Monthly archives: June, 2023

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 17, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: The dos and don’ts of using home security cameras that see everything; Social Engineering And The Disinformation Threat In Cybersecurity; The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens; and The Expert’s Guide to Online Privacy in 2023.

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Gadgets/Gizmos, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 11, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Top 5 Most Common Text Message Scams & How to Avoid Them; From “Heavy Purchasers” of Pregnancy Tests to the Depression-Prone: We Found 650,000 Ways Advertisers Label You; Service Rents Email Addresses for Account Signups; and FTC Slams Amazon with $30.8M Fine for Privacy Violations Involving Alexa and Ring.

Subjects: AI, Communications, Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Email Security, Healthcare, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

How AI could take over elections and undermine democracy

Archon Fung, Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School, and Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard University, pose the question: “Could organizations use artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT to induce voters to behave in specific ways? Sen. Josh Hawley asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this question in a May 16, 2023, U.S. Senate hearing on artificial intelligence. Altman replied that he was indeed concerned that some people might use language models to manipulate, persuade and engage in one-on-one interactions with voters. Altman did not elaborate, but he might have had something like this scenario in mind. Imagine that soon, political technologists develop a machine called Clogger – a political campaign in a black box. Clogger relentlessly pursues just one objective: to maximize the chances that its candidate – the campaign that buys the services of Clogger Inc. – prevails in an election. While platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube use forms of AI to get users to spend more time on their sites, Clogger’s AI would have a different objective: to change people’s voting behavior.

Subjects: AI, Communications Law, Congress, Constitutional Law, KM, Legal Research, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 3, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: New EPIC Report Sheds Light on Generative A.I. Harms; Don’t Store Your Money on Venmo, U.S. Govt Agency Warns (or PayPal); FTC Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers, Failed to Stop Hackers from Taking Control of Users’ Cameras; and Twitter withdraws from EU’s disinformation code as bloc warns against hiding from liability.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, KM, Privacy, Spyware, United States Law