Privacy and AI weekly - Issue 4

This is not a normal edition of Privacy and AI Weekly.

For respect to the people suffering in Ukraine, I decided not to post during the week, but at the same time, I feel that some information concerning the objectives of this edition may be worth sharing.

Avoid sharing photos of prisoners of war

Privacy-aware people should not post or share photos or videos of prisoners of war. These materials could be used against them or their families.

Art. 13 Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War establishes that prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

H/T @Jeroen Terstegge (original post here )

Russian oligarchs jets

Jack Sweeney, student at the Univeristy of Central Florida who tracked Elon Musk's private jet, now tracks private jets of Russian Oligarchs. The account Russian Oligarch Jets @RUOligarchJets was opened soon after the invasion started and it has now 360k followers.

PS: I concede that this is not what a privacy-minded person should do. My apologies to the oligarchs

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AI companies that halted operations in Russia

Apple has paused all sales of its physical products in Russia, has also restricted Russian access to digital services including Apple Pay and blocked Russian state media outlets RT News and Sputnik from its App Store outside of Russia. In Ukraine, it disabled both traffic and live incident features in its Apple Maps

Google has banned Russian state media outlets from running ads on its platforms, blocked mobile apps connected to media outlets RT and Sputnik from its Play store, removed the publishers from Google News and banned them from YouTube across Europe. It also has disabled some live traffic and incident features from Google Maps in Ukraine

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, TikTok has also blocked access to RT and Sputnik in the European Union.

Snapchat has stopped all advertising running in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and says it’s no longer accepting revenue from Russian state-owned entities.

Microsoft removed RT news apps from its Windows app store, would not display any state-sponsored RT and Sputnik content and would de-rank their search results on Bing

Netflix has reportedly paused all future Russian projects and acquisitions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Spotify has closed its Russian office indefinitely and removed all content from Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik

Nokia stopped deliveries to Russia to comply with sanctions imposed on the country. Nokia normally supplies MTS, Vimpelcom, Megafon and Tele2 in Russia.

Ericsson has also decided to suspend all deliveries to customers in Russia while it reviews the situation in Ukraine.

Oracle “already suspended all operations” in Russia

SAP has also said it’s halting all sales of its products and services in Russia.

Source

PS: Also Accenture halted operations in Russia (thanks @Florian Thoma for the information, link )

AI private actors involved in the conflict

Microsoft is oftentimes criticised due to its monopolistic and opaque practices concerning data protection. However, this time we could celebrate when power and know-how is used for good reasons.

Several hours before the launch of missiles or movement of tanks on February 24, Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) detected a new round of offensive and destructive cyberattacks directed against Ukraine’s digital infrastructure. MSFT advised the Ukrainian government about the situation, including the identification of the use of a new malware package (denominated FoxBlade), and provided technical advice on steps to prevent the malware’s success. Within three hours of this discovery, signatures to detect this new exploit had been written and added to their Defender anti-malware service, helping to defend against this new threat.

Source

On the ethical uses of AI, this time in the battlefield

Where is the limit of using technologies?

Most of us would agree that AI-powered systems should not have the last say concerning the life and death of human beings. However, efforts to ban the use of autonomous lethal weapons have been so far unsuccessful in the UN.

During the last week, we've witnessed several alarming uses of AI systems.

Ukraine used TB2 drones (Turkish) which can take off, land and navigate autonomously, but a human operator decides when and where to activate the weapons. Russia also could use a drone with limited autonomous capabilities, which functions like a kamikaze.

Deep fakes are soaring and misinformation is spreading all around the globe (don't believe and share everything you see on the Internet. Check the sources and be critical )

But the use of AI has far-reaching consequences since even apparently harmless technologies could be used against civilians. Google Maps and Apple Maps de-activated their real-time traffic features to protect citizens during Russia’s invasion on Ukraine.

Once again, it is time we start seriously discussing about the uses and impacts of AI systems in society.

Source

To conclude

Once again, the appalling situation people is living in Ukraine should allow us to reflect on our fundamental rights, in particular, the importance of upholding, freedom of expression, democracy and the rule of law. I think the majority of Russians do not support the barbaric actions ordered by Putin. I applaud those who engage in civil disobedience and manifest their disagreement rising ending in jail.

Kharkiv National University building, recently hit by an airstrike.

What can we do? I guess that, for the time being, we can donate money to help those leaving the country and for the future reconstruction of Ukraine.

For the weekend

Putin's war on Ukraine, explained (vox 2022)

From spy to president: The rise of Vladimir Putin (Vox 2017)

Putin's Way (full documentary) | FRONTLINE (2022)

Putin: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 2017

Lukashenko: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 2021