January 29th, 2020 IRC Meeting

Review

• 4th Amendment Lobby Day
• Cryptoparty

Decisions/Endorsements

Anti-Ring Post

Draft Text:

Jeff Bezos, using his media empire, created the "porch pirate" narrative in order to push demand for Ring cameras. Having deployed them in communities across the state, he is now poised to sell access to this spy network to the police.

If the state proposed building surveilance cameras outside the front door of every house in every city, there would be justified outrage. But by making the Ring camera a consumer object, it becomes a status symbol, something enviable.

The purported AI technology behind it is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, powered by an underpaid team of thousands of human contractors to monitor live feeds from across the world. And on top of that, the software is insecure and unreliable!

The police departments of at least nine Massachusetts communities have signed data sharing agreements with Amazon. They are all over the state including Lowell, Malden, Wellesley and Westfield. We call on police departments statewide to reject the unproven and worthless Ring technology and immediately divest any current contracts with Amazon.

We also urge all residents to agitate for their community to ban municipal use of facial recognition technology and for our Commonwealth to adopt the State & Local Facial Recognition Tech Moratorium (S.1385 & H.1538). Bans in Somerville, Northampton and Brookline are only the start. Together we can end the use of such surveillance technology.

Projects

Goals for Q1 2020:

• Organize meetups
• Organize Fundraiser
• Organize candidate trainings
• Revise platform

Video Newsletter/Podcast

Leader: Joseph

• Next pirate news recording?

Regional Meetings/Events

Leader: jokeefe

• Worcester (Malt)
• Boston (jokeefe)

Democracy and Dogfood (Tech)

Next meeting will be in February. Topics are:

• find discussion/voting system;
• update CCTV cameras to include older cameras outside North America we didn't include;
• write an app to record the location/ownership of CCTV cameras;
• set up torrents for PirateCon videos (creynolds);
• post remaining audio for PirateCon talks (srevilak).

Platform Discussion

Moved to 2020 Platform Discussion

Tabled Projects

Computer Donations

• jokeefe contacted friend who refurbishes computers for a non-profit
• Archived https://piratenpad.de/p/MassPiratesComputerDonations - move to wiki

FOSS Tutorials

Worcester farm group is interested in having some FOSS tutorials. Perhaps:

• how to do basic labels in GIMP,
• work through a few sample spreadsheets related to seed cost and
• similarly applicable real-world situations, depending on the needs of the group

Basically how to do graph design & product management with open source tools. Malt will put together a one paragraph description of what we need and we can mail it out to ask pirates to help.

Fight bills to make the Film Credit Permanent

H.2419 would make the film tax credit permanent. It is supposed to expire in 2023. The bill has 100+ signatures this time around.

Upcoming Events

• 1/29, 7-9pm, Boston Cryptoparty, Encuentro 5, Boston
• 2/2, 11am-1pm, Democracy and Dogfood (Tech) Meeting, Diesel Cafe, Somerville
• 2/4, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting, Culture House, Harvard Square
• 2/11, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting, Democracy Center, Cambridge
• 2/18, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting, Encuentro 5, Boston
• 2/25, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting
• Spring 2020, ?, Worcester Meetup
• Spring 2020, ?, Springfield Meetup
• Spring 2020, ?, Boston Meetup

Participants

• srevilak (Steve Revilak, Arlington, MA)
• jokeefe (James O'Keefe, Somerville)
• Malt (Sam capradae, Worcester)
• Pirate_Joe (Joseph Onoroski, Lowell, MA)

Observers

• davidd
• ChanServ
• hvxgr
• Deffy

Summary

srevilak discovers that creating a financial reporting account with OCPF is easier than creating a brand new facebook account. He's amused by this.

4th Amendment Lobby Day went well. Staff were receptive to concerns about civil asset forfeiture.

Cryptoparty. Five people attended the last cryptoparty, including three newcomers. Discussed meshnet, and basic privacy protection measures. Next one planned for April.

Anti-Ring Post. Some background:

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2020/01/28/the-ring-doorbell-app-is-sending-your-data-to-third-parties-new-eff-findings-show/
• https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/police-can-get-your-ring-doorbell-footage-without-a-warrant-report-says/
• https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/five-concerns-about-amazon-rings-deals-police

jokeefe to post.

Video newsletter/podcast. Pirate joe is breaking in new video equipment. Next recording is Feb 9th, in the 6p - 8p range.

Regional meetings. Potential Boston meeting in March.

Tech meeting. 2p - 4p on Sunday.

Minutes

 
21:04 <@jokeefe> Agenda:
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/January_29th,_2020_IRC_Meeting
21:04 <@jokeefe> ids
21:05 <@jokeefe> James O’Keefe, Somerville
21:05 < srevilak> Steve Revilak, Arlington, MA
21:05 < Pirate_Joe> Joseph Onoroski, Lowell, MA
21:05 <@jokeefe> anything to add?
21:05 < srevilak> nothing here
21:06 < Malt> Nyet
21:06 < Pirate_Joe> Aye, making sure that my absence did not mess things
        to badly and am seeking to make amends if I offend.
21:06 < srevilak> Pirate_Joe: no worries.  Life happens
21:06 <@jokeefe> aye to that
21:06 < Pirate_Joe> Would you elaborate on the FB thing then?
21:07 <@jokeefe> The Pirate abides
21:07 < Pirate_Joe> I know I have missed a lot these last few weeks.
21:07 < srevilak> Sure.  Finally ran into a situation that forced me to
        break down and create a facebook account
21:07 < srevilak> First, they wanted to email a confirmation code
21:07 < srevilak> Took an hour to arrive
21:08 < srevilak> Second, they wanted my mobile to SMS a confirmation code
21:08 < srevilak> that arrived more quickly
21:08 < srevilak> Third, they wanted me to upload a face shot, to
        "verify that it was me"
21:08 < srevilak> Afterwards, they said they were holding my account
        for review
21:09 < Pirate_Joe> Will all the srevilak's please stand up?
21:09 < srevilak> Guess their AI algorithm didn't appreciate my ugly mug
21:09 <@jokeefe> That sounds like an ordeal.
21:09 <@jokeefe> I am srevilak
21:09 <@jokeefe> ;-)
21:09 <@jokeefe> Review
21:09 <@jokeefe> 4th Amendment Lobby Day
21:09 < srevilak> On the other hand, I emailed OCPF to create account
        for select board candidate.  Was done that afternoon
21:10 < srevilak> jokeefe: sure, you're welcome to be srevilak :)(
21:10 < srevilak> OK, 4th amendment lobby day ...
21:10 <@jokeefe> went well.
21:11 <@jokeefe> When we were able to talk with a staff person, and
        explained the problems with civil asset forfeiture, they were receptive,
21:12 <@jokeefe> Went to a lot of offices
21:14 <@jokeefe> Cryptoparty
21:14 <@jokeefe> 5 people attended and three were new.
21:15 < Malt> Neat!
21:15 <@jokeefe> Talked about mesh nets and basic privacy protection
        measures.
21:16 <@jokeefe> Planning the next one in April.
21:17 < srevilak> Oh no!  They got Malt!
21:18 <@jokeefe> He’ll be back
21:18 <@jokeefe> Decisions/Endorsements
21:18 <@jokeefe> Anti-Ring Post
21:18 <@jokeefe> Wanted to see if we can agree on the text we have
21:18 < Malt> Welp
21:18 <@jokeefe> discussing your Anti-Ring post
21:19 < Pirate_Joe> I am a little lost, can you enlighten me?
21:19 < Pirate_Joe> Sry
21:19 < srevilak>
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/January_29th,_2020_IRC_Meeting#Anti-Ring_Post
21:20 < srevilak> Pirate_Joe: ^^^^
21:20 < Pirate_Joe> ty <3
21:20 <@jokeefe> Also:
        https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2020/01/28/the-ring-doorbell-app-is-sending-your-data-to-third-parties-new-eff-findings-show/#3e5fcbe7436d
21:20 < srevilak> Reading post, a substantial part of the monitoring is
        done by humans?
21:22 < Pirate_Joe> Usually done by companies such as
        viewpointmonitoring.com
21:24 <@jokeefe>
        https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/police-can-get-your-ring-doorbell-footage-without-a-warrant-report-says/
21:24 <@jokeefe> Thoughts?
21:25 < srevilak> Also
        https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/five-concerns-about-amazon-rings-deals-police
21:26 <@jokeefe> thanks
21:26 < Pirate_Joe> Privacy for the individual is the uphill fight that
        we stand for. This seems like something out of Demolition Man
21:26 < Pirate_Joe> I don't see a reason to change our stance on this.
21:26 < srevilak> I think the post is ok
21:26 < Pirate_Joe> 2nd
21:26 < Pirate_Joe> ^.^
21:27 <@jokeefe> I am fine with it. Do you accept the changes I made,
        Malt?
21:32 <@jokeefe> Ok, I’ll post it.
21:32 <@jokeefe> Projects
21:32 <@jokeefe> Video Newsletter/Podcast
21:33 <@jokeefe> When is good to record this weekend?
21:34 < Pirate_Joe> So, I just got a new spot to get my set up going.
        I need to swap out two of current graphics cards to get things going
        but I should be good to be getting that going by next weekend.
21:34 < Pirate_Joe> It's going to be going very well. and going.....
21:35 < Pirate_Joe> That said, I should be able to record again and we
        can do one every week if that works for all of you.
21:36 < Pirate_Joe> Tomorrow is the last day of our move from the old
        location plus the new place is getting the windows replaced. That should
        give me enough time to get my main up and going proper.
21:36 < Pirate_Joe> There is plenty to talk about as well.
21:36 <@jokeefe> So next weekend for you?
21:37 < Pirate_Joe> And every Sunday night if that works for everyone
        else/
21:37 < Pirate_Joe> :/
21:39 < srevilak> Feb 9th, then?
21:40 < Pirate_Joe> Aye
21:41 < srevilak> I can do that
21:41 < Pirate_Joe> I am hoping for a regular window again between 6 &
8 but we can extend or shorten it as needed.
21:41 < Pirate_Joe> That is just a very convent time slot for me.
21:42 <@jokeefe> Sometime in that slot works for me.
21:42 < Pirate_Joe> Great.
21:43 < Pirate_Joe> jokeefe, did you ever get it working on your end?
21:43 <@jokeefe> not yet
21:43 < Pirate_Joe> ok, no worries though
21:43 <@jokeefe> Feb. 9th sometime between 6 & 8
21:44 < srevilak> works for me
21:44 <@jokeefe> Regional Meetings/Events
21:45 <@jokeefe> Looking for places for the Boston meetup. Maybe in March.
21:47 <@jokeefe> Democracy and Dogfood (Tech)
21:47 <@jokeefe> Scheduled for Sunday.
21:48 <@jokeefe> srevilak, still good for you?
21:48 < srevilak> I will have to miss :(
21:48 < srevilak> Campaign meeting at 11:30
21:48 < srevilak> Sorry
21:49 < srevilak> Could do later in the day
21:49 <@jokeefe> What works?
21:49 < srevilak> Maybe 2p?
21:49 <@jokeefe> 2-4pm?
21:50 < srevilak> I can do that
21:50 <@jokeefe> ok. I will update it.
21:50 <@jokeefe> Thanks.
21:50 < srevilak> Great.  Thanks for accomodating
21:51 <@jokeefe> Happy to. Anything else to discuss?
21:51 < Pirate_Joe> One final thing if you don't mind
21:51 <@jokeefe> sure
21:51 < Pirate_Joe> What is the current state at the national level?
21:52 < Pirate_Joe> I went to the meeting for last Wednesday and this
        Monday but no one was doing anything.
21:53 <@jokeefe> We’ll see tonight.
21:53 < Pirate_Joe> Ok, so it's tonight then?
21:53 <@jokeefe> Just Wednesday’s now 10-10:30am
21:54 < Pirate_Joe> Ok, I hope things still move forward. If not, what
        would be the course of action to get things going again?
21:54 < Pirate_Joe> PPI?
21:55 <@jokeefe> would be good to reach out to them.
21:55 < Pirate_Joe> Ok, do you know when they meet?
21:55 <@jokeefe> #uspp
21:56 <@jokeefe> in 5 minutes
21:56 <@jokeefe> Shall we adjourn?
21:56 < Pirate_Joe> 2nd
21:56 < srevilak> aye
21:57 < srevilak> will post transcript
21:57 < Pirate_Joe> aye