We Fix the Internet

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We Fix the Internet
Number 3335
Broadcast Date JULY 30, 2018
Episode Length 31:11
Hosts Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane
Guests Lamarr Wilson

Twitter will work with two university professors to understand the Internet “echo chamber”. A UK parliamentary committee calls for action to “build resilience against misinformation and disinformation into our democratic system”. How do we go about “fixing” the internet and ensure that misinformation is NOT passed along as objective fact?

Guest

Quick Hits

YouTube announced support for vertical videos on the desktop, something the mobile version of YouTube already has. This plays a vertical video in its natural aspect ratio without putting it in a landscape box with black bars along the sides. Some users have complained that the videos lose quality or get cut off by the new feature.
A joint venture of Softbank and Yahoo Japan called PayPay is partnering with India's Paytm to launch a payment system in Japan by November. The QR-code based platform will be called Paypay and integrated with Yahoo Japan's smartphone apps.
The new DJI Mavic 2 quadcopters are shown in the latest Argos catalog in the UK, though DJI itself has not officially announced them. The catalog lists Zoom and Pro variations of the foldable UAV. Both editions have 360-degree collission detection, Advanced Pilot Assistance Systems and Active Track 2.0 with battery life of 31 minutes according to the listing. The Pro lists a 1-inch CMOS Hasselblad camera and the Zoom shows a 2x zoom lens.

Top Stories

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced it has successfully tracked a batch of 17,000 kilograms of almonds from Australia to Germany using a private blockchain built on the Ethereum network. The bank's partners could check in on the location, temperature, humidity, and other metrics of the shipment, whenever they wanted, in real-time.
Spanish taxi drivers held protests in the country against ride-hailing services like Uber Monday. Cabs blocked access to major streets including the Gran Via in Barcelona and Madrid's Catellana, as well as airports and train stations. The union is meeting with the government to attempt to resolve issues. A Spanish law limits ride-hailing licenses to one for every 30 taxi licenses but cab drivers say this law is not being respected.
Tech in Asia has a profile of a coffee shop in Shanghai called Ratio. Customers scan a barcode at the entrance, place an order, and pay by mobile. Ordering allows customers to customize the ratios of coffee, water, milk etc. A robotic arm makes the coffee, placing it on a counter where a waiter picks it up and delivers it to the customer. The robot also makes cocktails. The chain was founded by Gavin Pathross who led the digital transformation of Yum China which operates KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and other brands. There's also the food court at Alibaba's Hema supermarket which uses robots as waiters and chefs for many dishes.
EA’s Origin Access Premier is now live. The new PC game subscription service, announced in a investor call last week, will cost $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Subscribers will get access to EA’s first run titles five days before their release date as well as extra content, in-game currency, plus all the benefits of basic Origin Access membership which includes EA’s 100-plus game library and 10% off Origin digital purchases. Upcoming games that will debut on Premier include Madden NFL 19 Hall of Fame Edition, FIFA 19 Ulimate Edition, Battlefield V Deluxe Edition and Anthem Legion of Dawn Edition.
Someone is sending CDs full of malware to US state officials. The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center has issued a warning about the scam. The packages have a Chinese postmark with a rambling letter and a CD with a set of Word docs containing malicious visual basic scripts. State Archives, State Historical Societies, and a State Department of Cultural Affairs have all received letters.

Discussion

Mailbag

As a law enforcement analyst, I have relied multiple times on facial recognition matches as investigative leads. And herein lies the kicker—they’re only LEADS. Not evidence. Not proof. And NEVER 100%.

Facial recognition is simply facial math. The technology we use can’t take into account skin color/tones, gender, and even hiccups when it encounters glasses. The subject images used don’t have to be completely front facing, but there are limits to the angles off-center that the technology can handle.

While the operator can manually adjust points of interest on the nose, ears, forehead, etc. found in the subject image, it still won’t guarantee a perfect match.

As a matter of fact, I’ve had an image of a white female produce a match to an African-American male simply because the math was “close”.

We do have an in-house expert (trained by the FBI) who can do matching of a subject to booking photos, but the computer is not going to testify and can’t be used as evidence. Use of facial recognition is really no different than getting an anonymous tip. It can point you in a certain direction and help you eliminate some false leads, but still requires evidence gathering prior to arrest and prosecution.
Sent by Hutch

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Links



Preceded by:
"July Roundtable: Money, Sex & Likes" 		We Fix the Internet
 Followed by:
"VPN Virtual Pigeon Network"
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