Thursday, March 22, 2018

Feds to face NSW in cyber war: Legislating against fake news

The scientist Richard Feynman said, “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt"

Facebook data scandal: David Leyonhjelm blasts 'moral outrage'

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg admits mistakes, vows steps to improve data protection

DTA seeks ‘liveness detection’ software to prevent digital ID fraud

 The federal government is planning to conduct a cyber attack simulation with the NSW government to assess both parties' capability for real-life incident response. Federal cyber security minister Angus Taylor revealed the planned cyber war games at the opening of the Commonwealth's fourth joint cyber security centre (JCSC) in Sydney today. He said the exercise would take place at the Sussex St facility "in the coming months".

 Tax office warns of looming R&D crackdown

'Forensic accountant' believed targeted in bikie raid linked previously to corruption, tax evasion

'Unreasonable territory': ATO lashed for measuring staff performance ...

Tax Office staff are having their performance measured against the amount of money paid back by taxpayers in debt to the government, in a move that has drawn fire from a union for its public servants. 

Illegal tobacco haul worth $30m found hidden in Queensland backlots

JOINT QPS / ATO RELEASE – Record tobacco bust in Bundaberg

'Steel king' in court over cocaine ring - The Australian

Australian businessman Rohan Arnold extradited from Serbia 

Fatal twist in probe into $165 million tax fraud allegations | 

Accused drug mule Cassie Sainsbury worked as prostitute in Sydney ..
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Michael Cranston - Wikipedia

Like tall towers, drones, driverless cars possess some features of an especially potent scare story. They are a new and exciting technology, and so stories about them get a lot of clicks. We don’t actually know how safe they are, and that uncertainty will spook people above and beyond whatever is the particular level of risk. Most of all, driverless cars by definition involve humans not feeling in direct control. It resembles how a lot of people feel in greater danger when flying than driving a car, even though flying is usually safer. Driverless cars raise a lot of questions about driver control: Should you be allowed to sleep in the backseat? Or must you stay by the wheel? That focuses our minds and feelings on the issue of control all the more.   

And:

The recent brouhaha over Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (read here and here) reflects some similar issues. Could most Americans clearly and correctly articulate exactly what went wrong in this episode? Probably not, but people do know that when it comes to social networks, their personal data and algorithms, they don’t exactly feel in control. The murkiness of the events and legal obligations is in fact part of the problem.
When I see a new story or criticism about the tech world, I no longer ask whether the tech companies poll as being popular (they do). I instead wonder whether voters feel in control in a world with North Korean nuclear weapons, an erratic American president and algorithms everywhere. They don’t. Haven’t you wondered why articles about robots putting us all out of work are so popular during a time of full employment?
We are about to enter a new meta-narrative for American society, which I call “re-establishing the feeling of control.” Unfortunately, when you pursue the feeling rather than the actual control, you often end up with neither.


Wolf Richter: Then Why Is Anyone STILL on Facebook?



If you’ve created an account, you can never escape Facebook. But you can at least stop making things worse for yourself.







Bill Of The Month: For Toenail Fungus, A $1,500 Prescription

TOOK ‘EM LONG ENOUGH: Minneapolis Officer Charged With Murder in Australian Woman’s Death. “The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman last summer, an incident that led to protests and the ouster of the city’s police chief, was jailed Tuesday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The shooting of the woman, Justine Damond, by Officer Mohamed Noor on July 15 renewed questions about police conduct and training in a region that has seen a series of police shootings in recent years.”
Of course, they charged the cop who shot Philando Castile, too, and it led to an inexplicable acquittal
Not only was the bill for a toenail fungus topical cream shockingly high, but the pharmacy dispensing it was able to tap directly into the patient’s health reimbursement account via LT


Police smash drug syndicate in the Far North

Australia's black economy is now worth an estimated $32 billion

Legislating against fake news

This week, the European Commission’s high level group on misinformation released its final report, which includes calls for supporting media financially, data sharing from platforms and an explicit recommendation against outlawing fake news. (Here are six takeaways from the report). Still, countries around the world have increasingly taken an interest in fighting misinformation.
In light of the growing governmental interest in fighting fake news — and the muddying of the term itself — Poynter’s Daniel Funke created an incomplete guide to actions against misinformation around the world. Notably, no country aside from Indonesia has really successfully legislated against fake news. But if we missed one, or you have a comment or correction, email factchecknet@poynter.org and we’ll update the story.

Research you can use

  • By now, you’ve almost certainly seen last week’s study in Science magazine on the spread of fact-checked claims on social media. Here’s how media coverage of the research fell short.
  •  

  • This is how we do it

    • In an unprecedented collaboration, 60 media outlets, civil society organizations and universities are teaming up to fight misinformation ahead of this summer’s election in Mexico.
    • When the Broward County sheriff’s office posted its own “fact-checking” site after the Florida school shootings, real fact-checkers went to work. PolitiFact Florida and The Daily Caller were among those that scrutinized the sheriff department’s claims.
    • Can we teach people about fake news by tricking people into reading it? Media literacy experts are doubtful, but this new U.S. State Department-funded site is trying.

    This is bad

    • The moon is really an “abandoned alien spacecraft”? Someone’s getting rich by promoting some very poor science on YouTube, says The Outline.
    • Sometimes, the cost of misinformation can actually be someone’s life. Rumors and hoaxes about yellow fever have scared Brazilians away from getting vaccinated, the Associated Press reports.
    • “I felt like a POW recording a message,” said one TV anchor after being instructed by his bosses at Sinclair Broadcast Group to read, on air, a script that accused journalists of promoting “fake news.”
    Screen Shot 2018-03-15 at 8.19.04 AM(Screenshot from Third Month Mania)

    This is fun

      

  • A closer look

    • In East and Southeast Asia, misinformation is a growing concern. Researcher Masato Kajimoto lays out the current situation in an article for Poynter.
    • YouTube announced it would begin placing "information cues" (i.e., links to Wikipedia) on those often controversial videos that support conspiracy theories and other misinformation. But they didn't tell Wikipedia. And Vanity Fair says relying on Wikipedia highlights YouTube's "difficult position."
    • What happens when newswires make mistakes? Salem Solomon reports that uncorrected versions of more than half of the corrected Associated Press stories between January and February persist on a range of websites.
    (Shutterstock)

    If you read one more thing

    At a meeting in Miami, BuzzFeed News’ Craig Silverman testified to the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy about the future dangers of misinformation. Here are his remarks, published in Nieman Lab.

    Quick fact-checking links

    Sticking with the facts helps keep bias out of stories, editors tell readers in the latest “Ask ProPublica Illinois” column.  //  After three Dutch media outlets filed a lawsuit, an EU disinformation project has removed three stories from its database of falsities.  //  “We don’t use the term ‘fake news’ on this show,” an MSNBC anchor tells a guest who really likes the phrase.  //  Snopes fact-checks the number of shoes on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol.  //  A “great community” of readers can be good for fact-checking, says the editor of WikiTribune.  //  Using “fake news” case studies from France and Japan, academics demonstrate the limits of anti-misinformation laws in Singapore.  //  Catch up on the latest news in misinformation across the EU.  //  No, this isn’t a joke.  //  The whip of Arizona’s House of Representatives tweeted fabricated Hillary Clinton quotes.  //  Several of the most engaged reporters on Facebook in February were from clickbait sites.  //  In an unexpected move, Twitter suspended several popular accounts known for stealing tweets.  //  Chequeado published a special project for International Women’s Day.  //  Facebook is hiring a social science researcher to work on its anti-misinformation efforts.
    Until next week,
    *via Daniel, Jane, and Alexios
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