Author: Christopher Parsons

Policy wonk. Torontonian. Photographer. Not necessarily in that order.

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Canada has a rape kit problem | VICE News

This piece is excellent if incredibly depressing: for funding reasons (or, more cynically, failure of predominant male politicians to raise this issue on the political agenda…) women who are assaulted are often unable to access rape kits. These kits are used to collect evidence for potential criminal investigations pertaining to the assault.

But the end of the (very long, and detailed) article ends with an important reminder for readers who have gotten to the end:

Rape kits, ultimately, are only a small piece of a bigger problem with the justice system, says Hilla Kerner, a front-line worker at Vancouver’s Rape Relief Shelter.

She said rape kits are only helpful in cases that the attacker denies any sexual contact and DNA evidence can contradict that claim. It’s rare that this is a line of defense, she said—but when it is, the evidence gathered with a rape kit is vital.

Basically, if the accused’s DNA is found on the complainant’s body, it removes the line of defence of: ‘I don’t know her, I’ve never seen her before.’

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves that a rape kit is the solution to getting more cases through the criminal justice system,” Kerner said. “There is a need for urgent reform in the criminal justice system, and rape kits are just one element of the whole transformation that needs to happen.”

In other words, though we need to improve access to forensic services, we shouldn’t imagine that such access alone will alleviate the incredibly hostile approach the criminal justic system takes towards the victims of rape and sexual assault.

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Links Writing

New York DA Wants Apple, Google to Roll Back Encryption

New York DA Wants Apple, Google to Roll Back Encryption:

[Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.] said that law enforcement officials did not need an encryption “backdoor,” sidestepping a concern of computer-security experts and device makers alike.

Instead, Vance said, he only wanted the encryption standards rolled back to the point where the companies themselves can decrypt devices, but police cannot. This situation existed until September 2014, when Apple pushed out iOS 8, which Apple itself cannot decrypt.

“Tim Cook was absolutely right when he told his shareholders that the iPhone changed the world,” Vance said. “It’s changed my world. It’s letting criminals conduct their business with the knowledge we can’t listen to them.”

Vance cited a recording of a telephone call made from New York City’s Riker’s Island jail to an outside line. In the call, a defendant in a sex-crimes case tells a friend about the miraculous powers of the new smartphone operating systems.

“Apple and Google came out with these softwares that can no longer by encrypted by the police,” the defendant allegedly said, mixing up encryption with decryption. “If our phones [are] running on iOS 8 software, they can’t open my phone. That might be another gift from God.”

Correct me if I’m wrong but if you’re able to quote the conversation they had about the encryption of the device, then isn’t it the case that law enforcement can, in fact, listen in to at least some of these supposedly sophisticated criminals? Regardless of their adoption of consumer-grade (i.e. incredibly common) tools and security protocols?

But more to the point: it has never been the case that government agencies have been able to compel, or access, all of the information they might find useful in the course of their investigations. That’s normal. Government agencies enjoyed incredible access to persons’ information for the course of a decade or so, as technology companies matured into firms that took the security and privacy of their customers seriously. Asking for the industry to return to a less-mature state is bad for everyone.

Finally: while domestic agencies might be worried about the situations where they cannot access the data at rest on the device, you can be sure that governmental staff who are abroad are very happy that they can use their devices with the knowledge that even foreign state actors will be challenged in accessing the data at rest which is stored on their smartphones. American (and Canadian) law enforcement agencies are understandably pushing for greater access to information but, by the same token, their success would mean that their compatriots in China, Brazil, France, Israel, and other friendly and unfriendly states would be able to lawfully gain entry to foreign agents’ devices. I’m pretty sure that diplomatic staff and military personel abroad are pleased that such an attack vector has been narrowed by Apple’s actions.

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Links Writing

As the Olympics Near, Brazil and Rio Let the Bad Times Roll

We are getting closer and closer to the Summer Olympics and, as they approach, more critical eyes are turned to Rio and the city’s state of preparation. The New York Times, in particular, has done a good job of synthesizing the various concerns and critiques associated with Brazil hosting the games: corruption and a functional coup have absorbed the electorate’s attention, costs are overrunning and major projects may only barely be finished on time, pollution at venues may lead to health issues with athletes, and the general economic and security conditions of the city are poor at best.

There is almost no doubt that Rio would not win the bid were they bidding for the games, today, given the state of things. But I also think that it’s important to remember that almost all countries and host-cities face incredible criticism in the run-up to any games. This was true of Beijing, of Vancouver, and of the various venues which have recently held the World Cup.

What will perhaps be most telling is the impact of the games after everyone has left. Will it be the case that the spending on infrastructure for the games prevents Rio from investing in desperately needed additional kinds of services for those worst off? Or will it be that many of the legacy improvements — such a the alert system that was set up to warn those in favelas of forthcoming major storms that could lead to mudslides — that are less talked about will genuinely improve the status of the most impoverished? And what, if anything, will be the lasting effects of Pacification that has taken place in recent years after the major events are over and the economy continues to contract?

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Links Writing

Can @Jack Save Twitter?

A long read by the author of Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal, which unpacks the return of one of Twitter’s co-founders. It’s an instructive read into the poisonous culture of Twitter and the backbiting that characterizes the company…and seemingly has meant that it’s been unable to really determine what it’s about, for whom, and how it will be profitable to investors. The end is particularly telling, insofar as Twitter is seen as having one last chance — to succeed in ‘live’ events — or else have to potentially sell to a Microsoft or equivalent staid technology company.

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An Internet Censorship Company Tried to Sue the Researchers Who Exposed Them

An Internet Censorship Company Tried to Sue the Researchers Who Exposed Them:

Netsweeper is a small Canadian company with a disarmingly boring name and an office nestled among the squat buildings of Waterloo, Ontario. But its services—namely, online censorship—are offered in countries as far-flung as Bahrain and Yemen.

In 2015, University of Toronto-based research hub Citizen Lab reported that Netsweeper was providing Yemeni rebels with censorship technology. In response, Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert revealed in a blog post on Tuesday, Netsweeper sued the university and Deibert for defamation. Netsweeper discontinued its lawsuit in its entirety in April.

 

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This woman is fed up with sexual harassment on the TTC

This woman is fed up with sexual harassment on the TTC:

Ross said the TTC does not track complaints of sexual harassment but it does track complaints about sexual assault. “Regardless of the number, one is too many.”

He said the TTC is developing an app that would allow riders to report harassment through their smartphones and it will give riders another tool to protect themselves when on TTC trains.

The TTC is developing an app, so people can report incidents, while mobile phone service isn’t offered to 90% of riders and wifi isn’t installed on the trains themselves.

Brilliant.

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Links Photography

IPPAWARDS | iPhone Photography Awards

Just gorgeous photos that show just how much you can actually do with an iPhone’s camera.

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Real-Life ‘Love Potions’ Are Coming, But Are they Ethical?

Can we medicalize our relationships that much more? Perhaps. Should we? Probably not. Will that stop us? Unlikely.

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Over 100 Snooping Tor Nodes Have Been Spying on Dark Web Sites

Interesting research:

By setting up honeypots in the Tor network, Guevara Noubir, a professor from the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University, and Amirali Sanatinia, a PhD candidate also from Northeastern, discovered an armada of Tor hidden service directories that are spying on dark web sites. These modified nodes allow whoever is behind them—perhaps law enforcement, hackers or other researchers—to find the addresses of sites that are supposed to be secret. The pair will be presenting their research at the Def Con hacking conference in August.

People who want to hunt out dark web sites “go through the code and do the modifications to be able to log the .onions, and then visit them,” Noubir told Motherboard in a phone call.

Cops could do this to find new child pornography sites, or hackers to hunt fresh targets. Noubir pointed out that there are plenty of companies that sell dark web intelligence too, so perhaps they could be setting up HSDirs.

The Tor network is amongst the most secure ways of browsing the Internet anonymously. But this research demonstrates that using the service doesn’t guarantee your anonymity.

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‘Overwatch’ Players Are Crashing Servers to Avoid Losses in New Competitive Mode

Overwatch is, without a doubt, the spiritual successor to Team Fortress 2. And part of what makes the new game so much fun is how aggressive Blizzard is toward cheating: if you’re caught you’re banned for life.

Apparently a glitch has been found that lets players crash servers, and they are crashing them when they or their team are losing badly. Blizzard’s response has been to identify the persons responsible and ban their accounts, thus meaning that the rest of us can happily play to win or lose without worrying that the session is going to drop because of some hyper-competitive spoilsport.