Not only is Alexa listening when you speak to an Echo smart speaker, an Amazon employee is potentially listening, too.Amazon (AMZN) employs a global team that transcribes the voice commands captured after the wake word is detected and feeds them back into the software to help improve Alexa’s grasp of human speech so it can respond more efficiently in the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Civil Liberties
Supreme Court finds teacher who used camera pen guilty of voyeurism
The Supreme Court of Canada says a London, Ont., teacher who secretly filmed female students’ chests with a camera pen is guilty of voyeurism — a ruling that could have an impact on future privacy-related cases. At issue in the case was whether the students — youths aged 14 to 18 — had a reasonable expectation of privacy when they were being secretly… Read more »
Microsoft search engine Bing was blocked in China
Microsoft confirmed Thursday that Bing was unavailable in China, raising concerns that it could be the latest in a growing list of global internet platforms to be shut out of China’s huge market. Hours later, however, some users were once again able to access the service. “We can confirm that Bing was inaccessible in China,… Read more »
How WhatsApp is being abused in Brazil’s elections
Political campaigners in Brazil have used software that scrapes Facebook for citizens’ phone numbers, and then automatically sends them WhatsApp messages and adds them to WhatsApp groups. Almost three weeks ago, 147 million voters in the country went to the polls for legislative elections and the first round of the presidential elections. This Sunday, they… Read more »
University of Toronto researchers developing tool to jam facial recognition software
While your selfie might get lots of “likes” on social media, companies and perhaps even fraudsters may like your face even more — because they can profit from it. But a University of Toronto researcher has found a way for internet users to opt out by very slightly distorting images, and he’s working on an app that will help them do just… Read more »
Civil Rights Group Criticizes Amazon Over Facial Recognition
Amazon.com Inc. drew the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday over a facial-recognition system offered to law-enforcement agencies that the advocacy group says can be used to violate civil rights. In marketing materials obtained by the group, Amazon Web Services said its Rekognition system uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos,… Read more »
Microsoft launches $25M program to use AI for disabilities
Microsoft is launching a $25 million initiative to use artificial intelligence to build better technology for people with disabilities. CEO Satya Nadella announced the new “AI for Accessibility” effort as he kicked off Microsoft’s annual conference for software developers. The Build conference in Seattle is meant to foster enthusiasm for the company’s latest ventures in… Read more »
Facebook, AggregateIQ now being jointly probed by Canada, B.C. data watchdogs
Privacy watchdogs in Canada and British Columbia are combining existing investigations into Facebook and AggregateIQ. The latter being a Victoria-based ad targeting tech company that has been linked to Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the center of the Facebook data misuse storm. Source: Tech Crunch Date: April 6th, 2018 Link: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/06/facebook-aggregateiq-now-being-jointly-probed-by-canada-b-c-data-watchdogs/ Discussion 1) Much of the media attention in this issue is… Read more »
Canada’s privacy commissioner proposes right to change inaccurate search engine results
Canada’s privacy commissioner thinks you should have the right to ask that inaccurate, incomplete or outdated information appearing in search engines be either amended or removed — and that under Canadian law, internet companies should have to comply. Source: CBC News Date: January 26th, 2018 Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/privacy-commissioner-de-indexing-forgotten-search-results-1.4505425 Discussion 1) Search engines are searching information from websites that they have no control over… Read more »
Welcome to the neighbourhood. Have you read the terms of service?
It’s already hard enough to get people to read the terms of service for the apps they use, and experts are skeptical we could expect any better of someone crossing into the boundary of a smart city neighbourhood, where sensors and data collection abound. Source: CBC News Date: January 18th, 2018 Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/smart-cities-privacy-data-personal-information-sidewalk-1.4488145 Discussion 1) “Sidewalk Labs is… Read more »
Leading Titles
Introduction to Information Systems, 3rd Canadian Binder Ready Version Update Edition
R. Kelly Rainer, Casey G. Cegielski, Ingrid Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, Cristobal Sanchez-Rodriguez
ISBN: 978-1-119-13385-8
August 2015, © 2016
CDN $98.95; CDN $114.95