Public Service Internet

If you searched for "three white teenagers" on Google Images earlier this month, the result spat up shiny, happy people in droves - an R.E.M. song in JPG format. The images, mostly stock photos, displayed young Caucasian men and women laughing, holding sports equipment or caught whimsically mid-selfie. If you searched for "three black teenagers," the algorithm offered an array of mug shots.

Algorithms used in American criminal justice is found to be biased against blacks

Google came under fire this week after its new Photos app categorized photos in one of the most racist ways possible. On June 28th, computer programmer Jacky Alciné found that the feature kept tagging pictures of him and his girlfriend as "gorillas."

Describes an API for direct access to Universal Serial Bus devices from web pages.

Episode 55: This week we discuss why some people believe that their devices are always watching or listening to them. Oh, and whether or not it's true. Companies are finding more creative ways to target ads and content and consumers are consenting every day. But what are they consenting to?

"Imagine buying an internet-enabled surveillance camera, network attached storage device, or home automation gizmo, only to find that it secretly and constantly phones home to a vast peer-to-peer (P2P) network run by the Chinese manufacturer of the hardware. Now imagine that the geek gear you bought doesn't actually let you block this P2P communication without some serious networking expertise or hardware surgery that few users would attempt."

"If you need to reverse-engineer a USB protocol on a computer running Linux, your work is easy because you control everything on the target system - you can just look at the raw USB data. If you'd like to reverse-engineer a USB device that plugs into a game console, on the other hand, your work is a lot harder. Until now."

"A Ford safety feature has also turned out to be a way to track badly-behaved drivers."

Uber, realizing it had hundreds of millions of people in its back seats as a captive audience, just announced it will allow third-party apps the ability to serve up notifications, content, or ads to its users during their trips. The notifications would be customized to the length and locations of each person's ride, but only with permission from the user.

"You are being watched. Private and state-sponsored organizations are monitoring and recording your online activities. privacytools.io provides knowledge and tools to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance."

"Data in the 21st Century is on view at V2_ Rotterdam until 14-2-2016. On 12-2 Lev Manovich will give a lecture as part of the closing event of Data in the 21st Century. Gupta starts of with discussing the fashions of data in the past, present and future. He then goes on to discuss how data affects everything, from everyday things like dating till new forms of governance or the economy at large. He finishes his lecture by describing what we can expect in the near future."

"YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU SEND OR RECEIVE DURING YOUR USE OF THE SITE MAY NOT BE SECURE AND MAY BE INTERCEPTED OR LATER ACQUIRED BY UNAUTHORIZED PARTIES"

" Documenting design patterns for personal data sharing, example uses and research. Work in progress. "

"A leading privacy activist says Google's lack of support for strong encryption makes second-class citizens out of people who can't afford Apple devices."

Tesco Mobile has announced a new optional scheme in which its customers can get £3 a month off their phone bill. In return, customers agree to see adverts on their lockscreen "every few times" they unlock their phone.

"Researchers have encountered a denial-of-service botnet that's made up of more than 25,000 Internet-connected closed circuit TV devices."