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Digital Inclusion Week, Highlighting CCTV Cambridge's Digital Equity Work

4 octobre 2024 à 16:09

In honor of Digital Inclusion Week, October 7-11th 2024, it’s an honor to uplift one of our Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) members who is doing great work making sure technology benefits everyone by addressing the digital divide: CCTV Cambridge. This year they partnered to host a Digital Navigator program. Its aim is to assist in bridging the digital divide in Cambridge by assessing the needs of the community and acting as a technological social worker. Digital Navigators (DN’s) have led to better outreach, assessment, and community connection. 

Making a difference in communities affected by the digital divide is impactful work. So far the DN’s have helped many people access resources online, distributed 50 Thinkpad laptops installed with Windows 10 and Microsoft Office,  and distributed 15 hotspots for wifi with two years paid by T-mobile. This is groundbreaking because typically people are getting chromebooks on loan that have limited capabilities. The beauty of these devices is that you can work and learn on them with reliable, high-speed internet access, and they are able to be used anywhere.

Samara Murrell, Coordinator of CCTV’s Digital Navigator Program states:

"Being part of a solution that attempts to ensure that everyone has equal access to information, education and job opportunities, so that we can all fully participate in our society, is some of the best, most inspiring and honorable work that one can do."

CCTV digital navigators

Left to Right: DN Coordinator Samara Murrell and DN’s Lida Griffin, Dana Grotenstein, and Eden Wagayehu

CCTV Cambridge is also slated to start hosting classes in 2025. They hope to offer intermediate Windows and Microsoft Office to the cohort as the first step, and then advanced Excel as the second part for returning members of the cohort.

Maritza Grooms, CCTV Cambridge’s Associate Director of Community Relations, says:

"CCTV is incredibly grateful and honored to be the hub and headquarters of the Digital Navigator Pilot Program in partnership with the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge Public School Department, and Just-A-Start. This program is crucial to serving Cambridge's most vulnerable and marginalized communities and ensuring they have the access to resources they need to be able to fully participate in society in this digital age. We appreciate any and all support to help us make the Digital Navigator Program a continued sustainable program beyond the pilot. Please contact me at maritza@cctvcambridge.org to find out how you can support this program or visit cctvcambridge.org/support to support today."

There are countless examples of the impact CCTV’s DN’s have had already. One patron of the library who came in to take a tech class, had their own laptop because of the DNs. That enabled her to take a tech support class and advance her career. A young college student studying bioengineering needed a laptop and hotspot to continue his studies, and he recently got them from CCTV Cambridge.

Kudos to CCTV Cambridge for addressing the disparities of the digital divide in your community with your awesome digital inclusion work!
To connect with other members of the EFA doing impactful work in your area, please check out our allies page: https://efa.eff.org/allies

Join the Movement for Public Broadband in PDX

4 octobre 2024 à 15:01

Did you know the City of Portland, Oregon, already owns and operates a fiber-optic broadband network? It's called IRNE (Integrated Regional Network Enterprise), and despite having it in place Portlanders are forced to pay through the nose for internet access because of a lack of meaningful competition. Even after 24 years of IRNE, too many in PDX struggle to afford and access fast internet service in their homes and small businesses.

EFF and local Electronic Frontier Alliance members, Personal TelCo Project and Community Broadband PDX, are calling on city council & mayoral candidates to sign a pledge to support an open-access business model, where the city owns and leases the "dark" fiber. That way services can be run by local non profits, local businesses, or community cooperatives. The hope is these local services can then grow to support retail service and meet the needs of more residents.

This change will only happen if we show our support, join the campaign today to stay up to date and find volunteer opportunities.  Also come out for fun and learning at The People’s Digital Safety Fair Saturday October 19th, for talks and workshops from the local coalition. Let’s break the private ISP monopoly power in Portland!

Leading this campaign is Community Broadband PDX, with the mission to ‘guide Portlanders to create a new option for fast internet access: Publicly owned and transparently operated, affordable, secure, fast and reliable broadband infrastructure that is always available to every neighborhood and community.’ According to Jennifer Redman, President, Board of Directors, and Campaign Manager of Community Broadband PDX, (who also formerly served as the Community Broadband Planning Manager in the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability with the City of Portland) when asked about the campaign to expand IRNE into affordable accessible internet for all Portlanders, she said:

“Expanding access to the Integrated Regional Network Enterprise (IRNE) is the current campaign focus because within municipal government it is often easier to expand existing programs rather than create entirely new ones - especially if there is a major capital investment required. IRNE is staffed, there are regional partners and the program is highly effective. Yes it is limited in scope but there are active expansion plans.   

Leveraging IRNE allows us to advocate for policies like “Dig Once Dig Smart” every time the ground is open for any type of development in the City of Portland - publicly owned-fiber conduit must be included. The current governmental structure has made implementing these policies extremely difficult because of the siloed nature of how the City is run. For example, the water bureau doesn’t want to be told what to do by the technology services bureau. This should significantly improve with our charter change. Currently the City of Portland really operates as a group of disparate systems that sometimes work together. I hope that under a real city manager, the City is run as one system.

IRNE already partners with Link Oregon - which provides the “retail” network services for many statewide educational and other non-profit institutions.  The City is comfortable with this model - IRNE builds and manages the dark fiber network while partners provide the retail or “lit" service. Let’s grow local ISPs that keep dollars in Portland as opposed to corporate out-of-state providers like Comcast and Century Link.”

The time is now to move Portland forward and make access to the publicly owned fiber optic network available to everyone. As explained by Russell Senior, President and member of the Board of Directors of Personal TelCo Project, this would bring major economic and workforce development advantages to Portland:

“Our private internet access providers exploit their power to gouge us all with arbitrary prices, because our only alternative to paying them whatever they ask is to do without. The funds we pay these companies ends up with far away investors, on the order of $500 million per year in Multnomah County alone. Much of that money could be staying in our pockets and circulating locally if we had access they couldn't choke off.

I learned most of my professional skills from information I found on the Internet. I got a good job, and have a successful career because of the open source software tools that I received from people who shared it on the internet. The internet is an immense store of human knowledge, and ready access to it is an essential part of developing into a fruitful, socially useful and fulfilled person.”

Portland is currently an island of expensive, privately owned internet service infrastructure, as every county surrounding Portland is building or operating affordable publicly owned and publicly available super-fast fiber-optic broadband networks. Fast internet access in Portland remains expensive and limited to neighborhoods that provide the highest profits for the few private internet service providers (ISPs). Individual prosperity and a robust local economy are driven by UNIVERSAL affordable access to fast internet service.  A climate resilient city needs robust publicly owned and available fiber-optic broadband infrastructure. Creating a digitally equitable and just city is dependent upon providing access to fast internet service at an affordable cost for everyone. That is why we are calling city officials to take the pledge that they will support open-access internet in Portland.


Join the campaign to make access to the city owned fiber optic network available to everyone. Let’s break the private ISP monopoly power in Portland!

Publication du guide pratique « Tout savoir sur la licence ODbL » par la Fédération des pros d’OSM

La licence ODbL (Open Database License) est notamment celle choisie par la communauté OpenStreetMap. Il s’agit d’une licence copyleft spécialement conçue pour les bases de données.

Jean-Christophe BECQUET, membre du bureau de la Fédération des pros d’OSM, se dit fier de cette publication du guide pratique « Tout savoir sur la licence ODbL ». Il s’agit d’un remarquable effort de pédagogie pour bien comprendre les droits et les devoirs inscrits dans cette licence libre.

« ODbL = le cercle vertueux du partage ».

Couverture du livret papier

ODbL est aussi la licence retenue par Open Food Facts et plus de 4700 jeux de données en opendata sur le portail data.gouv.fr.

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Encode Justice NC - the Movement for a Safe, Equitable AI

The Electronic Frontier Alliance is proud to have such a diverse membership, and is especially proud to ally with Encode Justice chapters. Encode Justice is a community that includes over 1,000 high school and college students across over 40 U.S. states and 30 countries. Organized into chapters, these young people constitute a global youth movement for safe, equitable AI. Their mission is mobilizing communities for AI aligned with human values.

At its core, Encode Justice is more than just a name. It’s a guiding philosophy: they believe we must encode justice and safety into the technologies we build. Young people are critical stakeholders in conversations about AI, and presently, as we find ourselves face-to-face with challenges like algorithmic bias, misinformation, democratic erosion, and labor displacement; we simultaneously stand on the brink of even larger-scale risks that could result from the loss of human control over increasingly powerful systems. Encode Justice believes human-centered AI must be built, designed, and governed by and for diverse stakeholders, and that AI should help guide us towards our aspirational future, not simply reflect the data of our past and present.

Currently three local chapters of Encode Justice have joined the EFA: Encode Justice North Carolina, Oregon, and Georgia. Recently I caught up with the leader of Encode Justice NC, Siri, about her chapter, their work, and how other people (including youth) can plug in and join the movement for safe, equitable AI:

Can you tell us a little about your chapter, its composition, and its projects?

Encode Justice North Carolina is an Encode Justice chapter led by Siri M while including other high schoolers and college students in NC. Most of us are in the Research Triangle Park area, but we’d also welcome any NC based student that is interested in our work! In the past, we have done projects including educational workshops, policy memos, and legislative campaigns (on the state & city council level) while lobbying officials and building coalitions with other state and local organizations.

Diving more into the work of your chapter, can you elaborate? And are there any local partnerships you’ve made with regard to your legislative advocacy efforts?

We’ve specifically done a lot of work around surveillance, with ‘AI in Policing & Surveillance' being the subject of our educational workshop with the national organization “Paving Tomorrow.” We’ve also lobbied the city council of Cary, NC to pass an ACLU model bill on police surveillance, after gaining support in the campaign from Emancipate NC, the EFA, and BSides RDU. Notably, we have lobbied our state legislature to pass a bill regarding social media addiction and data privacy for youth. Additionally, a policy memo from our chapter was written and published as a part of the Encode Justice State AI legislative project to spread information and analysis on the local legislative landscape, stakeholders, and solutions regarding tech policy related issues in our state. The memo was for legislators, organizations, and press to use.

We’ve also conducted a project to gather student testimonials on AI/school-based surveillance. In the near future, we are looking forward to working on bigger campaigns, including a national legislative facial recognition campaign, and a local campaign on the impacts of surveillance on immigrant communities. We are also more generally looking forward to expanding our reach while gaining new members in more regions of NC, and potentially leading more campaigns and projects while increasing their scope and widening our range of topics. 

How can other youth plug-in to support and join the movement?

Anyone, including non-students, can follow us on Instagram at @encodejusticenc. If you are interested in becoming an Encode Justice North Carolina member, you could please fill out the form to do so! Lastly, if you are a student that would like to support us in a smaller way, you can fill out the student testimonies survey here.

Pass the SALT 2024 : 21 conférences et 9 ateliers sur la Sécurité et les Logiciels Libres

24 mai 2024 à 01:48

Pass the SALT est une conférence gratuite se déroulant à Lille sur deux jours et demi début juillet. Elle est dédiée à la Sécurité et aux Logiciels Libres.

Coding under trees at PTS2018

Cette 6ᵉ édition se déroulera :
📅 du 3 au 5 juillet 2024
📍 à l’école de Polytech à Lille.

Venez profiter de la présence d’expert·e·s très accessibles dans une ambiance conviviale d’une conférence à taille humaine 🥰

👉 Les inscriptions sont ouvertes et sont gratuites. Le nombre de places disponibles diminue rapidement, ne tardez pas :)

Cette année, elle accueillera des expert·e·s venant du monde entier pour couvrir dix sessions différentes parmi lesquelles on peut citer :

  • la session WebPKI avec notamment Aaron Gabble, tech lead de Let's Encrypt, et Philippe Boneff tech lead de l’équipe Certificate Transparency de Google ,
  • la session Host protection : présentation des outils Kunaï, PyRASP et oletools par leurs développeurs respectifs Quentin JEROME, Renaud Bidou et Philippe Laguadec,
  • ou deux sessions dédiées à la crypto : une sur le registre de la vie privée via les outils Cryptpad et Sufflecake et une autre dédiée aux développeurs et parlant d’agilité cryptographique et de tests de primitives ,
  • 6 autres sessions dédiées au bas niveau et au reverse, à la détection réseau, à la sécurité offensive, à la réponse à incident et à la threatintel, et au phishing.

🛠️ Vous pourrez aussi apprendre par la pratique au cours de 9 ateliers (2 ateliers en permanence en parallèle des conférences).

🇬🇧 Les interventions sont données en langue anglaise afin que la conférence soit la plus accueillante possible pour les conférencier·e·s et les membres du public qui sont non francophones.

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CCTV Cambridge, Addressing Digital Equity in Massachusetts

Here at EFF digital equity is something that we advocate for, and we are always thrilled when we hear a member of the Electronic Frontier Alliance is advocating for it as well. Simply put, digital equity is the condition in which everyone has access to technology that allows them to participate in society; whether it be in rural America or the inner cities—both places where big ISPs don’t find it profitable to make such an investment. EFF has long advocated for affordable, accessible, future-proof internet access for all. I recently spoke with EFA member CCTV Cambridge, as they partnered with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to tackle this issue and address the digital divide in their state:

How did the partnership with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute come about, and what does it entail?

Mass Broadband Institute and Mass Hire Metro North are the key funding partners. We were moving forward with lifting up digital equity and saw an opportunity to apply for this funding, which is going to several communities in the Metro North area. So, this collaboration was generated in Cambridge for the partners in this digital equity work. Key program activities will entail hiring and training “Digital Navigators” to be placed in the Cambridge Public Library and Cambridge Public Schools, working in partnership with navigators at CCTV and Just A Start. CCTV will employ a coordinator as part of the project, who will serve residents and coordinate the digital navigators across partners to build community, skills, and consistency in support for residents. Regular meetings will be coordinated for Digital Navigators across the city to share best practices, discuss challenging cases, exchange community resources, and measure impact from data collection. These efforts will align with regional initiatives supported through the Mass Broadband Institute Digital Navigator coalition.

What is CCTV Cambridge’s approach to digital equity and why is it an important issue?

CCTV’s approach to digital equity has always been about people over tech. We really see the Digital Navigators as more like digital social workers rather than IT people in a sense that technology is required to be a fully civically engaged human, someone who is connected to your community and family, someone who can have a sense of well being and safety in the world. We really feel like what digital equity means is not just being able to use the tools but to be able to have access to the tools that make your life better. You really can’t operate in an equal way in the world without the access to technology, you can’t make a doctor’s appointment, talk to your grandkids on zoom, you can’t even park your car without an app! You can’t be civically engaged without access to tech. We risk marginalizing a bunch of folks if we don’t, as a community, bring them into digital equity work. We’re community media, it’s in our name, and digital equity is the responsibility of the community. It’s not okay to leave people behind.

It’s amazing to see organizations like CCTV Cambridge making a difference in the community, what do you envision as the results of having the Digital Navigators?

Hopefully we’re going to increase community and civic engagement in Cambridge, particularly amongst people who might not have the loudest voice. We’re going to reach people we haven't reached in the past, including people who speak languages other than English and haven’t had exposure to community media. It’s a really great opportunity for intergenerational work which is also a really important community building tool.

How can people both locally in Massachusetts and across the country plug-in and support?

People everywhere are welcomed and invited to support this work through donations, which you can do by visiting cctvcambridge.org! When the applications open for the Digital Navigators, share in your networks with people you think would love to do this work; spread the word on social media and follow us on all platforms @cctvcambridge! 

S.T.O.P. is Working to ‘Ban The Scan’ in New York

Facial recognition is a threat to privacy, racial justice, free expression, and information security. EFF supports strict restrictions on face recognition use by private companies, and total bans on government use of the technology. Face recognition in all of its forms, including face scanning and real-time tracking, pose threats to civil liberties and individual privacy. “False positive” error rates are significantly higher for women, children, and people of color, meaning face recognition has an unfair discriminatory impact. Coupled with the fact that cameras are over-deployed in neighborhoods with immigrants and people of color, spying technologies like face surveillance serve to amplify existing disparities in the criminal justice system.

Across the nation local communities from San Francisco to Boston have moved to ban government use of facial recognition. In New York, Electronic Frontier Alliance member Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) is at the forefront of this movement. Recently we got the chance to speak with them about their efforts and what people can do to help advance the cause. S.T.O.P. is a New York-based civil rights and privacy organization that does research, advocacy, and litigation around issues of surveillance technology abuse.

What does “Ban The Scan” mean? 

When we say scan, we are referring to the “face scan” component of facial recognition technology. Surveillance, and more specifically facial recognition, disproportionately targets Black, Brown, Indigenous, and immigrant communities, amplifying the discrimination that has defined New York’s policing for as long as our state has had police. Facial recognition is notoriously biased and often abused by law enforcement. It is a threat to free speech, freedom of association, and other civil liberties. Ban the Scan is a campaign and coalition built around passing two packages of bills that would ban facial recognition in a variety of contexts in New York City and New York State. 

Are there any differences with the State vs City version?

The City and State packages are largely similar. The main differences are that the State package contains a bill banning law enforcement use of facial recognition, whereas the City package has a bill that bans all government use of the technology (although this bill has yet to be introduced). The State package also contains an additional bill banning facial recognition use in schools, which would codify an existing regulatory ban that currently applies to schools.

What hurdles exist to its passage? 

 For the New York State package, the coalition is newly coming together, so we are still gathering support from legislators and the public. For the City package, we are lucky to have a lot of support already, and we are waiting to have a hearing conducted on the residential ban bills and move them into the next phase of legislation. We are also working to get the bill banning government use introduced at the City level.

What can people do to help this good legislation? How to get involved? 

We recently launched a campaign website for both City and State packages (banthescan.org). If you’re a New York City or State resident, you can look up your legislators (links below!) and contact them to ask them to support these bills or thank them for their support if they are already signed on. We also have social media toolkits with graphics and guidance on how to help spread the word!  

Find your NYS Assemblymember: https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/ 

Find your NYS Senator: https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator 

Find your NYC Councilmember: https://council.nyc.gov/map-widget/  

Sortie de LuneOS « Eiskaffee »

16 février 2024 à 14:16

Tentés par un café glacé ? LuneOS « Eiskaffee » vient de sortir !

LuneOS est une distribution GNU/Linux pour téléphones mobiles et tablettes, héritière de feu webOS. Le projet est porté par l’équipe webOS-Ports, dont le but est de faire revivre webOS sur les matériels contemporains.

logo de LuneOS

Sommaire

Voici bien longtemps que l’équipe de webOS-ports n’avait fait de nouvelle version de LuneOS. De nombreux changements de fond, de nouveaux téléphones et tablettes, des difficultés techniques mais aussi une équipe développement modeste expliquent ce rythme un peu lent qui avance selon le temps libre de chacun.

Pendant ce temps, des versions de test de LuneOS ont été régulièrement mises à disposition sur Github, dans le dépôt « luneos-testing ». Cela permet aux personnes intéressées d’essayer LuneOS, tout en gardant à l’esprit que ce ne sont que des versions intermédiaires.

Petits rappels et lexique

Le projet s’appuie sur Yocto, webOS-OSE, Halium et SHR. Il utilise OpenEmbedded comme environnement de compilation. Cette dernière version de LuneOS se base sur la version « Kirkstone » de Yocto. Ces projets ne vous disent rien ? Voici un rapide lexique :

  • OpenEmbedded est un environnement de compilation, qui utilise un ensemble de « recettes » pour décrire les composants à compiler et installer.
  • Yocto est un ensemble de recettes prêtes à l’emploi qu’on peut utiliser pour se construire une distribution Linux personnalisée. Les recettes mises à disposition vont du noyau Linux à Firefox, et forment un ensemble déjà assez complet.
  • SHR est un système d’exploitation GNU/Linux s’appuyant aussi sur Yocto et OpenEmbedded, et orienté téléphones. Il a connu son heure de gloire à l’époque des téléphones Openmoko comme le FreeRunner. Seule une petite partie est maintenant réutilisée pour les besoins de LuneOS.
  • Halium est un ensemble d’utilitaires et d’images Android permettant de faire tourner un Android minimaliste dans un container dédié sur la distribution hôte. Cela permet d’exploiter les pilotes et firmwares disponibles seulement pour Android, tout en gardant le reste de l’OS sur une pile GNU/Linux/systemd/Wayland classique.
  • webOS-OSE est une distribution Linux maintenue par LG, héritière du code de webOS, et dont LuneOS reprend maintenant beaucoup de composants logiciels.

À l’exception des blobs utilisés pour faire tourner les pilotes Android, l’ensemble de la distribution est libre : tout le monde peut, s’il le veut, recompiler sa propre image chez soi.

Fin du forum webOS Nation et autres tracasseries techniques

Le forum « webOS Nation », qui regroupe des discussions autour de webOS au sens large (vieilles versions de webOS, mods, LuneOS…) a connu quelques turbulences ces dernières années. Devant une fermeture imminente du site web, un nouveau site webOS Archive a été mis en place, avec notamment la majorité des archives des forums de webOS Nation. Un nouveau forum a été mis en place, reprenant globalement le style de webOS Nation.

Sans avoir une activité folle, la communauté autour de webOS reste présente, notamment grâce à la présence aujourd’hui de webOS sur les téléviseurs.

Mort du « builder » dédié à LuneOS

Suite à plusieurs avaries, le builder « Jenkins » a dû prendre une retraite bien méritée. Malheureusement cela implique pour l’équipe de webOS-ports de compiler les différentes images de LuneOS chez soi, ce qui n’est pas très pratique (sans être une catastrophe). Sur une machine raisonnablement puissante, la création d’une image de LuneOS depuis zéro demande plusieurs heures, il faut donc parfois s’armer de patience. Heureusement Yocto permet de mutualiser les résultats de compilation pour les architectures semblables, ce qui fait gagner beaucoup de temps.

Les changements majeurs

Depuis la dernière version publique de LuneOS, beaucoup de changements de fond ont eu lieu. On retrouve entre autres:

Passage de Qt 5 à Qt 6

LuneOS utilise maintenant Qt 6.5.2, l’une des dernières disponibles.

Utilisation du compositeur Wayland de webOS OSE

Le compositeur Wayland propre à LuneOS luna-next a été abandonné, au profit du compositeur Wayland de webOS OSE surface-manager. Cependant la partie graphique (codée en QML) a été conservée, et l’expérience utilisateur reste donc très similaire.
Cela permet de se concentrer sur la partie GUI du compositeur, tout en bénéficiant des mises à jour venant de OSE relatives au cœur même du compositeur.

Changement de moteur Chromium

Les apps webOS utilisant intensivement HTML/Javascript/CSS, l’affichage nécessite un moteur web bien à jour et optimisé. Jusqu’à la dernière version, LuneOS utilisait QtWebEngine, fourni par Qt, pour faire tourner les applications.
Cependant webOS-OSE fournit son propre moteur basé sur chromium, indépendant de Qt et optimisé pour une utilisation embarquée. LuneOS a donc également migré vers cette nouvelle infrastructure logicielle, adoptant ce composant WebAppManager.

Migration générale vers les composants de webOS-OSE

Plus généralement, les composants hérités de feu Open WebOS ont été remplacés par leur équivalent dans webOS-OSE, plus récents et encore maintenus par LG. Pour cette version de LuneOS, la version 2.23.0 de webOS-OSE est utilisée comme base.
Cette migration inclut notamment l’utilisation des « Enhanced ACG », un modèle de sécurité plus efficace utilisé pour la communication entre les services de webOS et les apps.

Ces changements, qui pour la plupart ne sont pas visibles à l’utilisation, apportent de multiples bénéfices pour LuneOS :

  • une réutilisation plus large du code de webOS-OSE (maintenu par LG), ce qui implique moins de maintenance côté webOS-ports
  • meilleure stabilité des composants, qui sont utilisés depuis des années dans les téléviseurs et appareils LG
  • la rétro-compatibilité a tout de même pu être assurée pour les vieilles apps webOS, grâce à des modifications mineures dans certains composants
  • plus de facilité pour mettre à jour les composants venant de webOS-OSE

Téléphones et tablettes: vers plus de Linux « mainline »

Dans le domaine des distributions Linux pour téléphones et tablettes, on parle de noyau « mainline » pour désigner l’utilisation directe du code source venant du noyau Linux, par opposition à l’utilisation d’un code source dérivé et proposé par un constructeur. Ce dernier est souvent proposé dans une vieille version, avec une maintenance très limitée dans le temps.

Cependant, utiliser un noyau « mainline » est à double tranchant : d’un côté, on bénéficie des dernières avancées du noyau, et des dernières versions des pilotes libres. Mais de l’autre, cela signifie devoir se passer des pilotes proposés par le constructeur (pour le son, le GPS, le modem…), qui souvent n’ont jamais été proposés à l’inclusion dans le code source principal de Linux.

Au final, dans le cas de LuneOS, trois voies se dessinent lorsqu’il s’agit de faire tourner l’OS sur un téléphone ou une tablette :

  1. Le constructeur remonte ses changements dans le noyau Linux, et s’appuie sur un développement open-source: Pine64 et Purism sont deux exemples récents de cette approche. C’est le cas idéal pour LuneOS, où des pilotes open-source bien intégrés peuvent être utilisées pour faire fonctionner les composants matériels.
  2. Le constructeur ne propose qu’une version Android de ses pilotes et du noyau; ce dernier reste figé dans une même version, relativement récente, avec une maintenance minimale. LuneOS va alors utiliser Halium pour profiter des pilotes faits pour Android, tout en gardant le reste du système sur une pile logicielle « systemd/glibc » classique. Cette situation reste très présente, car l’immense majorité des téléphones et tablettes du marché tournent sur Android.
  3. Le constructeur propose une vieille version du noyau, non maintenue, et dont les limitations deviennent problématiques pour LuneOS. Dans ce cas, LuneOS va tenter d’utiliser un noyau plus récent, mais qui a un support partiel du matériel. Cette stratégie a souvent un résultat très mitigé, avec de gros manques fonctionnels. En gros, c’est la tentative de la dernière chance avant l’abandon du support de ce matériel.

Le matériel Pine64

Une tablette PineTab2 avec LuneOS

Comme évoqué plus haut, Pine64 cultive ses liens avec la communauté open-source, et incite celle-ci à proposer leurs OS sur leur matériel. On retrouve ainsi de nombreux OS comme PostmarketOS, Plasma Mobile ou encore Ubuntu Touch. LuneOS a pris le train en marche très tôt, et peut aujourd’hui s’installer sur le Pinephone, le Pinephone Pro ainsi que sur la tablette PineTab 2.

Pour le Pinephone et le Pinephone Pro, LuneOS nécessite maintenant l’installation préalable de Tow-boot sur le téléphone. Ce dernier est un dérivé de U-Boot, qui vise à standardiser et faciliter le démarrage des OS sur du matériel embarqué.

Comme ce matériel tourne avec une version très récente du noyau Linux, il est possible pour LuneOS de lancer Waydroid; cependant cette fonctionnalité est jeune et nécessite encore beaucoup de travail.

Le matériel Android

LuneOS peut s’installer sur de nombreux autres téléphones (et sur la vénérable tablette HP Touchpad), grâce à l’utilisation de Halium (ici en version 9.0).

Cependant, même s’il n’est pas prévu d’abandonner les téléphones et tablettes Android, les efforts se concentrent de plus en plus sur le matériel pour lequel un noyau « mainline » existe.

Plans pour la prochaine version

Continuer la migration vers l’infrastructure de webOS-OSE

Mettre à jour les composants vers la dernière version de webOS-OSE, et finir la migration:

  • mettre à jour le moteur web vers Chromium 108 (tout juste sorti du four chez LG)
  • re-baser l’infrastructure audio et multimédia de LuneOS sur les composants fournis par webOS-OSE
  • travailler également sur le support des caméras

Continuer le travail sur le matériel supporté

  • Avoir un noyau « mainline » fonctionnel pour Tenderloin, Hammerhead, Mido and Tissot.
  • Fournir une image GSI unique pour les téléphones Android, permettant de faciliter grandement le support d’autres téléphones

Compléter l’espace applicatif

  • Améliorer ou ajouter des apps de base comme Camera, Flashlight, Audio Player ou Video Player, et améliorer les composants QML.
  • Essayer de profiter du travail fait par la communauté sur les TVs LG « homebrew » : webOS Brew

Envie d’essayer ?

Pour le téléchargement et l’installation, c’est par ici. Il existe notamment une image pour émulateur x86-64, utilisable directement dans VirtualBox.

L’équipe webOS-ports est présente sur IRC (Libera:#webos-ports) ou encore Telegram.

Commentaires : voir le flux Atom ouvrir dans le navigateur

Electronic Frontier Alliance Comes Back Strong: 2023 in Review

The Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) is a loose network of local groups fighting for digital rights in the United States, chaired by EFF. Members’ efforts have been recovering from the limitations put on local organizing caused by the pandemic. More EFA members have been holding in-person workshops and meet-ups that help cement the relationships needed to do their work.

If you’re a member of a local or state group in the United States that fights for digital rights and might want to join, please learn more at our FAQ page. If your group feels like a good fit, please fill out an application here. The Alliance has scores of members, all doing great things this year. This review highlights just a few.

EFA members are organizing for your rights

This year, we caught up with our friends at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a growing organization that has become a force to be reckoned with in New York. STOP has worked to pass the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act in their City Council, and used the law to uncover previously unknown NYPD surveillance contracts. They also won key successes against discriminatory policies by the NYPD by taking the department to court.

We talked to Portland’s Techno-Activism 3rd Mondays (TA3M), which came out of a nationwide effort to increase digital rights activism by providing regular workshops on related topics. Portland’s TA3M hasn’t just survived when most other chapters have disbanded. They have kept a great pace of trainings and panel discussions which has helped keep the digital rights movement alive in Portland, even through the pandemic when these educational events had to move online.

We checked-in with CCTV Cambridge on their efforts to close the digital divide with their Digital Navigator program, as well as their advocacy for digital equality. CCTV Cambridge does work across all demographics. For example, they implemented a Youth Media Program where teens get paid while developing skills to become professional media artists. They also have a Foundational Technology program for elders and others who struggle with technology.

EFA groups kept the conversation going in their communities

Alliance members got together for a podcast interview on Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons, including EFF, Portland-based PDX Privacy, and Chicago-based Lucy Parsons Labs. It’s a great introduction to the Electronic Frontier Alliance, a couple of its superstar members, and how to get involved.

The Electronic Frontiers track at the sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book-oriented Dragon*Con in Atlanta was produced in coordination with EFA member Electronic Frontiers Georgia and garnered some fantastic conversations. After a few years of hiatus or virtual panels, the digital rights component to the convention came back strong last year and carried on full steam ahead in 2023. Members of EF-Georgia, EFF and allied organizations presented on a variety of topics, including:

More of the Dragon*Con panels can be found at EF-Georgia’s special Dragon*Con playlist.

EFF-Austin also moved back in-person events, including monthly expert talks in Texas and meet-ups for people in their city interested in privacy, security, and related issues. Subjects included:

New members

This past year, we also had the opportunity to expand the alliance, especially among youth-led groups, by welcoming six impressive new members:  

  • Cyber Security Club @SFSU, San Francisco, CA: The Cyber Security Club is a student group for digital security-minded members of the San Francisco State University community.
  • Encode Justice North Carolina: Encode Justice NC is mostly made up of high school students learning the tools of organizing by focusing on issues like algorithmic machine-learning and law enforcement surveillance.
  • Encode Justice Oregon: Like the EJ-NC chapter, EC-Oregon is composed of  high school students training their peers to take an active role in local decision-making.
  • MOKANCAN, Lawrence, KS: The Missouri & Kansas Cyber Alliance Network is a growing new group of volunteer activists who have been meeting on privacy and other digital rights in cities near the border of the two states.
  • New York Law School’s Privacy Law Association, New York, NY: The PLA is a group of law students that train and organize around digital privacy and its impact in many fields of the law.
  • Security Club @OSU, Portland, OR: The OSU SEC is a group for security-minded students at Oregon State University that engages in cyber defense training and related digital security education.

Looking forward

As we continue to fight for our digital rights, more groups are connecting to build and maintain a movement for change. In the coming year, a lot of EFA members will be focused on effecting positive social change, whether it’s by training new generations of digital justice activists or preventing attacks on rights to privacy and free expression. 

To learn more about how the EFA works, please check out our FAQ page, and to join the fight, please apply to join us.

Learn more about some of our other EFA members in these past profiles:

 This blog is part of our Year in Review series. Read other articles about the fight for digital rights in 2023.

S.T.O.P.: Putting a Check on Unchecked Local N.Y. Government Surveillance

10 novembre 2023 à 10:49

Recently I got the chance to speak with longtime Electronic Frontier Alliance member Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.). They’ve got a new Advocacy Manager, Kat Phan, and exciting projects are coming down the pike! Kat took some time to share with EFF how things are looking for STOP, their many successes, education & advocacy work, and how people from across the country can plug-in and support.

Can you share how S.T.O.P. came to be, got started, and its mission?   

S.T.O.P. as an organization grew from the belief that emerging surveillance technologies pose an unprecedented threat to public safety and the promise of a free society. Our executive director, Albert Fox Cahn, started S.T.O.P. in 2019 to address the long-ignored threat of state and local government surveillance. While federal advocates spent years at loggerheads over the federal surveillance powers, the growth of local police surveillance, particularly the NYPD, often went unchecked. S.T.O.P. started with an understanding that digital surveillance has played a key role in the historic criminalization of BIPOC, Muslim, and immigrant communities.  Building an intersectional coalition, we began to educate New Yorkers on the disparate and discriminatory impact police surveillance has on Muslim Americans, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and disabled people. These local collaborations, which enable us to share resources for anti-surveillance work and advocate for legislation with the support of impacted community members, form the backbone of our mission – which is to systematically dismantle the local surveillance apparatus here in New York City, as well as to build a model for dismantling local surveillance across the United States.  

What have been some of the issues you've concentrated on and could you walk us through a timeline of some of your early successes to more recent?  

Unveiling the NYPD’s sprawling surveillance systems has been a huge chunk of our work thus far. The department is notoriously opaque about the surveillance technologies at their disposal, obscuring how they disproportionately surveil Black, Latinx, and Muslim New Yorkers. One of S.T.O.P.’s earliest successes was the passage of the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act, which ordered the department to disclose information about their use of surveillance to the public. The POST Act allowed S.T.O.P. and Legal Aid Society to uncover nearly $3 billion in formerly hidden NYPD surveillance contracts. However, the NYPD regularly violates the POST Act, systematically and unlawfully refusing to comply with requests for information related to its use of surveillance technology.  

Our impact litigation extends beyond revealing records to the public. We have also successfully represented survivors of surveillance abuse, suing government agencies and their vendors to end surveillance practices. In 2020, we took the NYPD to court, forcing the department to end its Islamophobic “hijab ban” policy, which required arrestees to remove head coverings for mugshots and fueled the NYPD’s facial recognition database.   

Establishing privacy protections around health and location data has been another major focus of our work. The year following S.T.O.P.’s launch, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. We quickly responded to New York City’s proposed contact tracing system, working to ensure that data collected to “flatten the curve” was not put to other uses or shared with law enforcement agencies or other third parties. In anticipation of the Dobbs decision in 2022, we conducted similar rapid response work, publishing Pregnancy Panopticon: Abortion Surveillance After Roe, a widely-viewed white-paper report warning pregnant people and reproductive advocates of the risks posed by digital surveillance.  

Our other wins include helping outlaw K-12 facial recognition technology, drafting more than 20 bills, publishing more than 140 op-eds, drafting and releasing dozens of whitepapers, testifying before lawmakers in New York and nationally dozens of times, and more.  

S.T.O.P. is getting a lot of visibility online due to your work on Voyager Labs and the NYPD. Can you shed light on this work?   

Our organization found that in 2018, NYPD entered a nearly $9 million contract with Voyager Labs, an AI-based data surveillance firm which scrapes and monitors social media data. Voyager Labs claims its products can predict future crimes by using spyware, creating fake social media profiles, and making inaccurate predictions on suspects for criminal activity based on social media connections, location tracking, and other forms of data surveillance. For instance, Voyager Labs has claimed that its AI can assign prediction scores to social media users on “ties or affinity for Islamic fundamentalism or extremism” or “provide an automated indication of individuals who may pose a risk.”    

In response to this, S.T.O.P. has continued to fight NYPD’s exploitation of social media monitoring and digital “stop and frisk” practices. We are a leading advocate of the “Stop Online Police Fake Accounts and Keep Everyone Safe” (STOP FAKES) Act in New York State. This first-of-its-kind legislation would ban police from leveraging fake social media accounts to surveil New Yorkers. We have also introduced a bill in the City Council which would dissolve NYPD’s so-called “gang database” and prohibit the future use of surveillance practice predicated on association.  

Can you tell us about some of your other current projects?   

S.T.O.P. juggles a multitude of projects developing anti-surveillance resources for local advocates and directly impacted community members. For example, Guilt By Association, a white-paper report recently released by S.T.O.P. detailing how police databases use non-criminal criteria, such as neighborhoods, peer groups, and clothing, as a reason to surveil Black and Latinx youth, supports our work with the GANGS Coalition to dissolve the NYPD database and prohibit the future use of surveillance practices predicated on association. And our latest report, The Kids Won’t Be Alright: The Looming Threat of Child Surveillance Laws, will inform the curriculum for our youth-focused privacy trainings.   

What's next on the horizon for STOP?   

Our upcoming legislative work will heavily focus on passing a set of anti-surveillance and privacy laws at both the state and City Council level. At the state level, there is “Banning Big Brother: New York’s Surveillance Sanctuary State Blueprint”, a 10-bill package which includes first-in-the-nation bans on geofence warrants and fake police social media profiles. You can learn more about that campaign through its website: https://www.banbigbro.tech/.   

At the local level, S.T.O.P. just relaunched our Ban the Scan campaign to introduce a city-wide ban on government use of biometric surveillance and pass two bills in the Council that would prohibit landlords and places of public accommodations from using biometric surveillance, such as facial recognition technology. You can learn more about that campaign through its website, banthescan.org, when it launches on October 17th.   

Do opportunities exist for people to get involved? How can people contact and support your work?  

Because our team and work thrive when we are connected to community work and can work alongside other organizations or groups similarly invested in privacy protections, S.T.O.P. welcomes collaboration on public and digital events and campaigns. For those who would prefer to be involved in our campaigns in an individual capacity, S.T.O.P. welcomes support as a volunteer, junior board member, intern, or legal fellow. We know that lived experiences are the most informative when it comes to demanding change and encourage folks from all backgrounds to join the fight to abolish all systems of mass surveillance.  

What supports our work is not only direct participation as a staff member or volunteer, but donations and contributions to fuel our fight against mass surveillance (www.stopspying.org/donate). Additionally, community partnerships are key to our sustainment, and working with organizations near and far helps us share our resources and build a network of allies in our mission to end governmental abuse of surveillance technologies.

CCTV Cambridge: Nurturing Community with Tools for Speech and Civic Engagement

16 octobre 2023 à 14:13

Recently I got the chance to speak with longtime Electronic Frontier Alliance member Cambridge Community Television (CCTV). Their membership is growing, they’ve got a new Associate Director of Community Relations, Maritza Grooms, and exciting projects are coming down the pike! Maritza took some time to share with EFF how things are looking for CCTV, their upcoming advocacy work, and how people from across the country, not just Massachusetts, can plug-in and support.

Can you share how CCTV Cambridge got started?

Cambridge Community Television is a nonprofit community media organization that formed through the origination of cable television in Cambridge in 1988. CCTV’s mission has evolved over time from providing resources to residents, businesses, and organizations in Cambridge through telecommunication tools and services, to our current mission of nurturing a strong, equitable and diverse community by providing tools and training to foster free speech, civic engagement, and creative expression.

What have been some of the issues you've concentrated on and what were some of your early successes?

Digital equity, access to media training and resources, and giving people a platform to voice their thoughts, feelings, or ideas, have been the issues since the start of PEG (Public, Educational, and Government) Access Media. We implemented a Youth Media Program where teens get paid while developing the skills to become professional media artists that is still going strong today, and have a Foundational Technology program for elders and others who struggle with technology.

Can you shed light on your work through the pandemic and how it impacted the community?

Being fully remote was a challenge for everyone. We kept people informed through our programming, providing the Zoom room for local leaders to address Cambridge residents and businesses, and streaming live town halls and community conversations that provided information about the ongoing pandemic. We provided hotspots, laptops, and iPads for our young people in our Youth Media Program which ended up benefiting entire families who may not have had this technology at home. We continued to provide media training via Zoom as well as our Foundational Tech Lessons for our seniors to help them get situated online in the “new normal.”

Can you tell us about some of your current projects?

Right now, we’re working with community partners and the City of Cambridge to host two new Digital Navigators in 2024.The aim of these Digital Navigators is to assist in bridging the digital divide in Cambridge by assessing the needs of our community and acting as something like a technological social worker. We’re lucky in Cambridge that we have lots of tech—laptops, cameras, hotspots, etcetera—spread around many great local organizations such as CCTV, the Cambridge Public Library, and the Cambridge Senior Center. What we can do better is outreach, assessment and community connection. The navigators will be focused on wellbeing—how can we improve your access to tech in a way that would improve your life and your family’s well-being? We see people getting by with what they have; we want to see them thriving.

Other current projects include expanding access and education around our podcast studio. We’re also expanding our programming and outreach to people who speak languages other than English, like offering media production classes in Haitian-Creole. Finally, we’re working with funders to establish more paid opportunities for creators aged 18-24.

Are you looking to do more advocacy in the future?

We are a big advocate for digital equity in Cambridge and will continue to be a hub in that area. We are also a main collaborator in an advocacy group called CREATE Cambridge. This group of arts and culture organizations got together, and applied for and received ARPA (American Rescue Plan) funding to advocate for the arts in Cambridge. We will regrant directly to artists and creators, and CCTV will lead the effort to create awareness around the challenges artists and arts organizations are facing, such as high rents, lower ticket sales, etcetera. The arts are one of the things that make Cambridge cool so we want to make sure people know how to support and engage with it. Finally, we are always looking for ways to advocate for the community media sector. The revenue model for the sector has always been based on cable subscriptions—with the steep drop in subscription happening across the country, community media needs to find new ways to survive and thrive. We’re doing that work at CCTV and also advocating and educating for the whole sector and the communities who love our spaces and resources.

What are the technological challenges for CCTV Cambridge?

Our infrastructure is aging out. Our last capital campaign was about 12 years ago, so we’re working with cameras, lighting, and other studio technology that is starting to break down. Our playback system that brings programming to our cable channels needs updating, and that will cost multiple thousands of dollars. We’ve continued to invest in certain mobile technology like the equipment our members borrow, but the studios that are also available to our members are becoming outdated. We don’t own our building, so a challenge we face is whether to invest in new technology infrastructure, like lighting grids, studio cameras and other non-sexy systems. If so, where do we find the funding?

Do opportunities exist for people to get involved? How can people contact and support your work?

There are always opportunities for folks to get involved! We’re hiring Teaching Artists for our Youth Media Program which are two newly funded positions through the Shout Syndicate. You can become an intern or apprentice, depending on your skill and experience level. You can become a member with our pay-what-you-can fee structure. And of course, people can always support by making a donation at cctvcambridge.org/support. Follow us on social media @cctvcambridge!

The FCC is Expected to Propose the Return of Net Neutrality Protections Oct 19th - Let’s Hope They Get it Right!

13 octobre 2023 à 14:50

Network neutrality is the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks fairly, without discrimination in favor of particular apps, sites or services. It is a principle that must be upheld to protect the open internet. The idea that ISPs could prevent access to certain sites, slow down rates and speeds for certain users, isn’t just horrendous— it’s vastly unpopular. When ISPs charge tolls or put up road-blocks, it comes at the expense of all segments of society, and undermines internet access as a right.

The FCC will meet on October 19th to vote on proposing Title II reclassification that would support accompanying net neutrality protections. Based on a draft version of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC will propose to reestablish the Commission’s authority to issue net neutrality rules for broadband internet access service by classifying it as a “telecommunications service” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. If the FCC issues the notice as expected on October 19th, the next steps would be a public comment phase followed by issuance of a final rule. This process could result in a final rule restoring net neutrality requirements around spring of 2024.

We’re glad that the FCC is finally taking steps to bring back net neutrality. Title II provides a clear avenue for the FCC to exercise authority to enact net neutrality rules that will stand up to a challenge in court. For years, the FCC incorrectly classified broadband access as an “information service,” and when it tried to impose even a weak version of net neutrality protections under that classification, they were struck down in court. We’ve had victories in the past on this issue thanks to the overwhelming support of millions of Americans, and we need the FCC to do the right thing now.

The classification of broadband as a Title II “telecommunications service” is not only correct as a factual matter and proven to be legally defensible, it also provides the FCC the tools it needs to issue narrow regulations that address the proven need for net neutrality rules, while forbearing from any provisions of Title II that might be unnecessary.

The internet should live up to its history of fostering innovation, creativity, and freedom. When ISPs act as gatekeepers, making special deals with a few companies or privileging their own services, we all lose. Hopefully, on October 19th the FCC will show all Americans that it knows how the internet works, and will put people over ISPs once and for all.

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