[LINK] RFI: Risks in the Digital Surveillance Economy
I've benefited in the past from Link Institute feedback. So I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts on my latest attempt to save humankind from itself. (I'm afraid I was born to windmill-tilt). On-list or off-list, as you may prefer. The title and abstract are below, plus a link to the paper itself. Risks Inherent in The Digitalisation of the Individual: A Research Agenda Working Paper at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/InDigR.html The digitisation of a considerable amount about the world relevant to business has given rise to a new phase of 'digitalisation'. This involves a substantial shift in business models and industrial organisation, such that the interpretation and management of the world through human perception and cognition has been to a considerable extent replaced by processes that are almost entirely dependent on digital data. Digitalisation is being applied by business enterprises to many entities, including people. In addition to opportunities, this gives rise to threats to individuals, and risks to people, society and polity. A review of the notions of information society, surveillance society and surveillance capitalism provides a basis for appreciating the nature of what is referred to here as 'the digital surveillance economy' - a new form of business model that was initiated by Google at the beginning of the 21st century. This model is predicated on the acquisition, expropriation and consolidation of very large volumes of personal data, and its exploitation in order to target advertisements, manipulate consumer behaviour, and price goods and services at the highest level that each individual is willing to bear. In the digital surveillance economy, not only is the consumer converted from the customer to the product, but consumers' interests have almost no impact on the process, and are ignored. In the words of the model's architects, users are 'bribed' and 'induced' to make their data available at minimal cost to marketers. The industrial-era notion of a contract between producer and consumer is no longer applicable, and the essence of the industrial-era social contract is undermined. The process of digitalisation of the individual, and the digital surveillance economy that this has given rise to, harbour great threats to the interests of individuals, and to the relationship between corporations, on the one hand, and society and polity on the other. The new economic wave may prove to be a tsunami that swamps the social dimension and washes away the last five centuries' individualism and humanism. Alternatively, institutions may achieve regulatory adaptation in order to overcome the worst of the negative impacts; or a breaking-point could be reached and consumers might rebel against corporate domination. A research framework is suggested, within which the alternative scenarios can be investigated. -- Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/ Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 6916http://about.me/roger.clarke mailto:roger.cla...@xamax.com.auhttp://www.xamax.com.au/ Visiting Professor in the Faculty of LawUniversity of N.S.W. Visiting Professor in Computer ScienceAustralian National University ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
[LINK] First Aussie Pirate Bay Block Gets Defeated in Seconds
First Aussie Pirate Bay Block Gets Defeated in Seconds By Andy, December 20, 2016 https://torrentfreak.com/first-aussie-pirate-bay-block-gets-defeated-in-seconds-161220/ Telstra has become the very first Australian ISP to block The Pirate Bay, a move designed to crack down on piracy in the country. However, the blocking method chosen by the ISP is the most basic option permitted under the Federal Court's order. As a result, it's been defeated in seconds. Following a case brought by rightsholders including Roadshow Films, Foxtel, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, more than fifty Internet service providers in Australia are now required to start barring subscriber access to selected ‘pirate’ sites. In a ruling last week, the Federal Court decided that by the end of the year, The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and streaming service SolarMovie will all have to be rendered inaccessible to subscribers in Australia. The same also applies to dozens of proxy and mirror sites. With just under two weeks before the deadline expires, ISP Telstra has decided to move quickly. During the past few hours the service provider began its blocking regime, starting with The Pirate Bay. As ordered by the Federal Court, visitors to the site are now being met by a landing page which explains why they can no longer access it. As previously reported, the order from the Court allows ISPs to choose how to implement the blockade, including DNS blocking, IP address blocking (or IP re-routing), URL blocking, or “any alternative technical means” approved by a rightsholder. It appears that Telstra has chosen to implement a DNS block, the weakest option available. As a result, it is defeated in a matter of seconds with a just a few clicks and not a penny spent. Many users are already choosing to configure their computers to use Google’s DNS instead of Telstra’s, which simply means adding a few digits to a setting in Windows. Others are using OpenDNS since there is a belief that the Cisco-owned company logs less data than Google does. However, since accessing The Pirate Bay itself isn’t a crime, any data held in this circumstance is likely to hold little value. Of course, those concerned about privacy can still turn to VPNs, which are already proving of greater interest to Australians since news of the court order landed last week. It’s also worth noting that while a simple DNS tweak defeat’s Telstra’s blocking efforts, other ISPs may choose a more secure option for which DNS won’t provide a solution. In that case a VPN is the only all-round secure option. Nevertheless, as it stands today a head-shaking situation prevails. For years, rightsholders have lobbied for site-blocking in Australia. They even managed to have the law changed to allow it to happen. They then went to court and dragged themselves and ISPs through thousands of hours of legal work, culminating in the Federal Court itself ordering a blockade. And Internet users got round it all in less time than it took to read this article. Cheers, Stephen ___ Link mailing list Link@mailman.anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
