Faceberg | The Cat Herder, Volume 2, Issue 15

Facebook didn't have the best of weeks, even by its extremely low standards. As The New York Times pu   April 28 · Issue #31 · View online Facebook didn’t have the best of weeks, even by its extremely low standards. As The New York Times put it, ‘Regulators Around the World Are Circling Facebook’. Though it seems Facebook’s shareholders did quite well. 😼 There’s more on Facebook down in the Regulators section below but this statement from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien deserves to be highlighted right here. “Facebook’s refusal to act responsibly is deeply troubling given the vast amount of sensitive personal information users have entrusted to this company,” said Therrien. Specifically, the company refused to voluntarily submit to audits of its privacy policies and practices over the next five years, he said. “The stark contradiction between Facebook’s public promises to mend its ways on privacy and its refusal to address the serious problems we’ve identified or even acknowledge that it broke the law is extremely concerning,” he added. Canada says Facebook broke privacy laws and 'refused to act responsibly' | The Guardian www.theguardian.com – Share Top watchdog promises to force change following investigation into Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal “It is untenable that organizations are allowed to reject my office’s legal findings as mere opinions,” says Commissioner Therrien. The full statement is here. So what the NSA insisted for years was a vital mass surveillance programme has turned out to be not so vital after all. When the documents detailing the NSA program leaked and set off a debate about the surveillance state, the agency publicly argued that the surveillance program was necessary to fighting terrorists and keeping the country safe. However, according to former intelligence officials, there was “skepticism” with in the agency itself over the spying program even before its details were leaked to the public. NSA recommends White House end spying program leaked by Snowden mashable.com – Share The NSA will officially recommend that the White House end the agency’s metadata surveillance program. — Two weeks ago there was what almost appeared to be surprise in some quarters at the revelation that audio recorded by Amazon’s listening and recording devices was available and being listened to by Amazon staff and contractors. This week came the inevitable follow-up: Pinboard @Pinboard The always-on microphone remotely operated by an unregulated transnational network of poorly paid strangers that you spent money to install in your home can, in some circumstances, reveal personal information about you. https://t.co/4lMevHShSc 6:03 PM - 24 Apr 2019 Is Alexa Listening? Amazon Employees Can Access Home Addresses - Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com – Share An Amazon.com Inc. team auditing Alexa users’ commands has access to location data and can, in some cases, easily find a customer’s home address, according to five employees familiar with the program. How Nest, designed to keep intruders out of people’s homes, effectively allowed hackers to get in - The Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com – Share Tech companies are deciding between user convenience and potential damage to their brands. Rather than the FTC indicating the likely outcome of its investigation into Facebook, Faceberg itself provided an indication of the size of fine it expects to be landed with. Discussion in the media of the number of billions of punitive dollars suits Facebook just fine because, as Charlie Warzel points out, that’s chump change to the company. Of far more importance is what, if any, other sanctions are imposed on Facebook which may lead to a change in behaviour. — The New York Attorney General Letitia James “announced an investigation into Facebook’s unauthorized collection of 1.5 million Facebook users’ email contact databases.”  — The Data Protection Commission announced a statutory inquiry into the same unintentional uploading. This is the eleventh investigation or inquiry into Facebook and its siblings that the DPC has opened, for those who still have the energy to count ‘em. “What would prevent an interviewer from taking a quick swab from an applicant’s water glass after an interview if the stakes are high?” Hannes Sjoblad examines just some of the implications of the increasing affordability of consumer gene testing in ‘As We Democratize Biology, We Must Avoid Biologizing Democracy’. Mary Madden contributed a terrific opinion piece to the New York Times’ continuing Privacy Project, ‘The Devastating Consequences of Being Poor in the Digital Age’. As part of the same series Paul Mozur, Jonah M. Kessel and Melissa Chan look at China’s growing role in exporting surveillance technology to the rest of the world. “The Repeater collective’s latest art show isn’t just small, it’s pocket-sized. It’s been copied onto USB keys, shaped like Public Services Cards, all containing the same collection of files. Hidden on it, within titled and untitled folders, are music tracks, photographs, sound recordings, video art, text of interviews and manifestos”, from Sean Finnan in the Dublin Inquirer. “We need to be careful that smart city ethics initiatives are more than compliance, self-serving, and ethics-washing exercises that largely work to preserve the status quo.” Rob Kitchin has a look at ‘The ethics of smart cities’. —— Endnotes & Credits The elegant Latin bon mot “Futuendi Gratia” is courtesy of Effin’ Birds. As always, a huge thank you to Regina Doherty for giving the world the phrase “mandatory but not compulsory”. The image used in the header is by Krystian Tambur on Unsplash. Any quotes from the Oireachtas we use are sourced from KildareStreet.com. They’re good people providing a great service. If you can afford to then donate to keep the site running. Digital Rights Ireland have a storied history of successfully fighting for individuals’ data privacy rights. You should support them if you can. Find us on the web at myprivacykit.com and on Twitter at @PrivacyKit. Of course we’re not on Facebook or LinkedIn. Barring a disaster we’ll be in your inbox again next weekend. If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter do please forward it on to them. Did you enjoy this issue? In order to unsubscribe, click here. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here. Powered by Revue Privacy Kit, Made with 💚 in Dublin, Ireland

Facebook didn’t have the best of weeks, even by its extremely low standards. As The New York Times put it, ‘Regulators Around the World Are Circling Facebook’. Though it seems Facebook’s shareholders did quite well.

😼

There’s more on Facebook down in the Regulators section below but this statement from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien deserves to be highlighted right here.

Top watchdog promises to force change following investigation into Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal

The full statement is here.

So what the NSA insisted for years was a vital mass surveillance programme has turned out to be not so vital after all.

The NSA will officially recommend that the White House end the agency’s metadata surveillance program.

—

Two weeks ago there was what almost appeared to be surprise in some quarters at the revelation that audio recorded by Amazon’s listening and recording devices was available and being listened to by Amazon staff and contractors. This week came the inevitable follow-up:

An Amazon.com Inc. team auditing Alexa users’ commands has access to location data and can, in some cases, easily find a customer’s home address, according to five employees familiar with the program.

Tech companies are deciding between user convenience and potential damage to their brands.

Rather than the FTC indicating the likely outcome of its investigation into Facebook, Faceberg itself provided an indication of the size of fine it expects to be landed with. Discussion in the media of the number of billions of punitive dollars suits Facebook just fine because, as Charlie Warzel points out, that’s chump change to the company. Of far more importance is what, if any, other sanctions are imposed on Facebook which may lead to a change in behaviour.

—

The New York Attorney General Letitia James “announced an investigation into Facebook’s unauthorized collection of 1.5 million Facebook users’ email contact databases.” 

—

The Data Protection Commission announced a statutory inquiry into the same unintentional uploading. This is the eleventh investigation or inquiry into Facebook and its siblings that the DPC has opened, for those who still have the energy to count ‘em.

• “What would prevent an interviewer from taking a quick swab from an applicant’s water glass after an interview if the stakes are high?” Hannes Sjoblad examines just some of the implications of the increasing affordability of consumer gene testing in ‘As We Democratize Biology, We Must Avoid Biologizing Democracy’.
• Mary Madden contributed a terrific opinion piece to the New York Times’ continuing Privacy Project, ‘The Devastating Consequences of Being Poor in the Digital Age’.
• As part of the same series Paul Mozur, Jonah M. Kessel and Melissa Chan look at China’s growing role in exporting surveillance technology to the rest of the world.
• “The Repeater collective’s latest art show isn’t just small, it’s pocket-sized. It’s been copied onto USB keys, shaped like Public Services Cards, all containing the same collection of files. Hidden on it, within titled and untitled folders, are music tracks, photographs, sound recordings, video art, text of interviews and manifestos”, from Sean Finnan in the Dublin Inquirer.
• “We need to be careful that smart city ethics initiatives are more than compliance, self-serving, and ethics-washing exercises that largely work to preserve the status quo.” Rob Kitchin has a look at ‘The ethics of smart cities’.

——

Endnotes & Credits

• The elegant Latin bon mot “Futuendi Gratia” is courtesy of Effin’ Birds.
• As always, a huge thank you to Regina Doherty for giving the world the phrase “mandatory but not compulsory”.
• The image used in the header is by Krystian Tambur on Unsplash.
• Any quotes from the Oireachtas we use are sourced from KildareStreet.com. They’re good people providing a great service. If you can afford to then donate to keep the site running.
• Digital Rights Ireland have a storied history of successfully fighting for individuals’ data privacy rights. You should support them if you can.

Find us on the web at myprivacykit.com and on Twitter at @PrivacyKit. Of course we’re not on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Barring a disaster we’ll be in your inbox again next weekend.

If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter do please forward it on to them.