKDt5M— Abeba Birhane (@Abebab) November 8, 2020
Drivers spooked by ‘ghost in the machine’ dashboard updates
When you get in your car in the morning, you might expect it to be the car that you left the night before.Not any more. James May, the television presenter, and Grant Shapps, the transport secretary
Leaks and lawsuits blight Russia facial recognition
The rise of cloud computing and AI have popularised face recognition technology globally, but at what cost?
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
Amazon’s new ‘Care Hub’ lets Alexa owners keep tabs on aging family members
Amazon today announced a set of new features aimed at making its Alexa devices more useful to aging adults. With the launch of “Care Hub,” an added option in the Alexa mobile app, family members can keep an eye on older parents and loved ones, with their permission, in order to receive general information about […]
Opinion | We Built an ‘Unbelievable’ (but Legal) Facial Recognition Machine (Published 2019)
What we found shows the technology’s promise — and perils.
Joseph Cox on Twitter
Buying access to a government's facial recognition camera system to track whoever you want for $200. Totally wild. https://t.co/dBhdG7IHGa pic.twitter.com/dnN7SrLKE9— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) November 11, 2020
Remember What Mark Zuckerberg Said About Private Messaging in 2019
‘This is the future I hope we will help bring about’
The Correspondent on Twitter
Next time you're stuck in traffic because of roadworks and your frustration starts to bubble, change your perspective:Those roadworks could save someone's life – that's worth the wait. https://t.co/4p0DZN0KiW— The Correspondent (@The_Corres) November 10, 2020
California just passed a major privacy law that will make it harder for Facebook and Google to track people and gather data
While Prop 24 will be active only in California, it will effectively apply to all of the US because of the state's huge influence on the tech industry.