floreani

floreani, 1 day ago to random

if you, like me, wanna donate to support Palestinians, but you, like me, are totally overwhelmed by where to send money, may I suggest https://gazafunds.com/

it's run by Arab and Palestinian engineers, students, writers, and academics working to help get exposure and traction to fundraisers created for people in Gaza to facilitate the process of finding and choosing crowdfunding campaigns to donate to.

floreani, 14 days ago to random

Back in October 2022 myself and other privacy advocates warned against using facial recognition in clubs in Australia, ostensibly to minimise gambling harm. This week the biometric data of up to a million people who were subjected to the scheme is possibly up for grabs online.

The incident has rankled privacy experts who have long set off alarm bells over the creep of facial recognition systems in public spaces such as clubs and casinos. “Sadly, this is a horrible example of what can happen as a result of implementing privacy-invasive facial recognition systems,” Samantha Floreani, head of policy for Australia- based privacy and security nonprofit Digital Rights Watch, tells WIRED. “When privacy advocates warn of the risks associated with surveillance-based systems like this, data breaches are one of them.”

floreani, 18 days ago to random

hi nerds, the review of the Online Safety Act issues paper dropped overnight - submissions due 21 June https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say/statutory-review-online-safety-act-2021

floreani, 20 days ago to random

sigh. today I am researching and writing about 'gender detection software', which I knew was transphobic rubbish but damn, the more I learn the worse it gets. now to parse the horrors into something that doesn't read like me rage vomiting on a page (or does, but in a readable way)

floreani, 23 days ago to random

everyone seems to be trying to sieze this moment for their own tech policy agenda:

jones wants the scams code, dutton pushing age verification, burgess riding that anti-encryption horse, rowland's revamped misinfo bill, albanese doing some kind of chest puffing situ with musk, of course everyone seems to wants more powers for esafety, it's a frenzy!

noone calling for privacy reform though. imagine leadership actually trying to tackle the data imperative at the heart of so many of these issues

floreani, 1 month ago to random

my friend asked me if I’d like to go on a “swimming holiday” in Greece with her, and, unthinkingly, I said yes, imagining splish splashing in between lounging in the sun. I was wrong and now I’m four months into swim training and um, maybe I hate swimming???? what have I done

floreani, 1 month ago to random

deep sea internet cables are so fascinating. this was a great read on the material reality of what it takes to maintain them and the people who do this work - which is often invisibilised, like so much other unseen labour that makes technologies function https://www.theverge.com/c/24070570/internet-cables-undersea-deep-repair-ships

floreani, 1 month ago to random

"even if you don’t know for sure that the machine is right, you know that statistically it’s fine. So you go for it.”

absolutely chilling reporting on Israel's use of AI to allow them to rationalise genocide of Palestinians - it isn't about accuracy, it's about giving the pretext and justification (machine says go!) to continue and scale up violence

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

floreani, 2 months ago to random

one of my favourite features on signal and whatsapp is 'disappearing messages'. I wrote about digital ephemerality, online memory making and some of the tensions here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/09/in-a-digital-ecosystem-that-relentlessly-creates-extracts-and-stores-the-notion-of-a-disappearing-text-is-very-appealing

floreani, 2 months ago to random

the sass and exasperation oozing from the FTC dismissing RealPage's attempt to be like aww 👉🥺👈 it's not collusion in the residential housing market it's just a lil algorithm 😇😇 is a thing of beauty chef's kiss https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fixing-algorithm-still-price-fixing

floreani, 2 months ago to random

new from me: ostensibly writing about the tax office but really writing about government agencies who simply cannot! resist! the allure of data accumulation and the disciplinary power of surveillance

what if (hear me out here) we approached governance without defaulting to more data, more surveillance, more policing (crazy I know) (acab)
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/02/27/australia-tax-office-surveillance-powers/

floreani, 2 months ago to random

ASIC said it's "becoming too onerous to read public submissions to parliamentary inquiries" and thinks that using LLMs to deal with this is "low risk"

I'm not convinced this is how to build trust in the public consultation process tbh!!!!!!!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-20/australia-loss-relying-on-us-china-technology/103484844

floreani, 2 months ago to random

spotted in Melbourne ✊ 🇵🇸 #NoTechForApartheid

floreani, 3 months ago to random

"Clearview AI said it can't stop using Australians' data for its facial recognition software because it can't tell who's Australian."

shut it down!!!
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/02/08/clearview-ai-australia-facial-recognition-data/

floreani, 3 months ago to random

you either die a cool twenty-something barista in a country town resentful of boomer coffee orders and dreaming of escaping to the big city or you live long enough to go on a country getaway and order a mugachino

floreani, 3 months ago to random

the amount of time and energy that goes into grant application writing makes me sick. I just want to do The Work

floreani, 3 months ago to random

the disgusting arrogance of the australian federal police to be told by the privacy commissioner that their use of clearview AI was breaking the law only for them to jurisdiction shop to find a way to keep using it anyway.

really great reporting from @camwilson on this issue again seriously where is the rest of the fucking media
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/01/25/clearview-ai-australian-police-operation-renewed-hope/

evacide, 3 months ago to random

Every time I post about a victory, some helpful soul feels the need to explain to me why it is hollow or incomplete or they just don’t trust it and surely it will come to nothing.

Thank you, kind sir, for saving me from the moments of joy that I need in order to keep fighting.

floreani, 3 months ago to random

sorry but if a tram drives right past me I’m allowed to fare evade

floreani, 3 months ago to random

do men who send unsolicited dick pics realise how much we laugh at them for it? primo material for an at-length laugh with the gorls about how weird and pathetic it is. creepy? sure, but also just a wildly incomprehensible move. my dude, have some dignity, it’s 2024, grow up and get a life!!!