Biometric Mirror

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

University of Melbourne: “Biometric Mirror exposes the possibilities of artificial intelligence and facial analysis in public space. The aim is to investigate the attitudes that emerge as people are presented with different perspectives on their own, anonymised biometric data distinguished from a single photograph of their face. It sheds light on the specific data that people oppose and approve, the sentiments it evokes, and the underlying reasoning. Biometric Mirror also presents an opportunity to reflect on whether the plausible future of artificial intelligence is a future we want to see take shape.

Big data and artificial intelligence are some of today’s most popular buzzwords. Both are promised to help deliver insights that were previously too complex for computer systems to calculate. With examples ranging from personalised recommendation systems to automatic facial analyses, user-generated data is now analysed by algorithms to identify patterns and predict outcomes. And the common view is that these developments will have a positive impact on society.

Within the realm of artificial intelligence (AI), facial analysis gains popularity. Today, CCTV cameras and advertising screens increasingly link with analysis systems that are able to detect emotions, age, gender and demographic information of people passing by. It has proven to increase advertising effectiveness in retail environments, since campaigns can now be tailored to specific audience profiles and situations. But facial analysis models are also being developed to predict your aggression level, sexual preference, life expectancy and likeliness of being a terrorist (or an academic) by simply monitoring surveillance camera footage or analysing a single photograph. Some of these developments have gained widespread media coverage for their innovative nature, but often the ethical and social impact is only a side thought.

Current technological developments approach ethical boundaries of the artificial intelligence age. Facial recognition and analysis in public space raise concerns as people are photographed without prior consent, and their photos disappear into a commercial operator’s infrastructure. It remains unclear how the data is processed, how the data is tailored for specific purposes and how the data is retained or disposed of. People also do not have the opportunity to review or amend their facial recognition data. Perhaps most worryingly, artificial intelligence systems may make decisions or deliver feedback based on the data, regardless of its accuracy or completeness. While facial recognition and analysis may be harmless for tailored advertising in retail environments or to unlock your phone, it quickly pushes ethical boundaries when the general purpose is to more closely monitor society… (More).

Remembering and Forgetting in the Digital Age

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Thouvenin, Florent (et al.): “… examines the fundamental question of how legislators and other rule-makers should handle remembering and forgetting information (especially personally identifiable information) in the digital age. It encompasses such topics as privacy, data protection, individual and collective memory, and the right to be forgotten when considering data storage, processing and deletion. The authors argue in support of maintaining the new digital default, that (personally identifiable) information should be remembered rather than forgotten.

The book offers guidelines for legislators as well as private and public organizations on how to make decisions on remembering and forgetting personally identifiable information in the digital age. It draws on three main perspectives: law, based on a comprehensive analysis of Swiss law that serves as an example; technology, specifically search engines, internet archives, social media and the mobile internet; and an interdisciplinary perspective with contributions from various disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics, amongst others.. Thanks to this multifaceted approach, readers will benefit from a holistic view of the informational phenomenon of “remembering and forgetting”.

This book will appeal to lawyers, philosophers, sociologists, historians, economists, anthropologists, and psychologists among many others. Such wide appeal is due to its rich and interdisciplinary approach to the challenges for individuals and society at large with regard to remembering and forgetting in the digital age…(More)”

Social media big data analytics: A survey

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Norjihan Abdul Ghani et al in Computers in Human Behavior: “Big data analytics has recently emerged as an important research area due to the popularity of the Internet and the advent of the Web 2.0 technologies. Moreover, the proliferation and adoption of social media applications have provided extensive opportunities and challenges for researchers and practitioners. The massive amount of data generated by users using social media platforms is the result of the integration of their background details and daily activities.

This enormous volume of generated data known as “big data” has been intensively researched recently. A review of the recent works is presented to obtain a broad perspective of the social media big data analytics research topic. We classify the literature based on important aspects. This study also compares possible big data analytics techniques and their quality attributes. Moreover, we provide a discussion on the applications of social media big data analytics by highlighting the state-of-the-art techniques, methods, and the quality attributes of various studies. Open research challenges in big data analytics are described as well….(More)”.

One of New York City’s most urgent design challenges is invisible

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Diana Budds at Curbed: “Algorithms are invisible, but they already play a large role in shaping New York City’s built environment, schooling, public resources, and criminal justice system. Earlier this year, the City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio formed the Automated Decision Systems Task Force, the first of its kind in the country, to analyze how NYC deploys automated systems to ensure fairness, equity, and accountability are upheld.

This week, 20 experts in the field of civil rights and artificial intelligence co-signed a letter to the task force to help influence its official report, which is scheduled to be published in December 2019.

The letter’s recommendations include creating a publicly accessible list of all the automated decision systems in use; consulting with experts before adopting an automated decision system; creating a permanent government body to oversee the procurement and regulation of automated decision systems; and upholding civil liberties in all matters related to automation. This could lay the groundwork for future legislation around automation in the city….Read the full letter here.”

Better ways to measure the new economy

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Valerie Hellinghausen and Evan Absher at Kauffman Foundation: “The old measure of “jobs numbers” as an economic indicator is shifting to new metrics to measure a new economy.

With more communities embracing inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems as the new model of economic development, entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, and government agencies – at all levels – need to work together on data-driven initiatives. While established measures still have a place, new metrics have the potential to deliver the timely and granular information that is more useful at the local level….

Three better ways to measure the new economy:

  1. National and local datasets:Numbers used to discuss the economy are national level and usually not very timely. These numbers are useful to understand large trends, but fail to capture local realities. One way to better measure local economies is to use local administrative datasets. There are many obstacles with this approach, but the idea is gaining interest. Data infrastructure, policies, and projects are building connections between local and national agencies. Joining different levels of government data will provide national scale and local specificity.
  1. Private and public data:The words private and public typically reflect privacy issues, but there is another public and private dimension. Public institutions possess vast amounts of data, but so do private companies. For instance, sites like PayPal, Square, Amazon, and Etsy possess data that could provide real-time assessment of an individual company’s financial health. The concept of credit and risk could be expanded to benefit those currently underserved, if combined with local administrative information like tax, wage, and banking data. Fair and open use of private data could open credit to currently underfunded entrepreneurs.
  1. New metrics:Developing connections between different datasets will result in new metrics of entrepreneurial activity: metrics that measure human connection, social capital, community creativity, and quality of life. Metrics that capture economic activity at the community level and in real time. For example, the Kauffman Foundation has funded research that uses labor data from private job-listing sites to better understand the match between the workforce entrepreneurs need and the workforce available within the immediate community. But new metrics are not enough, they must connect to the final goal of economic independence. Using new metrics to help ecosystems understand how policies and programs impact entrepreneurship is the final step to measuring local economies….(More)”.

When Westlaw Fuels Ice Surveillance: Ethics in the Big Data Policing Era

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Sarah Lamdan at New York University Review of Law & Social Change: “Legal research companies are selling surveillance data and services to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement agencies.

This article discusses ethical issues that arise when lawyers buy and use legal research services sold by the vendors that build ICE’s surveillance systems. As the legal profession collectively pays millions of dollars for computer assisted legal research services, lawyers should consider whether doing so in the era of big data policing compromises their confidentiality requirements and their obligation to supervise third party vendors….(More)”

An Overview of National AI Strategies

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Medium Article by Tim Dutton: “The race to become the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) has officially begun. In the past fifteen months, Canada, China, Denmark, the EU Commission, Finland, France, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Nordic-Baltic region, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the UAE, and the UK have all released strategies to promote the use and development of AI. No two strategies are alike, with each focusing on different aspects of AI policy: scientific research, talent development, skills and education, public and private sector adoption, ethics and inclusion, standards and regulations, and data and digital infrastructure.

This article summarizes the key policies and goals of each strategy, as well as related policies and initiatives that have announced since the release of the initial strategies. It also includes countries that have announced their intention to develop a strategy or have related AI policies in place….(More)”.

How Social Media Came To The Rescue After Kerala’s Floods

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Kamala Thiagarajan at NPR: Devastating rainfall followed by treacherous landslides have killed 210 people since August 8 and displaced over a million in the southern Indian state of Kerala. India’s National Disaster Relief Force launched its biggest ever rescue operation in the state, evacuating over 10,000 people. The Indian army and the navy were deployed as well.

But they had some unexpected assistance.

Thousands of Indian citizens used mobile phone technology and social media platforms to mobilize relief efforts….

In many other cases, it was ordinary folk who harnessed social media and their own resources to play a role in relief and rescue efforts.

As the scope of the disaster became clear, the state government of Kerala reached out to software engineers from around the world. They joined hands with the state-government-run Information Technology Cell, coming together on Slack, a communications platform, to create the website www.keralarescue.in

The website allowed volunteers who were helping with disaster relief in Kerala’s many flood-affected districts to share the needs of stranded people so that authorities could act.

Johann Binny Kuruvilla, a travel blogger, was one of many volunteers. He put in 14-hour shifts at the District Emergency Operations Center in Ernakulam, Kochi.

The first thing he did, he says, was to harness the power of Whatsapp, a critical platform for dispensing information in India. He joined five key Whatsapp groups with hundreds of members who were coordinating rescue and relief efforts. He sent them his number and mentioned that he would be in a position to communicate with a network of police, army and navy personnel. Soon he was receiving an average of 300 distress calls a day from people marooned at home and faced with medical emergencies.

No one trained volunteers like Kuruvilla. “We improvised and devised our own systems to store data,” he says. He documented the information he received on Excel spreadsheets before passing them on to authorities.

He was also the contact point for INSPIRE, a fraternity of mechanical engineering students at a government-run engineering college at Barton Hill in Kerala. The students told him they had made nearly 300 power banks for charging phones, using four 1.5 volt batteries and cables, and, he says, “asked us if we could help them airdrop it to those stranded in flood-affected areas.” A power bank could boost a mobile phone’s charge by 20 percent in minutes, which could be critical for people without access to electricity. Authorities agreed to distribute the power banks, wrapping them in bubble wrap and airdropping them to areas where people were marooned.

Some people took to social media to create awareness of the aftereffects of the flooding.

Anand Appukuttan, 38, is a communications designer. Working as a consultant he currently lives in Chennai, 500 miles by road from Kerala, and designs infographics, mobile apps and software for tech companies. Appukuttan was born and brought up in Kottayam, a city in South West Kerala. When he heard of the devastation caused by the floods, he longed to help. A group of experts on disaster management reached out to him over Facebook on August 18, asking if he would share his time and expertise in creating flyers for awareness; he immediately agreed….(More)”.

Self-Invasion And The Invaded Self

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Rochelle Gurstein in the Baffler: “WHAT DO WE LOSE WHEN WE LOSE OUR PRIVACY? This question has become increasingly difficult to answer, living as we do in a society that offers boundless opportunities for men and women to expose themselves (in all dimensions of that word) as never before, to commit what are essentially self-invasions of privacy. Although this is a new phenomenon, it has become as ubiquitous as it is quotidian, and for that reason, it is perhaps one of the most telling signs of our time. To get a sense of the sheer range of unconscious exhibitionism, we need only think of the popularity of reality TV shows, addiction-recovery memoirs, and cancer diaries. Then there are the banal but even more conspicuous varieties, like soaring, all-glass luxury apartment buildings and hotels in which inhabitants display themselves in all phases of their private lives to the casual glance of thousands of city walkers below. Or the incessant sound of people talking loudly—sometimes gossiping, sometimes crying—on their cell phones, broadcasting to total strangers the intimate details of their lives.

And, of course, there are now unprecedented opportunities for violating one’s own privacy, furnished by the technology of the internet. The results are everywhere, from selfies and Instagrammed trivia to the almost automatic, everyday activity of Facebook users registering their personal “likes” and preferences. (As we recently learned, this online pastime is nowhere near as private as we had been led to believe; more than fifty million users’ idly generated “data” was “harvested” by Cambridge Analytica to make “personality profiles” that were then used to target voters with advertisements from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.)

Beyond these branded and aggressively marketed forums for self-invasions of privacy there are all the giddy, salacious forms that circulate in graphic images and words online—the sort that led not so long ago to the downfall of Anthony Weiner. The mania for attention of any kind is so pervasive—and the invasion of privacy so nonchalant—that many of us no longer notice, let alone mind, what in the past would have been experienced as insolent violations of privacy….(More)”.

Trust, Security, and Privacy in Crowdsourcing

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Guest Editorial to Special Issue of IEEE Internet of Things Journal: “As we become increasingly reliant on intelligent, interconnected devices in every aspect of our lives, critical trust, security, and privacy concerns are raised as well.

First, the sensing data provided by individual participants is not always reliable. It may be noisy or even faked due to various reasons, such as poor sensor quality, lack of sensor calibration, background noise, context impact, mobility, incomplete view of observations, or malicious attacks. The crowdsourcing applications should be able to evaluate the trustworthiness of collected data in order to filter out the noisy and fake data that may disturb or intrude a crowdsourcing system. Second, providing data (e.g., photographs taken with personal mobile devices) or using IoT applications may compromise data providers’ personal data privacy (e.g., location, trajectory, and activity privacy) and identity privacy. Therefore, it becomes essential to assess the trust of the data while preserving the data providers’ privacy. Third, data analytics and mining in crowdsourcing may disclose the privacy of data providers or related entities to unauthorized parities, which lowers the willingness of participants to contribute to the crowdsourcing system, impacts system acceptance, and greatly impedes its further development. Fourth, the identities of data providers could be forged by malicious attackers to intrude the whole crowdsourcing system. In this context, trust, security, and privacy start to attract a special attention in order to achieve high quality of service in each step of crowdsourcing with regard to data collection, transmission, selection, processing, analysis and mining, as well as utilization.

Trust, security, and privacy in crowdsourcing receives increasing attention. Many methods have been proposed to protect privacy in the process of data collection and processing. For example, data perturbation can be adopted to hide the real data values during data collection. When preprocessing the collected data, data anonymization (e.g., k-anonymization) and fusion can be applied to break the links between the data and their sources/providers. In application layer, anonymity is used to mask the real identities of data sources/providers. To enable privacy-preserving data mining, secure multiparty computation (SMC) and homomorphic encryption provide options for protecting raw data when multiple parties jointly run a data mining algorithm. Through cryptographic techniques, no party knows anything else than its own input and expected results. For data truth discovery, applicable solutions include correlation-based data quality analysis and trust evaluation of data sources. But current solutions are still imperfect, incomprehensive, and inefficient….(More)”.