Emotion detecting Tech should be restricted

emotion

A leading research centre has called for new laws to restrict the use of emotion-detecting tech. The AI Now Institute says the field is “built on markedly shaky foundations”. Despite this, systems are on sale to help vet job seekers, test criminal suspects for signs of deception, and set insurance prices. It wants such software to be banned from use in important decisions that affect people’s lives and/or determine their access to opportunities. The US-based body has found support in the UK from the founder of a company developing its…

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European Court of Justice Privacy Rule Could Ruffle American Tech Companies

Privacy

A top European lawyer made a decision this morning that could prove a massive headache for American tech companies in Europe. Advocate General Yves Bot, an advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said the “safe harbour” agreement for transferring data between the US and EU is “invalid,” because of concerns over US spying. Bot’s opinion isn’t legally binding, and the ECJ judges will make a formal ruling in the coming months. But as The Irish Times notes, the judges follow such opinions “in most cases.” But if…

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Finally After Six Years President Obama’s @POTUS is Live on Twitter

“Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.” So, it’s official. After years of signing “-BO” at the end of @BarackObama to signal the tweets he crafted himself from an account operated by the Organizing for Action staff, the President now has his very own handle @POTUS, tweeting for the first time. Sometimes, they said, Mr. Obama will type the words himself, as he did Monday, when he was captured in a photo released by the White House. Other times, he might dictate…

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White House: President Obama Announces New Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal and Other Cybersecurity Efforts

Obama unveils cybersecurity proposals: ‘Cyber threats are urgent and growing danger’ Proposed legislation will allow companies to share information with government agencies including NSA, with which White House admitted there were ‘overlapping issues’ “In this interconnected, digital world, there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyber assaults both in the private sector and the public sector.  Now, our first order of business is making sure that we do everything to harden sites and prevent those kinds of attacks from taking place…But even as we get better,…

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Obama Wants Firms to Notify of Data Breach Within 30 Days

The Proposal Complemented a Series of Data Privacy Related Rules Suggested by the White House Today. President Barack Obama wants companies to notify consumers within 30-days of a personal data breach. Despite a slew of pressing issues facing the administration and a potentially unsympathetic Republican-led congress, the White House today unveiled a handful of legislative proposals aimed at safeguarding consumer privacy, continuing along a path established by its privacy and big data report published in May. The administration’s Personal Data Notification and Protection Act is being pitched in part as…

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WSJ: U.S. technology companies are in a pitched battle with Europe’s sovereign states

Discontent on Continent Highlights Battle Over Economics, Culture, Internet Control BRUSSELS—From Berlin to Madrid, from London to Paris, U.S. technology companies are in a pitched battle with Europe’s sovereign states. It is a clash that pits governments against the new tech titans, established industries against upstart challengers, and freewheeling American business culture against a more regulated European framework. And it poses one of the greatest threats to U.S. technology giants since their emergence from garages and college campuses over the past four decades. First and foremost, the battle is about…

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WashingtonPost: Why Obama’s plan to save the Internet could actually ruin it

On Monday, President Obama joined the chorus of those urging FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to inject federal and state regulators directly into the heart of the Internet, “reclassifying” wired and mobile broadband ISPs as public utilities under a 1934 law written to control the former Bell telephone monopoly. While Obama has long supported the notoriously slippery idea of “net neutrality,” this is the first time the White House has explicitly asked the FCC to take specific action, let alone to embrace the most radical and legally uncertain approach being considered…

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Apple and Google brands worth $100bn each

PARIS: The US Apple and Google brands which have become household names around the globe are worth more than $100 billion each, and top a ranking of the world’s biggest brands, consultancy Interbrand said. In number one place, computer brand Apple has risen 21 percent in value this year to worth an estimated $118.9 billion (93.0 billion euros). In second place, the brand value of Internet search engine Google has increased by 15 percent to $107.43 billion. “The fact that Apple and Google have exceeded $100 billion is proof of…

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Reuters: Time Warner Cable suffers major outage

Liquid Telecom

(Adds Time Warner’s comment) By Jim Finkle, Marina Lopes and Alina Selyukh Aug 27 (Reuters) – Time Warner Cable Inc , the No. 2 U.S. cable operator, suffered a massive network outage on Wednesday due to suspected human error that cut Internet services to some 11 million businesses and residences, prompting a New York state investigation. The outage to all of its Internet customers across 29 states began at about 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT), said company spokesman Bobby Amirshahi. Services were restored by 7.30 a.m, he said. The outage…

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Washington: US to woo Africa with billions in new funding deals

WASHINGTON — The US will announce nearly $1bn in business deals, increased funding for peacekeeping and commit billions of dollars to expand food and power programmes in Africa during a summit this week, US and development officials say. President Jacob Zuma will be in the front row at the August 5-6 summit in Washington to which US President Barack Obama invited 50 of Africa’s 53 heads of state or government “in good standing with the US and the African Union (AU)”. This criterion has excluded Eritrea, Sudan and Zimbabwe. US…

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