France wants to ban use of Tor network for public wi-fi

December 10, 2015 Astrid Countee Leave a comment Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Justice

In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, French law enforcement is considering banning public wi-fi. According to leaked documents by the French Ministry of the Interior, law enforcement wants to secure the Tor network when a state of emergency is declared by banning the use of the public wi-fi all together. The French newspaper La Monde  is said to have leaked the documents.

The city of Paris currently has over 300 locations that are serviced by public wi-fi and the Tor network. French law enforcement believes that public networks makes it harder to catch suspected terrorists who might be using the network to communicate to each other. The Tor network allows anonymity online and has also been used as a secure network for a drug marketplace. It is currently unclear if the Tor network was used during the Paris attacks and French law enforcement authorities are cautious about its possible use for ISIS communication in the future.

Blocking the Tor network completely would present a challenge for the French government. China is the only country that blocks Tor outright. To achieve this, the Chinese government has to block public entry nodes to the Tor network. In addition, China has to lookout for secret entry nodes. Unlike China, France promotes online freedom for its citizens. Therefore blocking the Tor network would infringe on the rights of French citizens. Since French law enforcement does not know if blocking Tor will have an effect on the ability for terrorist groups to communicate, it is a big risk. Encrypted social media chat apps like WhatsApp, in theory, are easier ways for terrorist groups to communicate without worrying about interference from the government.

The debate over privacy and national security seems to have just gotten started. New legislation that includes these stipulations may be presented to the French Parliament as early as January 2016. 

Article via Mashable, 8 December 2015

Photo: Paris November 2015 via Roberto Maldeno [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

ITU reports 3.2 billion people online globally

December 9, 2015 Joyce Varghese Leave a comment Tech

According to the International Telecommunication Union, there are about 3.2 billion people online. Mobile networks are leading the way to connecting people for the next generation of communications. There are about 7.1 billion subscriptions globally and 95% of people in the world are within reach of a mobile network signal.

The Republic of Korea leads the world as the most-connected place. European countries along with Southeast Asia countries Japan and China follow afterwards. The United States comes at #15. This is with respect to Internet connectivity and how well data services are adopted in that country. The list below does not correlate with how fast the country’s economy is growing. Rather, it correlates with how many people have online access in that country.

Photo via TechCrunch

Photo Credit: TechCrunch

The downside of this news is that there are still about 350 million without Internet access. These include people in some of the poorest countries in the world, such as Malawi, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Chad, which are the five least-connected countries globally in descending order. These countries are referred to as least developed countries, or LDCs.  Projects such as Project Loon by Google and “Free Basics” by Facebook are attempting to resolve this extreme gap.

There has been an improvement of the “middle class” countries pertaining to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Developmental Index (IDI) growth. Universal online access contributes to globalization.

Article via TechCrunch, Nov 30, 2015

Photo: Vardøger [Déjà Vu] by Chris JL [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

 

New legal aid caucus announced

December 9, 2015 Shelby Bice Leave a comment Government, Human Rights

Though it may seem that support for more legal aid would mostly arise from the liberal side of politics, both Republican and Democratic representatives have come together to establish a new legal aid caucus. The caucus, entitled “Access to Civil Legal Services Caucus”, was announced by Representatives Joe Kennedy III from Massachusetts and Susan Brooks from Indiana. Their goal is focused around “expanding access to legal representation for low-income families” including “…veterans, and victims of domestic abuse.” Ensuring that legal services are accessible is extremely important because without it, individuals “can face enormous burdens that devastate families, result in a further descent into poverty, and cause homelessness.”

Additionally, the caucus will focus on making sure there is enough funding for legal aid at the national level. Lack of funding is a serious issue; in 2013, 64% of cases that were eligible for legal aid in Massachusetts were turned away because organizations simply didn’t have enough funding. Representative Kennedy hopes that the caucus will “build a strong coalition in Congress to advocate for civil legal aid programs and ensure access to representation is never limited by income.”

Article via Above the Law, December 8, 2015

Photo: Capitol Hill, Washington DC via Toni Syvänen [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Social media may be used to fight terrorism

December 8, 2015 Shelby Bice Leave a comment Social Media, Tech

In his address this past Sunday on his plan to deal with ISIS, President Obama stated that he will be meeting with social media giants like Facebook and Twitter to talk about their anti-terrorism efforts. Specifically, the Obama administration wants to create a “clearer understanding of when we believe social media is being used actively and operationally to promote terrorism,” according to what one White House official told Reuters. While social media powerhouses already have policies concerning terrorism and hate speech, allowing government demands to interfere with social media could potentially go against free speech and user privacy.

Social media powerhouses are already combating terrorism. Collectively, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter have taken down more posts this year than in previous years. Therefore, any hesitancy from social media to remove encryption that allows users to retain their privacy online shouldn’t be viewed as supporting extremist ideology. In fact, a former employee of a social media company who chose to remained unnamed told Reuters that social media may be working with Western governments more than you think. Even though some social media companies state that they do expedite the removal of content based on government complaints, the former employee revealed that direct channels for government complaints exist to get rid of certain content quickly.

Finding the balance between using social media as a way to prevent terrorism while still protecting user privacy is simply another part of the ongoing debate of security versus privacy.

Article via CNET, December 7, 2015; Reuters, December 6, 2015; Reuters, December 7, 2015

Photo: Twitter Follower Mosaic via Joe Lazarus [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Net neutrality faces opposition

December 7, 2015 Shelby Bice Leave a comment Court, Tech

The concept of an “open internet”, or net neutrality, keeps internet service providers , or ISPs, from being able to alter how users are able to access web content. Specifically, it bans ISPs from being able to create internet “fast-lanes” or slow download speeds for web content that they wish to direct users away from. President Obama stated that he supports an “open internet” last year, three months before the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, was able to have rules enforcing net neutrality approved. Now, though, representatives from the telecommunications industry have come out in opposition of those rules, leading to the FCC to have to defend net neutrality in court this past Friday.

The FCC was originally able to get the “open internet” rules approved earlier this year by classifying ISPs as utility providers. This distinction gives the FCC more power to regulate ISPs. While the FCC believes that net neutrality supports businesses by keeping web services competitive, the telecommunications industry states that the new rules give the FCC too much control over the broadband market, hindering free enterprise instead of helping. Lawyers representing the views of the telecommunications industry argued that instead of being classified as utility providers, ISPs should be classified under information services, like Google. This classification would lessen the FCC’s ability so regulate ISPs and render the net neutrality rules inapplicable. The FCC argues, however, that without rules enforcing an “open internet”, ISPs will have too much power to promote certain web content over others. This could potentially hinder development and investment of new web content.

These arguments were presented to a panel of three judges who will release a decision in the spring which may approve or reject parts of the net neutrality rules.

Article via Buzzfeed, December 4, 2015

Photo: Protest at the White House for Net Neutrality via Joseph Gruber [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Harlem to receive first venture capital fund

December 6, 2015 Abby Shulman Leave a comment Business, Economy

After introducing the accelerator program Cofound Harlem three months ago, 22-year-old John Henry has just announced his plans to launch Harlem’s first venture capital fund. Cofound Ventures, as the VC fund is called, has a goal to raise $8 million in order to run the accelerator program and fund Harlem startups.

Currently, all of New York City’s venture capital firms are located below Central Park, with most operating in midtown Manhattan. Cofound Ventures plans to establish itself in East Harlem on 5th Ave and East 118th St.

“Harlem has never had a fund,” said Henry. “It’s a very special town. There’s a lot of recent development with Columbia expanding, and it’s the perfect time to put up the first fund.”

Cofound Ventures will provide up to $100,000 in additional funding to each company that uses Cofound Harlem’s accelerator. The accelerator program already provides startups initial stipends of $50,000, free office space and mentorship. Instead of taking equity from the startups operating under it, Cofound Harlem requires that each startup operate for its four years in Harlem.

Harlem’s unemployment rate is twice the national average. Through the funding and mentorship of startups, Henry estimates to create 800 high-paying jobs in the next four years. Startups will be also be required to host workshops to the community, free of charge, during their nine month use of Cofound Harlem’s office space.

In Cofound Harlem’s first round of startups, 75 percent of the founders are minorities.

“In terms of what we’re looking for going forward, there is no, say, direct criteria that you have to be underrepresented to be admitted, although we definitely have it in mind,” Henry said. “My goal is to keep this 75 percent for the duration of the cohort. If you consider for a moment that everyone who went through the program was white, I don’t think it would have a meaningful impact.”

Article via TechCrunch, 4 December 2015

Photo: Harlem via Ian Freimuth [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]