TechLetters #151 Stars of David painted on walls a likely information operation. Removal of third-party cookies in Chrome imminent. GenerativeAI political ads ban. LLM in a web browser
Security
Stars of David on French streets is an information operation. France identified a manufactured campaign of 'painting' Stars of David on the streets to inflame chaos and instability. It's an information operation, and there's an investigation of it being driven from abroad (guess where, a big Eastern Europe country). That's official. The way it works is that Stars of David are being painted on the streets/houses, then they are photographed and it is being amplified by 'news sites' and social media bots/etc. Disinformation/propaganda linking information sphere and real physical activities. Possibility of an attempt at orchestrated destabilization from abroad is no longer in doubt. Telephone searches suggest that the two pairs of perpetrators were in contact with the same third person
Privacy
Acquiring data of military personnel. Or their families, or veterans. It is easy and inexpensive. Inconsistent data broker practices lack regulation, enabling foreign actors to exploit such data for various malicious purposes. From data brokers, on the cheap, $0.12 per record. Does the US now need to pass new laws - Military Data Privacy Protection from Certain Brokers Act? Just to avoid a comprehensive data protection law.
Google/Chrome deprecating and removing third-party cookies. So it has begun - the technical process is now in motion,. End of the line for 3rd-party cookies is near.
Technology Policy
Curbs on generative AI in political ads. Meta/Facebook prohibits political parties and their supporters from using generative AI in political ads without clearly communicating this. Including when synthetic sound is used. YouTube already announced similar measures.
Other
AI/LLM chatGPT model running in a web browser. In Chrome, on a decent system (64GB RAM, webGPU. But it’s running localy, not on some remote servers of a private company.
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