And You Thought Brexit Was Screwed Up?
May 26, 2020
Nope, DarkCyber does not know if the information in “Open Letter on Confidential Dealings in Facebook Case” is “real news.” What’s interesting in the write up is this table:
The key point is that three years have passed and not much has happened. The main point is that Brexit may be a speedier bureaucratic process than enforcing the GDPR.
I do love the “accept cookies now” messages. That is one way to measure progress.
Stephen E Arnold, May 26, 2020
Facebook: A Super Example of a Leader with Integrity, Forthrightness, and Ethics
May 25, 2020
This is amazing. After years of Congress criticizing Facebook for its disappointing policies on false information, one representative is pointing to the social media platform as an example to others. CNBC reports, “Schiff to Google and Twitter: Please Be More Like Facebook When It Comes to Coronavirus Misinformation.” After the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, tolerating Russian-made falsehoods during the 2016 presidential election, and consistently refusing to curb untrue political ads, what did Facebook do to earn this praise now? Reporter Joshua Roberts writes:
“Facebook said earlier this month that it would notify users if they had engaged with a post that had been removed for including misinformation about Covid-19 in violation of its policies. The social media company will also direct users to myths debunked by the World Health Organization. That marked a major step for Facebook, which has wrung its hands over other forms of misinformation, most notably in political ads. But even while it has refused to fact-check or remove most political ads that contain false information, Facebook said it would remove any that contain misinformation about the coronavirus. Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 election, asked the chief executives of Google, YouTube and Twitter to consider a similar policy to Facebook’s in letters sent Wednesday. ‘While taking down harmful misinformation is a crucial step, mitigating the harms from false content that is removed requires also ensuring that those users who accessed it while it was available have as high a likelihood of possible of viewing the facts as well,’ Schiff wrote to the CEOs.”
Good point. While both Google’s YouTube and Twitter have also been removing misinformation on Covid-19, they have not agreed to notify anyone who viewed the falsehoods before they were taken down. Yes, a leader among leaders.
Cynthia Murrell, May 25, 2020
European Union: Feeling Macho?
May 22, 2020
Big technology carries a lot of political clout in the United States, but not as much in the European Union. The TRT World explains that, “EU Looks For Evidence To Rein In US Tech Giants” and force them end rivalries and their share data and standards among each other. The EU apparently does not joke around when it comes to Internet gatekeepers, because they do not like them.
The EU does not want Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook controlling information and services, rather new legislation could close their gate keeping practices. Before the legislation is considered, the EU launched a $649,800 study to collect evidence about the gate keeping. The study will search for self-referencing practices and:
“The study should also focus on tech companies’ use of data from one market to expand into other markets, making it difficult for current or new rivals to compete, the paper said, citing the example of Facebook and its WhatsApp unit.
Another area of interest is information asymmetries characterized by social media platforms and search engines amassing vast amounts of data via free services, resulting in users reluctant to switch to a competing company.”
Arguments against the proposed legislation are that the EU would be limited in Internet related services and benefits, plus it would make the economy an uneven playing field.
The report is currently progressing with a three month interim report and the final report due in five months.
When big companies are broken up that usually means there is more business and less monopolies. In most mixed economies, monopolies are illegal.
Whitney Grace, May 22, 2020
JEDI? What JEDI?
May 21, 2020
The battle royale players are Amazon, Microsoft, White House officials, the Department of Defense, former employees of high profile firms, law firms, and consultants. The subject? JEDI. The procurement has been entertainment worthy of a William Proxmire Golden Fleece Award. (Remember Senator William Proxmire?)
DarkCyber spotted “Scoop: Google Lands Cloud Deal with Defense Department.” We know this is a scoop because the word “scoop” appears in the headline. Subtle.
The write up reports as a real news scoop:
Google Cloud has landed a deal to help the Defense Department detect, protect against, and respond to cyber threats, Axios has learned. The deal, with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), is in the “seven figures…”
The main point is to make clear that it will be business as usual at the Pentagon. The single vendor idea is not making much headway when it comes to information technology.
What’s next? Awards to Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Oracle?
Good question. We thought we heard cheers from the buildings near the old SeaWorld in Silicon Valley. Maybe that was a party held at IBM Federal off Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg?
Probably our team’s collective tinnitus.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2020
German Intelligence Handcuffed
May 20, 2020
DarkCyber noted an interesting news story published on DW.com. The article? “German Intelligence Can’t Spy on Foreigners Outside Germany.” The DarkCyber research team talked about this and formed a collective response: “What the heck?”
The write up reports as actual factual news:
The German government must come up with a new law regulating its secret services, after the country’s highest court ruled that the current practice of monitoring telecommunications of foreign citizens at will violates constitutionally-enshrined press freedoms and the privacy of communications.
The article continued:
The ruling said that non-Germans were also protected by Germany’s constitutional rights, and that the current law lacked special protection for the work of lawyers and journalists. This applied both to the collection and processing of data as well as passing on that data to other intelligence agencies.
This is an interesting development if it is indeed accurate. Some countries’ intelligence agencies do conduct activities outside of their home countries’ borders. Furthermore, there are specialized service and device vendors headquartered in Germany which facilitate extra border data collection, monitoring, tracking, and sense making. These range from Siemens to software and hacking companies.
Restricting the activities of an intelligence unit to a particular geographic “space” sounds like a difficult task. There are “need to know” operations which may not be disclosed to an elected body except under quite specific circumstances. Electronic monitoring and intercepting ranges freely in the datasphere. Telecommunications hardware and service providers like T-Mobile have a number connections with certain German government entities.
Plus DarkCyber surmises that there are current operations underway in certain parts of the world which operate in a way that is hostile to the German state, its citizens, and its commercial enterprises.
Will these operations be stopped? Turning off a covert operation is not like flicking a button on a remote control to kill a Netflix program.
What if the German intelligence community, known to be one of the best in the European Community, goes dark?
The related question is, “What if secret agencies operate in secret?” Who will know? Who will talk? Who will prosecute? Who decides what’s important to protect citizens?
Stephen E Arnold, May 20, 2020
Rah, Rah, Google Under the Monopoly Filter of the US Government
May 16, 2020
Emails. Phone calls. My goodness, news reports from the Wall Street Journal (a Murdoch “real news” outfit) AND ZeroHedge, an insider’s news service.
The basic factoid is that an antitrust lawsuit is chugging along. Twenty two years after leaving the station, government lawyers are ready to board the Google train.
At this moment, anti Googlers are getting their pom poms fluffed. The pro Googlers know that the effort will be like the patient drips of water that form stalactites.
Legal processes take time, and Google will not be in a hurry. Presidents will come and go. Young lawyers will work in their government “socially distanced” spaces, then move into a law firm only to return and pick up where they left off.
Eventually there will be penalties. The penalties will be negotiated.
As the wheels of justice grind forward on government time, the Alphabet Google thing will hurtle along. Its timing is cadenced to Internet time. Lobbyists will lobby. Funds will be donated in proper ways to candidates who are into Google tchotchkes like the treasured Google mouse pad. You know the one. It has multi colored balls on it. A collectors’ item!
The reality is that Google is a government. No government can allow its citizens to revolt. Imagine turning in one’s search box for a Prime membership. Maybe both, but not one or the other.
To sum up: The legal action will chug along. And in the course of that journey, the Google will morph, evolve, and become something quite different.
Like the break up of IBM which never happened, the same destination perhaps. What if a digital Judge Harold H Green chops up Google as AT&T was dismembered. In case you haven’t checked lately, there are two phone companies and one may end up buying the other.
The telecommunications train may have completed a round trip if that happens. Sure, the T Mobile Sprint thing may become a player, but the Bell heads know the number to dial to make a connection.
Net net: Long ride, some excitement, two different time scales. One is on the slow local train; the other is the Osaka Tokyo bullet train.
Stephen E Arnold, May 16, 2020
Tracking Apps: All Buttoned Up?
May 15, 2020
The United Kingdom has many Big Brother-esque monitoring techniques to keep track of its citizens. Unlike Orwell’s Big Brother where citizens were killed for rebelling, UK residents shout their objections when they have been wronged. The Register shares how a group of “Academics Demand Answers Over Potential Data Time bomb Ticking Inside New UK Contact-Tracing App.”
One hundred seventy-three academics have called out the National Health Service for their COVID-19 contact-tracing app, because it is potentially dangerous. The app does the following:
“Due for release in the coming weeks, NHSX’s contact-tracing app will be the official way that everyone’s contacts with COVID-19-positive people will be tracked. The app will emit an electronic ID from your phone and receive the IDs of other phones with the app installed. If someone develops the coronavirus, everyone who came into contact with that person (i.e. their app came close enough for their ID to be logged by others) will receive an alert.”
The app would track and store people infected with COVID-19 in a centralized, government-controlled database and it is possible the data would not be anonymous. The fear is that the database could be hacked, then people’s information would be stolen or sold. The UK government could also lose more trust with their citizens.
Nothing like a pandemic to make life more secure and “open”?
Whitney Grace, May 15, 2020
France: Slow Sunday Lunch, Fast Content Removal
May 14, 2020
Mais, oui. The French enjoy Sunday lunch. A long Sunday lunch even in the midst of l’épidémie. However, sometimes the French want fast action. You know, the TGV of giant Internet routing.
The truth and ethics outfit Thomson Reuters’ story “France to Force Web Giants to Delete Some Content Within the Hour.” Exactly what is a “Web giant.”
Here in Harrod’s Creek, a “Web giant” evokes images of the fun and friendly high school science clubs at Facebook and Google. Maybe the Bezos bulldozer drivers qualify, particularly when books which criticize French cuisine are marketed at a discount? I suppose one could add the culture sucking vampires at Netflix. For a student at the Sorbonne whose father is the head of a major French government department, the student’s grousing about a bad Mac keyboard could put Apple in the hot seat.
What about Cisco, IBM, Oracle, or Walmart? Nah, not really. Online travel agencies operating from a trailer in Hoboken, New Jersey? Nope.
Instagram? Yes. Snapchat? Yes. TikTok (wherever that’s located?) Yes. YouTube? Oh, yeah, YouTube. Twitch? Yep, bet your bippy on that one.
The write up presents the real news this way:
Social networks and other online content providers will have to remove paedophile and terrorism-related content from their platforms within the hour or face a fine of up to 4% of their global revenue under a French law…
There’s one hitch in the git along: Getting the money.
Some long Sunday lunches will be needed so the French collections authorities can find a way to get those euros or whatever currencies flow like a wonderful Beaujolais during the November festival.
Taking down content is more difficult than popping a cork. That’s the point. One hour may be too little time for Web giants to do much more than trip over their Airbird clad feet.
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2020
We Need Government When We Need It. Other Times, Nah
May 14, 2020
Who knows if this CNBC news story is real. The talking head outfit has been reporting some interesting stories, and “Top Amazon Exec Calls for Federal Price Gouging Law Amid Coronavirus Scams” ranks near the top of DarkCyber’s List of Amazing Management Utterances.
The story reports:
In a blog post Wednesday, Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, called for the establishment of a federal price gouging law. While there are price gouging laws in some states, Huseman said they don’t go far enough in protecting consumers against unfair pricing during crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. Third-party sellers were charging unfair prices for in-demand items like face masks and hand sanitizer.
In rural Kentucky, coronavirus products are as rare as clear thinking about the correlation of basketball victories to academic excellence.
Some questions:
- Can Amazon control the prices its vendor charge for certain products?
- With lower prices, will Amazon increase its existing sales?
- Due to Amazon’s lower prices, will other merchants decrease their prices in order to win business?
DarkCyber is confused about what was taught in Econ 101 using that old chestnut of a book by a dude named Samuelson. Available on Amazon for a mere $71.95.
Does the Bezos bulldozer long for regulation? Really?
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2020
JEDI: A Way Out of the Legal Quagmire
May 14, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Bulging Deficits May Threaten Prized Pentagon Arms Projects.” The write up states:
The government’s $3 trillion effort to rescue the economy from the coronavirus crisis is stirring worry at the Pentagon. Bulging federal deficits may force a reversal of years of big defense spending gains and threaten prized projects like the rebuilding of the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The cash crunch may be somewhat less problematic than the news report implies. JEDI, the multi-billion JEDI project, has spawned expensive litigation and interesting publicity for the Administration.
The budget crunch sets the stage for a simple, clean resolution: There’s no money to move forward.
Who wins?
Since a reset will create another round of bids, that’s difficult to say.
A reset becomes an option without besmirching the reputations of those involved.
The bean counters did it again.
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2020
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