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This weekly blog is to explore the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology and related matters.
I will also try to highlight ADHA Propaganda when I come upon it.
Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board are dated 6 December, 2018! Secrecy unconstrained! This is really the behaviour of a federal public agency gone rogue – and it just goes on! When you read this it will be well over 13 months of radio silence from the Board, and better still the CEO, COO and the Chief of Staff have also gone. (With the COO bouncing back it seems!) I wonder will things improve now?
Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.
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The cognitive health system
What if the health system could think? Alan Turing once famously asked a similar question about machines. Now, artificial intelligence challenges us to reimagine medicine in a machine-assisted world. But what will that world be like? Focusing just on machines and what they can do is easy, but health care is not a software problem to be solved by algorithms and machine learning alone. Humans populate our sociotechnical system; we create technology and in turn are shaped by it. Technical systems have social consequences, and social systems have technical consequences.
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Apple, Facebook, Amazon preach privacy, but don't believe the hype
By Geoffrey A. Fowler
January 9, 2020 — 3.21pm
Apple, Facebook, Amazon and heaps of other companies gathered in Las Vegas for the CES tech conference are preaching privacy.
Don't believe the hype.
Apple made waves last year by putting up a billboard outside the giant annual convention — which it didn't present at — touting, "What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone." This year, Apple appeared formally at CES for the first time in decades, as part of a panel discussion on privacy. I was first in line to ask a question.
I said: What is Apple doing to make its billboard actually true? Last year I ran an experiment on my iPhone to watch what happened to my data while I slept at night. Turned out, iPhone apps were beaming my personal information to all sorts of tracking companies I'd never heard of. Apple vets apps in its store, but doesn't make them comply with the stay-on-your-iPhone mantra.
Apple had nothing of substance in response. "We're constantly innovating, including in operating process," said Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director of global privacy.
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Do you have Digital Assets? It’s time to re-think your Succession Plan
We live in an increasingly digital world, consider the actions you take in your day to day life – paying for your morning coffee through your watch, streaming your favourite movie from an app in your phone, uploading photos to the “cloud,” booking a flight using “points.” Tasks which at one point seemed so odd to us, have now streamlined into our everyday behaviour.
Now more than ever we have valuable possessions which aren’t physical possessions – look no further than the emergence of cryptocurrency. A number of questions arise on adequate preparations for handing on your digital assets. As our use of digital assets continues to grow, it is important you understand and have the appropriate steps in place.
Succession lawyers already advise clients on how to deal with traditional digital assets, such as social media and e-mail accounts, digital music and book libraries, frequent flyer points (if not cancelled automatically under service agreements on death) and online-only bank accounts where there is no paper trail. Cryptocurrencies are a new form of digital asset and there are currently over 2,000 types of them, including Bitcoin.
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Google denies misleading customers over location data settings in court submission
Tech giant Google has denied it misled Australian consumers when it collected their location data, declaring in response to a landmark lawsuit that users of its Android mobile operating system had ample information about their location settings, as well as an opportunity to change them.
In documents filed to the Federal Court, Google’s lawyers argued that users could alter their location settings at any time, and that Google software prompted users regularly to check they were comfortable with their account settings.
The filings represent the first time Google has responded to the allegations by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission that it misled consumers about the location data it collected. The case could cost the company millions of dollars in fines and force changes to its policies.
“Google denies it made false or misleading representations or that it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct,” lawyers from Corrs Chambers Westgarth said in Google’s filing.
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Bushfires: ‘Twitter bots’ hijack online debate over causes
Concerns about bushfire misinformation on social media have heightened, with experts pointing to the use of “Twitter bots” and urging Australians to be more discerning in sourcing and spreading information.
Amid a plethora of fake and misleading posts and images relating to the bushfires, a Queensland academic has reported finding a high number of bot-like accounts using hashtags including #ArsonEmergency. The hashtag, apparently favoured by those seeking to emphasise arson over climate change as the cause of the bushfires menacing Australia, has been trending on Twitter.
Queensland University of Technology social media analyst Timothy Graham used a bot-detecting tool to examine 315 accounts using the hashtag, finding a “high number of bot-like and troll-like” accounts.
Dr Graham also reported a large number of suspicious accounts using other bushfire hashtags, such as #bushfireaustralia and #australiafire.
He said he was “confident” the findings represented a disinformation campaign but “less confident” it was on the scale of Russian inference during the 2016 US elections.
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Virtual lawyers enter legal advice arena with startup dash
By Emma Koehn
January 9, 2020 — 12.00am
The founders of Sprintlaw believe software will one day take care of the majority of everyday tasks handled by lawyers, and many in the legal fraternity are backing them.
"Our vision is that 80 to 90 per cent of what lawyers are doing could be done with software code. What the humans in our business are doing are the most human things: customer service and showing empathy," said co-founder Alex Solo.
Mr Solo and co-founder Tomoyuki Hachigo closed out the year at their digital law firm with a $1.2 million raise from seed investors betting on the long-term potential of the business.
The cash will help the duo, who started the company a few years ago with a $20,000 personal investment, refine their offer and explore an overseas launch, starting with the UK.
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The age of the virtual human is here, but are we ready?
By James Titcomb
January 9, 2020 — 10.37am
Virtual humans - lifelike replicas of people that are indistinguishable from the real thing - have been a science fiction staple for decades. Think the stuttering weirdness of Max Headroom in the Eighties, Blade Runner 2049's Joi or even the floating head of the dysfunctional Holly from Red Dwarf.
And thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and processing power, technology companies now say they are at the point where they can create photo-realistic imitations of human beings that can move, talk and smile with such authenticity that it is impossible to tell they are computer generated.
On Monday night, Neon, a highly-anticipated venture funded by Samsung, unveiled an "artificial human", which it claimed was capable of displaying emotions and intelligence. The company said its creations would "exhibit human capabilities" such as speaking, learning and even being able to form new memories.
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Online fact-checkers confront deluge of bushfire misinformation
By Zoe Samios and Fergus Hunter
January 8, 2020 — 6.36pm
National news agency Australian Associated Press has been overwhelmed by an influx of dubious social media posts relating to the national bushfire crisis that it must fact-check on behalf of partner Facebook.
AAP chief executive Bruce Davidson said his fact-checking team had been working through "dozens and dozens" of suspect posts relating to the bushfires this week, with areas of concern ranging from misleading images to false political claims.
The surge in false and misleading posts on social media websites about the causes of the bushfires has led to concerns among politicians and academics, who have urged the public to be careful when reading online content.
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Dawn of a Decade: The Top Ten Tech Policy Issues for the 2020s
Published on December 19, 2019
Brad Smith
President at Microsoft Corporation
By Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne
For the past few years, we’ve shared predictions each December on what we believe will be the top ten technology policy issues for the year ahead. As this year draws to a close, we are looking out a bit further. This January we witness not just the start of a new year, but the dawn of a new decade. It gives us all an opportunity to reflect upon the past ten years and consider what the 2020s may bring.
As we concluded in our book, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, “Technology innovation is not going to slow down. The work to manage it needs to speed up.” Digital technology has gone longer with less regulation than virtually any major technology before it. This dynamic is no longer sustainable, and the tech sector will need to step up and exercise more responsibility while governments catch up by modernizing tech policies. In short, the 2020s will bring sweeping regulatory changes to the world of technology.
Tech is at a crossroads, and to consider why, it helps to start with the changes in technology itself. The 2010s saw four trends intersect, collectively transforming how we work, live and learn. Continuing advances in computational power made more ambitious technical scenarios possible both for devices and servers, while cloud computing made these advances more accessible to the world. Like the invention of the personal computer itself, cloud computing was as important economically as it was technically. The cloud allows organizations of any size to tap into massive computing and storage capacity on demand, paying for the computing they need without the outlay of capital expenses.
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Ending secrecy key to filling the void on cybersecurity
Jan 8, 2020 — 3.00pm
Two key new national security leadership positions provide an opportunity to develop a partnership between business and government to safeguard Australia.
ASIO chief Mike Burgess spent some years running IT security at Telstra. The new director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate, Rachel Noble, while working in the public service for many years, once worked for Optus.
Both leaders understand that our business sector is under attack through economic coercion, cyber attacks and irregular warfare by proxies, designed to undermine trust in the state.
Corporations are making valiant efforts to protect their assets and capabilities from attacks in the physical and cyber environments. They do so for sound business reasons. But such attacks aren’t just matters of commercial concern. They have significant potential to weaken national resilience, and so should matter to all of us.
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A human rights approach to new technology
We’ve all read it before – the growth in new and emerging technologies is accelerating at an exponential phase and impacting on all aspects of our lives. It is widely accepted that the law is often left playing catch up. What we don’t often hear is how these new and emerging technologies pose human rights challenges and opportunities.
In recognition of these gaps, in December the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) released its Human Rights and Technology Discussion Paper (the Paper) (for the highlights, see the Executive Summary Paper here), produced as part of a broader project being led by the Commission, the Human Rights and Technology Project (the Project).
The Project recognises that new technologies engage human rights in new and profound ways, requiring Australia and the international community to protect and promote human rights in this new environment. It asks: What are the human rights impacts of emerging technologies, algorithmic bias, artificial intelligence, big data and the 4th industrial revolution?
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White House proposes regulatory principles to govern AI use
By David Shepardson on Jan 8, 2020 10:23AM
Suggests European officials do the same.
The White House has proposed regulatory principles to govern the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) aimed at limiting authorities' "overreach", and said it wants European officials to likewise avoid aggressive approaches.
In a fact sheet, the White House said federal agencies should "conduct risk assessment and cost-benefit analyses prior to any regulatory action on AI, with a focus on establishing flexible frameworks rather than one-size-fits-all regulation."
The comments come at a time when companies are racing to integrate AI, deep learning and machine learning into their businesses to remain competitive.
However, the technology raises ethical concerns about control, privacy, cyber security and the future of work, companies and experts have said.
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Would you use AI for picking stocks?
· Dow Jones
Artificial intelligence burst onto Wall Street several years ago, to fanfare and hope. Unfortunately, AI-based investing strategies have struggled to live up to some of the more inflated expectations for their performance.
There is no denying these strategies’ theoretical promise. By being able to sift through otherwise prohibitively large amounts of data, and then “learn” from it, AI is supposed to be able to discover profitable patterns that were previously invisible to mere mortals.
And, sure enough, they appear to have done so - on paper. Doron Avramov, a finance professor at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliyah in Israel, says that when tested using historical data AI strategies have been phenomenally successful, beating the market by as much as 40 per cent on an annualised basis.
No other approach has come even close to producing that kind of a profit.
Making this market-beating potential even more alluring is the deteriorating profit of many of the well-known factors (or stock characteristics) that previous research had identified as having value when picking stocks - such as momentum, market cap, volatility, low ratios of price to earnings, book value, sales and so forth.
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Call to crack down on Google data harvest
Google’s harvesting of Australians’ location data represents the tip of the iceberg according to the Consumer Policy Research Centre chief executive Lauren Solomon, who is calling for urgent reform of the Privacy Act to better protect consumers against the murky and vague data practices of the tech giants.
“Consumers might think they have a relationship with one company, but in turn their data is being sold to a whole host of other companies, called data brokers, and the consumer is often not even aware of their existence,” Ms Solomon said.
“They’ll take data points like location, biometrics, transaction data, and when the data is combined, companies can make really granular inferences about consumers, things like their marital status, stress levels, and personal interests.
“There needs to be an investigation into data brokers in Australia. We really haven’t got a grip on this issue and we need to come to terms with the reality of what’s going on behind the scenes.”
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Surveillance is everywhere at the CES gadget show
By Matt O'Brien
January 7, 2020 — 11.20am
From the face scanner that will check in some attendees to the cameras-everywhere array of digital products, the CES gadget show is all-in on surveillance technology; whether it calls it that or not.
Nestled in the "smart home" and "smart city" showrooms at the sprawling Las Vegas consumer tech conference are devices that see, hear and track the people they encounter. Some of them also analyse their looks and behaviour. The technology on display includes eyelid-tracking car dashboard cameras to prevent distracted driving and "rapid DNA" kits for identifying a person from a cheek swab sample.
All these talking speakers, doorbell cameras and fitness trackers come with the promise of making life easier or more fun, but they're also potentially powerful spying tools. And the sceptics who raise privacy and security concerns can be easily drowned out in the flashy spectacle of gee-whiz technology.
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Social media: the bushfire bush telegraph
By Joanne Orlando
January 6, 2020 — 12.39pm
We often think of social media in divisive terms - selfies and the never-ending pursuit of "likes" - however, in the wake of the heart-breaking bushfires, social media has become a space that has powerfully brought the community together. It is increasingly taking on this role during tragic events.
Sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are often where we first become aware of disasters - both natural and man-made. However, in tragedy, they are much more than a news source. These spaces have become the vehicle via which we interpret, respond and get involved in these events. And it's incredibly comforting.
Social media provides worried friends and family with the reassuring update: "I'm OK." Most notably such posts get shared and liked widely as a collective outpouring of support for those affected by the events. We are all happy they are ok and social media provides us the opportunity to tell them this personally - whether we know them or not.
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The cyber pirates of the Caribbean
They ride the high seas of the global financial system, preying on everyday Australians and stealing millions of dollars. They are the outlaws of the digital world and authorities seem powerless to stop them.
Updated 6 Jan 2020, 14:14pm
Published 6 Jan 2020, 6:06am
Jane Smith* had run a successful business for years and was finally in a place where she could think about investing her and her husband’s retirement fund.
They had both worked hard and put aside a sizeable nest egg, but she was worried as she neared retirement age they needed a top-up.
So when a simple offer promising a healthy return popped up on her Facebook feed, she thought she would give it a try.
It sounded similar to something she had heard about from a friend whose son worked for a major investment firm that was using automated trading software on currency exchange markets.
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What happens to you online when you die?
Edward Baig
Jan 6, 2020 — 12.00am
When people you love die, sure, their spirit endures – but so do their social media accounts. And when their photos, memories or posts surface unexpectedly, it can be jarring for some.
Managing the digital afterlife is "something that people should think about but don't," says Jed Brubaker, a professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, who specialises on the topic.
"There's a whole societal infrastructure - (coroners, cemeteries, funeral directors) - for how we think about death," he says. "For the most part, that has not extended very well to digital content broadly and social media specifically."
That can lead to some painful situations.
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Comments more than welcome!
David.
