Show notes for this episode written by Thomas Stoeckle.
“If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” A modern version of this 18th century thought experiment by the philosopher and cleric George Berkeley might read: “If the EU fines a big tech firm billions of dollars, and no one has the power to enforce it, has it actually happened?”
A recent opinion piece on AdExchanger discussed the connection between Google’s $5bn antitrust fine, and the … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 20: GDPR, ePrivacy, copyright and antitrust:
the EU’s long game
Law
SDF Podcast 20: GDPR, ePrivacy, copyright and antitrust:
For Immediate Release 143:
Fired by mistake by an AI
Neville Hobson joined FIR host Shel Holtz for the June edition of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” and conversation about these topics:
An employee was mistakenly fired by an AI system and managers stood by powerless to correct the mistake. Was AI really to blame?
IBM has introduced an AI designed for debate, which could mean there’s finally an unbiased devil’s advocate to point out the flaws in your business plan.
There is no minimizing the threat to the Internet posed by the … [Read more...] about For Immediate Release 143:
Fired by mistake by an AI
SDF Podcast 19: Is GDPR much ado about nothing?
Ten days after the EU General Data Protection Regulation came into action, the SmallDataForum convened to provide initial assessments and perspectives. This episode's show notes were written by Thomas Stoeckle. Are we witnessing comedy or drama? Much ado about nothing or the end of the world as we know it? Clearly it is much too early to tell, and yet (of course) we found a lot to discuss, from varying levels of preparedness (not just on businesses’ side, but also among governments, … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 19: Is GDPR much ado about nothing?
Exposing the realities of our relationships with Facebook and other social platforms
This week has been an extraordinary one, not only for Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and members of the US Congress but also for users of Facebook and other social networking platforms wherever they are in the world. Indeed, it has been a week of revelation and food for considerable thought on a grand scale. During two days, on April 10 and April 11, the Facebook co-founder and CEO appeared before members of the US Senate and Congress to answer questions about Facebook and how it handles … [Read more...] about Exposing the realities of our relationships with Facebook and other social platforms
A closer look at Creative Commons licenses
One of the great things about social media and social networks is the ability they offer to anyone to share a thought, an idea, or an expression, with anyone else who has a connection to the global internet. Take the photo above, for instance. It's of the Trevi Fountain in Rome on a beautiful sunny late autumn day and I took the photo on a visit there in 2016. I've not widely shared it before now although it's been in my Flickr stream since then, and now it's embedded in this post. What if … [Read more...] about A closer look at Creative Commons licenses
Who should die when a driverless car crashes? Q&A ponders the future
In the 2004 science fiction film I, Robot, the police detective hero played by Will Smith is in a car crash resulting in his vehicle and another sinking in a river. The other car contains a trapped 12-year-old girl. With imminent death by drowning confronting both characters, a rescue robot appears and rescues the hero from his doomed car but leaves the girl to die. Why? Because, the robot's logic tells it, her survival was statistically less likely than the Will Smith character's. This … [Read more...] about Who should die when a driverless car crashes? Q&A ponders the future
How Twitter Works – a legal opinion
Most reasonable people are aware that if you publicly publish something defamatory about someone else that is false, you can be sued for libel. If you lose the legal case, it can be expensive for you in terms of damage to your reputation as well as a financial cost. (Related: the difference between libel and slander in UK law.) And I'd add that most reasonable people are also aware that the same rules on libel apply to all methods of public communication, including online. So, for … [Read more...] about How Twitter Works – a legal opinion
How can trust help the #PanamaPapers innocents?
The revelations from the mega-leak of data about the financial shenanigans of the wealthy and powerful, dubbed the #PanamaPapers, continue to roll out globally since the eruption last weekend opened up a Pandora's Box (what some would call an Aladdin's Cave) of consequences. At the heart of this scandal is 2.6 terabytes of data representing some 11 million individual documents about the business and financial affairs of clients of the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca stretching from … [Read more...] about How can trust help the #PanamaPapers innocents?