Flutterby™! (short)

Snort: Sam Wilkinson: Anthropic's model naming, extrapolated.

Australian Privacy Commissioner orders American Express Australia Limited to compensate complainant following interference in privacy. It takes a couple of clicks to get to the actual report, but it's summarized by Dissent Doe :cupofcoffee: @PogoWasRight@infosec.exchange (who also links to a paywalled news report):

American Express ordered to fix security gaps after a customer complained about improper employee access.

It seems that a customer reported a privacy concern and fought AmEx for 4 years to get them to implement stronger access controls or monitoring of employee access to data.

Now, the AU govt has ordered AmEx to rectify security flaws in five of its data systems to guard against “insider threats” and to restrict employee access to specific customer information to protect vulnerable and high-profile customers.

From reading through the report, this was a stalking/domestic abuse violation, and AmEx didn't even have access logging, and lacked policy for any sort of reaction to stalking.

Thought we'd found a place for this final SFBABC.org bench, went and talked with someone tending the space and discovered that they were delicately managing relationships with the two property owners, and didn't want to introduce a bench to that.

So we're back to the two playgrounds that feel kinda like a slap in the face of Parks & Rec, or finding another space. Anyone in Petaluma got suggestions for a public space that could use a bench?

If anybody in the North SF Bay area is interested in a late 1990a era Endless Pool (with some modern upgrades), hit me up before I write the whole Craigslist posting. It won't be cheap to move, but for the right DIYer with a plan it might be cool.

AI's healthcare side hustle: inflating your bill

TL;DR: You might have expected AI to cut healthcare costs, whether it’s by reducing paperwork, automating the doctor’s notes, or thinning out hospital staff. But a new 60-page PwC report suggests the reverse: So far, one of its most widespread uses is making medical bills bigger. It’s an example of how AI isn’t only good at making tasks more efficient—it’s also very good at finding more granular ways to boost a sector’s bottom line.

Tay @tay@transfem.social

How to make good open source project:
- plaster pride flags everywhere (keeps bigots away)
- swear constantly (keeps ai away)
- sex (keeps corporations away)

Good read: Banning noise will be a disaster for statistical data products, on a new order from the US Office of Privacy and Open Government: Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products which says (in section 5, policy):

3. Any use of noise infusion is inconsistent with the Department’s policies.

The article points out two things: first, that this is likely a disaster for privacy of individuals whose data are aggregated in those sets, of course, but also that this makes analysis across this boundary difficult.

Via