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Sen. Ron Wyden Introduces Bill That Would Send CEOs to Jail for Violating Consumer Privacy

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has introduced a comprehensive new privacy bill he claims will finally address the lack of meaningful privacy protections for American consumers.

Wyden says his Consumer Data Protection Act is a direct response to the ocean of privacy scandals that have plagued the internet for the better part of the last decade.

The Senator's proposal would dramatically beef up Federal Trade Commission authority and funding to crack down on privacy violations, let consumers opt out of having their sensitive personal data collected and sold, and impose harsh new penalties on a massive data monetization industry that has for years claimed that self-regulation is all that's necessary to protect consumer privacy.

Wyden's bill proposes that companies whose revenue exceeds $1 billion per year—or warehouse data on more than 50 million consumers or consumer devices—submit "annual data protection reports" to the government detailing all steps taken to protect the security and privacy of consumers' personal information.

The proposed legislation would also levy penalties up to 20 years in prison and $5 million in fines for executives who knowingly mislead the FTC in these reports. The FTC's authority over such matters is currently limited—one of the reasons telecom giants have been eager to move oversight of their industry from the Federal Communications Commission to the FTC.

Also at ZDNet, and The Hill.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Mario Segale, Inspiration For Nintendo's Hero Plumber, Has Died

Mario Segale, who inspired the plucky plumber Mario — one of the most recognizable characters in the world, let alone in video games — has died at age 84. Segale was Nintendo's landlord outside Seattle when the company created Donkey Kong, the classic game that launched the overalls-wearing Mario.

[...] The Mario character went on to become a franchise, appearing in dozens of games, from car racing to tennis. He also shared a game cartridge with Nintendo's other classic hit, Duck Hunt (we've clarified this point in the story to avoid confusion).

Also at BBC.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

U.S. Government Indicts Chinese DRAM Maker JHICC on Industrial Espionage; Bans Exports To Firm

The U.S. Department of Commerce [DoC] this week banned U.S. exports to a China-based maker of DRAM. The DoC believes that Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company (also known as Fujian or JHICC) not only uses technologies obtained from Micron, but also threatens the latter's long-term economic viability and therefore could also be involved in activities that are contrary to the U.S. national security interests.

In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Justice [DoJ] has also filed an indictment against JHICC, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), and several individuals accusing them of corporate espionage and stealing IP from Micron. Between the two, the U.S. authorities essentially sided with claims that Chinese makers of memory have illegally obtained IP and technologies from DRAM makers from the U.S. and potentially other countries.

As a result of DoC actions against JHICC, all U.S.-based (and, actually, non-U.S.-based too) companies will require a special license for all exports, re-exports, and transfers of commodities, software and technology subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). DoC makes no secret that such license applications will be "reviewed with a presumption of denial", so it will be tremendously hard for JHICC to obtain practically everything, including Windows 7 licenses for manufacturing equipment and production tools themselves (ASML has a strong presence in the U.S., whereas Nikon Precision is based in California). Meanwhile, the whole situation is somewhat more complex.

Related: Tsinghua to Build $30 Billion DRAM/NAND Fabrication Plant in Nanjing, China

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Snapchat's PR firm sues influencer for not promoting Spectacles on Instagram

Influencer marketing could get a lot more accountable if Snapchat's PR firm wins this lawsuit. Snapchat hoped that social media stars promoting v2 of its Spectacles camera sunglasses on its biggest competitor could boost interest after it only sold 220,000 of v1 and had to take a $40 million write-off. Instead, Snap comes off looking a little desperate to make Spectacles seem cool.

Snap Inc. commissioned its public relations firm PR Consulting (real imaginative) to buy it an influencer marketing campaign on Instagram. The firm struck a deal with Grown-ish actor Luka Sabbat after he was seen cavorting with Kourtney Kardashian. Sabbat got paid $45,000 up front with the promise of another $15,000 to post himself donning Spectacles on Instagram.

He was contracted to make one Instagram feed post and three Stories posts with him wearing Specs, plus be photographed wearing them in public at Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks. He was supposed to add swipe-up-to-buy links to two of those Story posts, get all the posts pre-approved with PRC, and send it analytics metrics about their performance.

But Sabbat skipped out on two of the Stories, one of the swipe-ups, the photo shoots, the pre-approvals and the analytics. So as Variety's Gene Maddaus first reported, PRC is suing Sabbat to recoup the $45,000 it already paid plus another $45,000 in damages.

The lawsuit might give Spectacles more exposure than Mr. Sabbat would have.

Also at Business Insider, Engadget, and Entrepreneur.

Previously: Snapchat's Spectacles: A Bad Idea in Hindsight
Snapchat Takes a Second Shot at Wearable Camera "Spectacles"
Snap Gives Spectacles a Face Lift to Look More Like Traditional Sunglasses

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

If you have a Pixel 3 phone, you should be aware that you can opt out of the built-in binding arbitration agreement. Boing Boing has a screen shot of the new Pixel phone's binding arbitration opt-out form. Pixel phone owners, insofar as they actually own the phone, are given a chance to avoid Google's attempt to get them to sign away your right to sue even if the company hurts, cheats, or kills them.

Earlier on SN: Google Avoids Talking About Android at Pixel 3 Event.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA's Dawn Mission to Asteroid Belt Comes to End

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system's earliest chapter.

Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA's Deep Space Network on Wednesday, Oct. 31, and Thursday, Nov. 1. After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine, the fuel that enables the spacecraft to control its pointing. Dawn can no longer keep its antennae trained on Earth to communicate with mission control or turn its solar panels to the Sun to recharge.

The Dawn spacecraft launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt. Currently, it's in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades.

Ceres, Vesta, and Dawn.

Also at Ars Technica, The Verge, and Science News.

Previously: NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Nears the End of its Mission
NASA Retires the Kepler Space Telescope after It Runs Out of Hydrazine

Related:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

Pluto and Ceres
After Eight Years, NASA's Dawn Probe Brings Dwarf Planet Ceres Into Closest Focus
NASA's Dawn Orbiter Finds a Mountain on Ceres
Dawn Spies Magnesium Sulphate and Possible Geological Activity on Ceres
Ceres' Cryovolcano Ahuna Mons Formed in the Geologically Recent Past
Ceres's Cryovolcanoes Viscously Relax Into Nothingness
Organic Molecules Found on Ceres
Early Asteroids May Have Been Made of Mud Rather Than Rock
Dawn Mission Extended at Ceres
Ceres May Have Had a Global Surface Ocean in the Past
Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity
Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: A New Low
Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: First Images
Dawn Spacecraft Captures Closest-Ever Images of Ceres' Shiny Occator Crater

Original Submission

martyb writes:

People Link Body Shapes with Personality Traits:

When we meet new people, our first impressions of their personality may depend, at least in part, on their body shape, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"Our research shows that people infer a wide range of personality traits just by looking at the physical features of a particular body," says psychological scientist Ying Hu of the University of Texas at Dallas, first author on the research. "Stereotypes based on body shape can contribute to how we judge and interact with new acquaintances and strangers. Understanding these biases is important for considering how we form first impressions."

Previous research has shown that we infer a considerable amount of social information by looking at other people's faces, but relatively little research has explored whether body shapes also contribute to these judgments.

[...] Hu and colleagues created 140 realistic body models, of which 70 were female and 70 male. The three-dimensional renderings were generated from random values along 10 different body dimensions, using data from laser scans of actual human bodies. Using these models allowed the researchers to know the precise physical measurements of each body shown in the study.

A total of 76 undergraduate participants viewed a set of models — they saw each body from two angles and indicated whether 30 trait words shown on screen applied to that body. The trait words reflected dimensions of the Big Five personality traits (a common measure of personality used in psychology research) typically seen as positive (e.g., enthusiastic, extraverted, dominant) or negative (e.g., quiet, reserved, shy).

[...] Generally, participants judged heavier bodies as being associated with more negative traits, such as being lazy and careless; they judged lighter bodies as having more positive traits, such as being self-confident and enthusiastic.

Furthermore, the participants perceived classically feminine (e.g., pear-shaped) and classically masculine (e.g., broad-shouldered) bodies as being associated with "active" traits, such as being quarrelsome, extraverted, and irritable. Male and female bodies that were more rectangular, on the other hand, were associated with relatively passive traits, such as being trustworthy, shy, dependable, and warm.

[...] These findings add a new layer to the science behind first impressions, revealing "the complicated and value-based judgments that people make about strangers based only on their bodies," Hu concludes.

Journal Reference:

Ying Hu, Connor J. Parde, Matthew Q. Hill, Naureen Mahmood, Alice J. O'Toole. First Impressions of Personality Traits From Body Shapes. Psychological Science, 2018; 095679761879930 DOI: 10.1177/0956797618799300

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Royole's bendy-screen FlexPai phone unveiled in China

A little-known California-based company has laid claim to creating the "world's first foldable phone".

Royole Corporation - a specialist in manufacturing flexible displays - unveiled the FlexPai handset at an event in Beijing. When opened, the device presents a single display measuring 7.8in (19.8cm) - bigger than many tablets. But when folded up, it presents three separate smaller screens - on the front, rear and spine of the device.

The six-year-old company said it would hold three "flash sales" to consumers in China on 1 November to offer the first product run.

[...] The launch has caught many industry watchers by surprise. It was widely believed Samsung or Huawei would be the first to sell such a device to the public.

[...] Another company-watcher added that he doubted the FlexPai would ever be produced in large numbers. "Royole has carried out several publicity stunts over the years to showcase its flexible OLED [organic light-emitting diode] displays," said Dr Guillaume Chansin from Irimitech Consulting. "The FlexPai is probably another stunt. Royole is building its first OLED factory and it is now trying to compete directly with other display manufacturers such as Samsung and LG."

Samsung has been talking about this kind of thing for years. But talk is cheap.

Also at The Verge and BGR.

See also: The World's First Foldable Screen Phone Is Not Fully Baked

Related: Flexible and Printable Battery that Will Revolutionize Wearables
Underwriters Laboratories Certifies "Unbreakable" and Flexible Samsung OLED Display
Nubia's Wearable Smartphone is a Preview of our Flexible OLED Future

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Flickr will end 1TB of free storage and limit free users to 1,000 photos

Flickr was purchased in April by professional photo hosting service SmugMug, and today, the first major changes under the new ownership have been announced. There's a serious downgrade for free users, who are now limited to 1,000 pictures on the photo sharing site, instead of the free 1TB of storage that was previously offered.

As Flickr explains in its press release announcing the change, "Unfortunately, 'free' services are seldom actually free for users. Users pay with their data or with their time. We would rather the arrangement be transparent." It makes a certain amount of sense — servers aren't free, after all — but for free users with more than 1,000 photos, it's not ideal news.

[...] In what may be the nicest quality-of-life change, starting in January, all users — paid and free — won't have to use Yahoo to log in to Flickr anymore.

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

From the very richest Forbes Magazine (reprint) come news of a nefarious plot:

There's no better example of the power, and the terror, inspired by blockchain than Gab.com, the social network used by the accused Pittsburgh synagogue gunman to threaten Jews.

About a month and a half before the alleged gunman made good on those threats by opening fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue and killing 11 people, Gab submitted paperwork to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $10 million via an initial coin offering (ICO). The offering, dated September 18, 2018, has so far received commitments to raise $5.6 million in capital for the "free speech" social network, which is a favorite of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other members of the "alt-right."

Since the shooting on Saturday, Gab has been shut down by a host of mainstream services including payment processors Stripe and Paypal, Web-hosting company Joyent and briefly, domain registry GoDaddy. But that might not matter, because Gab has already taken the first step toward freeing itself from dependence on traditional infrastructure and support mechanisms, thanks to its funding via the ethereum blockchain. Ultimately Gab's goal is to build an entire ecosystem beyond the reach of centralized authorities—whether Facebook, Twitter or venture capitalists—making it nearly indestructible. On this, the tenth anniversary of the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper, which gave birth to bitcoin, Gab epitomizes the darker consequences of his vision.

[...] Gab can also use other blockchain services if mainstream providers try to kick it off the internet by refusing to provide critical services. If Gab needs to replace GoDaddy for domain service (the addresses people use to find websites), Ethereum Name Service provides domains for decentralized applications built on the ethereum blockchain. Web hosting? No problem. Ethereum's Substratum provides a decentralized alternative to Joyent. Others have already pioneered the idea. PeepEth is a nascent ethereum-powered social network, and Mastadon is a blockchain-based Twitter.

Previously: Social Media and the Pittsburgh Shooter: Gab.com Going Down

Original Submission

Mainframe Bloke writes:

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the "father" of the World Wide Web, has said what many are likely feeling: the centralisation of the network has gone too far and it's time to consider breaking up the behemoths that dominate it to the extent of locking out new players.

The Register has more here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/01/tim_berners_lee_internet_giants/

The source, TBL's interview with Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-technology-www/father-of-web-says-tech-giants-may-have-to-be-split-up-idUSKCN1N63MV (don't follow the Register link which is wrong).

Excerpt:
“What naturally happens is you end up with one company dominating the field so through history there is no alternative to really coming in and breaking things up,” Berners-Lee, 63, said in an interview. “There is a danger of concentration.”

But he urged caution too, saying the speed of innovation in both technology and tastes could ultimately cut some of the biggest technology companies down to size.

“Before breaking them up, we should see whether they are not just disrupted by a small player beating them out of the market, but by the market shifting, by the interest going somewhere else,” Berners-Lee said.

I'm in violent agreement with TBL, at least on the point of overcentralisation, what about you? I'd be more aggressive than his caution, perhaps, as the barrier to entry seems higher to me than him, and market shifts can be blocked or delayed by counteracting marketing tactics by the incumbents...

Original Submission

takyon writes:

World's longest DNA sequence decoded

A team of UK scientists have claimed the record for decoding the world's longest DNA sequence. The scientists produced a DNA read that is about 10,000 times longer than normal, and twice as large as a previous record holder, from Australia. This research has kick-started an Ashes-style competition to sequence an entire chromosome in a single read. The new holder of the trophy for world's longest DNA read is a team led by Matt Loose at Nottingham University.

[...] Dr Loose's group also recently produced the most complete human genome sequence using a palm-sized "nanopore" sequencing machine. These potentially offer lower cost and faster processing for DNA sequencing. He told me: "There has been a competition running to see who can get the longest sequence. I think it is still friendly." Dr Loose went on to say: "Australia led for a while, but then we had a read just short of a million. People were then competing to beat the record, in particular to be the first person to get a million-base-pair read.

[...] Dr Loose said of the record-breaking read: "In theory, nanopore sequencing allows you to sequence any length molecule of DNA. That's really quite different to how we have been sequencing DNA for many years now. The breakthrough in this paper is that we have been able to sequence a molecule of 2.3 million bases in length, which no one has ever been able to do before.

Apparently, they have been mailing around a literal trophy.

Previously: Human Genome Sequenced With MinION Nanopore Sequencer (same group as above)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Spinal Stimulation Enables Three People With Paraplegia to Walk Again

Three men with paraplegia are able to walk after being treated with electrical stimulation of their spinal cords. The treatment, combined with physical therapy, enabled the men to overcome years-old spinal cord injuries that had paralyzed their leg muscles.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), in Lausanne, who conducted the experiments, announced the results today in a pair of papers in Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0649-2] [DX] and Nature Neuroscience [DOI: 10.1038/s41593-018-0262-6] [DX]. Combined with recent efforts from other groups in the area of spinal stimulation, the work suggests that paralysis, once considered an incurable condition, is perhaps treatable.

The Swiss research adds to the body of work reported by two other groups that have enabled paralyzed individuals to walk using the experimental electrical treatment. In September, a group from the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, led by Susan Harkema, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine [DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1803588] [DX] that two people with spinal cord injuries were walking independently, with balance help, after months of electrical stimulation and training.

The same week, a separate group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., reported in Nature Medicine [DOI: 10.1038/s41591-018-0175-7] [DX] that they too had successfully enabled one person with a spinal cord injury to walk the length of a football field, with a walker and physical assistance, after months of stimulation and training.

Also at Ars Technica.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Hawaii top court approves controversial Thirty Meter Telescope

Hawaii's Supreme Court has approved construction of what will be one of the world's largest single telescopes, on the controversial site of Mauna Kea.

Work on the $1.4bn (£1bn) Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) had paused in 2015 after protests from some native Hawaiians, to whom the land is sacred.

The state's top court ruled 4-1 in favour of the scientists on Tuesday.

Mauna Kea already has 13 telescopes; activists say their construction has interfered with cultural practices.

For years, protesters - including some environmentalists - have said building what is planned to be the world's biggest telescope on a site already saturated with observatories would further desecrate and pollute the sacred mountain.

On Tuesday, Hawaii's Governor David Ige thanked the top court for its ruling in a statement, saying he believes the decision is "fair".

Previously: Protests Temporarily Halt Thirty-Meter Telescope's Construction in Hawaii
Hawaiian Court Revokes Permit for Construction of Thirty-Meter-Telescope
Thirty Meter Telescope Considering Move as Hawaii Officials Open Hearing

Related: National Academies Report Urges Increased Study of Exoplanets in Order to Search for Alien Life

Original Submission

Anonymous Cow Herd writes:

Recently there was an article discussing how poorly today's Silicon Valley approaches the question of testing their information technology candidates' intelligence.

If you were a hiring manager, how would YOU test YOUR candidate's intelligence?

I was mulling this over recently, when, for unrelated reasons, I found myself researching algorithms to be used in calculating 'pi' (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pi_algorithms).

As it so happens, there are currently 15 known algorithms for pi. At least one of the algorithms can be used to generate arbitrary digits of pi (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe_formula), and that might be relevant. (I'm not a mathematician, or a programmer, as such - I'm a sysadmin - but even those who are will likely be surprised to learn that such a thing is possible. For more information, please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spigot_algorithm.)

And so I would ask my candidate to pretend that he was responsible for designing a library of math functions, and to offer me an opinion on which algorithm should be implemented, in our hypothetical library of routines, to calculate 'pi'.

Some prior experience in programming is required - you have to have written your own functions. No programming languages are required. No coding. Not even pseudo-code! No right answers. No wrong answers. Just pure thought.

You don't need to be a programmer to take this test and succeed. You don't need to do anything on a whiteboard. You just need to be somewhat mathematically inclined ... somewhat literate ... and, a nerd.

A real nerd. Not one of these fake Silicon Valley nerds. You need to have books on your shelves. Not DVDs.

Points for asking what the library will be used for. The value 22/7 might work great for roughing out the roof of a gazebo. Not so good for calculating orbits!

Points for implementing multiple algorithms and letting the user decide for themselves.

No time limit, no pressure ... but I would want to hear back from my candidates, within a day or two, via email.

Compare my test to the puerile tests involving balls, and strings, and calculating 2^64 in your head, in real time, and ask yourself which of these methods REALLY exposes intelligence?

Now, you're in charge.

What would you do?

Original Submission