Coronavirus lockdowns could end sooner if Australians willing to have movements monitored | China tensions in Southeast Asia flare online | Australian police officers trialled Clearview AI
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The battle against coronavirus is going hi-tech, with Australians to be asked to download a phone app that will monitor their movements — but only with their express permission. ABC
Social media anger from Chinese nationalists over a Thai internet model's comments has set off a regional storm uniting pro-democracy campaigners against pro-Beijing cyber-warriors, with insults and mocking memes flying back and forth. The quarrel, which has seen Southeast Asian internet users join forces with those in Taiwan and Hong Kong, has highlighted old tensions between China and its smaller neighbours fanned by the emergence of the new coronavirus. Reuters
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers trialled controversial facial recognition technology Clearview AI from late 2019, despite the agency initially denying any association with the company. ABC
ASPI ICPC
Today at 1:30pm: ASPI Roundtable: ICTs and emerging technologies in the Pacific
ASPI ICPC
Join ASPI's Bart Hogeveen and Hannes Astok, e-Governance Academy's Deputy Director for Strategy and Development, as they present their observations from the baseline assessment on e-government capabilities in six Pacific countries, as published by ASPI and EGA in February 2020. Register for the event here.
As the Coronavirus Spreads, Conspiracy Theories Are Going Viral Too
Foreign Policy
@elisethoma5
Long dismissed as absurd, conspiracy theorists on social media are increasingly posing a potential global threat—and becoming an asset for states looking to disrupt the geopolitical narrative and spread disinformation.
Coronavirus denial spreading on social media
The Strategist
@elisethoma5
As the Covid-19 crisis plays out across the world, a disturbing new form of denialism is emerging which seeks to sow doubt not just about the seriousness of the pandemic or the response to it, but about whether the virus exists at all.
Coronavirus contact-tracing app to help set us free
The Australian
@benpackham
Australian Strategic Policy Institute Cyber Policy Centre director Fergus Hanson said it was sensible to harness technology, “but the detail really matters”. “Done badly, the dataset could be abused – for example, to discriminate against people. Done well, it could save lives by making contact tracing much more effective and efficient. Some of the apps out there are better than others.”
World
We Mapped How the Coronavirus Is Driving New Surveillance Programs Around the World
OneZero
In an attempt to stem the tide of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 25 governments around the world have instituted temporary or indefinite efforts to single out infected individuals or maintain quarantines. Many of these efforts, in turn, undermine personal privacy.
Growth in surveillance may be hard to scale back after pandemic, experts say
The Guardian
The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented global surge in digital surveillance, researchers and privacy advocates around the world have said, with billions of people facing enhanced monitoring that may prove difficult to roll back.
Making Cyberspace Safe for Democracy
Foreign Affairs
@rosenbergerlm
With the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign underway, stories of Russian interference are again in the headlines. In 2016, Russia’s hacking operations and use of social media to manipulate public discourse in the United States caught U.S. policymakers off-guard. Four years later, officials have not yet fully understood that those attacks reflected the changing landscape of geopolitical competition. Viewing Russia’s attempts at interference in 2016 in isolation misses the larger context: rival states compete in the twenty-first century as much over information as any other terrain.
Facebook friendships can help predict Covid-19 spread, study finds
The Guardian
@alexhern
The spread of Covid-19 can be predicted, in part, through patterns of Facebook friendships, according to a study from researchers at New York University.
Australia
Coronavirus lockdowns could end in months if Australians are willing to have their movements monitored
ABC
The battle against coronavirus is going hi-tech, with Australians to be asked to download a phone app that will monitor their movements — but only with their express permission.
Australian Federal Police officers trialled controversial facial recognition tool Clearview AI
ABC
@arielbogle
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers trialled controversial facial recognition technology Clearview AI from late 2019, despite the agency initially denying any association with the company.
5G and anti-vax conspiracy theorists are exploiting the coronavirus crisis
ABC
@arielbogle
We still have a great deal to learn about the new coronavirus, but there's one thing all the experts are united on: 5G is not to blame. 5G, or the fifth-generation mobile network, will power Australia's hyper-connected future, but on the internet of today it's become a conspiratorial catch-all.
Couple Fined For Violating Lockdown After Posting Old Vacation Photos to Facebook
Gizmodo
An Australian couple was issued hefty fines this week for violating lockdown orders after they posted photos to Facebook that were taken at a vacation spot two hours from their home. Police showed up at their door and issued over $3,300 in fines for the photos, according to multiple reports. The only problem? The photos were taken last year, long before non-essential travel was banned due to the coronavirus pandemic.
China
For China, the ‘USA Virus’ Is a Geopolitical Ploy
The Atlantic
@noUpside
In a new era of tinfoil-hat diplomacy, official sources are legitimizing conspiracy theories from the internet.
USA
Amazon fires two tech workers who criticized the company’s warehouse workplace conditions
Washington Post
Amazon has fired two employees who were outspoken critics of its climate policies and who had publicly denounced the conditions at its warehouses as unsafe during the coronavirus pandemic.
Southeast Asia
Insta-star wars: China tensions in Southeast Asia flare online
Reuters
Social media anger from Chinese nationalists over a Thai internet model's comments has set off a regional storm uniting pro-democracy campaigners against pro-Beijing cyber-warriors, with insults and mocking memes flying back and forth. Political analysts and activists said the online row, which started at the weekend, was unique in volume and regional spread at a time when ever more of life has been forced online.
Pacific Islands
Fears of digital inequality as governments use technology in the face of coronavirus
ABC
Prianka Srinivasan
Faced with the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, governments and organisations around the Pacific are embracing online tools to share information, broadcast news alerts and shift their work online.
UK
Coronavirus: Huawei urges UK not to make 5G U-turn after pandemic
BBC
@gordoncorera
Chinese telecoms company Huawei has said that disrupting its involvement in the rollout of 5G would do Britain "a disservice".
Russia
Moscow adopts digital permits as infections spread
Financial Times
@HenryJFoy
Without a QR code to travel around the city, citizens face a fine.
Misc
WhatsApp has rolled out the restriction of single chat forwards for viral messages
Android Police
@khouryrt
Misinformation spreads faster than facts these days. The juicier and the more outrageous a story is, the more likely it is to run around social networks and messaging apps like wildfire, so even uncle Gerard whom you haven't heard from in two years ends up sending it to you so you "know better." Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and every app with a large number of users suffers from this and has been taking measures to combat this. WhatsApp is now taking a more drastic measure to stop the spread of viral messages by prohibiting you from forwarding them in bulk.
Medical device “jailbreak” could help solve the dangerous shortage of ventilators
Ars Technica
@dangoodin001
Security researcher Trammell Hudson analyzed the AirSense 10—the world’s most widely used CPAP—and made a startling discovery. Although its manufacturer says the AirSense 10 would require “significant rework to function as a ventilator,” many ventilator functions were already built into the device firmware.
Events
Exploring Taiwan’s Data Toolkit with Digital Minister Audrey Tang and Taiwan AI Labs
German Marshall Fund
Taiwan’s experience in the fight against the coronavirus deserves a closer look. Join us as we explore the lessons of Taiwan’s early success in containing the virus through widespread use of information-based technology.