Deceiving Google's Cloud Video Intelligence API Built for Summarizing Videos

Despite the rapid progress of the techniques for image classification, video annotation has remained a challenging task. Automated video annotation would be a breakthrough technology, enabling users to search within the videos. Recently, Google introduced the Cloud Video Intelligence API for video analysis. As per the website, the system can be used to "separate signal from noise, by retrieving relevant information at the video, shot or per frame" level. A demonstration website has been also launched, which allows anyone to select a video for annotation. The API then detects the video labels (objects within the video) as well as shot labels (description of the video events over time). In this paper, we examine the usability of the Google's Cloud Video Intelligence API in adversarial environments. In particular, we investigate whether an adversary can subtly manipulate a video in such a way that the API will return only the adversary-desired labels. For this, we select an image, which is different from the video content, and insert it, periodically and at a very low rate, into the video. We found that if we insert one image every two seconds, the API is deceived into annotating the video as if it only contained the inserted image. Note that the modification to the video is hardly noticeable as, for instance, for a typical frame rate of 25, we insert only one image per 50 video frames. We also found that, by inserting one image per second, all the shot labels returned by the API are related to the inserted image. We perform the experiments on the sample videos provided by the API demonstration website and show that our attack is successful with different videos and images

Data Scams

Targeting platforms like Google and Facebook are usually seen as presenting tradeoffs between utility and privacy. This Article identifies and describes a different, non-privacy cost of targeting platforms: they make it easier for malicious actors to scam others. They do this by making it easier for scammers to reach the most promising victims, hide from law-enforcement authorities and others, and develop better scams. Technology offers potential solutions, since the same data and targeting tools that enable scams could help detect and prevent them, though neither platforms nor law-enforcement officials have both the incentives and expertise needed to develop and deploy those solutions. Moreover, these scams may illustrate a broader class of problems from targeting that go beyond utility versus privacy, suggesting that more aggressive interventions may be needed

Perspectives on Platform Regulation

Online social media platforms set the agenda and structure for public and private communication in our age. Their influence and power is beyond any traditional media empire. Their legal regulation is a pressing challenge, but currently, they are mainly governed by economic pressures. There are now diverse legislative attempts to regulate platforms in various parts of the world. The European Union and most of its Member States have historically relied on soft law, but are now looking to introduce regulation. Leading researchers of the field analyse the hard questions and the responses given by various states. The book offers legislative solutions from various parts of the world, compares regulatory concepts and assesses the use of algorithms. With contributions by Izumi Aizu, Enni Ala-Mikkula, Alexandre Alaphilippe, Natalie Alkiviadou, Alejandro Aréchiga Morales, Siwal Ashwini, Judit Bayer, Jörg Becker, Konrad Bleyer-Simon, Elda Brogi, Shun-Ling Chen, Poren Chiang, Michael Geist, Gerard Goggin, Giovanni De Gregorio, Sarah Hartmann, Maximilian Hemmert-Halswick, Maria Carolina Herrera Rubio, Bernd Holznagel, Peng Hwa Ang, Richard Janda, Jan Christopher Kalbhenn, Juliya Kharitonova, Kristiina Koivukari, Päivi Korpisaari, Jacob Mchangama, Trisha Meyer, Kilian Müller, Larissa Sannikova, Mårten Schultz, Nicole Stremlau, Maria L. Vazquez, Kuo-Wei Wu and Lorna Woods

Perspectives on Platform Regulation

Online social media platforms set the agenda and structure for public and private communication in our age. Their influence and power is beyond any traditional media empire. Their legal regulation is a pressing challenge, but currently, they are mainly governed by economic pressures. There are now diverse legislative attempts to regulate platforms in various parts of the world. The European Union and most of its Member States have historically relied on soft law, but are now looking to introduce regulation. Leading researchers of the field analyse the hard questions and the responses given by various states. The book offers legislative solutions from various parts of the world, compares regulatory concepts and assesses the use of algorithms. With contributions by Izumi Aizu, Enni Ala-Mikkula, Alexandre Alaphilippe, Natalie Alkiviadou, Alejandro Aréchiga Morales, Siwal Ashwini, Judit Bayer, Jörg Becker, Konrad Bleyer-Simon, Elda Brogi, Shun-Ling Chen, Poren Chiang, Michael Geist, Gerard Goggin, Giovanni De Gregorio, Sarah Hartmann, Maximilian Hemmert-Halswick, Maria Carolina Herrera Rubio, Bernd Holznagel, Peng Hwa Ang, Richard Janda, Jan Christopher Kalbhenn, Juliya Kharitonova, Kristiina Koivukari, Päivi Korpisaari, Jacob Mchangama, Trisha Meyer, Kilian Müller, Larissa Sannikova, Mårten Schultz, Nicole Stremlau, Maria L. Vazquez, Kuo-Wei Wu and Lorna Woods

Texas Law Review

Journal containing articles, notes, book reviews, and other analyses of law and legal cases