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The obvious way to hack your tv
A new attack that uses terrestrial radio signals to hack a wide range of Smart TVs raises an unsettling prospect—the ability of hackers to take complete control of a large number of sets at once without having physical access to any of them.
Ars Technica: Smart TV hack embeds attack code into broadcast signal—no access required »
Our new overlords?
New AI Can Write and Rewrite Its Own Code to Increase Its Intelligence:
• A company has developed a type of technology that allows a machine to effectively learn from fewer examples and refine its knowledge as further examples are provided.
• This technology could be applied to everything from teaching a smartphone to recognize a user’s preferences to helping autonomous driving systems quickly identify obstacles.
Futurism: New AI Can Write and Rewrite Its Own Code to Increase Its Intelligence »
Internet »stealth censorship«
Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert):
I would argue that the human mind has recently evolved to include the thinking process of social media as a whole. We’re connected to social media like a great hive mind. And thanks to scientific advances in datametrics, the social media companies now have almost perfect mind control technology. (…)
Link: The Social Media Hive Mind »
Related video:
A few words from Mr Snowden…
In every moment, look around and ask yourself: “Is this right?” There are no heroes, only heroic choices. Act accordingly.
– Edward Snowden
EU and mass surveillance
Asaf Lubin’s summary of the legislation in Just Security shows how the UK Snoopers Charter, Germany’s Communications Intelligence Gathering Act and France’s International Electronic Communications Law all legalise the kind of surveillance that outraged Europeans and their leaders in the wake of the Snowden revelations. Despite the fact that Europe’s high court has already ruled that this kind of surveillance is illegal, parliaments around the EU continue to pass their own Snoopers Charters, in a race to the bottom with autocratic states like Russia and surveillance-happy nations like the USA.
Boingboing: Germany, France and the UK are moving the EU to continuous, unaccountable, warrantless mass surveillance »
Will this stop or just encourage terrorists?
Blocking the content not only leads to a slippery slope — and open questions on choosing what content stays and what content goes — but also presumes that the block is the most effective way to stop the bad behavior associated with terrorists. But it leaves out that blocking such content often only makes those posting it feel like they’re on the right path, and that they’re saying something “so true” that it needs to be blocked. It’s not a path towards stopping terrorism or the spread of terrorist ideology — it just gets those engaged to dig in deeper on their views.
Should government websites be able to identify visitors?
European Court of Justice on saving dynamic IP-addresses.
Tagesschau.de: EuGH zur Erfassung von IP-Adressen – Speichern nur mit berechtigtem Interesse »
What this boils down to is if the government is allowed to store information about people visiting its websites. The ECJ ruling seems to send mixed signals.
Update: Falkvinge – Supreme Court rules that IP address allocation is personal data, but to what use? »
No shit, Sherlock…
The investigatory powers tribunal, which is the only court that hears complaints against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, said the security services operated secret regimes to collect vast amounts of personal communications data, tracking individual phone and web use and large datasets of confidential personal information, without adequate safeguards or supervision for more than 10 years.
The Guardian: UK security agencies unlawfully collected data for 17 years, court rules »
No memes please, we’re British
The UK’s public prosecutor has demanded that social media users who post “humiliating” photoshopped images and memes should face jail, as well as those who incite “virtual mobs” because they are “opposed to that person’s opinions”.
Breitbart: Trolls Who Post ‘Humiliating’ Memes Could Be Jailed under UK Guidelines »