BC TECH
Saved by @ThomassRichards

Last up in Privacy Tech for #enigma2021, @xchatty speaking about "IMPLEMENTING DIFFERENTIAL PRIVACY FOR THE 2020

 Differential privacy was invented in 2006. Seems like a long time but it's not a long time since a fundamental scientific invention. It took longer than that between the invention of public key cryptography and even the first version of SSL.
But even in 2020, we still can't meet user expectations.
* Data users expect consistent data releases
* Some people call synthetic data "fake data" like
"fake news"
* It's not clear what "quality assurance" and "data exploration" means in a DP framework
We just did the 2020 US census
* required to collect it by the constitution
* but required to maintain privacy by law
But that's hard! What if there were 10 people on the block and all the same sex and age? If you posted something like that, then you would know what everyone's sex and age was on the block.
Previously used a method called "swapping" with secret parameters
* differential privacy is open and we can talk about privacy loss/accuracy tradeoff
* swapping assumed limitations of the attackers (e.g. limited computational power)
Needed to design the algorithms to get the accuracy we need it and tune the privacy loss based on that.

Change in the meaning of "privacy" as relative -- it requires a lot of explanation and overcoming organizational barriers.
By 2017 thought they had a good understanding of how differential privacy would fit -- just use the new algorithm where the old one was used, to create the "micodata detail file".
Surprises:
* different groups at the Census thought that meant different things
* before, states were processed as they came in. Differential privacy requires everything be computed on at once
* required a lot more computing power
* differential privacy system has to be developed with real data; can't use simulated data to do this because the algorithms in the literature weren't designed for dats anything like as complex as the real data (multiracial people, different kinds of households, etc)
* to understand the privacy/accuracy trade-off requires a lot of runs, representing a *lot* of computer time
Census bureau was 100% behind the move
* initial implementation was by Dan Kiefer, who took a sabbatical
* expanded team to with Simson and others
* 2018 end to end test
* original development was on an on-prem Linux cluster
* then got to move to AWS Elastic compute... but the monitoring wasn't good enough and had to create their own dashboard to track execution
* it wasn't a small amount of compute
* republished the 2010 census data using the differentially private algorithm and then had a conference to talk about it
* ... it wasn't well-received by the data users who thought there was too much error
For example: if we add a random value to a child's age, we might get a negative value, which probably won't happen to a child's age.

If you avoid that, you might add bias to the data. How to avoid that? Let some data users get access to the measurement files [I don't follow]
In summary, this is retrofitting the longest-running statistical program in the country with differential privacy. Data users have had some concerns, but believe it will all come out.
Code is up on github and papers are up online. (@xchatty have some links?)

[end of talk]

More from Lea Kissner

Lea Kissner
Lea Kissner
@LeaKissner
Next up at #enigma2021, Sanghyun Hong will be speaking about "A SOUND MIND IN A VULNERABLE BODY: PRACTICAL HARDWARE ATTACKS ON DEEP LEARNING"

(Hint: speaker is on the

In recent years ML models have worked from research labs to production, which makes ML security important. Adversarial ML research studies how to mess with ML

For example by messing with the training data (c.f. Tay which became super-racist super-fast) or by foiling ML models by changing inputs in ways humans can't see.


Prior work considers ML models in a standalone, mathematical way
* looks at the robustness in an isolated manner
* doesn't look at the whole ecosystem and how the model is used -- ML models are running in real hardware with real software which has real vulns!


This talk focuses on hardware-level vulnerabilities. This is particularly interesting because these can break cryptographic guarantees (because those are outside of their threat models)
e.g. fault injection attacks, side-channel attacks
SCIENCE
Lea Kissner
Lea Kissner
@LeaKissner
Last talk about Securing Democracy at #enigma2021: @jackhcable speaking about "THE FULL STACK PROBLEM OF ELECTION

Let's imagine that elections use all the security measures security people have been advocating: risk-limiting audits, paper ballots, etc. Would people trust the elections more?

Jack would argue no. Most people don't understand this stuff and most of the claims people are making can't be disproven. And are massively bogus already.

Georgia did a full recount on paper ballots and it very much didn't stop people from doubting the election!

Are election security results in vain? The point of election security is to convince the loser they lost.

No! Have to focus on the whole stack, from election infrastructure to campaigns to people and mis/dis-informaton


One takeaway from the talk: the parts of the stack must work in tandem. Can't fight misinformation in a vacuum, but must build on other election security measures.
POLITICS
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Lea Kissner
Lea Kissner
@LeaKissner
In more Securing Democracy at #enigma2021, @ChrFolini talking about "THE ADVENTUROUS TALE OF ONLINE VOTING IN

Switzerland is a direct democracy where citizens get to vote at least 4x/year, with a lot of mail-in voting. We have a long history of online voting.

Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT SWEDEN.

[I get the picture that @ChrFolini has had to explain the difference several times.]


Process around mail-in ballots.

[tl;dr it's very complicated and wasn't threat-modeled until recently]


But the in-person ballots are complicated, too!


Most security folks don't think that we can't make a secure online voting system.

@ChrFolini says this is because of encryption
[Note: this is not the main reason that a lot of people cite -- we're more worried about things like malware but it's complicated]
WORLD
Lea Kissner
Lea Kissner
@LeaKissner
Next up in Privacy Technology at #enigma2021, Kelly Huang from @ethyca speaking about "GONE, BUT NOT "FORGOTTEN"—TECHNICAL & PRACTICAL CHALLENGES IN OPERATIONALIZING MODERN PRIVACY

Just imagine there's a global pandemic forcing everyone to stay home and buy their stuff over the internet. And you've been working on your sanitization-on-demand startup. You've got more users than you can count! ... literally, because your data's all over.

Now you're a multi-national international country with privacy issues because your information is all over the place.

Now a user writes to request you delete their data. Where is it? How do you do that? Who's responsible for privacy in your business.

How do you operationalize privacy rights?

Primary stakeholders:
* Legal
* Business
* Engineering

We spend a lot of time on Twitter analyzing the legal rulings, but it's harder where the "rubber meets the code" 🥁
TECH
Lea Kissner
Lea Kissner
@LeaKissner
We're kicking off the Privacy Tech session at #enigma2021 with Mitch Negus speaking about "NO DATA, NO PROBLEM—GIVING NUCLEAR INSPECTORS BETTER TOOLS WITHOUT REVEALING STATE

A nuclear catastrophe hasn't occurred... yet. So we need to stay vigilant. Nuclear inspectors go in according to treaties to check what's going on and check compliance with treaty rules.

But as sophisticated analytics become more common, states will only want to share the minimum amount of information necessary under the treaty.

But perhaps we can use MPC -- secure multi-party computation

Yao's garbled circuits were first demonstrated on the millionaire's problem -- figuring out who's richer without revealing actual amounts.

Used for other things like cryptocurrency these days.

Can we use this for nuclear inspection?

MPC can be used to compute anything computed by a computer [but it's expensive!]
TECH

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Corey Gwin
Corey Gwin
@corey_gwin
Great thread full of potential https://t.co/jA8h08M48z ideas! 💡

📸 Social disposable camera app

Create a digital "roll" with friends. Take pictures from the roll. You can't see them until: the roll is used up, a time limit expires, or you get to a specific location.

🎙 Asynch interview platform

Send a guest a video or audio clip asking a question. Guest replies when able with same medium. Repeat. When done, share produced video/podcast.

✅ 24 Hour Startup Checklist/Overlay

A web app to track the progress of your project: ideation, naming, shipping code, launching.

Page can also be a dynamic browser overlay for live streaming.

Have tools for polls, surveys, sharing, launching to various outlets, etc.

👩‍⚖️ Healthcare "Lawyers"

If health insurance screws you over, no one has your back but you. Instead, can pay a small monthly fee to a service to take care of BS like this for you should issues arise.
TECH
Kevin Roose
Kevin Roose
@kevinroose
On press call, Zuckerberg says FB users "naturally engage more with sensational content" that comes close to violating its rules. Compares it to cable TV and tabloids, and says, "This seems to be true regardless of where we set our policy lines."

Zuckerberg says FB is in the process of setting up a "new independent body" that users will be able to appeal content takedowns to. Sort of like the "Facebook Supreme Court" idea he previewed earlier this year.

Zuckerberg: "One of my biggest lessons from this year is that when you connect more than 2 billion people, you’re going to see the good and bad of humanity."

This is how Facebook says it's trying to change the engagement pattern on its services. https://t.co/3p0PGc912o


.@RebeccaJarvis asks Zuckerberg if anyone is going to lose their job over the revelations in the NYT story. He dodges, says that personnel issues aren't a public matter, and that employee performance is evaluated all the time.
TECH
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foone
foone
@Foone
I got a Toshiba T1200, which has a bad screen, and a dead CMOS battery, and I thought the hard drive was broken too...


but I rebooted it and heard a KTHUNK and a really loud spin-up noise and holy shit, the hard drive works!


and it still has files on it. the newest date is January 1994.


It's a 21mb hard drive, with ~37k of bad sectors.

This fucker is never going to spin up again, so I better go find some serial cables and copy shit off now.


The backlight is fucked so I'm shining a flashlight on it.
without it, it looks like this.
TECH
Trond Bjor\xf8y
Trond Bjorøy
@trondbjoroy
1/12 @HathorNetwork offers a unique set of features for both builders and users. Some well known ones, others not so much. Let’s look at why you might want to consider Hathor as the layer 1 solution for your project. $HTR @HTRFDT #BuildOnHathor

2/12 Easy tokenization is the obvious one. You create your own token in less than a minute, no coding required.

3/12 As opposed to ERC tokens, your custom Hathor token is a layer 1 token. It inherits the same features and security as the native token, $HTR, effectively giving your token the same level of security as the #Bitcoin $BTC blockchain.

4/12 Hathor Network also passed their security audit by @SlowMist_Team so you can feel safe knowing that your L1 token fulfills the same security requirements as $HTR.

5/12 By configuring built-in nano contracts you will be able to add logic to your token. No coding required. Native nano contracts also mitigate the risk of bugs and security issues that comes with custom smart contracts development on other platforms. $HTR
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The Captain
The Captain
@TheCaptain182
What an amazing presentation! Loved how @ravidharamshi77 brilliantly started off with global macros & capital markets, and then gradually migrated to Indian equities, summing up his thesis for a bull market case!

@MadhusudanKela @VQIndia @sameervq

My key learnings: ⬇️⬇️⬇️


First, the BEAR case:

1. Bitcoin has surpassed all the bubbles of the last 45 years in extent that includes Gold, Nikkei, dotcom bubble.

2. Cyclically adjusted PE ratio for S&P 500 almost at 1929 (The Great Depression) peaks, at highest levels except the dotcom crisis in 2000.

3. World market cap to GDP ratio presently at 124% vs last 5 years average of 92% & last 10 years average of 85%.
US market cap to GDP nearing 200%.

4. Bitcoin (as an asset class) has moved to the 3rd place in terms of price gains in preceding 3 years before peak (900%); 1st was Tulip bubble in 17th century (rising 2200%).
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First the very basic : The Dow theory, Everybody must have basic understanding of it and must learn to observe High Highs, Higher Lows, Lower Highs and Lowers lows on charts and their

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KENYAN🇰🇪 HISTORY🇰🇪...
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Have you ever wondered why the sons and daughters of the colonial chiefs and guards who were collaborators live a good life while those of the MAU MAU fighters live in abject poverty?

***THREAD***


It should be known that the colonialists reached a point that they knew they had 2 leave Kenya since they couldn't handle the Mau Mau war & the world was moving toward accepting independent Africa.However,the colonialists devised an evil scheme that still eats Kenya upto this day

Under this scheme, the colonial state came up with a plan that saw the first crop of chiefly “big men” being empowered financially to take their children to schools and eventually have those children go to England for further studies...

...and eventually providing a ready-made socio-economic & political class whom state power could be entrusted in the post-colonial era.This explains why their children & grandchildren still hold majority of important positions in govt or in the private sector supported by state.

This also explains why children and grandchildren of these homeguards are always given preferential treatment when it comes to government appointments. Wewe na masomo yako you are always asking why you can never get a job in government...yet you're qualified..now you know.
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Michael Dearing
Michael Dearing
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An irony of facebook's situation.

Sheryl got her MBA at Harvard. One of the most famous cases (Extra Strength Tylenol) in one of the most famous classes (Business History) she took: in 1982, someone put cyanide in Extra Strength Tylenol capsules and killed 7 people in Chicago.

What do you do when someone turns your product into a weapon? When they use the system you built to harm? James Burke, CEO of J&J, was shockingly open with the public, he pulled the product and made significant packaging changes to make product safer (but not tamper-proof).

He over-shared every step along the way re investigation, redesign, stood up as both CEO and human. The reintroduction of new Extra Strength Tylenol succeeded. Burke saved the brand.

But four years later it happened again. A killer put cyanide in the capsules, this time a woman in Yonkers died. Same CEO, Burke, pulled the product again, completely changed the form factor from capsule to caplet and relaunched *again*. It worked *again*. How'd they do that?

Burke (CEO) tapped J&Js goodwill bank account w/ the public. Two big withdrawals from that bank account in four years + 8 dead bodies! But his honesty, openness, humanity (choked up about the deaths more than once), humility kept the goodwill bank balance positive the whole time.
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Kestrel \u2664 lwj kin
Kestrel ♤ lwj kin
@slutxian
MDZS is laden with buddhist references. As a South Asian person, and history buff, it is so interesting to see how Buddhism, which originated from India, migrated, flourished & changed in the context of China. Here's some research (🙏🏼 @starkjeon for CN insight + citations)

1. LWJ’s sword Bichen ‘is likely an abbreviation for the term 躲避红尘 (duǒ bì hóng chén), which can be translated as such: 躲避: shunning or hiding away from 红尘 (worldly affairs; which is a buddhist teaching.) (https://t.co/zF65W3roJe) (abbrev. TWX)

2. Sandu (三 毒), Jiang Cheng’s sword, refers to the three poisons (triviṣa) in Buddhism; desire (kāma-taṇhā), delusion (bhava-taṇhā) and hatred (vibhava-taṇhā).

These 3 poisons represent the roots of craving (tanha) and are the cause of Dukkha (suffering, pain) and thus result in rebirth.

Interesting that MXTX used this name for one of the characters who suffers, arguably, the worst of these three emotions.

3. The Qian kun purse “乾坤袋 (qián kūn dài) – can be called “Heaven and Earth” Pouch. In Buddhism, Maitreya (मैत्रेय) owns this to store items. It was believed that there was a mythical space inside the bag that could absorb the world.” (TWX)
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