Digital Slavery
The concept of Digital Slavery or Web Slavery, is not easily defined - principally as a consequence of the widespread nature of the problem and its many implications. In-order to gain a better undestanding of what the intended meaning of forming SafetyProtocols for EndingDigitalSlavery means; the best way i can illustrate the problem now, is to make a note of a few of the very many papers / articles, that have been produced about related topics.
The consideration observers are sought to consider is to ask yourself, if we have such significant AI / Technological capabilities that are equipped to 'know everything', when it suits whoever 'owns' or moreover operates the systems that are collecting and curating the use of this knowledge - then how is it, that these sorts of problems are so endemically problematic?
A short version of a much longer presentation by Eben Moglen (in 2012) who is an American legal scholar who is professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center. is below,
Nowtherefore;
Digital slavery, time for abolition?
Slavery is a powerful and emotive term describing an abhorrent infringement of fundamental human rights and should not be applied casually. I relate the practice of slavery to two different concepts of “alienation from self”: first, as being “owned” as property by a third party; and, second, as being “owned” in a more informal, contemporary sense, through the removal of an individual’s ability to govern her own life. This dual meaning of alienation from self leads me to consider self-ownership in a legal sense as well as, less formally, as having the agency to determine one’s own life. From both perspectives I claim that the increasing trafficking of personal data to supply algorithm-based analytics and AI is enabling a new form of digital enslavement that has the potential to curtail liberty and cause harm. I suggest that the conceptualization of problematic digital practices as a new form of slavery is a much needed addition to the mainstream critique of the collection, aggregation and trafficking of personal data, which has focused mostly on individual privacy.
This focus, in turn, has obscured and diminished the seriousness of concerns about collective and individual autonomy.
#SlaveTech A snapshot of slavery in a digital age
Thousands of years ago Aristotle wrote that ‘the ox is the poor man’s slave’. But how can an ox be a slave? And how is a slave like an ox? The crucial link is that in this context, both the ox and the human are being used as tools. In fact, Aristotle said exactly that in his book Politics: “some tools are lifeless and others living”, explaining that “for a helmsman the rud- der is a lifeless tool and the enslaved watchman a live tool.” It is not too difficult to think of animals and people as ‘tools’, and while it is less likely we would say an animal or a man is ‘technology’, they are and can be that too. In modern English slang, calling someone a “tool” is a put- down, an insult. And most of us would shy away from so di- minishing a person’s humanity, so reducing their personhood, by thinking or saying that another human being is only a tool. Recognition of our common humanity leads us to hate the idea of treating people as things. But that may be why we fail to see how closely linked technology (tools) and slavery can be, and so fail to see how the ox and the slave are similar, and how their differences make the slave the much more profitable and useful of the two.
Unsustainable business model: The broken promises of Gig economy companies While corporations like Uber pursue intensified vehicular autonomy, that which has lured so many workers to the Gig economy in the United States has been hope in the American dream through the promise of ongoing employment . In part, jobs driving Uber taxis have been made possible by a seemingly viable business model that became unsustainable all too quickly. Drivers were told they could work for a ride-hailing company like Uber, and they could choose to work whenever they wanted. But what drivers were not told upon signing up, or on leasing or buying a new vehicle to drive for Uber, is that their per mile and per minute rate would be slashed without warning, not once but consecu- tively. Drivers were not told that they would be left to fend for themselves if things did not go according to plan and the business model became unviable.
Combating Human Trafficking With Threat Intelligence — Prevention
Eradication of human trafficking requires the expertise, resources, and efforts of many individuals and organizations. It is a complex issue requiring a multifaceted approach set in the United Nations’ Palermo Protocol known as the “4P” paradigm — Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, and Partnership. The 4P paradigm serves as the foundational framework used universally to combat human trafficking.
Combating modern slavery experienced by Vietnamese nationals en route to, and within, the UK
In 2016 the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) commissioned research to examine the dynamics of Vietnamese nationals’ exploitation en route to, and within, the United Kingdom (UK). The research took a mixed method approach and included analysis of National Crime Agency (NCA) National Referral Mechanism (NRM) data, NRM files for 75 Vietnamese victims who had received a positive conclusive grounds (PCG) decision, 61 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Vietnam and the UK and 11 life history interviews with Vietnamese potential victims of modern slavery who at the time of fieldwork had received a positive reasonable grounds (PRG) decision. This report presents findings from the research and an executive summary is provided here.
Anti-Human Trafficking Manual for Criminal Justice Practitioners
The Anti-Human Trafficking Manual for Criminal Justice Practitioners is the result of a global cooperative process in which expert representatives from academia, NGOs, international organizations, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges from all over the world contributed their expertise and experiences.
In line with the Trafficking in Persons Protocol supplementing the United Nations Organized Crime Convention, the purpose of the Anti-Human Trafficking Manual for Criminal Justice Practitioners is to support criminal justice practitioners in the prevention of human trafficking, the protection of its victims, the prosecution of its culprits and in the international cooperation needed to achieve these goals.
Are Blockchains Decentralized? Unintended Centralities in Distributed Ledgers
Over the past year, Trail of Bits was engaged by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate the extent to which blockchains are truly decentralized. We focused primarily on the two most popular blockchains: Bitcoin and Ethereum. We also investigated proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains and Byzantine fault tolerant consensus protocols in general. This report provides a high-level summary of results from the academic literature, as well as our novel research on software centrality and the topology of the Bitcoin consensus network. For an excellent academic survey with a deeper technical discussion, we recommend the work of Sai, et al.
[HUMAN IDENTITY: THE NUMBER ONE CHALLENGE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE]((https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cfwFa76HtAUDm22XlQ-FA7buQGYKThOc/view?usp=sharing)
Human identity is essential and complex. It is essential to sense-making and cooperation and so then to the fundamental processes of human life. It is complex in its operations and so in its descriptions; it means different things to different people in different contexts. In light of the deep digitalization of our world, developments in computer science affect everyone. Many applications of computer science concern people and relationships, our interactions with each other and with digital technology, and with our cyborgian extension, and so I can only consider the diligent digital mediation and augmentation of human identity to be the discipline’s foremost challenge. Historic systemizations of identity have brought advantages and disadvantages, great benefits and grave harms, and I have this in mind when observing computer scientists currently developing protocols and technologies to systematize a narrow conceptualization of identity at scales and with a potential intensity never before contemplated let alone pursued. We need to have a deeper think about this.
The Digital Welfare State and Human Rights Project originally emerged from our support of the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. The initial focus was on the digital transformation of welfare states in the Global North, including in the United States and United Kingdom.1 However, during the preparation of the 2019 Special Rapporteur’s report to the UN General Assembly on digital welfare states,2 many practitioners and academic experts drew our attention to a specific model of digital identification systems, frequently with biometric components (digital ID systems), which is being deployed by national governments in the Global South. Recognizing that these systems raise major human rights concerns that go far beyond the realm of Northern welfare states, we have spent the past few years increasingly engaged in national and international debates on digital ID.
Human and Machine Consciousness
Consciousness is extremely important to us. Without consciousness, there is just nothingness, death, night. It is a crime to kill a person who is potentially conscious. Permanently unconscious people are left to die. Religious people face death with hope because they believe that their conscious souls will break free from their physical bodies. We know next to nothing about consciousness and its relationship to the physical world. The science of consciousness is mired in philosophical problems. We can only guess about the consciousness of coma patients, infants and animals. We have no idea about the consciousness of artificial systems.
The Age of Digital Interdependence
Digital technologies are rapidly transforming society, simultaneously allowing for unprecedented advances in the human condition and giving rise to profound new challenges. Growing opportunities created by the application of digital technologies are paralleled by stark abuses and unintended consequences. Digital dividends co-exist with digital divides. And, as technological change has accelerated, the mechanisms for cooperation and governance of this landscape have failed to keep pace. Divergent approaches and ad hoc responses threaten to fragment the interconnectedness that defines the digital age, leading to competing standards and approaches, lessening trust and discouraging cooperation.
Crypto & DeFi Hacks, Fraud & Scams Report
Despite the constant evolution and maturation of blockchain technology and the crypto market, 167 attacks on Decentralized Finance protocols, 123 security attacks, and 74 fraudulent schemes over the last 11 years have so far resulted in the theft of approximately USD $14.58 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets in total at the time of writing this report (July 2022).
The Promise and Perils of International Human Rights Law for AI Governance
The use and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) presents many challenges for human rights. Consequently, the search for an AI governance framework has led to a relatively recent proliferation of government strategies, corporate ethics codes, engineering design ethics, and international regulatory frameworks that seek to regulate its application. For purposes of this paper, AI—a term that has no consensus definition in technology and policymaking circles1—refers to a complex information system that approximates behavior commonly understood as requiring intelligence, similar to human behavior, such as pattern recognition, logical reasoning, or language processing.
The Commodification of Knowledge and Information
In this paper we present an analysis of the commodification of knowledge and information in contemporary capitalism. We provide a consistent account of how information as a commodity effects the workings of both capitalism and of Marxist theory. The first part of the paper critically revisits Marx’s own writings on the commodification of knowledge and how the immaterial labour hypothesis initially interpreted these writings. Based on the new categories knowledge-commodity and knowledge-rent, we then present our own approach in response to the challenges raised by the immaterial labour hypothesis. Lastly, we analyse the more recent contributions on the commodification of knowledge and information within the Marxist literature. The current debate on the value of knowledge has been divided between two camps: the reproduction cost approach, and the average cost approach. At the end of the paper we present empirical estimates of the magnitudes of knowledge-rents.
It is probably safe to say that at the time of writing1 more than 99% of the world’s population do not yet understand what a game-changer AI can be...or is already proving to be. Much news coverage, for example, is still given to efforts which aim to prevent states like Iran or North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and increasingly sophisticated means of delivering them. Yet relatively little news coverage is given to the fact that, in reality, AI has made nuclear weapons obsolete. Why would a state—or indeed a terrorist—wish to deploy or acquire a very expensive and relatively unstable nuclear weapon when it can instead deploy much cheaper AI-controlled devices which do not create a radioactive crater or destroy so many valuable assets in a target zone?
White Paper eDATA Verifiable Credentials for Cross Border Trade
The international supply chain is growing in complexity at the same time as nation states seek to improve their border compliance for imports and facilitate access to export markets for their domestic producers. The global value chain is highly dependent on smooth cross-border supply flows (tangible, intangible, and data). In an uncertain world that is buffeted by rapid technological change, environmental and health crises, and political uncertainties, national policies can have significant impacts on cross border trade challenges.
The “cost of trade”2 roughly doubles the landed price of goods in export markets (compared to domestic wholesale prices) with around one third of that cost related to non-tariff border costs. Nations that can reduce their cost of trade with their trading partners will confer a significant comparative advantage for their exporters and thereby improve the national balance of trade.
· At around $1.7 Trillion USD, the trade finance gap (i.e. trade finance requested but not approved) is heavily weighted against small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and acts as one of the most significant barriers to SME participation in cross-border trade. Nations who can uplift SME participation rate in cross border trade will experience greater growth and improved balance of trade.
· At around 3% of world trade volume, the value of fake / illicit goods trade is at least $600Bn and rising. The consequences include market losses for exporters of genuine goods and potential reputational damage for entire market segments. Nations who can help their exporters prove the authenticity of goods will enjoy a comparative advantage over those that do not.
· With annual carbon emissions at around 25 billion tons5 and with approximately 25 million people in forced labour, and 400 million tons of hazardous waste produced annually, there is a rapidly increasing consumer demand for sustainable products. Nations that can prove the sustainability of their exported goods through verifiable supply chain transparency will enjoy both higher prices for their goods and lower tariffs as importing nations start to penalize un-sustainable imports.
· With border authorities only able to inspect around 1% of around 1 billion sea containers8 and a much smaller proportion of 100 billion parcel shipments9 per year, the challenge of managing border risk against illicit goods and biosecurity threats has never been greater. Nations that can leverage high integrity data about import consignments can both increase seizures and facilitate legitimate imports.
The challenges described above are quite significant. Equally, the opportunities for nations that can address these challenges more effectively than their competitors are also significant. Digitisation is a key enabler of all strategies to address these challenges. Although many nations have made significant progress in digitizing trade processes within their borders such as implementing trade single windows, there remain significant challenges in digitizing cross-border processes.
Diverse regulatory models and priorities across nations amplify the challenge. National policy making will reflect a complex mixture of market-oriented, security-oriented, rights-oriented, and domestic development-oriented priorities. These differences lead to problems of compatibility or interoperability among nations, and fragmentation of the digital space at the global level. Any scalable solution to the digitisation of cross border trade must embrace and not conflict with diverse policy making priorities.
This paper describes a highly scalable operating model for digitisation and trust of cross border trade based on verifiable credentials, linked data, and decentralised identifiers. It provides national regulators with implementation guidance that will facilitate the following outcomes.
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humans
Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will