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India

Why a massive leak in Tamil Nadu Police’s FRT database must herald the end of police use of surveillance technologies

On May 4, 2024, a massive leak of 8 lakh data points in Tamil Nadu Police’s FRT portal exposed the facial and personal data of about 50,000 accused or suspected persons, linked with details of their FIRs and alleged crimes. It’s time to #BanTheScan.

Tamil Nadu police’s face recognition portal hacked; FIR, personal information up for sale

The Tamil Nadu police’s Facial Recognition Portal (frs.tnpolice.gov.in), a software used by the state police to track criminals and missing persons using facial recognition, has been compromised. The data samples have been made available for sale on the dark web and an analysis of the leaked samples indicate that 1.2 million lines of data including names of police officers, phone numbers, and FIR details have been accessed illegally. The data breach was brought to light by threat intelligence platform FalconFeeds.io.

Smartphone Addiction Causing Speech Delay Among Kashmiri Children

The excessive use of smartphones, besides causing neurological disorders, including fragmented focus and insomnia, is significantly contributing to the speech delay among children in Kashmir. Four to five children with speech delays, as a result of excessive screen usage are seen at the District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) at the government’s G.B Pant Hospital here on a daily basis.

First Read: The Telecom Bill, 2023 is on Santa's evil list

The Telecommunications Bill, 2023 (“Telecom Bill, 2023”) was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 18, almost a year after the conclusion of the consultation process for its 2022 counterpart, i.e. the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022 (“Telecom Bill, 2022”). After several reported inter-ministerial discussions over the year, the Department of Telecommunications (“DoT”) has released a repackaged version of the colonial 1885 law it meant to overhaul, which continues to retain the draconian surveillance and internet suspension powers of the Union government.

India warns Facebook, YouTube to enforce rules to deter deepfakes - sources

India's government warned social media firms including Facebook (META.O), opens new tab and YouTube to repeatedly remind users that local laws prohibit them from posting deepfakes and content that spreads obscenity or misinformation, two sources told Reuters. The warning was conveyed by deputy IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a closed-door meeting where he said many companies had not updated their usage terms despite 2022 rules that prohibit content "harmful" to children, obscene or that "impersonates another person".

Facebook Did Not Block Fake Accounts Linked To BJP MP: Whistleblower

Whistleblower Sophie Zhang alleges the BJP, the Congress, and the AAP used fake accounts to influence the polls, however, only the network of accounts directly linked to a BJP MP was not removed by Facebook.

Aadhaar debate: Privacy is not an elitist concern – it's the only way to secure equality

Aadhaar reflects and reproduces power imbalances and inequalities. Information asymmetries result in the data subject becoming a data object, to be manipulated, misrepresented and policed at will.

Aadhaar Is a Mass Surveillance Tool and There Should Be Criminal Penalty for Its Misuse, Says Edward Snowden

Snowden feels Aadhaar should be used only for social benefit from the government and not for any other service from the government as well as private players. "The biggest crime behind this system is that it is being used for things that are unrelated to what the Government is paying for.

World

Elon Musk says he’s cut about 80% of Twitter’s staff

Elon Musk has laid off more than 6,000 people at Twitter since taking over the company, he told the BBC in a rare interview late Tuesday. Musk was quoted as saying in the interview that the social media platform now has only 1,500 employees, down from under 8,000 who were employed at the time of his acquisition. The reduction equates to roughly 80% of the company’s staff.

Google Says AI Could Break Reality

Generative AI could “distort collective understanding of socio-political reality or scientific consensus,” and in many cases is already doing that, according to a new research paper from Google, one of the biggest companies in the world building, deploying, and promoting generative AI.

A Suspected Human Smuggler Used AirTags to Track and Control The Woman He Brought Into the U.S.

A man allegedly involved in a Russia-based smuggling operation is accused of placing at least seven AirTags on his ex-wife's car to surveil her.

Surgeon General Issues New Advisory About Effects Social Media Use Has on Youth Mental Health

United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. While social media may offer some benefits, there are ample indicators that social media can also pose a risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Social media use by young people is nearly universal, with up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 reporting using a social media platform and more than a third saying they use social media “almost constantly."

US Senate AI Working Group Releases Policy Roadmap

On Wednesday, May 15, 2024, a bipartisan US Senate working group led by Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) released a report titled "Driving U.S. Innovation in Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Policy in the United States Senate." The 31-page report follows a series of off-the-record "educational briefings," including "the first ever all-senators classified briefing focused solely on AI," and nine "AI Insight Forums" hosted in the fall of 2023 that drew on the participation of more than 150 experts from industry, academia, and civil society.

Google to refine AI-generated search summaries in response to bizarre results

Google announced on Thursday that it would refine and retool its summaries of search results generated by artificial intelligence, posting a blog explaining why the feature was returning bizarre and inaccurate answers that included telling people to eat rocks or add glue to pizza sauce. The company will reduce the scope of searches that will return an AI-written summary.

OpenAI Just Gave Away the Entire Game

If you’re looking to understand the philosophy that underpins Silicon Valley’s latest gold rush, look no further than OpenAI’s Scarlett Johansson debacle. The story, according to Johansson’s lawyers, goes like this: About nine months ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approached the actor with a request to license her voice for a new conversation feature in ChatGPT; Johansson declined. She alleges that just two days before the company’s keynote event last week—in which that feature, a version of which launched last September, was highlighted as part of a new system called GPT-4o—Altman reached out to Johansson’s team, urging the actor to reconsider. Johansson and Altman allegedly never spoke, and Johansson allegedly never granted OpenAI permission to use her voice. Nevertheless, the company debuted GPT-4o two days later—drawing attention to the “Sky” voice, which many believed was alarmingly similar to Johansson’s.

Google is paying parents $50 to collect children’s facial eye colour, face tone and other data, claims report

Google, through its subsidiary Telus International, has paid parents in Canada $50 per child to collect video footage of their children’s faces, a report has claimed. The project ran from November 2023 to January 2024, and has raised concerns about children’s privacy and consent. According to a report by 404 media, the footage will be used to train facial recognition technology, specifically for age verification purposes.

Steve Jobs thought devices would become ‘a bicycle for the mind’–but their effect on our brains is similar to that of smoking and junk food

It’s been 33 years since Steve Jobs talked about the personal computer becoming a bicycle for the mind. In those years, the advent of the smartphone and the mass adoption of social media have turned those bicycles into runaway trains. Americans spend more than four hours a day on their smartphones–and more than half say they are addicted to their device. In May 2023, the surgeon general issued a warning about the concerning effects of social media on youth mental health.

Meet ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s New Way to Track the Websites You Visit

Facebook rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. You can opt out if you’re proactive, but the company is pushing Link History on users, and the data is used for targeted ads. As lawmakers introduce tech regulations and Apple and Google beef up privacy restrictions, Meta is doubling down and searching for new ways to preserve its data harvesting empire.

FTC Report Shows Rise in Sophisticated Dark Patterns Designed to Trick and Trap Consumers

“Our report shows how more and more companies are using digital dark patterns to trick people into buying products and giving away their personal information,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data

A new commodity spawns a lucrative, fast-growing industry, prompting antitrust regulators to step in to restrain those who control its flow. A century ago, the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants that deal in data, the oil of the digital era. These titans—Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft—look unstoppable.

How big tech finally awakened to the horror of its own inventions

It took years for ex-Facebook and Google bosses to criticize what they had created – but they seem to have had a collective change of heart. Perhaps it’s because they now have children of their own.

The Dark Psychology of Social Networks

Human beings evolved to gossip, preen, manipulate, and ostracize. We are easily lured into this new gladiatorial circus, even when we know that it can make us cruel and shallow. As the Yale psychologist Molly Crockett has argued, the normal forces that might stop us from joining an outrage mob—such as time to reflect and cool off, or feelings of empathy for a person being humiliated—are attenuated when we can’t see the person’s face, and when we are asked, many times a day, to take a side by publicly “liking” the condemnation.

An MIT psychologist explains why so many tech moguls send their kids to anti-tech schools

Technology moguls like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and other high-powered entrepreneurs tend to share similar qualities: persistence, ingenuity, grit, just to name a few. But one of the more surprising traits is the philosophy that kids ought to be raised tech-free. Gates, for example, didn't let his kids use cellphones until they were 14. Jobs, the inventor of the iPad, prohibited his own kids from using the tech.

Misinformation

US supreme court allows government to request removal of misinformation on social media

The US supreme court has struck down a lower court ruling in the case of Murthy v Missouri, in a decision that did not find the government’s communications with social media platforms about Covid-19 misinformation violated the first amendment. The court’s decision permits the government to call on tech companies to remove falsehoods, a key concern as misinformation spreads around this year’s presidential election.

Opposition walks out of Rajya Sabha, accuses Modi of misinformation

Flanked by INDIA bloc MPs after they staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday accused the RSS, the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP, of being anti-Constitution. The Congress leader also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of giving wrong information in the House. The MPs of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), who staged the walkout from the Upper House of Parliament in the middle of Modi's reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the president's address, gathered at the gate of the old Parliament building, the Samvidhan Sadan.

Agniveer Controversy: Congress Accuses Government Of Misinformation, Demands Whitepaper

The party reiterated its stance to scrap the Agnipath scheme, arguing that it was against the security interests of the country and created differences and discrimination among soldiers within the defence services.

McDonald's hit by Israel-Gaza 'misinformation'

McDonald's relies on thousands of independent businesses to own and operate most of its more than 40,000 stores around the world. About 5% are located in the Middle East. Since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, the McDonald's corporate headquarters has tried to keep a low profile regarding the conflict. But its brand has still been caught up in the fight.

OpenAI Takes Measures To Counter Election Misinformation: Will They Be Enough?

"As we prepare for elections in 2024 across the world’s largest democracies, our approach is to continue our platform safety work by elevating accurate voting information, enforcing measured policies, and improving transparency," OpenAI said in a blog post.

AI Is Tearing Wikipedia Apart

As generative artificial intelligence continues to permeate all aspects of culture, the people who steward Wikipedia are divided on how best to proceed. The concern is that machine-generated content has to be balanced with a lot of human review and would overwhelm lesser-known wikis with bad content.

Here Come Writing Robots: How is Automated Journalism Impacting the Media?

Automated journalism is starting to become a norm, at least in fields that rely heavily on data such as in sports and finance. Human journalists are bound by their commitment to the truth, conscience, and loyalty to the citizens. How can these ethical principles be cascaded to robot journalists? It looks like ethical AI has to be extended to include automated journalism.

Frances Haugen takes on Facebook: the making of a modern US hero

In her explosive Senate testimony, the former employee exposed how the tech giant puts profit before the public good.

Facebook, YouTube moves against QAnon are only a first step in the battle against dangerous conspiracy theories

Facebook’s actions will do permanent damage to the presence of QAnon on the platform in the long run. Short and medium term, what we will see are pages and groups reforming and trying to game the Facebook algorithm to see if they can avoid detection.

How WhatsApp became linked to mob violence and fake news — and why it's hard to stop

"Political messaging operations use these services to spread disinformation about opponents and groups, which has led to violence," Joan Donovan, media manipulation research lead at Data & Society, an independent nonprofit that covers the social and cultural impact of technology, said in an email. "Because the messages tend to come from trusted sources ... it presents a new challenge for stopping the influence of disinformation on the public.”

Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)

Ilya Sutskever Has a New Plan for Safe Superintelligence

For the past several months, the question “Where’s Ilya?” has become a common refrain within the world of artificial intelligence. Ilya Sutskever, the famed researcher who co-founded OpenAI, took part in the 2023 board ouster of Sam Altman as chief executive officer, before changing course and helping engineer Altman’s return. From that point on, Sutskever went quiet and left his future at OpenAI shrouded in uncertainty. Then, in mid-May, Sutskever announced his departure, saying only that he’d disclose his next project “in due time.”

Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine

Considering Perplexity’s bold ambition and the investment it’s taken from Jeff Bezos’ family fund, Nvidia, and famed investor Balaji Srinivasan, among others, it’s surprisingly unclear what the AI search startup actually is. Earlier this year, speaking to WIRED, Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity’s CEO, described his product—a chatbot that gives natural-language answers to prompts and can, the company says, access the internet in real time—as an “answer engine.” A few weeks later, shortly before a funding round valuing the company at a billion dollars was announced, he told Forbes, “It’s almost like Wikipedia and ChatGPT had a kid.” More recently, after Forbes accused Perplexity of plagiarizing its content, Srinivas told the AP it was a mere “aggregator of information.”

Hacker breaches OpenAI's internal messaging systems, steals AI design details

Last year, a hacker accessed OpenAI's internal messaging systems and stole design details about the company's AI technologies, according to a New York Times report. The breach involved an online forum where employees discussed the latest developments at OpenAI, the report cited two anonymous sources familiar with the incident.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hints at GPT 5, says “I expect it to be…

OpenAI introduced its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot – ChatGPT in November 2022. The company has introduced different versions of ChatGPT since then with the latest being GPT-4o. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has now hinted at the next iteration of ChatGPT – GPT-5. According to a report by The Decoder, Altman talked about GPT-5 at the Aspen Ideas Festival.He said that the company still has a lot of work to do on the next version of ChatGPT. The company wants to address errors seen in GPT-4 I with GPT-5.

Experts worry X's new policy on AI-generated adult content will lead to more deepfake porn

In a video posted by a Megan Thee Stallion fan on June 9, the singer is seen trying to hold back tears and collect herself while onstage in Tampa, Fla. Earlier that day, the 29-year-old rapper had addressed the “hurt” she felt after a sexually explicit, AI-generated video that allegedly showed her likeness circulated on X.

Adobe Users Fume Over Updated Terms of Use Granting Access to Content

The new terms, which were quietly rolled out in February but only enforced in the past few days, seemingly granted Adobe sweeping rights to access and analyze users’ content, including projects covered by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). The clause in dispute states that Adobe can “access your content through both automated and manual methods,” defining “content” as any text, audio, video, images or other materials created using Adobe’s services and software. Users also believe the terms give Adobe the explicit right to employ techniques like machine learning to analyze this user-generated content, fuelling speculation that the company intends to use it for training its AI models.

OpenAI Is ‘Exploring’ How to Responsibly Generate AI Porn

OpenAI released draft documentation Wednesday laying out how it wants ChatGPT and its other AI technology to behave. Part of the lengthy Model Spec document discloses that the company is exploring a leap into porn and other explicit content. OpenAI’s usage policies currently prohibit sexually explicit or even suggestive materials, but a “commentary” note on part of the Model Spec related to that rule says the company is considering how to permit such content.

NY Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft for infringing copyrighted works

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper's articles without permission to help train chatbots to provide information to readers. The Times is the first major U.S. media organization to sue OpenAI, creator of the popular artificial-intelligence platform ChatGPT, and Microsoft, an OpenAI investor and creator of the AI platform now known as Copilot, over copyright issues associated with its works.

Making ChatGPT 'Sexy' Might Not End Well for Humans

Sam Altman is giving the world’s biggest chatbot a flirty personality. Expect some unintended consequences.

Google advances AI vision with launch of Project Astra assistant

Alphabet has unveiled an AI agent with impressive capabilities ranging from the ability to answer real time queries across different modalities among others.

French regulator fines Google $271M over generative AI copyright issue

Google trained its Bard AI on copyright news articles without giving publishers sufficient information about remuneration or an opportunity to opt out, France’s competition authority found. France’s competition authority fined Google, its parent company Alphabet, and two subsidiaries a total of €250 million ($271 million) for breaching a previous agreement on using copyrighted content for training its Bard AI service, now known as Gemini.

New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot unlock business value

With the announcements at Microsoft Build 2024, Microsoft is delivering an entirely new set of capabilities that unlock Copilot’s ability to drive bottom-line business results for every organization.

Generative AI Has a Visual Plagiarism Problem

The degree to which large language models (LLMs) might “memorize” some of their training inputs has long been a question, raised by scholars including Google DeepMind’s Nicholas Carlini and the first author of this article (Gary Marcus). Recent empirical work has shown that LLMs are in some instances capable of reproducing, or reproducing with minor changes, substantial chunks of text that appear in their training sets.

ChatGPT Creator OpenAI to Pay Politico Parent for Using Its Content

News-publishing giant Axel Springer has inked a multiyear licensing deal with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, a significant milestone as media companies push for compensation for the use of their content in artificial-intelligence tools.

Google And Universal Music Reportedly Discuss AI-Generated Music

Google and Universal Music (and other music companies) may be in negotiations to license artists’ voices and melodies for songs generated by artificial intelligence (AI). This development, initially reported by the Financial Times, emerges as the music industry faces new challenges and opportunities in monetizing AI-generated deepfake songs.

Duolingo cuts workers as it relies more on AI

Language-learning app Duolingo has been steadily firing contract writers and translators, replacing them with artificial intelligence, in one of the most high-profile instances yet of a company getting rid of human workers in favor of AI.

ChatGPT ‘hallucinates.’ Some researchers worry it isn’t fixable.

The finding, in a paper released by a team of MIT researchers, is the latest potential breakthrough in helping chatbots to arrive at the correct answer. The researchers proposed using different chatbots to produce multiple answers to the same question and then letting them debate each other until one answer won out. The researchers found using this “society of minds” method made them more factual.

Hate Speech, Polarisation

India's Muslims Face a Mental Health Crisis Amid Rampant Hate Speech and Disinformation

Hate-inciting messages are circulated widely on WhatsApp, with hundreds of messages related to the Israel-Hamas conflict being shared across more than a hundred groups. This reporter has documented hundreds of such WhatsApp messages and observed similar content being circulated on X, shared by right-wing ideologues

Jamiat calls for anti-Islamophobia legislation, condemns hate campaigns

Prominent Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, at its governing council meeting in the national capital on Thursday, passed a resolution against the “growing hate campaign” and called for a separate legislation to counter Islamophobia by punishing those who incite violence. JUH President Maulana Mahmood Madani said “the country cannot thrive on hatred”, at the two day meet that started on Thursday and was attended by nearly 1,500 members and prominent Islamic clerics and scholars from across the country.

"Alarm Bell": UN Rights Chief On Rising Hate Speeches During Elections

The UN rights chief voiced alarm Wednesday at a hardening of rhetoric, including hate speech and dehumanising language against migrants and other minorities, linked to elections in Europe and elsewhere. "This is an alarm bell," Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva. He warned of rising populism, hate speech and scapegoating as a record number of countries are holding elections this year.

Is Xenophobia on Chinese Social Media Teaching Real-World Hate?

Violent attacks on foreigners have prompted a debate about extreme nationalism online in a country that heavily censors information the government bans.

Why Delhi HC's Dismissal of Petition Seeking Action on PM Modi's Hate Speech is Dangerous

The Delhi high court dismissed the petitions seeking that the Election Commission of India (ECI) take action against the Prime Minister for his campaign speeches that implore people to vote in the name of religion.

Alleged Hate Speech On Floods In Manipur Viral, Cops Probing It: Sources

An alleged hate speech video posted by a social media influencer 10 months ago wishing for natural disasters to strike ethnic violence-hit Manipur as "God's vengeance" has gone viral, following which police sources said they are looking into the matter and will take action.

64% of the time, when people join an extremist Facebook Group, they do so because the platform recommended it – Facebook’s internal study

“Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” read a slide from a 2018 (Facebook) presentation. “If left unchecked,” it warned, Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”

Facebook weighted the angry emoji as five times more powerful than a like

Facebook engineers gave extra value to emoji reactions, including ‘angry,’ pushing more emotional and provocative content into users’ news feeds

Model Suggests Digital Media Contributing to “Maelstrom” of Societal Division

Regular users of social media platforms are well aware that they often produce toxic discourse. But while social media executives such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Nick Clegg continue to make straw man arguments designed to undermine the contention that products such as Facebook play a role in exacerbating societal divisions, communications and political science scholars continue to produce results that bring clarity to the mechanisms by which digital and social media exacerbate partisan and identity-based conflict. A better understanding is crucial for keying in on what platforms should be held responsible for, devising better policy, and potentially designing solutions.

‘Beyond Fake News’ BBC study 2018 - India

Our analysis suggests that people India are not that concerned about fake news, no matter what they say in quantitative surveys. First, the initial association with or the working definition of the term ‘fake news’ is largely limited to scams (all kinds of schemes, offers and attempted cons) that they keep coming across, or messages in the realm of the fantastical, which are just too incredible to believe.

Facebook India: Caste and Religious Hate Speech - Equality Labs

Facebook staff lacks the cultural competency needed to recognize, respect, and serve caste, religious, gender, and queer minorities. Hiring of Indian staff alone does not ensure cultural competence across India’s multitude of marginalized communities. Minorities require meaningful representation across Facebook’s staff and contractor relationships. Collaboration with civil society and greater transparency of staffing diversity strengthens hate speech mitigation mechanisms like content moderation.

Data and Privacy Breaches

Airtel Data Leak: Hackers On Dark Web Allegedly Selling Personal Data Of 375 Million Airtel India Customers

Bharti Airtel, a major Indian telecom company, is facing controversy surrounding a potential data leak. Reports claim that personal details of a whopping 375 million Airtel customers are being sold on the dark web. Airtel has strongly refuted these claims.

ChatGPT Maker OpenAI Allegedly Hid Details About Data Breach In 2023: Here’s Why

OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, is under scrutiny following a revelation about a 2023 data breach. According to a New York Times report, hackers infiltrated OpenAI's internal messaging system, potentially stealing details about their artificial intelligence (AI) advancements.

Hacker leaks nearly 10 billion passwords in biggest haul ever, says report

The compilation of leaked passwords, RockYou2024, was shared by a user who calls himself ‘ObamaCare’ on a popular hacking forum, as per a report A hacker has leaked nearly 10 billion passwords in the biggest haul of all times, according to a report. The leak is the latest of the large volume of hacked passwords and personal passwords leaked on the internet. Earlier this year, up to 12 terabytes of data was leaked online which contained nearly 26 billion digital records stolen from platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Weibo, and Tencent.

Hackers leak alleged Taylor Swift ticket data to extort Ticketmaster

Hackers claimed this week that they had obtained barcode data for hundreds of thousands of tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, demanding that Ticketmaster pay millions in ransom money or they would leak the information online.

The Ticketmaster Data Breach May Be Just the Beginning

Data breaches at Ticketmaster and financial services company Santander have been linked to attacks against cloud provider Snowflake. Researchers fear more breaches will soon be uncovered.

Massive Ticketmaster, Santander data breaches linked to Snowflake cloud storage

A data breach potentially affecting as many as 560 million Ticketmaster accounts and a confirmed one for Santander Bank may have stemmed from attacks on the cloud storage accounts with a company called Snowflake. As spotted by Bleeping Computer, an investigation from cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock reports that a bad actor gained access to Ticketmaster and Santander by using the stolen credentials of a single Snowflake employee.

Google settles $5 billion consumer privacy lawsuit

Alphabet's Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled Feb. 5, 2024 trial in the proposed class action on hold, after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached a preliminary settlement.

‘Privacy & AI’

The year has barely started, and the New York Times vs. OpenAI lawsuit signs massive AI-led changes to the internet as we know it. Read about what’s happening in this article.

Aadhar data leak: Massive data breach exposes 81 crore Indians’ personal information on dark web

A report by US-based cybersecurity firm Resecurity has claimed that personal identifiable information of about 815 million which is 81.5 crore Indians has been leaked on the dark web, as reported by Business Standard.

Augmented reality has immense power. Users will need rights

Tony Fadell, the co-creator of the iPod and iPhone and founder of Nest Labs, has said, “I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking what did we bring to the world? Did we bring a nuclear bomb with information that can — as we see with fake news — reprogram people? Or did we bring light to people who never had information, who can now be empowered?”

The Privacy Paradox

Whenever researchers, opinion pollsters and other busybodies ask people if they value their privacy, they invariably respond with a resounding “yes”. The paradox arises from the fact that they nevertheless continue to use the services that undermine their beloved privacy.

The Dangers of Hacking and What a Hacker Can Do to Your Computer

Anyone who uses a computer connected to the Internet is susceptible to the threats that computer hackers and online predators pose. These online villains typically use phishing scams, spam email or instant messages and bogus websites to deliver dangerous malware to your computer and compromise your computer security.

So FLoC trials are delayed in Europe thanks to GDPR. Now what?

Marketers are showing signs of strain but not panic as the initial furor over the delayed test of Google’s cookie alternative in Europe settles.

Ad tech stocks surge as Google delays killing third-party cookies until 2023

Google is pushing back its timeline to deprecate third-party tracking cookies, giving the digital advertising industry more time to iron out plans for more privacy-conscious targeted ads.

Targeting and Profiling

Google is Targeting iPhone Users with Ads to Promote Its OwnApps

Google’s not just sitting back and hoping for the best. They’re actively trying to get iPhone users to download and use their apps. It’s a bit like trying to get your mate to switch football teams – not an easy task, but they’re giving it a go. They’ve been plastering ads all over the place, showing off fancy features like Google Lens.

How Data-Fueled Neurotargeting Could Kill Democracy

One of the foundational concepts in modern democracies is what’s usually referred to as the marketplace of ideas, a term coined by political philosopher John Stuart Mill in 1859, though its roots stretch back at least another two centuries. The basic idea is simple: In a democratic society, everyone should share their ideas in the public sphere, and then, through reasoned debate, the people of a country may decide which ideas are best and how to put them into action, such as by passing new laws. This premise is a large part of the reason that constitutional democracies are built around freedom of speech and a free press — principles enshrined, for instance, in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Apple knew AirDrop users could be identified and tracked as early as 2019, researchers say

Security researchers warned Apple as early as 2019 about vulnerabilities in its AirDrop wireless sharing function that Chinese authorities claim they recently used to track down users of the feature, the researchers told CNN, in a case that experts say has sweeping implications for global privacy.

Your personal data, their political campaign? Beneficiary politics and the lack of law

As the 2024 elections inch closer, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) looks into how political parties can access personal data of welfare scheme beneficiaries and other potential voters through indirect and often illicit means, to create voter profiles for targeted campaigning, and what the law has to say about it.

Psychographic Microtargeting – Cambridge Analytica

How do 87m records scraped from Facebook become an advertising campaign that could help swing an election? What does gathering that much data actually involve? And what does that data tell us about ourselves?

Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

What can we learn about ourselves from the things we ask online? US data scientist Seth Stephens‑Davidowitz analysed anonymous Google search results, uncovering disturbing truths about our desires, beliefs and prejudices

The Real Threat From A.I. Isn’t Superintelligence. It’s Gullibility.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence over the past few decades, from pipe dream to reality, has been staggering. A.I. programs have long been chess and Jeopardy! Champions, but they have also conquered poker, crossword puzzles, Go, and even protein folding. They power the social media, video, and search sites we all use daily, and very recently they have leaped into a realm previously thought unimaginable for computers: artistic creativity.

Amazon Puts Its Own “Brands” First

The online giant gives a leg up to hundreds of house brand and exclusive products that most people don’t know are connected to Amazon.

Targeted ads isolate and divide us even when they’re not political

We found that online targeted advertising also divides and isolates us by preventing us from collectively flagging ads we object to. We do this in the physical world (perhaps when we see an advert at a bus stop or train station) by alerting regulators to harmful content. But online consumers are isolated because the information they see is limited to what is targeted at them.

Surveillance capitalism, and the fight for a human future

The assault on behavioural data is so sweeping that it can no longer be circumscribed by the concept of privacy. This is a different kind of challenge now, one that threatens the existential and political canon of the modern liberal order defined by principles of self-determination that have been centuries, even millennia, in the making.

The adversarial persuasion machine: a conversation with James Williams

My whole digital environment seemed to be transmogrifying into some weird new kind of adversarial persuasion machine. But persuasion isn’t even the right word for it. It’s something stronger than that, something more in the direction of coercion or manipulation that I still don’t think we have a good word for.

Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets

Apple’s moves to tighten flow of user data leave advertisers anxious

Apple’s changes, unveiled during its developer conference Monday, threaten to restrict companies’ abilities to track users’ web behavior and gather information on them from third parties such as data brokers.

Online child abuse and mental health

US surgeon general calls for warning labels on social-media platforms

Australia gives internet firms 6 months to draft online child-safety rules

Australia is giving the internet industry six months to come up with an enforceable code detailing how it will stop children seeing pornography and other inappropriate material online or face having a code imposed on it, a regulator said on Tuesday. The eSafety Commissioner said it wrote to members of the online industry demanding a plan by Oct. 3 setting out how they plan to protect minors from seeing high-impact material before they are ready, also including themes of suicide and eating disorders.

Porn sites and Meta among those tasked with drafting Australia’s online child safety rules

Australia’s online safety regulator has given porn websites, social media companies, search engines and others in the tech industry six months to come up with rules to prevent children from accessing adult content. Using powers under the Online Safety Act, the eSafety commissioner will require industry bodies to come up with a new code to prevent children from seeing content rated R18+ and above on their services or devices.

Finn suspected of abusing hundreds of children online

A Finnish man is suspected of committing sex crimes against more than 200 children on video chat platform Omegle and other social media, Finnish police said on Tuesday. He is suspected of contacting "more than 200 minors" aged six to 15 across Finland via video chat, most of them girls, and asking them to "dress scantily and perform sexual acts" in front of the web camera, police said.

EU to investigate Meta over child safety & mental health concerns

The European Commission said it had decided to open an in-depth investigation into Facebook and Instagram due to concerns they had not adequately addressed risks to children. Meta submitted a risk assessment report in September.

Snooping is not a good way to keep kids safe online

Recently, reports emerged that India’s ministry of electronics and IT has been working on an app, Safenet, that links parents’ phones with those of their children, so that they can monitor the online activities of their offspring. While parental controls on internet platforms typically offer options of granting app or website access and placing limits on the time spent, Safenet is said to go further by sharing call details and SMS logs, apart from data on all content viewed on platforms like YouTube. The Internet Service Provider Association of India has suggested that this app should be made available by default on all personal devices. This proposal is a classic example of techno-solutionism, an attempt to use technology to solve a complex social problem.

Zuckerberg ‘ignored’ executives on kids’ safety, unredacted lawsuit alleges

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg “ignored” top executives who called for bolder actions and more resources to protect users, especially kids and teens, even as the company faced mounting scrutiny over its safety practices, a newly unredacted legal complaint alleges.

More data is collected about children growing up today than ever before. – Children’s commissioner UK.

The Children’s Commissioner is concerned that information collected about a child today might jeopardise their future, potentially affecting whether they are offered a university place, job or financial products (such as insurance or credit). She is worried by the risk of a child’s data being used to commit identity theft when the child turns 18.

Google Contractor Pays Parents $50 to Scan Their Childrens' Faces

Google is collecting the eyelid shape and skin tone of children via parent submitted videos, according to a project description online reviewed by 404 Media. Canadian tech conglomerate TELUS, which says it is working on Google’s behalf, is offering parents $50 to film their children wearing various props such as hats or sunglasses as part of the project, the description adds.

Smartphone Addiction Causing Speech Delay Among Kashmiri Children

Sonali Patankar: There is an urgent need for comprehensive online safety education and parental guidance

In this interview with Sarika Sawant for Open Interview, Patankar talks about the issues and challenges being faced by- especially- women, children and elderly due to the growing cases of cybercrimes. She shares her experience of solving cyber issues, creating awareness about preventive measures for cyber frauds and attacks, results of surveys she conducted and also provides practical and achievable solutions to deal with the varied forms of cyber issues.

Teen suicides now outnumber homicides - and there's a terrifying reason why

Over the past decade, psychologists have come to see a picture in which young, developing brains are pitted against the power of brightly-colored notifications, relentless pocket vibrations, and addicting apps. The byproduct has been an increase in disorders such as depression and anxiety, which sometimes turn fatal.

Youtube girl videos wormhole 2019 - Matt Watson (video)

Over the past 48 hours I have discovered a wormhole into a soft-core pedophilia ring on Youtube. Youtube’s recommended algorithm is facilitating pedophiles’ ability to connect with each-other, trade contact info, and link to actual Child Porn in the comments.

8 in 10 users have faced online harassment, claims survey

The most common forms of online harassment were found to be abuse and insults, which was reported by 63% of respondents. This was followed by malicious gossip and rumours (59%), malicious comments/threats on a social media site (54%), trolling (50%), and attacks/abuse from a coordinated group (49%).

The Warped Self – Predictive processing and neuroscience explains online hyperstimulation

Over time, such systems build up a ‘generative model’, a structured understanding of the statistical regularities in our environment that’s used to generate predictions. This generative model is essentially a mental model of our world, including both immediate, task-specific information, as well as longer-term information that constitutes our narrative sense of self.

'We lost control of our creations': The Silicon Valley heretic on a mission to make Big Tech repent

These factors together have created a "race to the bottom of the brainstem", in which increasingly "overwhelming" and sophisticated AI tools are devoted to exploiting what Mr Raskin calls the "soft underbelly of our animal minds". They even propose something more sinister: that these AIs have learned to make us more anxious and more confused, because these qualities make us better customers (or rather, more lucrative eyeballs). That, says Mr Harris, puts us at "a civilisational moment" – a crossroads where the wrong turn could mean "the end of human agency".

How TikTok is addictive

TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform in the world! Each month TikTok has 800 MILLION active users. That is more active users than Twitter, Reddit, SnapChat, and Pinterest! Unlike these and other rival platforms, TikTok at its core recommends content.

Teen girls body image and social comparison on Instagram - WSJ

This internal study by Facebook researchers published internally in 2020, examines teenage girls' experiences with appearance comparisons on social media and how that affected their body image and mental health.

Behaviour Manipulation

As Life And Modern Democracies Hang By A Click, So Does The Hypervasive AI Influence

Social networks have demonstrated the potential to manipulate human behavior through digital behavior. Based on a dataset of over 58,000 volunteers who provided their Facebook Likes, detailed demographic profiles, and the results of several psychometric tests, researchers from the University of Cambridge have shown that private traits and attributes can be predicted from digital records of human behavior. With the advancement of AI through the vast spread of GenAI, marketing science has never been more equipped to predict behavior, blurring the line with manipulation and questioning the notion of cognitive liberty considering the factors of manipulation from AI, which can bypass human rational defenses.

A model of behavioral manipulation

The default position among most economists and AI researchers is that the combination of large amounts data and advances in AI will bring widespread benefits to society. For participants in online platforms, these may take the form of more informative advertising, better targeted products, more personalized services, and perhaps better information and recommendation for decision-making across a variety of domains. One challenge to this optimistic scenario is that the information that online platforms collect could be used for good or for bad—to mislead rather than help users. Is this likely? If it is, what form would such behavioral manipulation take? And how can it be countered?

Is So-Called Contextual Advertising the Cure to Surveillance-Based “Behavioral” Advertising?

Contextual advertising is said to be privacy-safe because it eliminates the need for cookies, third-party trackers, and the processing of other personal data. Marketers and policy makers are placing much stock in the future of contextual advertising, viewing it as the solution to the privacy-invasive targeted advertising that heavily relies on personal data.

The Ethics Of AI: Navigating Bias, Manipulation And Beyond

One of the key concerns surrounding the ethics of AI is the potential for reinforcing existing biases. As discussed in a conversation with Michelle Yi, Senior Director of Applied Artificial Intelligence at RelationalAI, bias in AI systems can have far-reaching consequences. When biased data is fed into AI models, it can perpetuate biases on an unprecedented scale.

How AI can affect our decisions

AI and The Death Of Exploration

The ability to choose well is arguably the most powerful right in today’s world. Wars have occurred and millions of lives have been lost for the freedom that has ultimately given the power to each one of us to choose. The person or group that controls the choice of people controls the environment around them. So how exactly are we protecting this cardinal right in today’s world?

'Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

It is revealing that many of these younger technologists are weaning themselves off their own products, sending their children to elite Silicon Valley schools where iPhones, iPads and even laptops are banned. They appear to be abiding by a Biggie Smalls lyric from their own youth about the perils of dealing crack cocaine: never get high on your own supply.

Netflix knows you better than you know yourself - A former Google data scientist explains why

As a result, Stephens-Davidowitz writes, Netflix stopped asking people to choose what they wanted to watch in the future. Instead, Netflix made recommendations based on movies that similar users had watched. "The result: customers visited Netflix more frequently and watched more movies," he adds. That's kind of creepy - and creepier when you realize that Netflix is hardly the only business making bank on people's lack of self-knowledge.

New Study Shows Impact of Technology on Relationships

* Forty-five percent consider technology a big problem in their marriage.
* More than one-third of the adults use technology in their bed every night or almost every night. Even more, 43 percent, report that their spouse/partner uses technology in bed every night or almost every night. That may be why nearly 25 percent feel like their partner’s use of technology in bed interferes with their sexual relationship.
* Fifty-five percent feel like their spouse/partner spends too much time on their cell phone, and 48 percent wish their significant other would spend less time on their cell phone and more time with their children.

Why Your Brain Needs Idle Time

Experts say idle time likely also helps develop mental processes that are far more complicated than memory storage and retrieval. “The deeper reflective states, where you make meaning of what’s going on and connect it to self and identity and integrate knowledge together into coherent narratives — these kinds of processes only happen when you’re not focused on some in-the-moment activity,”

Post-truth world

A decade of ‘gaslighting’ in Modi’s India

On May 14, as the Lok Sabha elections were underway, News18 anchor Rubika Liaquat asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi why he had referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children” in his election speeches. Modi’s remarks had been widely reported – and criticised. As Scroll reported, the prime minister’s election campaign was marked by “divisive falsehoods, pitting India’s Muslims against other disadvantaged communities”.

Counting Hurricanes in a Post-Truth World

The Colorado State University Tropical Weather and Climate team made a news splash on April 4, forecasting a disturbingly above-average number of storms expected in this year’s hurricane season. The forecast was also notable in that it was announced earlier in the year than ever by the hurricane forecasting team at CSU, which has been making annual forecasts of the year’s expected hurricane activity for 39 years. The Colorado team is considered among the two most trusted and sophisticated forecasting groups, and the other is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Other forecasters that use complex models to predict hurricane activity, such as AccuWeather, concur with the CSU and NOAA predictions. AccuWeather expects this year’s hurricane season to be “super-charged.”

Governance risks in a post-truth world

here is a growing governance malaise in the world. The United States (US) and China — the two growth engines of the world, accounting for over 40% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — are gripped by disparate but seemingly unresolvable governance challenges with major consequences for the global economy and world order.

How ‘cheapfakes’ are pushing misinformation in the Lok Sabha election

The 2024 general election was in full swing when hundreds of social media users shared a video that appeared to show Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying the ruling party wanted to scrap a quota system aimed at undoing centuries of caste discrimination. The controversial comments caused a brief furore before fact-checkers stepped in and declared the video a fake one made using old footage that was doctored with the help of basic editing tools—a so-called “cheapfake”.

Deepfake Elections: How Indian Politicians Are Using AI-Manipulated Media To Malign Opponents

Election propaganda in India has evolved beyond door-to-door campaigns and wall posters to AI-generated fake videos. This technology allows a bunch of people sitting in their Delhi NCR offices to deploy deepfake videos that can sway voter sentiments in any poll-bound constituency hundreds of miles away.

The Meta Studies: Nuanced Findings, Corporate Spin, and Media Oversimplification

A collaboration between social scientists and Meta has been held up as a potential “new model for platform research” that may help explain the effects social media companies have on politics and democratic institutions. With the first results from this ongoing project – four peer-reviewed studies – released last week, now is a good time to ask whether the unusual endeavor is living up to the hype.

Facebook whistleblower says company incentivises "angry, polarising, divisive content”

"Facebook's mission is to connect people all around the world," said Haugen. "When you have a system that you know can be hacked with anger, it's easier to provoke people into anger. And publishers are saying, 'Oh, if I do more angry, polarizing, divisive content, I get more money.' Facebook has set up a system of incentives that is pulling people apart."

Facebook whistleblower says company incentivises "angry, polarising, divisive content”

Google page ranking rigging 2016 US elections

Google has the ability to drive millions of votes to a candidate with no one the wiser.

Computational Power: Automated Use of WhatsApp in the Elections

Our study concluded that there is strong evidence of automation being used in multiple WhatsApp groups and that there is a high degree of interconnection, as evidenced by the large number of administrators and members shared by these groups among each other.

The Platform Press: How Silicon Valley reengineered journalism

There is a rapid takeover of traditional publishers’ roles by companies including Facebook, Snapchat, Google, and Twitter that shows no sign of slowing, and which raises serious questions over how the costs of journalism will be supported. These companies have evolved beyond their role as distribution channels, and now control what audiences see and who gets paid for their attention, and even what format and type of journalism flourishes.

Information Warfare

Documents provide insight into Russia's information war

Internal Documents from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service SWR provide deep insights into Moscow's influence campaigns against the West. The documents were leaked to "Der Spiegel" and investigative platform "The Insider," with experts deeming the contents plausible. According to a strategy paper from an experienced SWR department head, drafted since the spring of 2022, the primary objective is to generate "fear" in Europe.

America falters in fighting the information war

Americans are unknowingly being bombarded with media manipulated by China, Russia and Iran, despite U.S. efforts to stem the tide, according to an analysis first shared with Axios.

Trends releases study on threats of AI in information warfare

ABU DHABI, 4th June, 2024 (WAM) -- Trends Research and Advisory has just released a study that warns of the possible risks of exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) in information warfare by "polluting" the input data it learns and works with. The study "AI Pollution: The Future Threats of Information Warfare" showed that AI pollution is the deliberate dissemination of misleading information into AI systems to manipulate their output.

Information warfare & cyber insecurity may impact 2024 polls globally, AI biggest threat: WEF report

Information warfare and cybersecurity threats could affect electoral campaigns and outcomes across 45 countries this year, a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed, adding that artificial intelligence poses one of the biggest threats to the coming elections in 2024.

Is Israel losing the information war on Gaza?

Marc Lamont Hill talks to documentary producer Sut Jhally about Israel’s information warfare strategy.

How Hamas’ Information Warfare Strategy Both Succeeded and Failed

A scathing retaliation and military operation in the Gaza Strip has ensued, with tens of thousands of casualties. The military retaliation would play into Hamas’ hands, but the lack of regional support has hampered the terrorist organization’s freedom of movement.

Fake News Danger Becomes Top Davos Worry in Year of Elections

False or wrong information poses the biggest danger to the world in the next two years amid a confluence of elections and economic drudgery, according to a survey by the World Economic Forum.

Facebook - Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Explained

“Coordinated inauthentic behavior.” If you keep up with news from Facebook, you’ve probably heard us use this term before. In recent months, we’ve removed numerous Pages and accounts for engaging in it — but what does it actually mean? And how is it different from “fake news”? I lead the team responsible for enforcing against this behavior and in this video, I’ll give you a quick rundown of what it means.

Politibots - The bots that are changing politics

Bots and their cousins—botnets, bot armies, sockpuppets, fake accounts, sybils, automated trolls, influence networks—are a dominant new force in public discourse. You may have heard that bots can be used to threaten activists, swing elections, and even engage in conversation with the President. Bots are the hip new media; Silicon Valley has marketed the chatbot as the next technological step after the app.

IBM abandons 'biased' facial recognition tech

A 2019 study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that none of the facial recognition tools from Microsoft, Amazon and IBM were 100% accurate when it came to recognising men and women with dark skin.

Microsoft won’t sell police its facial-recognition technology

“When even the makers of face recognition refuse to sell this surveillance technology because it is so dangerous, lawmakers can no longer deny the threats to our rights and liberties,” Matt Cagle, a technology and civil liberties lawyer with the ACLU of Northern California.

The US is readying sanctions against Russia over the SolarWinds cyberattack. Here's a simple explanation of how the massive hack happened and why it's such a big deal

Foreign hackers, who some top US officials believe are from Russia, were able to use the hack to spy on private companies like the elite cybersecurity firm FireEye and the upper echelons of the US Government, including the Department of Homeland Security and Treasury Department.