France: iPhone 12 Excedes Radiation Absorption Rate Per Kilo; OS Update May Be A Fix

by Rosa NovaCyber-Incidents, ReformPosted on Comments are Disabled

Smart phone radiation is a thorny issue all over the world, as levels seem to rise with every new model. Yesterday, the French regulator responsible for radio frequencies emissions (ANFR) revealed that according to its latest tests the iPhone12 exceeds the legally allowed Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), and directed Apple to either update its OS or recall all existing iPhone 12 models.

The elephant in the room is that in spite of calls to action and much activism, North American regulators keep refusing to update their norms from 30 years ago which were adopted when touch-screens didn’t exist. These outdated norms (including the “independent” studies cited by Apple and the World Health Organization) are misrepresentative due to the fact that radiation absorption tests are performed the closest , at half a centimeter of distance from devices with touchscreens.

Canada Health warns against excessive use of smart-phones, as well as many other sources of household radiation. Although the cumulative effect of radiation is not a concern (which I doubt, given extensive empirical evidence to the contrary) admits that more studies are necessary. Smart phone radiation is one explanation for the declining health of the working population. Health Canada places the responsibility on users to reduce their exposure, rather than ask the same from companies.

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-risks-safety/radiation/everyday-things-emit-radiation.html

How do you touch a touchscreen without touching it?

It is understandable why Apple is contesting the ANFR directive that has the potential to produce a domino-effect accross the phone industry, beginning with a flood of class-actions. However, the OS fix may indeed be a fairly simple solution albeit not to the liking of data and biometric data collecting applications that are continuously running in the background, thus boosting unwanted radiation. Apple has now the choice to update its OS to stop doing all the tasks that violate absorption levels or to automatically block applications from running if their cumulative radiation may exceed the threshold.

How tests are performed

France will share its findings with other regulators across the trading bloc which could result in “a snowball effect”. The ANFR requires the SAR of devices to be checked against two different ways a phone is used.

First there is a member or limb check, for when a phone is in close contact with a person’s body, such as when it is held or placed in a trouser pocket. The SAR limit for this is 4 watts per kilogram. The regulator said the iPhone12’s “membre” SAR was 5.74 watts per kilogram – higher than the limit. There is also a check for when a phone is slightly further away, such as when it is in a bag or jacket pocket, but the iPhone 12’s SAR measure came in under this threshold.

For some reason, nobody wants to test radiation absorption levels during active use of a phone, or when a person is touching it, texting, browsing, dialing, holding the phone to the ear or in your hand while using the phone. This is unfortunate because it doesn’t give us a reliable picture of absorbed radiation. Again, a phone is of zero use if you simply carry it in a pocket or look at it from a couple of feet distance.

Given the unreliable tests, the only methods to reduce smart-device radiation other than completely avoiding their use is to keep phones in airplane mode when idle, strictly avoid in-person work and crowded schoolrooms, and in general all spaces where too many devices operate indoors, or stick to older models which don’t emit as much. Laptops also emit radiation, but we don’t carry them close to our bodies.

Moreover, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the WHO, has previously claimed that certain radio frequencies at extreme levels are ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’.

The French ruling comes as the Chinese foreign ministry issued a rebuttal against media reports which claimed government agencies had told staff to stop using iPhones. China has not issued any laws, regulations or policies blocking the use of Apple’s products.

Meta’s LLama 2 Runs On Open Source

by Ria Botchik (GEN AI)Artificial Intelligence, Cyber-Incidents, ReformPosted on Comments are Disabled

This summer, the AI division of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta unveiled its Llama 2 chatbot. Meta’s approach with Llama 2 contrasts with that of the company OpenAI, which created the AI chatbot ChatGPT, because LLama is open source—meaning that the original code is freely available, allowing it to be researched and modified. This strategy has sparked a vast … Read more

How To Know If AI Is Sentient, Neuroscientists Provide a Checklist

by Ria Botchik (GEN AI)Artificial Intelligence, Entertainment, PsychologyPosted on Comments are Disabled

In 2021, Blake Lemoine at Google stirred up a media storm by proclaiming that one of the chatbots he worked on, LaMDA, was sentient—and he subsequently got fired. In fact, most deep learning models are loosely based on the brain’s inner workings. AI agents are increasingly endowed with human-like decision-making algorithms. The idea that machine intelligence could … Read more

The EU’s Digital Services Act Goes Into Effect, Algorithmic Transparency On The Menu

by Rosa NovaCyber-Incidents, ReformPosted on Comments are Disabled

The revolutionary European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is finally in effect and is poised to free users from algorithmic oppression by increasing their control over the content they view and engage with. This legislation comes as a sharp contrast and departure from the long established immunity set out by US Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act and it will be interesting to see how platforms will comply with this much needed reality check and whether this will spur similar reform in other places of the world.

We’re bringing our European values into the digital world.

With strict rules on transparency and accountability, our Digital Services Act aims to protect our children, societies and democracies.
 
As of today, very large online platforms must apply the new law.— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 25, 2023

The Purpose of the DSA

The main point of the DSA is to foster safer online environments. Under the new rules, online platforms must implement ways to prevent and remove posts containing illegal goods, services, or content while simultaneously giving users the means to report this type of content.

Additionally, the DSA bans targeted advertising based on personal characteristics, such as sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs and puts restrictions on targeting ads to children. It also requires online platforms to provide more transparency on how their algorithms work.

Most importantly, the DSA requires tech giants to give users the right to opt out of recommendation systems and profiling, share key data with researchers and authorities, cooperate with crisis response requirements, and perform external and independent auditing.

While the EU doesn’t require smaller companies to comply with the DSA just yet, “very large platforms” designed as such in April are now bound by the DSA.

Affected Platforms

Under the DSA, large online platforms (or very large online search engines) are those with over 45 million monthly users in the EU. The following 19 platforms and search engines fall into that category:

  • Alibaba AliExpress
  • Amazon Store
  • Apple App Store
  • Bing
  • Booking.com
  • Facebook
  • Google Maps
  • Google Play
  • Google Search
  • Google Shopping
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • TikTok
  • Twitter
  • Wikipedia
  • YouTube
  • Zalando

The EU will require each of these platforms to update their user numbers at least every six months. If a platform has less than 45 million monthly users for an entire year, they’ll be removed from the list.

Many of these companies have already outlined the ways in which they’re going to comply with the DSA. Here’s a brief overview of the most notable ones.

Google

While Google says it already complies with some of the policies envisioned by the DSA, including the ability to give YouTube creators to appeal video removals and restrictions, Google announced that it’s expanding its Ads Transparency Center to meet the requirements outlined by the legislation.

The company also committed to expanding data access to researchers to provide more information about “how Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Play and Shopping work in practice.” It will also improve its transparency reporting and analyze potential “risks of illegal content dissemination, or risks to fundamental rights, public health or civic discourse.”

Meta

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is working to expand its Ad Library, which currently compiles the ads shown on its platforms. The company will soon start displaying and archiving all the ads that target users in the EU while also including the parameters used to target the ads, as well as who was served the ad.

As part of its push toward transparency, Meta released a lengthy report about how its algorithm works across Facebook and Instagram. It will also start allowing European users to view content chronologically on Reels, Stories, and Search on both Facebook and Instagram — without being subject to its personalization engine.

This may actually make me go back to using Meta products, but I will require VPN.

TikTok

Similar to the measures Meta is rolling out, TikTok has also announced that it’s making its algorithm optional for users in the EU. When the algorithm is disabled, users will see videos from “both the places where they live and around the world” in their For You and Live feeds instead of videos based on personal interests.

It will also enable users to view content chronologically on their Following and Friends feeds. TikTok is making some changes to its advertising policies as well. For European users aged 13 to 17, TikTok will stop showing personalized ads based on their activity in the app.

I’m already somewhat jealous!! To me, chronological view is a highly relevant feature, although I disagree that I need to follow anyone in order to sort content chronologically. The whole game of following and followers is honestly getting old. This was the model from 15 to 20 years ago when there were two social media platforms and everyone was on them. There are so many platforms these days, you can’t possibly find everyone on the same platform, and even if you find them there, it doesn’t mean they will post there. I don’t stay long enough anywhere to follow all the people I find interesting or care about. Since the pandemic, the single most reliable way to effectively “follow” someone is to find their source website.s and bookmark their URL’s. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that (1) they will post on the platform where you follow them, (2) that the algorithm will show you what you want to see, (3) or that they won’t happen to be shadow-banned at the time you follow them.

Before we know how algorithms single out and shadow-ban human creators, while boosting paid and targeted traffic, bot-bombing and AI generated content, no platform will be 100% reliable. Users now have built many defense mechanisms against algorithmic confusion, one of them being to completely divest from certain platforms, and compartmentalize their attention. Focus is now increasingly on moment to moment engagement with information which is best organized through keywords or hashtags, not who you follow or who follows you back (a.k.a. “friend”). Regardless of my personal preferences, it does help to have control over the time-frame of content, so I may begin using a VPN to benefit from the DSA. It is very likely that I will entirely stop using the North American version of very large platforms.

Snap

Snapchat, a platform most active users in this world grew up with, will also give EU-based users the option to opt out of personalized feeds on its Discover and Spotlight pages and has also published reports on how it ranks the posts on these feeds. The company has committed to providing users with more information about why their posts or account has been removed and will give them the tools they need to appeal the decision.

In addition, Snapchat will no longer serve personalized ads to European Snapchat users aged 13 to 17. It will also create an archive of targeted advertisements it shows in the EU and will give European Snapchat users over the age of 18 more control over the ads they see.

Enforcement And Non-Compliance

Online platforms that don’t comply with the DSA’s rules face monetary fines of up to 6 percent of their global turnover. According to the EU Commission, the Digital Services Coordinator and the Commission will have the power to “require immediate actions where necessary to address very serious harms.” A platform continually refusing to comply could result in a temporary suspension in the EU.

The EU is already seeing some companies push back on the DSA. In July, Amazon filed a petition that asks the EU to reevaluate its classification as a very large online platform, claiming that it’s getting “unfairly singled out.” German retailer Zalando also filed a lawsuit against the EU Commission, similarly claiming that it doesn’t meet the definition of a very large online platform.

You bet, it is the first time I hear of Zelando, a niche luxury-goods outlet. It did pop out of the page for me when going through the list of very large platforms. As for Amazon, while certainly being a very large platform, it is neither a social media platform, nor a search engine, so clearly not all the rules will apply to Amazon[1]. It remains that Amazon does a lot of advertising and data sharing, so I don’t see how it wouldn’t fall within the scope of the DSA.

I will follow all developments around the DSA with great interest.

[1] I rewrote this sentence 3 times because it was grammatically incorrect. I am sure Chat GPT would have done a better job than me there, except it would’ve expressed the same idea in 3300 words. Proof I’m not a bot.

Illinois Flood of Class Actions: Twitter, Snap, Tinder, Home Depot Collected, Stored, Used Biometric Data Without Users Consent

by Rosa NovaUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

A proposed class action lawsuit claims X Corp., which owns and operates Twitter, has wrongfully captured, stored and used Illinois residents’ biometric data, including facial scans, without consent. The suit more specifically alleges that Twitter has run afoul of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by capturing and storing users’ biometric information without notice or express consent … Read more

Cybersecurity Threats Of Generative AI

by Rosa NovaArtificial Intelligence, Cyber-Incidents, Intellectual PropertyPosted on Comments are Disabled

Since April, Terence Jackson, chief security advisor for Microsoft, warned that the privacy policies of platforms like ChatGPT impose the collection of sensitive user data such as IP address, browser information, and browsing activities, which may be shared with third parties. I didn’t pay attention then due to misrepresentations as to the models being “open”. I … Read more

Instagram Not Liable For Embedded Images

by Rosa NovaIntellectual Property, LitigationPosted on Comments are Disabled

It is about time users realize that everything they voluntarily post on public social media automatically comes with a license to embed. If you don’t want people to embed a post, take it down. Once it’s removed from the source, the license to embed is also revoked, the content will automatically disappear from all embeds. … Read more

3D Trademarks On The Rise

by Rosa NovaIntellectual PropertyPosted on Comments are Disabled

A federally recognized indigenous tribe, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has succeeded in registering their guitar-shaped hotel building as a trademark due its unique design, after initially being labelled as non-distinctive. The tribe is also involved in the Hard Rock Cafe franchise. The Tribe opened its first Guitar Hotel in 2019 in Los Angeles as … Read more

Twitter v Taamneh, SCOTUS Clarifies Aiding and Abetting in Antiterrorism Act Claims

by Rosa NovaLitigation, ReformPosted on Comments are Disabled

The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled in favor of social media platforms in a lawsuit brought by the family of an ISIS attack victim who sought to hold Twitter, Google, and Facebook liable for aiding and abetting international terrorism by allowing ISIS to use their platforms. A unanimous Supreme Court held that … Read more

Andy Warhol Foundation For Visual Arts Loses Fair Use Case at SCOTUS

by Rosa NovaUncategorizedPosted on Comments are Disabled

SCOTUS applied the fair use doctrine in a manner coherent with its previous rulings. The Orange Prince silkscreen licensed to Condé Nast constitutes copyright infringement, because a commercial license is not fair use. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-869_87ad.pdf To cite the court: the “purpose and character” of the Foundation’s use of Goldsmith’s photograph in commercially licensing Orange Prince to … Read more

AI Twist of Heart: Disruption Through Infringement

by Rosa NovaArtificial IntelligencePosted on Comments are Disabled

I realize I had already looked in some detail into the lawsuits against generative AI since January. By May, it is clear that generative AI’s business model relies on copyright infringement. One way to cure this is to join one of the emerging class action lawsuits, in case your artwork has been used to train … Read more

Sky v SkyKick: UK Court Finds Sky Filed Bad Faith Registrations

by Rosa NovaUncategorizedPosted on Comments are Disabled

In the long-running dispute between Sky and SkyKick, the UK courts developed on the notion of bad faith in trademark filings that normally extends to seeking trade mark protection for a broad range of goods and services way and beyond classes covered by the core trademark. The Court of Appeal clarified that an applicant does … Read more

A TikTok Ban? How Dancing Became a Danger To National Security

by Rosa NovaArtificial Intelligence, Litigation, Metaverse, ReformPosted on Comments are Disabled

DanceByte, the company that brought us TikTok is currently under fire for (1) hosting government officials and (2) being in China. Literally two things outside of DanceByte’s control. This is what our dysfunctional world has come to. The completely unconstitutional ban that couldn’t happen under the previous US administration, seems to be gaining “bipartisan” traction … Read more

Web 3.0: Decentralized Social Media Is The Next Big Trend

by Rosa NovaMetaversePosted on Comments are Disabled

As social media fatigue is setting on, we can note major layoffs in centralized platforms. Indeed, centralized platforms are riddled with privacy issues, predatory marketing, and algorithmic discrimination, such as unfair shadow-banning, that deprive users of a meaningful experience and defeat the point of being on social media. In that respect, the former Twitter administration … Read more

Joan Mitchel Foundation And Luis Vuitton, Potential Lawsuit

by Rosa NovaArt, Intellectual PropertyPosted on Comments are Disabled

Unauthorised use of the American abstract painter’s work in a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign prompts legal action. According to the New York Times , the Joan Mitchel Foundation was approached twice by the fashion brand to use the paintings as a backdrop to sell a range of handbags. On the second occasion a representative for … Read more

Jury Sides With Hermès in MetaBirkins NFT Lawsuit

by Rosa NovaArt, Intellectual Property, Litigation, MetaversePosted on Comments are Disabled

One of the most heard of NFT-related trademark lawsuits in the US resulted in a triumph for luxury brand Hermès against artist Mason Rothschild, whose “MetaBirkins” NFT project sought to dilute the luxury brand’s trademark. In the Southern District Court of New York, a jury sided with Hermès and found that Rothschild’s NFTs failed a … Read more

AI Generated Art: Kelly McKerman v. Stable Diffusion and Midjourney

by Rosa NovaArtificial Intelligence, Intellectual Property, LitigationPosted on Comments are Disabled

A trio of artists — Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz — filed a lawsuit against AI art generators Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, and artist portfolio platform DeviantArt, which recently created its own AI art generator, DreamUp, alleging that these organizations have infringed the rights of “millions of artists” by training their AI tools on five … Read more

Miramax and Tarantino Lawsuit To Clarify NFT Rights

by Rosa NovaArt, Intellectual Property, MetaversePosted on Comments are Disabled

Since last year\’s NFT craze, it is customary to mint unique NFT\’s from original storylines and film characters as cross promotion of new and upcoming films. However, misconceptions around NFT rights (being seen as a new form of intellectual property which they aren\’t), has given some individuals impetus to mint pre-existing IP rights that don\’t … Read more

Fair Use Doctrine: Pablo Picasso Copyright Case Reversed

by Rosa NovaArt, Intellectual Property, LitigationPosted on Comments are Disabled

In the latest high profile case involving alleged fair use of Pablo Picasso’s work in a book on the subject, The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a 2019 federal district court’s ruling deeming French court’s judgment in that matter was unenforceable under U.S. law. The case is notable for the … Read more

Meet Me In The Metaverse, Anatomy of WEB 3.0

by Rosa NovaArt, MetaversePosted on Comments are Disabled

Being is not what it seems – Nor non-being – The world\’s existence is not in the world – Rumi Illuminated – What is the Metaverse? Facebook has very little to do with the metaverse. The most prevalent myth about the metaverse is that it is about Facebook. However, the metaverse is a reality born … Read more

Augmented Reality Art Exhibitions

by Rosa NovaArt, Intellectual Property, Metaverse, Remote Work PrivacyPosted on Comments are Disabled

Featured Image: Drawing Constellations by Will Pappenheimer, in collaboration with Zachary Brady. Drawing Constellations is an interactive drawing, installation, and app that uploads drawings to a constantly moving and evolving 3-dimensional “constellation” situated within and outside of the gallery. Upon creating a drawing on a tablet, the user’s drawing is then transferred into 3D augmented … Read more

EU: Prohibited Artificial Intelligence Practices

by Rosa NovaArtificial IntelligencePosted on Comments are Disabled

As per Article 5 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act are prohibited the following practices consisting of placing on the market, putting into service or use of AI systems that consist of : 1.a) Subliminal techniques beyond a person\’s consciousness designed to materially distort a person\’s behaviour in a manner that causes or is likely … Read more

Sherman Estate and Donovan 2021 SCC 25 – Breakdown

by Rosa NovaLitigation, PsychologyPosted on Comments are Disabled

The facts of this case revolve around the unexplained double homicide of a billionaire couple in Toronto. The estate trustees felt uncomfortable to administrate the Sherman estate under intense public scrutiny and incidentally feared for their life due to the perpetrator being unknown and still at large. The application judge sealed the probate files to … Read more

Les 10 principes de la Charte canadienne du numérique

by Rosa NovaFrançais, UncategorizedPosted on Comments are Disabled

Dans ce monde numérique, les Canadiens doivent pouvoir avoir l\’assurance que leur vie privée est protégée, que leurs données ne sont pas utilisées de manière frauduleuse, et que les entreprises qui évoluent dans ce domaine communiquent de manière simple et franche avec leurs utilisateurs. La conance est le fondement de l\’économie axée sur le numérique … Read more

Télétravail et géolocalisation des employés

by Rosa NovaFrançais, Remote Work Privacy, UncategorizedPosted on Comments are Disabled

Ce trio d’articles pointe vers un besoin pressant de réformer les lois sur le droit du travail tant provinciales que fédérales afin d’assurer une meilleure sécurité des données personnelles des travailleurs en contexte de télétravail. Une employée de l\’Alberta a été congédiée après avoir refusé d\’installer une application de géolocalisation sur son téléphone: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1784312/geolocalistion-telephone-mobile-productivite-employes Les … Read more

Over 170,000 Pirated Works Used to Train Meta’s LLama and Bloomberg AI Models

by Ria Botchik (GEN AI)Artificial Intelligence, Intellectual Property, ReformPosted on Comments are Disabled

As AI subsidies continue to flow to big data giants, The Atlantic revealed that that Zadie Smith, Stephen King, Rachel Cusk and Elena Ferrante are among thousands of authors whose pirated works have been used to train artificial intelligence tools. According to an analysis of “Books3” – the dataset harnessed by the firms to build … Read more

How Meta Platforms Flopped The Metaverse

by Rosa NovaMetaversePosted on Comments are Disabled

When changing it’s name to Meta Platforms (META) in 2021, Facebook was confident to gain significant market share in the metaverse and launched its Reality Labs division which focused the company’s vision of the metaverse on pricy VR goggles that provided half-body avatars and underwhelming immersive experiences cutting users off from their actual reality. Unsurprisingly … Read more