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Course Post #8: Sound Study on my Neighborhood

Hello Everybody!

After reading the short article “I Wail, Therefor I am” by Tripta Chandola, I was curious as to what the cultural and political nature of my neighborhood was like.

In my apartments, which are in Forrest Hill, there are many different cultures represented. The apartments are mainly composed of minorities with maybe three couples of white Americans who moved there to “spread the knowledge of Christianity.” I decided to listen for three minutes on the stairs right in front of our apartment. 

After listening, I realized that I had a completely different experience than Chandola had. Women were not silenced. In fact, I heard women more than I heard men. I could not really make out much of what they were saying because they were speaking a different language, but they sounded happy as they watched their children play. I also heard children screaming and laughing very loud as they played catch. Behind me, I heard a very intense conversation from two elderly men about how nobody is social distancing and he wonders if the cops will come if he called....so I went inside.

From this, I learned that the only people worried about Coronavirus are the elderly. Everybody else is worried about money, bills, food, and making sure their children are not scared of what is going on. Also, maybe the other nationalities do not understand the severity of the situation because they may not understand what they hear. Whatever the case may be, I cannot criticize, I was outside too playing with my family.

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https://communemag.com/dystopias-now/

Course Post #6: Using the Ugly to Promote the Beautiful

Hello people!

The world is an absolute dystopia right now for many people. Fortunately, it is not all the way there for me. Which is why I thought it was great that I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Dystopia Now.” This article talked about how dystopias work to promote utopias and gave us four terms that I believe are very important. They are:

Utopia: political order could be better.

Dystopia: political order could get worse.

Anti-Utopia: the idea of utopia is bad. Attempting to fix anything will make everything worse.

Ideology: “imaginary relationship to our real conditions of existence“ -Althusser

I think these terms are important because they remind me that our happiness is running around politics. Think about today and cities enforcing shelter-in-place orders. Some people are thinking that we have turned into a complete dictatorship. This article gave me hope that by having the worst possible idea in my head from the current actions of the government, we might all have the same idea on the best way to reach a utopia for everyone.

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Course Post #6: Using the Ugly to Promote the Beautiful

Hello people!

The world is an absolute dystopia right now for many people. Fortunately, it is not all the way there for me. Which is why I thought it was great that I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Dystopia Now.” This article talked about how dystopias work to promote utopias and gave us four terms that I believe are very important. They are:

Utopia: political order could be better.

Dystopia: political order could get worse.

Anti-Utopia: the idea of utopia is bad. Attempting to fix anything will make everything worse.

Ideology: “imaginary relationship to our real conditions of existence“ -Althusser

I think these terms are important because they remind me that our happiness is running around politics. Think about today and cities enforcing shelter-in-place orders. Some people are thinking that we have turned into a complete dictatorship. This article gave me hope that by having the worst possible idea in my head from the current actions of the government, we might all have the same idea on the best way to reach a utopia for everyone.

[hidingfromyoutoolove]

Course Post #5: What’s the Point?

As I was reading “Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming” last night, one quote completely stole the show and destroyed everything I originally thought of posting. In chapter 4, the author writes, “Driven by breakthroughs in genetics, animals are cloned and genetically modified to improve their food potential, human babies are designed to order and bred to provide organs and tissue for their siblings...” The rest did not even matter.

The chapter does go on to talk about the consequences of this but man, this quote reminded me of the 2009 movie My Sister’s Keeper. In this movie, a young girl was basically born to die because she was used as parts for her sister who was gravely ill. I could not imagine that and it hurts even more to know that this is really a thing. Could you imagine being born into a family and felling like you were never loved because they are only taking care of you to make sure you live long enough for your organs to mature so you can give them to your sibling? Absolutely crazy to me.

Then we all know about the genetic modification of food and how that harms us. Yes they increase the potential, but they also increase the chances of diseases and create new ones.

Design is a beautiful idea to have control over, but I believe that we should not have control over designing new life. I am aware that there are so many people on Earth that there eventually will not be enough food to feed us all but, and I feel like I sound like my grandma, we have to let life happen naturally. 

Until next time!

[hidingfromyoutoolove]

Course Post #4: Their Business Profits From Our Business

Have you ever just sat back and wondered why businesses are constantly collecting random data from us. Like, why does Alexa study our sleep pattern and daily schedules? Why does our phone listen in to us 24/7 and create ad preferences based off conversations? And why do automated landlords harvest data such as payment history and maintenance calls? How is this benefiting them and is it benefiting us? Should it?

Here’s why. Desiree Fields, author of “Rent, Datafication, and the Automated Landlord,” writes, “ Harvesting this data, in turn, creates new opportunities for capital accumulation.” Shortly said, companies are profiting off of your data. We know that, but our data is not always being used to benefit us and we sure aren’t seeing the profit. 

The worst part is that we agree to let them use and sell our data because we do not read the terms and conditions of most products that we use. Why don’t we? We tend not to read them because they are very lengthy, and that is done on purpose. With us so use to a fast paced life, we like to get straight to the point, even if that means selling our soul to the devil along the way. We need to start thinking about our choices now and realize the hell at the end of the road.

#notoautomation

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Course Post 3: Response to dorthysdaughter

A classmate asked, “How do we balance technology with humanity-especially as technology transforms future cities where 80% of people will soon dwell?” I sat and read that several times, only able to come up with the answer that we absolutely cannot have balance between the two. One is always going to have the upper hand, and I will tell you why.

From reading Maureen Meadow’s and Matthijs Kuow’s article, “Future-making: inclusive design and smart cities,” I realized that a lot of people actually believe that “smart technologies, it is argued, will lead to more innovative and sustainable cities and dramatically improve urban life through greener living spaces, more democratic modes of governance, and better health.” I believe that the opposite is true. Think about it. Technology has already replaced our memory. We don’t need to remember phone numbers, appointments, or passwords anymore because our technology will do it for us. 

One of the technologies that the authors suggested would benefit us in these ways were big data processing facilities. From my rhetoric class on surveillance and privacy, I absolutely believe this is the Devil’s technology. We would have no privacy, we would make money for a company and never receive a check for it, and we would further the strain on racism because we all know that the low income and minority population would be targets for surveillance.

So, I do not believe that we can find a balance between the two. I think the best thing for us to do is to make new technologies, but make them to where we actually have to still think for them. For example, that automatic vacuum...just no. We need to have control over the technology, or it will soon have control over us.

Until next time!

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Course Post #2: Rural Life Saves Lives

IT ALL MAKES PERFECT SENSE!!! The control of commerce, two of the main reasons for city development according to Jonathan Rose in his seminar “The Well Tampered City,” will also be the reason for the failure of the city. 

Cities take up far more land than rural areas. This alone proves that we have chosen our place on this Earth as the rulers of this Earth. We really need to realize that this land needs the other animals and plants. If we continue on this route, we will destroy all food sources and will be forced to find a new home.

It is really depressing to think that our children and grandchildren are growing up in a horrible environment because we chose not to care about it. We chose to have new houses built in a new development rather than replacing abandoned homes. We continue to use the drive through rather than getting out the car. We chose to destroy rather than give nature back it’s rightful share of the world.

I believe the best thing we can do is to end the emphasis on city life. We’d all be better off not competing for the new technologies and enjoying each other and the great outdoors.

Until next time!

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Course Post #1: It’s in the Feed!

Hello Everybody!

Last week as we discussed the articles, I could not help but wonder how we can shape the future rather than letting the people in power decide. Searching for answers, I clicked on the third link in the article “The Future is Already Here-It’s Just Not Very Evenly Distributed,” (https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3041215) and found that Facebook already has the answer. The way to influence everyone to get on board with a topic is to get the attention of the audience through social media. 

Facebook did a study on their users and found out that their audience is greatly impacted by what they see on their social media (https://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2014/08/04/the-facebook-experiment-what-it-means-for-you/#13b529dc7af6). For example, we are aware of the passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter (God rest their souls) and that has been the main topic on social media. The constant reminder of the incident has sparked extreme sadness and a feeling to end all feuds because life is precious and short. This has impacted me at work, school and home as I am not greeted with hostility anymore and nobody seems to want to argue at the moment. Interesting, right?

So I believe that in the technical world we are living in, the social domain is the most influential domain and that is how I should push my idea of a greener future out. However, I do not know how to plaster myself across everybody’s screen. According to Wade Harman, a title such as, “What The Future Demands From Those Who Seek Earth as Their Forever Homes and Why,” should do the trick (https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/trigger-emotional-response/).

Until next time!

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Protection Tool 4

Hello Everyone! I am very excited to provide you all with this final blog post to protect yourselves against unethical surveillance. For this final post I have decided to review the Viber app. I chose this application because it is very attractive just from the web page and it is popular amongst the younger generation.

Viber was created in 2012 for android phones and has since been accessible from many different platforms. Viber claims that they use end-to-end encryption so they will not be able to see any of the messages you send. You will have conversations that are solely between you and your peers. Apart from your standard text messaging, Viber gives you the option to send:

·         Audio and video calls

·         Group chats

·         Expressive stickers

·         Instant voice and video messages

You can also send these messages anywhere across the world at a very low cost to you and local chats are free…or so I though. I believed that free was truly free this time until I really took a look at the home page. At the very top of the picture below, you will read what we all fear when dealing with a “free, secure messaging/call application. Viber quickly lets you know they are collecting your data and sharing that data with third parties. This, of course, led me right to the privacy policy and, surprisingly, they had an entire page titled the “Ads, Cookies, and Tracking Policy.”

Privacy Policy

·         Viber will not store messages once they have been delivered to their destination. They keep messages that have not been delivered for 2 weeks, and then the messages are deleted. They can see the messages as they pass.

·         They collect and use personal and other information when you share good vibes, messages you send on your public account.

·         They collect and use your account information, social media information (only if you sign up using your social media), location, and your activity information on their app.

·         When you sign up with your email, Viber will also make you an account with their parent company Rakuten and collect your IP address.

·         Viber will keep your information even after you have deleted your account.

·         They use third parties for advertising purposes and to make sure you are not doing anything illegal. (Do you ever wonder how they would know?)

Ads, Cookies, and Other Tracking Technologies

·         Viber uses first- and third-party cookies

·         Cookies are used to

o   Prevent illegal activity

o   Improve security

o   Remember items in your shopping cart and make the cart work properly

o   Asses the performance of their services

o   View the ads and videos on the Viber site

o   Make personalized ads

·         You have the choice to opt out of Some of these cookies, not the first                  three.

 Pros:

·         The app is free for the most part. There is a very low cost to sending                    messages worldwide.

·         There are more ways to chat than standard messaging.

·         It is end-to-end encrypted.

 Cons:

·         They use third parties that collect sensitive information from you and these companies are able to read your messages.

·         The government still has access to your messages. How else would they know if you are involved in illegal activities?

·         You need accept their collection of cookies for the app to function correctly.

 I would rate Viber a 5 out of 10 just because you have more options with messaging, and it is end-to-end encrypted.

I have learned two very important lessons from doing these blog posts and I hope you all take them into consideration.

1.       These free messaging apps have to partner with third parties because they are free and they need to make money somehow or they may need them to provide services that they are not equipped to do themselves. Although Zoiper did not use a third party company for profit because they receive money through grants, they still used a third party to help them provide a service.

2.       The government will always listen in because their number one goal is to prevent another terrorist attack. I am sure they have a list of key words that they provide to these companies that will alert the companies if you use them in your messages. The government could also have a reason to spy on you and force the company to give them access to everything you do across the app, regardless of it being encrypted.

3.       The only person who can assure your privacy it YOU! In the time we live in it is almost impossible to have privacy. If you care so much about privacy, the only advice I could give you is to go and have a face to face conversation with the person you wish to share the information with. So go ahead and start socializing in person again, it is the only way to protect yourself today and it is a practice that is dying.

Thank you all and try your best to stay hidden!

References:

https://www.viber.com/terms/viber-privacy-policy/

https://www.viber.com/

https://www.viber.com/terms/cookies-and-tracking/

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Protection Tool 3

Hello world! I am back this week to review another app that promises to protect us from unauthorized and unethical surveillance. Last week I spoke on the Signal app and concluded that it is indeed a great app to use except that it does use a third party for security purposes and the users are subject to the third party’s privacy policy. This week, we will take a look at the Telegram Messaging App.

Telegram is a free, secure messaging app that is available for every platform (IOS, Android, Windows Platforms). Telegram is also encrypted (our security companies’ favorite word), cloud based, ad free, and does not have a limit on the size of your messages. Being cloud based means that a company is all on a server instead of on a hard drive. This app sounds great so far. What worries me is that this is a cloud-based company. How can they protect our information if our information is out for any hacker to access? Let’s take a deeper look.

Privacy Policy:

First and foremost, this privacy policy is completely unprofessional and has a lot of run on sentences. These run-on sentences are there to confuse the        audience and make it harder to understand. By adding swear words and        speaking in the general manner, the audience may get the sense that the  company is their friend and are there to help. Please do not fall for this

The privacy policy as a whole is not the best. I would like to specifically point out section three. Section three of the privacy policy is titles “What Personal Data We Use.” Under section three, Telegram gives information such as email, messages, phone calls and contacts. Now, the problem here is that in the messaging section, Telegram gives several different types of messaging that they offer and say that they are all encrypted and that they do not have access to them. So the big question is, if Telegram does not have access to the content of your messages, why is it included in that section. It gives me a feeling that they intentionally left out how they use the data and instead tried to highlight why those methods are good for privacy.

 Pros:

·         2-step verification. You will be required to do this every time you try to                  access information from the cloud.

·         You can access your data from any device because the app is cloud                    based

·         End-to-end encryption

·         Secret chat option that is not sent to the cloud

Cons:

·         Telegram does not provide the services to people outside of the                            European Economic Area (EEA). Instead, Telegram UK Holdings Ltd                    provides the services. Telegram UK Holdings is an EEA based company.

·         Telegram uses your personal data for their own purposes.

·         Your profile is automatically public and you cannot change this setting.

·         Telegram works with third party companies. Specifically, the third-party                companies store all the data collected by Telegram from their users.

 Now I know you are probably wondering why I reviewed this app knowing how horrible it is. I did it because I noticed that it is actually a popular app among young people who actually care about their private information. Unfortunately for them, they do not know, or if they do know they just decide not to, to read the privacy policy. Companies know that most users do not read the privacy policy and the terms and conditions because both documents tend to be so lengthy.

I also decided to review a bad example of a secure messaging app because I thought it would be beneficial to my audience to see how I decide whether an app has my best interest in mind or not. I first read the privacy policy. This step took about an hour and a half because I also looked up words that I was not familiar with and clicked on every hyperlink available. From this deep reading, I was able to protect myself from a company who was only here to make a profit from my information just as every other company seeks to do. At least other companies admit to it, this is just wrong.

All in all, I give Telegram Messaging a 4.5/10. It seems that the only way to truly be private on this messaging app is to only participate in secret chats since the messages are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be deciphered by the Telegram staff.

Next week I will post my last blog post. Though I will briefly review another app, I will mainly be comparing and contrasting the blog posts and plan to equip you all with way to better protect yourselves from unethical surveillance.

Until next time!

References

https://telegram.org/privacy

https://telegram.org/

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Protection Tool 2

Hello world! I am back this week to review an app that claims to protect us from unethical surveillance. I know I said last week that I would review the Zoiper app, but I have decided that is not the best app after all. After all the research I did, I noticed that I neglected to read their privacy policy. Although the app claimed to stop unethical surveillance, they still sold your data and personal information to third party companies. You are far safer using your phone and having your personal spy listen to your information. At least you know he is not giving out your card information to the highest bidder.

This week, I have chosen to review the free, secure messaging and phone call app that many privacy advocates, including Edward Snowden, have promoted.

Signal was developed from RedPhone, a Whisper Systems app. Whisper System, now known as Open Whisper Systems, is a security company founded in 2013 that provides companies with software products. In 2018, Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Action started Signal. Signal is an end-to-end encryption app, meaning that the actions that you perform through the app stays between you and the people you interact with. The company itself does not have access to any of the content you share over the app. Lets take a closer look at the application.

Pros:

·         NO ADS! Signal is a 501 c3 nonprofit company that solely relies on grant money to fund their services. For this reason, they do not have to sell their data to any companies to make their money, so they do not have to throw ads everywhere on their app.

·         It is Free! Again, Signal relies on grant money to fund their services. The company chose the free approach to make the app more attractive. Nothing is better than free privacy. Like the saying goes, “the best things in life are free.”

·         Available for several platforms! The app can be used on androids, IOS products, and computers.

·         Encryption! Signal uses two algorithms, Double Rachet and Sesame to make sure that the users content stays private. Algorithms are sequences of instructions that a computer follows to solve problems. By having two algorithms, Signal can ensure that, if someone were able to hack them, that all of their users’ content would not be exposed. These algorithms also are constantly updating the system and changing encryption to prevent cracking their code.

·         Free long-distance calls/messages! Imagine being able to talk to go on a trip on the other side of the Earth and not having to pay every time you wanted to phone home or use the internet. WI-FI is not always available and could also cost money, this app allows you to use their services while connected to your internet. Can they get any better than this?

·         They can because they are end-to-end encrypted! Signal knows exactly what privacy means. The company does not have spies sitting on the line listening to or reading everything you do across their app. It is so hard for them to decrypt your messages, meaning to decode, and do so themselves.

Cons:

·         They work with Third Parties. Third party companies are companies that are not a part of the two companies involved. Signal says they need the third parties for security purposes and that these companies are bound by their privacy policies so there is nothing to worry about. They share information such as phone numbers with these third parties. You be the judge of that.

·         Must be at least 13 to use the app. I understand that this might not be a con for most people, but you have to understand that everybody has information that they don’t want to share with everyone. Not necessarily meaning they have something to hide, but they have information to protect also. It would be better if everyone was allowed to this form of privacy.

 All in all, I would give this app an 9 out of 10, only because you would have to research the third parties they work with and read their privacy policies to make sure they keep your information private. I would have done the work, but they did not provide the names of the third party companies they work with. This is a pretty good deal being that it is free and that they do not read or listen in on their customers personal conversations. I do wonder how they know when a person is violating any laws. Signal says this is one of the few reasons they may share your information. I am sure they do it in a legal way, I just wonder how.

Until next time!

References

https://www.signal.org/#page-top

https://www.signal.org/legal/#privacy-policy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_%28software%29

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Privacy Tool 1: Briar Private Messaging

How would you feel if I told you that those private messages you sent to your significant other were seen by a stranger that works for your phones messaging app company? Would you feel even worse knowing that those messages were saved to the messaging app and will remain there, even after you delete them from your phone? I believe that privacy has died, and it is because we let it. We allowed the government to track us to prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11. I totally understand why we blindly agreed to that because I did not question what they would be tracking and how they would do so either. But now that we know what is going on, it is time that we stand up and take back our right to privacy, starting with messaging and phone calls. I have decided to find the best messaging and phone call apps that are truly private, meaning they don’t give all of your information to third party sites and they don’t read your content or keep your metadata.

 This week I have chosen to review the Briar messaging app. Briar is a free private messaging app that only uses encrypted connection between the devices in conversation and does not have a central server. The company was founded in 2017 by Michael Rogers to support our right to privacy. He and a team of hackers, programmers, and privacy advocates teamed up to create this encrypted app. 

I used the app for a week just so I would be able to give personal feedback. For the most part, I loved it. It gave me peace of mind knowing that my assigned spy was did not know what was going on in my life for that week. I was able to say what I wanted to say without worrying about the government reading it and taking my messages the wrong way. However, I did not like that I was getting new spam mail and I am pretty sure that this app is where those companies got my email address from. Lets go into more details about the app.

Pros:

By encrypting the signal, the messages stay on the phones instead of going into “the cloud.” (briarproject.org) This is a great perk because you will be able to sleep soundly knowing that these messages are not being surveilled by the government and whatever you say in the conversations through this app will strictly be between you and your peers, unless they screenshot it… Briar also promises in their privacy policy that they have no access to the content or information of that content (metadata).

Briar uses Wireless Fidelity (WI-FI) or The Onion Router, commonly known as TOR to connect you to your peers. By using WI-FI, Briar allows private messaging through their own encryption, making it hard for hackers to gain access to your messages. Encryption is when information is written in code to make it hard for outside users and hackers to decipher the information (dictionary.com). That means that even though it is using WI-FI, your messages are not going to the cloud because of locked encryption. TOR is a private browser that allows Briar to work when not on WI-FI and still hold true to their privacy promises. For example, TOR allows for you to be completely anonymous online and deletes all cookie and browsing history as soon as you exit the browser. TOR also allows you to visit blocked sites and does not censor anything that you read or write (torproject.org). In other words, you can be the real you online without repercussions.

 Lastly, the only content that Briar does collect are your log ins, which they delete after 7 days, crash reports, and any feedback you give. The feedback and crash reports are uploaded to their development website. However, they do not attach your information to those reports (Briar Privacy Policy).

 Cons:

The only real con I noticed with the Briar app is that they use SorceForge to manage their mailing list. SorceForge does share your email with third party companies and admits to selling them for statistical and marketing purposes. (slashdotmedia.com) What is worse is that although you are given the option to opt out by emailing the company at privacy@slashdotmedia.com, they say that they retain the right to reject your wishes and will give you feedback on why.

  Overall, Briar is a free app that is, for the most part, pretty secure. It has been around for 2 years and has not had any scandals. I would rather get the spam emails and know that SourceForge has no access to the content of my messages than continue to use my built in messaging app with the anonymous third wheel in my chat who is getting all of my personal information. Whoever they are should definitely know by now that I am not a terrorist! So, I say, try out the app just to get it more exposure and get a sense of your freedom back. Do not try out the app if you hate spam mail because you are sure to get a lot of it.

Next week, we will review the Zoiper app that secures phone calls. Until next time!

Citations:

Publishing Company,Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (2011) Retrieved      from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/encrypted

LLC, SourceForge Media. (2019) Retrieved from https://slashdotmedia.com/privacy-statement/#A

Retrieved from briarproject.org

Retrieved from torproject.org