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psych0l0gical-effects · 1 year

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U14A6 (Due SUN MAY 7)

Content:

-Mastered 9 technologies and pastimes: the radio, the calculator, women riding bikes, reading novels, written word, the newspaper, landline phones, antibiotics, the erasure.

-Mastered the fundamental principles of learning on which Internet-based higher education capitalizes: Optimal performance, improving mastery, deepening memory, promoting critical thinking, and enhancing writing skills.

-Mastered the challenges that college students face today and how Internet-based education can tackle each challenge: tuition costs, large lectures, accessibility, closed captioning, and synchronous classes

-Mastered what it means that the Internet is manifesting our preference for intransient and asynchronous communication: ins transient and asynchronous is helpful to humans! We can look back on what was communicated and respond at any time.

-Mastered the guidelines for emailing a professor: using wisc account, use professors last name, write informative heading, use paragraph breaks, dont whine!, and write the body first before putting in professors email address

-Mastered examples of how the internet has accidentally and purposefully made content viral: help wanted, a weird unidentifiable rash, ice bucket challenge, reading rainbow, texts from your ex, Charlie bit my finger, cool wand, school is closed

-Mastered what interpersonal attraction is and how similarity attraction might underlie the success of online dating sites: attraction between people is more than just looks, thus dating apps that are based on just looks are unsuccessful for users

-Mastered what interpersonal aggression is and how interpersonal aggression might underlie the phenomenon of online bullying and trolling: Interpersonal aggression are peoples reactions in different situations, this can be applied to the phenomenon of online bullying and trolling as these activties are an outcome of our social/cognitive processes.

-Mastered what emotional contagion is and how emotional contagion might spread through the Internet (e.g., Kramer et al.’s Facebook study): Emotional contagion is the spread of emotions and the behaviors that come with those emotions non purposefully. Emotional contagion can spread through the internet too, when poeple post certain content it can create the same emotions and then actions from a large amount of poeple in different places in the world!

-Mastered why there are so many photos, gifs, and videos of cats on the Internet and why Internet-users get so much emotional pleasure from watching and sharing photos, gifs, and videos of cats: cats easy to personify, cats are introverts and dogs extroverts, cats outnumber dogs, nobody expencted cats to be funny because dogs did it first

-Mastered Huitt’s (2011) sources of motivation and give one example each of how that source of motivation has affected your use of the Internet: Stimulus response, social, cognitive, affective, cognitive, spiritual

-Mastered reasons why people binge watch (TV shows or movies): its fun, enables a shared culture, everyone else is doing it, the desire to know what happens next, allows deeper connection with the characters

-Mastered if we can identify photoshopped images on the Internet: short answer, we sometimes can

-Mastered reasons why the Internet is unlikely to be changing our attention: no real evidence, everything we engage in impacts our brain and our brain adapts, mental reoganization happens over evolutionary time, many things impact memory so new tech shouldn’t be feared

-Mastered the 3 primary decision-making heuristics: Representative heuristic, availability heuristic, and anchoring and adjustment

-Mastered identifying positive effects of Internet use on the cognitive, health, and psychological aspects of aging

-Mastered Identifying positive effects of Internet use on child development: overall, moderate use give the best outcomes

-Mastered the five factors in the Big Five Factor Personality theory: OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

-Mastered what “proportion of variance explained” means and how little of the variance in Internet activities is explained by personality factors (such as the Big Five Personality factors). Note Cambridge Analytica.

-Mastered four famous selfies made prior to the Internet (and smartphones). MY FAVORITE BEING GEORGE HARRISON <3

-Mastered why psychiatrists (and media study scholars) are unsure if “internet addiction” is real: people aren’t addicted to the internet, they are addicted to internet-based activities that they are also addicted to in real life. Ie internet-based shopping or internet-based gambling.

-Mastered what CBT is: mental health counseling technique

-Mastered that internet-based CBT works as well as in-person CBT

-Mastered: Secondary data can be mined from the internet to answer a research question! Ie. The baseball and football popularity maps via Facebook likes

-Mastered previous predictions about the internet:

-Came up with my own predictions about the internet

Reflection

Last assignment (besides submitting this term project)!!!!! I really enjoyed the content we learned this semester. As I read through my reflections and content learned I am proud that I have learned SO much even though my grade doesn't reflect that. Not having my medication has impacted my grade but not what I have learned and that's all I can ask for! Completing this term project shows that I have learned everything the course wanted me to learn and im proud of that. Im excited to apply this information in my capstone Psych class this summer.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years

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Zuck calls Apple a monopolist

The copyright scholar James Boyle has a transformative way to think about political change. He tells a story about how the word "ecology" welded together a bunch of disparate issues into a movement.

Prior to "ecology," there were people who cared about owls, or air pollution, or acid rain, or whales, and while none of these people thought the others were misguided, they also didn't see them as being as part of the same cause.

Whales aren't anything like owls and acid rain isn't anything like ozone depletion. But the rise of the term "ecology," turned issues into a movement. Instead of being 1,000 causes, it was a single movement with 1,000 on-ramps.

Movements can strike at the root, look to the underlying economic and philosophical problems that underpin all the different causes that brought the movement's adherents together. Movements get shit done.

Which brings me to monopolies. This week, Mark Zuckerberg, one of the world's most egregious, flagrant, wicked monopolists, made a bunch of public denunciations of Apple for...monopolistic conduct.

Or, at least, he tried to. Apple stopped him. Because they actually do have a monopoly (and a monoposony) (in legal-economic parlance, these terms don't refer to a single buyer or seller, they refer to a firm with "market power" - the power to dictate pricing).

Facebook is launching a ticket-sales app and the Ios version was rejected because it included a notice to users that included in their price was a 30% vig that Apple was creaming off of Facebook's take.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/28/21405140/apple-rejects-facebook-update-30-percent-cut

Apple blocked the app because this was "irrelevant" information, and their Terms of Service bans "showing irrelevant" information.

This so enraged Zuck that he gave a companywide address - of the sort that routinely leaks - calling Apple a monopolist (they are), accused them of extracting monopoly rents (they do), and of blocking "innovation" and "competition" (also true).

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/zuckerberg-apple-monopoly

Now, there are a bunch of Apple customers who consider themselves members of an oppressed religious minority who'll probably stop here (perhaps after an angry reply), and that's OK. You do you. But I have more to say.

Apple is a monopolist, sure, but more importantly, they are monoposonists - these are firms with "excessive buying power," gatekeepers who control access to purchasers. Monoposony power is MUCH easier to accumulate than monopoly power.

In the econ literature, we see how control over as little as 10% of the market can cement a firm's position, giving it pricing power over suppliers. Monopsony is the source of "chickenization," named for the practices of America's chicken-processing giants.

Chickenized poultry farmers have to buy all their chicks from Big Chicken; the packers tell them what to feed their birds, which vets to use, and spec out their chicken coops. They set the timing on the lights in the coops, and dictate feeding schedules.

The chickens can only be sold to the packer that does all this control-freaky specifying, and the farmer doesn't find out how much they'll get paid until the day they sell their birds.

Big Chicken has data on all the farmers they've entrapped and they tune the payments so that the farmers can just barely scratch out a living, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and dependent on the packer for next year's debt payments.

Farmers who complain in public are cut off and blackballed - like the farmer who lost his contract and switched to maintaining chicken coops, until the packer he'd angered informed all their farmers that if they hired him, they would also get cancelled.

Monopsony chickenizes whose groups of workers, even whole industries. Amazon has chickenized publishers. Uber has chickenized drivers. Facebook and Google have chickenized advertisers. Apple has chickenized app creators.

Apple is a monopsony. So is Facebook.

Market concentration is like the Age of Colonization: at first, the Great Powers could steer clear of one another's claims. If your rival conquered a land you had your eye on, you could pillage the one next door.

Why squander your energies fighting each other when you could focus on extracting wealth from immiserated people no one else had yet ground underfoot?

But eventually, you run out of new lands to conquer, and your growth imperative turns into direct competition.

We called that "World War One." During WWI, there were plenty of people who rooted for their countries and cast the fighting as a just war of good vs evil. But there was also a sizable anti-war movement.

This movement saw the fight as a proxy war between aristocrats, feuding cousins who were so rich that they didn't fight over who got grandma's china hutch - they fought over who got China itself.

The elites who started the Great War had to walk a fine line. If they told their side that Kaiser Bill is only in the fight to enrich undeserving German aristos, they risked their audience making the leap to asking whether their aristos were any more deserving.

GAFAM had divided up cyberspace like the Pope dividing the New World: ads were Goog, social is FB, phones are Apple, enterprise is Msft, ecommerce belongs to Amazon. There was blurriness at the edges, but they mostly steered clear of one another's turf.

But once they'd chickenized all the suppliers and corralled all the customers, they started to challenge one another's territorial claims, and to demand that we all take a side, to fight for Google's right to challege FB's social dominance, or to side with FB over Apple.

And they run a risk when they ask us to take a side, the risk that we'll start to ask ourselves whether ANY of these (tax-dodging, DRM-locking, privacy invading, dictator-abetting, workforce abusing) companies deserve our loyalty.

And that risk is heightened because the energy to reject monopolies (and monoposonies) needn't start with tech - the contagion may incubate in an entirely different sector and make the leap to tech.

Like, maybe you're a wrestling fan, devastated to see your heroes begging on Gofundme to pay their medical bills and die with dignity in their 50s from their work injuries, now there's only one major league whose owner has chickenized his workers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8UQ4O7UiDs&list=FLM6hLIAIO-KfsNFn8ENnftw&index=767

Maybe you wear glasses and just realized that a single Italian company, Luxottica, owns every major brand, retailer, lab and insurer and has jacked up prices 1,000%.

https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-glasses-lenscrafters-luxottica-monopoly-20190305-story.html

Or maybe the market concentration you care about it in healthcare, cable, finance, pharma, ed-tech, publishing, film, music, news, oil, mining, aviation, hotels, automotive, rail, ag-tech, biotech, lumber, telcoms, or a hundred other sectors.

That is, maybe you just figured out that the people who care about owls are on the same side as the people who care about the ozone layer. All our markets have become hourglass shaped, with monop(olists/sonists) sitting at the pinch-point, collecting rents from both sides, and they've run out of peons to shake down, so they're turning on each other.

They won't go gently. Every Big Tech company is convinced that they have the right to be the pinchpoint in the hour-glass, and is absolutely, 100% certain that they don't want to be trapped in the bulbs on either side of the pinch.

They know how miserable life is for people in the bulbs, because they are the beneficiaries of other peoples' misery. Misery is for other people.

But they're in a trap. Monopolies and monopsonies are obviously unjust, and the more they point out the injustices they are EXPERIENCING, the greater the likelihood that we'll start paying attention to the injusticies they are INFLICTING.

Much of the energy to break up Big Tech is undoubtedly coming from the cable and phone industry. This is a darkly hilarious fact that many tech lobbyists have pointed out, squawking in affront: "How can you side with COMCAST and AT&T to fight MONOPOLIES?!"

They have a point. Telcoms is indescribably, horrifically dirty and terrible and every major company in the sector should be shattered, their execs pilloried and their logomarks cast into a pit for 1,000 years.

Their names should be curses upon our lips: "Dude, what are you, some kind of TIME WARNER?"

But this just shows how lazy and stupid and arrogant monopolies are. Telcoms think that if they give us an appetite for trustbusting Big Tech, that breaking up GAFAM will satiate us.

They could not be more wrong. There is no difference in the moral case for trustbusting Big Tech and busting up Big Telco. If Big Tech goes first, it'll be the amuse-bouche. There's a 37-course Vegas buffet of trustbustable industries we'll fill our plates with afterward.

Likewise, if you needed proof that Zuck is no supergenius - that he is merely a mediocre sociopath who has waxed powerful because he was given a license to cheat by regulators who looked the other way while he violated antitrust law - just look at his Apple complaints.

Everything he says about Apple is 100% true.

Everything he says about Apple is also 100% true OF FACEBOOK.

Can Zuck really not understand this? If not, there are plenty of people in the bulbs to either side of his pinch who'd be glad to explain it to him.

The monopolized world is all around us. That's the bad news.

The good news is that means that everyone who lives in the bulbs - everyone except the tiny minority who operate the pinch - is on the same side.

There are 1,000 reasons to hate monopolies, which means that there are 1,000 on-ramps to a movement aimed at destroying them. A movement for pluralism, fairness and solidarity, rather than extraction and oligarchy.

And just like you can express your support for "ecology" by campaigning for the ozone layer while your comrade campaigns for owls, you can fight oligarchy by fighting against Apple, or Facebook, or Google, or Comcast, or Purdue Poultry...or Purdue Pharma.

You are on the same side as the wrestling fan who just gofundemed a beloved wrestler, and the optician who's been chickenized by Luxottica, and the Uber driver whose just had their wages cut by an app.

#pluralistic

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perfectirishgifts · 4 years

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Grimes, Serena Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow Talk AI, Ventures And Pivots At Web Summit 2020

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/grimes-serena-williams-gwyneth-paltrow-talk-ai-ventures-and-pivots-at-web-summit-2020/

Grimes, Serena Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow Talk AI, Ventures And Pivots At Web Summit 2020

Tech investor Serena Williams with Away cofounder Jen Rubio

AI was top of mind at Web Summit 2020 held last week as celebrity founders and funders took to the small screen to discuss digital twins, autonomous weapons and how to govern Mars.

Over 100,000 viewers tuned into the virtual conference, up 300% from the airing of its sister show Collision From Home held earlier this year, and up 30,000 attendees from 2019 when the event was last physically held in Portugal, according to the show’s producers. A production so flawless that unicorn maker, Garry Tan, predicted the platform would be worth a billion dollars if they ever chose to spin it out.

But what really made Web Summit a standout was its clever mix of programming. No other tech show has yet to cast Hollywood’s most famous meth dealers, Contagion’s patient zero, the Princess Bride and Captain America discussing pivots from end times. Netflix and Amazon should take note – Web Summit was by far the best streaming entertainment of the week.

Some great insights were shared on the promise and perils of AI by Mark Cuban, Deepak Chopra, Ronnie Chieng, Alexa’s boss, Grimes, Ridley Scott, Palmer Luckey, Elad Gil, Garry Tan, Nicole Quinn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Jen Rubio, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. Here are the highlights.

My Digital Twin

Shark Tank host Mark Cuban

“I wish someone would invent an AI model of the human body that could be individualized,” Mark Cuban said. A mini me of sorts with a copy of all bodily functions where simulations could be run to tell you, “Your throat isn’t sore, you ate something that’s bothering your esophagus which can be cured by A, B, C or D in seven days.”

Journalist Emily Ragobeer in conversation with Deepak Chopra and Lars Buttler

Deepak Chopra then introduced his own version of a mini me, Digital Deepak, a wellness guide for sleep, stress management, yoga, breathing, exercise, emotional resilience, nutrition, balancing circadian rhythms and self awareness. The best selling author only half-joked that he uploaded his consciousness to the AI Foundation to provide users with valuable insights from his 91 books. Although its not clear how biometrics will be tracked on the app, AI Foundation cofounder and CEO Lars Buttler gave assurances that everyone will be able to train their own Personal AI soon and that safeguards were being taken to prevent deepfakes made on the platform.

But can your AI take a joke?

“AI can get a well known joke or play on words because it knows when it understands something. If its confidence interval is narrow and it doesn’t know what’s going on, it will say I don’t know this yet, let me learn more about this,” Buttler explained.

Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng answering audience questions, “Will AI ever be as funny as you?”

“Will AI ever be as funny as Ronnie Chieng?”

“AI funny as me?! I hope not, I’ll be out of a job,” Daily Show’s Ronnie Chieng said as he responded to audience questions, “Right now I can’t even get Alexa to set a timer without selling me an ad. If it’s going to be as funny as me, it probably will sell more ads, so maybe?”

He then mimicked about how chatty Alexa has become.

“Hey Alexa, set a timer for 15 minutes.”

“Okay Ronnie, your timer is 15 minutes, by the way, would you like to buy a clock?”

“No, I don’t want to buy anything, I just want you to do your job!” he replied.

The Atlantic’s Nicholas Thompson with Amazon’s Dave Limp

Alexa’s boss, Amazon’s Head of Hardware and Devices, Dave Limp explained they’re working on improving Alexa’s hunches.

“We’re at a point where one out of five interactions with Alexa are not instigated by the customer.” This means 20% of the time Alexa is doing something on your behalf, like playing news after you hit snooze to subtly wake you up.

“We’re trying to make this a delightful experience. What’s super important about being proactive is that you have to be right, a lot. As soon as you start getting proactive and incorrect, it gets annoying very quickly.”

TechnoUtopia v Dystopia

Grimes

Alt pop superstar Grimes, girlfriend to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, and mother to the Elven spelling of AI, talked about the role technology is playing in her life.

“I feel like iPhone should turn off an hour before bed. It’s been giving me sleep problems. It’s technology we haven’t factored into our biology.” She added, “But we shouldn’t forget technology makes our lives better. We need more utopianism in sci fi.”

Having recently collaborated with Endel, the algorithmic music startup, on an AI lullaby she observed, “Everyday I thank the overlords of Ableton for cleaning up my tracks but I do worry though that AI will outpace us and make musicians obsolete. It’s inevitable. We have the beautiful advantage of knowing super intelligence is coming. We ought to make those rules now and not wait until its too late. We’re giving birth to AI. We can teach it and point it in the right direction, but where it goes from there as it becomes more powerful as this ghost in our data and ultimately its own being is anyone’s guess. Maybe it will become like Dune, where thinking machines get banned on Earth and we send AI out into the universe to spread the light of consciousness so information is wherever you go, and then Earth becomes this boutiquey thing like organic vegetables where when human music is heard people will be like, oh, this was made by a woman, not a robot.”

As to whether this will turn into a dystopian nightmare of our own making, Grimes concluded, “Every tool has the potential to be dangerous. Where we are headed depends upon what we do with the technology. We’re on the knife’s edge right now but we have solved insane problems like our faces being beamed through space and time so we can be together in the same place right now despite physically being all over the world. That’s some crazy wizardry happening right here. There is a solution, we just shouldn’t make failure an option.”

Exiting The Anthropocene

Sir Ridley Scott

Blade Runner director Ridley Scott delivered his own dire warning with the premiere of his Digital With A Purpose film urging innovators to find way to meet Paris Accord Climate 2030 goals. “The luxury of science fiction is that it’s fantasy. We’re dealing with reality. We’re being way too polite about where we are. We are at the threshold of an abyss of disaster.”

Palmer Lucky, cofounder Oculus and Anduril, making the case for the tech industry to work on … [] autonomous weapons

Which begs the question, if the age of autonomous weapons is upon us, who do you trust more with it, enemy nations or billionaire Oculus founder Palmer Luckey? That’s what Luckey asked in making the case for the tech giants to re-engage with the U.S. Department of Defense on working on national security solutions.

“AI is this very powerful and useful technology but its not very good at making life and death decisions and is totally capable of running autonomous weapon systems. We need to assume it develops as fast as the most optimistic people assume and set rules now,” Luckey said, “We shouldn’t be outsourcing accountability to a machine. You can’t lock up a machine in prison for war crimes.” Anduril AI analyzes data to help humans pull the trigger, with safeguards to prevent abuses, he said. He criticized Google and Apple for not doing more.

“Big Tech companies are not only not working on national security problems, but they’re killing the work of companies that are. This happened with Boston Dynamics. That’s because there are financial and PR incentives to stay out of military work. China has done an incredible job of blocking access to their markets as a tool to get the culture of Western democracies to subvert itself to China. Meanwhile, China is making huge strides in autonomy and AI. China is going to be a superpower, bigger than the United States.”

Why Silicon Valley Will Always Be Home To AI

Elad Gil

Elad Gil, investor in Anduril, AirBnb, Cardiogram, Instacart, Pinterest, Square, Stripe, Unbabel and Wish, gave his perspective on the Work From Anywhere diaspora from Silicon Valley.

“For those of you in the audience thinking about starting a company, I want to tell you the water is fine. San Francisco is still a great place to come to. I encourage you to meet us here. Markets are bigger than they’ve ever been. If you ask yourself where is all the tech market cap aggregating, of the 187 unicorns that have been created in the last 15 months, half were in the U.S. and a quarter in Silicon Valley. I do believe we’re going to continue to have a cluster in the Bay Area because of strong network effects that accelerate companies and people working in those industries. I don’t think that behavior goes away after Covid.”

It’s 2020, Computers Can Now See, Hear And Socialize

Initialized Capital Garry Tan

As to where he’s placing his AI bets for the new year, Initialized Capital’s Garry Tan said, “We remain very long on computer vision. We were the first investors in Cruise Automation which broke open the self-driving car space and now there is a lot of practical automation that was never possible before.”

An investor in Standard Cognition, he talked about its camera-only cashierless retail experience that enables you to walk into a store, pick up whatever you need and walkout, in stark contrast to Amazon Go which relies on shelf sensors.

“Down the road we think practical robotics are just around the corner with sub $1,000 real time SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) computer vision, for use industrially and in the home.” Tan is also invested in Ava.me which applies on the fly machine learning to voice recognition and live captioning on Zoom.

Lightspeed Venture Partners Nicole Quinn

Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Nicole Quinn is also bullish on AI. She sees online social experiences remaining sticky for the foreseeable future. She’s invested in Lunchclub, an AI concierge that serves up Zoom coffees for meaningful professional networking, and Cameo, an AI booking agent for celebrities that will chat or send birthday greetings for a fee.

Celebrity Pivots

Gwyneth Paltrow on turning Goop’s first profit

Quinn then took to the screen with her portfolio client, Gwyneth Paltrow who shared news of Goop turning its first profit.

In March, “When the lockdowns happened and commerce seemed to completely stop, I set our marketing budgets to zero, pulled down our social media spend, and returned to our content roots to get back into the hearts and minds of our readers. Soon after engagement metrics went up and transactions followed, but our events and ads business had gone to zero overnight and our retail business were down from plan. I knew I had to get to profitability as quickly as possible. The hardest part was having to take such a stringent look at the P&L, close stores and let go of people we loved,” Paltrow said.

“We tell our companies, to win you got to be around. You need to have at least 24 months runway at all times,” said Quinn, applauding Paltrow actions.

Then Paltrow, an Academy award winning actress, landed a Netflix series, Goop Lab, which just got renewed for Season 2. “We got a lot of new customers from the show. I feel like a lot of brands are very reliant on Facebook, but when you live in the intersection of content and commerce, founders need to think of ways to organically reach customers. I’ll never buy another customer off Facebook again.”

Paltrow added, “I’m not that bullish on 2021. I think we’re still in for a lot of instability. We’re looking at creative ways to monetize content and find sustainable growth from within our own channels as opposed to spending money to prospect. We’re looking at doing something in food which is a strong pillar for us and not intensive from a capital expenditure standpoint.”

Serena Williams

Tennis legend Serena Williams is a prominent AI investor. Her portfolio includes Tonal, Noom, Zipline, Masterclass, Gobble, Billie and Daily Harvest, which she backed along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Quinn and Paris Hilton. Before the pandemic, she was an extensive traveler and launched an Away x Serena Williams luggage line. She went on screen with Away cofounder Jen Rubio to discuss their collaboration and the challenges the brand has been facing this year.

“Being at the intersection of travel and retail was pretty much the worst place to be. We stopped everything and took a hard look at should we be marketing at all. Approaching it very authentically and transparently with our customers allowed us to keep the brand going when it didn’t make any sense to travel,” Rubio said, sharing how fans have been supporting the brand by posting memes of Away suitcases posed as standing desks and work out benches. The company has since been able to pivot with travel goods for socially distanced road trips, digital nomading and pandemic puppies.

Cheers to 2021!

Forbes Zack O’Malley Greenburg Breaking Bad with Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul

Let’s all raise a glass to the end of 2020.

“It’s been a difficult year for the entire world but the one thing that’s gotten us through is knowing we’re all going through it together. I miss travel but I’m finding happy moments at home. It’s really cool to be in one place with my family,” said Williams.

Then Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul mixed up cocktails to promote their Dos Hombres Mezcal and did virtual shots from their sunny Los Feliz homes in locked down L.A. To next year in Lisbon!

Making Dos Hombres cocktails with Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul

From AI in Perfectirishgifts

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verenawulfweb · 4 years

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By Default: Yes. Or: We Need to Talk About Consent

The Power to Steer Us

Since listening to several talks by Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019), I am more aware than ever that I need to rethink the way I behave on the internet and the way I use technology.

youtube

The 50-minute VPro documentary (see above) is just one of many interviews Zuboff has given since publishing her work in which she explains how our online behaviour is being tracked, gathered and eventually sold as big data by the giant tech companies to be monetized. And since a lot of our lives is happening online, this means, in fact, big parts of our lives are being monitored.

One of the most important things she points out and a big reminder to me is that our online behaviour and our “real life” behaviour are closely intertwined. What is happening online has an impact on what is happening offline, in the streets, to us personally and physically - be it in form of rallies, social uproar, bullying, or event organization (to name only a few, both positive and negative).

That in itself is not necessarily negative. Social gatherings, protests and rallies are a big part of democracy, as they offer platforms for people to voice their opinion, to be heard and to raise the governments’ attention.

Where it becomes questionable, however, is when the data that is being collected is used to create a profile about us that helps predict our future actions. Personalized ads are the most prominent evidence of our behaviour being tracked and the information being used for commercial purposes.

Where it becomes dangerous, according to Zuboff, and a potential threat to democracy is when our profiles are used not only to predict, but to influence our actions. In 2014, the PNAS published a study that examined if and to what extend Facebook users’ emotions could be influenced. The research paper Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks sums up:

“We show, via a massive (N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. We provide experimental evidence that emotional contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues.”

These findings show us that our emotions, and thus our attitudes and behaviours, can easily be steered, even without our knowledge.

Image by Shane Devlin

When Silence Means Consent

With all that in mind, I decided to take a closer look at my own online behaviour by starting to track myself. To see how much time I spend on my phone and how much time I spend on each app, I installed StayFree, a tracking app.

Interestingly enough, installing this app automatically brought me to a section of my phone settings where I had to give my consent that StayFree can track my phone behaviour. What I saw then, to my surprise, was that all apps were ticked as “Yes, you can track my behaviour” (see screenshot below).

This is certainly something I was not aware of, and never actively (or let’s say consciously) agreed to. There may have been a general consent button I had to press in order to proceed when setting up the phone, but of that I have no recollection. So, it seems like unless I actively say “no” and deactivate this function, it is assumed that I agree and give my consent.

Not being aware that something is happening and therefore not speaking up against it does not equal giving consent. Transferring this notion to other areas of life, I am sure, a lot of people would agree.

In 2019, the question of how to get more people to become organ donors (after their death) was heatedly discussed in Germany, where compared to other countries the number of organ donors remains relatively low. One of the solutions under discussion was to assume everybody, by default, would be a prospective donor, unless people actively voice their dissent, no justification required. The suggestion was dropped, however, because it was found to be against the constitution which states that a person must have the chance to consider the topic before making a formed decision. (tagesschau.de)

Of course you cannot compare donating your organs to giving away data on your online behaviour. But I do think we need to reconsider - or rather reclaim - our rights of being asked before we give our consent, without facing disadvantages.

#shoshanazuboff #theageofsurveillancecapitalism #massscalecontagionexperiment

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puresoftware-blog · 4 years

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Covid-19 Series:The New Normal - Financial Services 2020 & Beyond

Author: Manish Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, PureSoftware

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is being felt by countries and businesses all around the world and has already delivered the fastest, deepest economic shock in history. Countries are seeing massive unemployment spikes and numerous businesses are faced with a dramatic loss of revenue and struggling to maintain their operations. The major challenge for the entire global economy is to sustain Business Continuity amidst these lockdown and social distancing challenges.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced companies to rethink the way they work, tighten up business travel policies, undertake cost optimization on priority, and relook at growth strategies. The online channel which was once a “good to have” one for the brick-and-mortar companies has become one of the mandatory channels for the present and foreseeable future. Some companies have already started thinking about leveraging ‘Work from home’ permanently as part of their company policy. Online collaboration Apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams have seen soaring downloads and an exponential increase in the customer base.A

We are seeing this lifestyle change play out in real-time as the contagion accelerates globally; and technology has become indispensable when it comes to accepting and adapting to this new normal.

Banks have transitioned to remote sales and service teams and launched digital outreach to customers to make flexible payment arrangements for loans and mortgages”

Source McKinsey Digital (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-covid-19-recovery-will-be-digital-a-plan-for-the-first-90-days)

The current situation has acted as a wake-up call for both governments and organizations especially financial institutions. Till recently, for Banks, talking about digital was merely a way of showing customers that they were keeping up with the changing times. But in most cases, this referred to only a superficial digital layer that was customer-facing. COVID-19 has disrupted banks’ traditional channels like nothing we have seen before, forcing branch closures, restructuring call centers to work remotely and testing digital delivery channels. Banks may appear to have the best service outward-looking, but if not supported internally by robust technological systems then a situation like this has simply served as a rude shock and most Banks have fallen sorely short of customer expectations.

COVID-19 is just a catalyst that has helped push customers along the technology adoption curve. The important fact however is that once onboarded, users tend to stick with the new habit if it’s more convenient. This shift towards digital products and services, accelerated by the virus, will, therefore, have a long-lasting effect on the years to come. Digital-only is now the new norm and is here to stay. Even after the epidemic, how consumers relate to their bank and do banking will be forever changed.

Young adults are currently the biggest adopters of digital-banking with 25% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 having an online-only account. The other segments have used online merely to support transactions when going to a branch has not been possible. This is about to change because faced with fear and situations beyond their control, people are adopting technology at a pace as never witnessed before.

By putting the customer at the core of their business strategy, banks can still find a way to add some stability to their businesses. Financial institutions that lead to customer experience have a higher recommendation rate, a higher share of customer mind space, and a greater likelihood that these customers stick to them. It is therefore critical to start any digital transformation journey with the customer at its centre and as an endeavour to digitize the ideal customer experience. However, more often than not, the banks start with their existing process and existing technology stack, and then try to put the client experience on top of that. This is what has led to superficial digital layers that come crashing down at the first sign of crisis.

Consumers’ growing desire for digital banking services will force many traditional financial institutions to fast-track digital transformation efforts, as a result, many of them will have no choice but to turn to fintech for assistance in drastically reducing time to market for digital banking solutions to the marketplace. As more customers stay and work from home, online investments will also pick up, and Robo-advisors, online trading, and InsurTech, etc will be preferred for wealth management. MFIs and NBFCs which have traditionally been driven by physical methods of cash collection, face to face verification, and onboarding of new customers will now have to seek new ways to embrace digital.

With the foray of new technologies and financial tech institutions slicing into the banking pie and more importantly, with the uncertainty of global events, the banking industry needs to quickly adapt and look towards elevating the customer experience and also finding a way to engaging customers remotely. This will lead to rising demand for fintech enablers around AI, IoT, and software solutions. One such platform that can help financial institutions and Banks achieve rapid results and quickly go to market is Arttha from PureSoftware.

ARTTHA, the unified fintech platform from PureSoftware is a ‘Digital in a Box’ solution that allows financial institutions to leverage the platform in a SaaS as well as an on-premise model for enterprise-scale deployments. ARTTHA'S lightweight core-banking along with payments help fintechs and legacy banks transform digitally within a minimal lead time and with minimum disruption to their existing systems and processes.

Arttha is built leveraging a microservices architecture with unique microservices for each functional module. Every module can hence run independently of each other and the functionality can be exposed to third-party partners leveraging the 300+ APIs in the platform. Click here to know more about Arttha.

About the Author

Manish is an accomplished leader in the Information Technology Industry with more than two decades of experience across the globe, especially emerging and frontier markets. He Co-Founded the APJ business at PureSoftware and is leading a passionate team focused on Digital Platforms in Clinical Trials, fintech, IoT, and IT Services. Based in Singapore, Manish is also an Advisor to multiple technology start-ups and is passionate about fintech, insure-Tech, and Digital Platforms.

#fintech #financial inclusion #fintech solutions

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psych0l0gical-effects · 1 year

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U13A6 SUN APR 30

Content:

-Mastered 9 technologies and pastimes: the radio, the calculator, women riding bikes, reading novels, written word, the newspaper, landline phones, antibiotics, the erasure.

-Mastered if we can identify photoshopped images on the Internet: short answer, we sometimes can

-Mastered the 3 primary decision-making heuristics: Representative heuristic, availability heuristic, and anchoring and adjustment

-Mastered identifying positive effects of Internet use on the cognitive, health, and psychological aspects of aging

-Mastered Identifying positive effects of Internet use on child development: overall, moderate use give the best outcomes

-Mastered the five factors in the Big Five Factor Personality theory: OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

-Mastered four famous selfies made prior to the Internet (and smartphones). MY FAVORITE BEING GEORGE HARRISON <3

-Mastered what CBT is: mental health counseling technique

-Mastered that internet-based CBT works as well as in-person CBT

-FINAL PROJECT DUE FRIDAY!!!! No one-week extension!!!!!

Reflection

As I look over this review sheet I am realizing how much I have learned over the last semester. It's wild that this much information has stuck with me. I have an exam next in one of my classes and I'm hoping I remember everything I've read in the singular textbook required for the class. I started studying for the three exams that I told myself last week I would start studying for based on how helpful repetition is. I value that this class outsources course materials from a ton of different writers and sources because I think it has allowed me to remember the information easier as well. So close to graduation!!! So excited.

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arplis · 4 years

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Arplis - News: Local tech firm says it owns tracking patent as price of new state app called into question

Blyncsy engineer Dallin Starr works at the company’s office in Salt Lake City in this July 14, 2017, file photo. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Issues related to state contracts with tech companies — struck in a rush to address evolving COVID-19 issues — continue to unfold as questions are being raised about the cost, and legality of a new app for tracing contacts of infected Utahns.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Gary Herbert unveiled the Healthy Together app, touting it is a more efficient tool to monitor the spread of disease, particularly as things slowly get back to normal.

“Certainly we’re concerned about the ups and downs of COVID-19,” Herbert said. “Until we have a vaccine to inoculate against it, we’ll always have to worry about a resurgence of the virus.”

Herbert said no matter the number of people who download the Healthy Together app, the data gathered will assist the Utah Department of Health in its contact tracing efforts.

“It’s really about having the right tool in the toolbox,” Herbert said. “These tools will help us slow the spread of the COVID virus and, as much as we can, stop its spread.”

The deal cost the state $2.75 million in license and development fees and will also require an additional $300,000 per month in fees for “maintenance and support,” according to the contract language.

The company developing the app, Twenty, has expertise in a social media app that allows users to locate friends and events and boasts some 2 million users. New York City-based Twenty will celebrate its 1-year anniversary in 2020.

State lawmaker Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy, is concerned that the state’s executive branch is on a roll of shelling out taxpayer dollars on contracts with companies that are short on track records and able to sidestep typical vetting processes due to an active public health emergency.

“I’m concerned with how fast these contracts are happening,” Stoddard said Tuesday. “I recognize the power of the executive branch, under statute, to suspend the regular procurement process under these circumstances.

“But what percentage of the people who actually download the app are actually going to contract COVID-19? I just don’t anticipate the use justifying how much money is being spent on this.”

Stoddard also cited the state’s multimillion-dollar contract with Nomi Health, a tech startup that’s operating the TestUtah CVOID-19 testing sites and also developed the TestUtah.com assessment website, as another example of a company that lacks any substantial reviewable performance history and was able to secure a no-bid state agreement.

“Tech can solve a lot of problems but is not the solution to every problem,” Stoddard said. “I think the takeaway is not every emergency is the same. Some require immediate action and some just don’t.”

So far, the state has paid Twenty $1.75 million and is awaiting the full buildout of the app, at which point it will be on the hook for the remaining $1 million. The state is reporting that work is expected to be completed in several weeks.

In the meantime, a Salt Lake City-based tech firm, Blyncsy, says it has a patent on the process of using electronic devices, like cellphones, to track contacts of someone with a contagion.

Blyncsy is a company with wide expertise in tracking, which is the core of services it offers to transportation agencies and other clients around the country.

Blyncsy founder and CEO Mark Pittman said he’s opened the door to offering license agreements to companies like Twenty, or any other firm looking to do contagion contact tracing with a cellphone, but it will require the approval of a privacy committee he’s putting together.

“The methods that will be used for contact tracing with electronic devices could just as easily be used for surveillance — and could compromise privacy and personal information,” Pittman wrote in a blog post. “We at Blyncsy are stepping up to solve this challenge. Anyone who licenses our technology will be required to submit their privacy policies, outline their methods and practices for contact tracing, satisfy our independent committee that the system will not be used for tracking of individuals for uses other than to stop the spread of the pandemic, and demonstrate that significant steps are in place to protect personal information.”

Pittman said he has not yet heard from Twenty and attempts to communicate with the company have not received responses. Pittman highlighted his concerns with the potential misuse of tracking technology in a 2017 Deseret News profile of the company and outlined his efforts to help pass state legislation in 2016 that placed limits on law enforcement access to the kinds of location information Blyncsy collects.

A spokeswoman for Twenty said the company isn’t aware of any patent infringement issues and wrote in a May 2 email that it hadn’t heard from Blyncsy.

“Healthy Together is based on technology that was developed by our team starting in 2014,” the spokeswoman wrote. “We are not aware of any patented technology relating to Healthy Together, nor has a patent holder ever contacted us.”

While the state says any infringement issues are between Blyncsy and Twenty, the contract with the app developer is pretty clear when it comes to indemnity issues, including an intellectual property clause that reads, in part: “Contractor also warrants that any good, custom deliverable, or service furnished by contractor under this contract, including its use by the Eligible Users in unaltered form, will not infringe any copyrights, patents, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights.”

The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget reported that, as of Monday, 41,000 users had downloaded the app and some 100,000 have taken the COVID-19 assessment via Healthy Together.

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/local-tech-firm-says-it-owns-tracking-patent-as-price-of-new-state-app-called-into-question

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drawingconclusions · 4 years

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CONTACT TRACING APPS + ORIGINS OF THE CORONAVIRUS

I'm not fond of returning to political & social commentary in the midst of this crisis, but I'm growing more concerned about some of the responses to the coronavirus. And I see some hateful people becoming more hateful, and the regularly unhinged individuals becoming more unhinged.

Some in Congress have called for an investigation into the U.S. coronavirus response, and if I'm not mistaken, it's spearheaded in part by Adam Schiff, which is quite interesting. Sure there is much we can learn from our response to this crisis, as with any other crisis, but somehow this seems like another partisan attempt to hurt Trump. Someone stated that during November there were no intelligence briefings/meetings held in the corresponding committee in the House of Representatives on account of the impeachment inquiry that Adam Schiff & others were leading. Is that true? This virus has been active in Wuhan China since at least early December 2019, and possibly late November. Instead of wasting time on bogus impeachment proceedings, the Democrats in Congress should have been thinking ahead and recommending the production of supplies we are now lacking. I personally would like to see that investigated. And as for any other briefings about the coronavirus that Congress did eventually receive in early 2020, please state all the subsequent concrete actions, if any, that members of Congress implemented that helped the American people as a result of those meetings. One of the stimulus bills recently passed by Congress includes 10 billion dollars in international development. Can someone please itemize exactly what that entails, especially when there are Americans in such dire need as a result of the coronavirus economic lockdowns?! And who specifically proposed some of these unnecessary add-ons to the bill? Look, I'm not trying to lump all the members of Congress in the same category, as I recognize there are still some good and decent people who represent us, but it's incredibly disconcerting to see some politicians still looking out for their own interests & pushing their warped ideologies when the American people are going through such a difficult time.

And can someone logically explain why we plan to continue to bring in foreign workers to the U.S. this year when there are more than 16 million Americans currently without jobs? You know that I'm not opposed to legal immigration and I don't hate people of different countries. (For crying out loud, I'm an immigrant who became a U.S. citizen.) It's just that there are so many people in need in our own nation. (And is there any way we can have Personal Protective Equipment manufactured by the private sector to help keep costs low and to hire at least some of these furloughed workers?) Those people who are talking about a near endless lockdown obviously haven't seen the images in the news of miles of cars in line at the food banks across the country or heard about the rise in suicide rates. The economy isn't some kind of abstract concept separate from the lives of the people; the economy is the American people. We have to find ways to bring immediate relief to those who are hurting most in our country.

Apple and Google have formed an alliance (unholy or holy, we've yet to see, LOL) to develop an app that will provide contact tracing for those who may potentially cross paths with a Covid-19 infected individual. Each smartphone will have a unique number or identifier that will reportedly be changed every fifteen minutes, and through the bluetooth functionality of your phone you will be notified if you come in contact with a person who has been infected. The good thing is these companies have stated their intent to allow the public to review the coding involved, and I'm sure there are some talented developers who can give that a good look. Listen, I've never created a complicated app and I'm not a certified developer, but I still have a slew of questions. Unless a project or an app has been abandoned, there are usually continual changes to code, and I'm curious how or if users will be notified of significant revisions to privacy or terms of use. Even though the unique identifier for each phone will be changed every fifteen minutes or so, there still has to be a way to recognize a specific phone for an extended period, otherwise the tracking process wouldn't work. How exactly is that done and where will that identification reside - on a user's phone or on the health agency's server? And will law enforcement or intelligence agencies be allowed to have a backdoor into the software or app, as this coding will seem to have the ability to know who you've come in contact with recently? Some have wondered aloud whether cell phone browser IP addresses will be made known to the health agency servers where all this info is relayed to. If an organization has your IP address, they can likely obtain your identity from your cell phone carrier, and we know by now how some of those carriers are all too willing to hand over your personal information.

While most people view the coronavirus as a temporary problem until we find a vaccine, Apple & Google have stated their intentions of going beyond just a coronavirus app to actually build this contact tracing into their mobile phone operating systems in the near future. So this doesn't appear to be a temporary solution to a temporary problem, but instead a new way of life that they're permanently baking into cell phone software that millions of Americans use every day. And Apple, please don't kid consumers by saying a toggle button in the interface will opt us out of contact tracing once it's in the iOS. Wasn't there a previous version of iOS that would collect location data despite the toggle button settings?

I can't say that I'm very confident in giving any tech companies potentially more influence or leverage over the population. Many of these are the same companies who indulge in targeted bias of conservatives on a daily basis, and who seem to have a love affair with China's communist government (Wasn't Google the company that eagerly offered to help the Chinese military with AI and who was willing to help censor the Chinese population in search engines?). Are these really the ones we should trust with this? Is there any organization we would trust with this?

I'm usually loathe to bring social criticism without offering some kind of alternative. And despite the many faulty computer models we've seen from various universities about the coronavirus, it's clear that this pandemic is still a serious matter. I don't have clear-cut solutions to all this. (Maybe restaurants can build temporary plastic or acrylic stalls to better protect their patrons. Maybe large open warehouses can be converted into spaces that will hold specific restaurants or even retail stores on an alternating basis. The large spaces would provide better social distancing measures for customers and would obviously need to be disinfected on a daily basis.) But ID cards for those who have had the coronavirus? (Does that mean we should also ID flu patients or those with AIDS or STDs?) Just two days ago, I saw a news report that 91 people in South Korea who had recovered from the virus had contracted it again. Does that blow all our theories about immunity out of the water? Has the virus mutated again into another strain? It's incredibly suspicious that there are two virology labs in Wuhan where this pandemic began and some of China's own scientists have stated that the virus was accidentally carried from there into the general population. Now I'm not a doctor, and I don't know how the high contagion rate of Covid-19 compares with other coronaviruses in existence. But wouldn't it make sense for the international community to demand that China be completely transparent about what occurred in that research lab and whether or not this virus was bioengineered in any way, instead of trying hit or miss solutions to all this? Even after I wrote the bulk of this, I saw a news headline that China is now limiting the release of any information related to the beginnings of this pandemic. Wow. That's exactly what communist and socialist governments do. They hide the truth and punish anyone who dissents or speaks against those in power. Unfortunately, there are individuals and groups here in America who are embracing this same fascist mentality. Tech companies, news media, the White House Press Association, politicians, and various levels of government are making it a habit of taking note of those who challenge the status quo. Which is one of the reasons why I write. This is America and true Americans won't stand for the morphing of our beloved nation into any kind of communist or socialist state.

Yes, we have to find appropriate ways to address the coronavirus. But in the process are we really willing to lose what America stands for?

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kristinsimmons · 4 years

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The New Scarlet Letter

By KIM BELLARD

This piece is part of the series “The Health Data Goldilocks Dilemma: Sharing? Privacy? Both?” which explores whether it’s possible to advance interoperability while maintaining privacy. Check out other pieces in the series here.

If you live in one of the jurisdictions that have imposed stay-at-home requirements, you’re probably making your essential excursions — grocery store, pharmacy, even walks — with a wary eye towards anyone you come across. Do they have COVID-19? Have they been in contact with anyone who has? Are they keeping at least the recommended six feet away from you? In short, who is putting you at risk?

Well, of course, this being the 21st century, we’re turning to our smartphones to help us try to answer these questions. What this may lead to remains to be seen.

We long ago seemed to shrug off the fact that our smartphones and our apps know where we are and where we have been. No one should be surprised that location is of importance to tracking the spread of COVID-19. No one should be surprised that it is already being used. We may end up being surprised at how it will be used.

Baidu coronavirus map app (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News)

Last week Israel granted its domestic security agency emergency powers to track the mobile phone data of people who have (or may have) coronavirus. The intent is for the health ministry to track whether such persons are adhering to quarantine rules, and possibly to alert others who had previously come in contact with them.

China is using the AliPay Health Code to assign color codes to individuals based on their known health status — green, yellow, red. No one is admitting exactly what the codes mean or how they are determined, but The New York Times did an analysis that:

found that the system does more than decide in real time whether someone poses a contagion risk. It also appears to share information with the police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist long after the epidemic subsides.

The system is used in real time to determine, for example, who can board mass transit or use public housing. It is being rolled out nationwide, despite the lack of transparency about how the codes are determined, used, or updated. As one citizen told The Times: “Alipay already has all our data. So what are we afraid of? Seriously.”

Seriously.

Singapore has developed a tool — TraceTogether — that uses Bluetooth to track whose phones have been in close contact, and for how long. If someone then tests positive for COVID-19, the health ministry can easily determine who has been in contact with them. It supposedly does not collect name or even location, but the health ministry can identify individuals if deemed “necessary.” The government is making the technology freely available to developers worldwide.

South Korea is using smartphone data to create a publicly available map of movements of known coronavirus patients, and aggressively message those who might have come in contact with them. As The Times also reported:

South Koreans’ cellphones vibrate with emergency alerts whenever new cases are discovered in their districts. Websites and smartphone apps detail hour-by-hour, sometimes minute-by-minute, timelines of infected people’s travel — which buses they took, when and where they got on and off, even whether they were wearing masks.

Unfortunately, the information about their movements is having significant ripple effects, disclosing destinations users might have preferred not be public, or attaching a stigma to places they frequented. One person told The Guardian: “I thought I only had to protect my health, but now I think there are other things more scary than the coronavirus.”

In the U.S., volunteers from several big tech companies built covidnearyou, which allows people to self-report such facts as any symptoms, travel history, or exposure to people who have tested positive. Anyone can then use their map to determine if there are affected individuals near them.

MIT’s Media Lab has developed Private Kit: Safe Paths, “An app that tracks where you have been and who you have crossed paths with—and then shares this personal data with other users in a privacy-preserving way.” Unlike efforts in some other countries, the data is encrypted and does not go through a central authority. MIT Technology Review says:

This lets users see if they may have come in contact with someone carrying the coronavirus—if that person has shared that information—without knowing who it might be. A person using the app who tests positive can also choose to share location data with health officials, who can then make it public.

Going one step further, two San Francisco hospitals have developed a smart ring that is “able to detect body temperature and pulse.” It is aimed at health care professionals and workers, such as ER doctors, as an early indicator of COVID-19 exposure. It’s probably only a matter of time before laypersons demand a version.

One can easily imagine such a smart ring being connected to a smartphone app, perhaps even generating a color code, and broadcasting the individual’s status and location to others worried about potential exposure. I bet Alibaba would be happy to help.

Everything else being equal, it’s good to know who represents a risk to us. Typhoid Mary became Typhoid Mary because people around her didn’t know she was a carrier. It would be in the public benefit to ensure that people can get warning about other people who are most likely to be infectious with COVID-19.

That being said, everything else is not equal. We don’t have a good understanding of when people with COVID-19 are most infectious, how COVID-19 is most likely transmitted, or how exposure to such people increases risk of third-party transmission. Tagging people and then broadcasting that tag, along with location and even identity, could put people at risk of discrimination (e.g., refused service or contact) and even attacks.

As one privacy expert told The Times: “That could extend to anyone, to suddenly have the status of your health blasted out to thousands or potentially millions of people. It’s a very strange thing to do because, in the alleged interest of public health, you are actually endangering people.”

And we need to bear in mind that whatever technology we bring to bear on this public health problem could subsequently be used for other problems, public health or other. We increasingly live in a surveillance society, and that can be to our benefit — or to our detriment. We don’t always realize the slippery slope we’re on until the slide has become irreversible.

I’m all for using technology to address public health crises. I’m just not clear what the ultimate price we’re going to have to pay for that, and that makes me nervous.

Kim Bellard is editor of Tincture and thoughtfully challenges the status quo, with a constant focus on what would be best for people’s health.

The post The New Scarlet Letter appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

The New Scarlet Letter published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

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lauramalchowblog · 4 years

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The New Scarlet Letter

By KIM BELLARD

Well, of course, this being the 21st century, we’re turning to our smartphones to help us try to answer these questions. What this may lead to remains to be seen.

Baidu coronavirus map app (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News)

Seriously.

I’m all for using technology to address public health crises. I’m just not clear what the ultimate price we’re going to have to pay for that, and that makes me nervous.

Kim Bellard is editor of Tincture and thoughtfully challenges the status quo, with a constant focus on what would be best for people’s health.

The post The New Scarlet Letter appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

The New Scarlet Letter published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

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sciencespies · 5 years

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From Startups to the Supreme Court, Coronavirus Has Changed The World

https://sciencespies.com/news/from-startups-to-the-supreme-court-coronavirus-has-changed-the-world/

From Startups to the Supreme Court, Coronavirus Has Changed The World

Three months ago, the idea that most video conferences will happen with at least one child or more making a ruckus in the background would have seemed strange, but coronavirus-related lockdown around the world is turning this kind of scene into the norm now. As COVID-19 continues to spread — with more positive cases and deaths being reported every day — people across the world have turned to unique method to tackle the problem and ‘flatten the curve’ by social distancing.

In order to prevent the virus’ spread beyond the reasonable capacity of healthcare systems, and to protect vulnerable members of society, many are staying at home, going out only for necessary reasons, and avoiding large gatherings. But society needs to keep functioning, and many people need to keep going to their workplaces to be productive.

Another big challenge in this critical time is shortages of key products and goods. Big cities across India have been facing hand sanitiser shortages, while Western countries have seen hoarders stockpile unreasonably large quantities of toilet paper.

With the need for remoteness at this time, our reliance on technology and the Internet is more firm than ever. Tech companies are stepping up to offer better access and features to keep consumers productive and safe even while at home for prolonged periods.

Core functions

The World Health Organisation’s advice to countries is to ‘test test test’, but this is easier said than done in most places. The private sector is stepping in, with a huge initiative called Project Baseline by Verily Life Sciences, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. The company is now offering COVID-19 testing in the Bay Area of California.

The Supreme Court of India is also considering measures to take the courtroom online, with virtual courts coming soon to avoid large gatherings.

Yet at the same time, religious gatherings in India are carrying on unchecked. Given how a church gathering in Korea triggered a domino effect of infections, this is a matter of concern, and virtual alternatives should be sought for such matters as well. Such methods to keep society running smoothly even in the face of a pandemic could change the way we do things even after things have settled.

Watching movies and TV shows at home

The point of social distancing is to stay away from crowded public spaces, which naturally means you won’t be able to go to the theatre. That’s where OTT platforms come in, letting users stream content and stay caught up on their entertainment in the comfort of their homes.

Universal Studios has taken what is perhaps the most significant step in this regard, giving iTunes, Amazon, and other digital platform users in the US access to movies that are still running in theatres (or would be if theatres were open) at discounted rental prices. The Hunt, Emma, and The Invisible Man will be available to rent on iTunes for $20, thereby making it easier for people to watch new movies without having to actually go outside. Upcoming movie Trolls World Tour, scheduled to release on April 10 in theatres (April 17 in India), will be available to stream on the same day.

The reason this is important is because it paves the way for movies to come to streaming platforms sooner after the theatrical run than currently. More users would avoid going out in the hope that the movies they want to watch will be available to stream in a matter of weeks rather than months, shifting viewing habits online in the long-run. Could this be the end of cinema chains, already struggling to make money? Will they go the way of theatres, and become a niche entertainment while the world simply moves on to streaming?

On the other hand, streaming platforms themselves are doing more to offer better and more relevant content at this time. Although not linked to the pandemic, Disney+ entering India will gives users a whole new catalogue of quality content to watch at this time. Hotstar could have handled the launch a lot better, though.

Some services have even been promoting movies such as Contagion and Outbreak as a means to offer consumers a fictionalised but educative insight into life in the times of a pandemic. Meanwhile, a new Netflix docuseries – Pandemic: How To Prevent An Outbreak – makes for particularly relevant viewing at this time.

Faster internet for more productivity at home

With more people working from home, Internet speed, FUP limits, and reliability is of the essence. We haven’t seen much from the vast majority of Indian Internet service providers in this regard, with the exception of ACT Fibernet; the company is offering free speed upgrades and unlimited FUPs to its users till March 31 to facilitate working from home.

Similar steps are being taken by ISPs in the US, with Comcast taking the big step of offering free Wi-Fi, a waiver on data caps and late payment fees, and a promise to not disconnect any connections during the outbreak. Steps such as these will be remembered by users even after things go back to normal, and show that big companies are trying to do their bit at this time.

After people spend weeks or even months working from home, how many will want to get back to traffic jams and open plan office spaces? If people are able to manage work from home without losing productivity, would their employers also encourage more remote work, in order to reduce the amount of office real estate they have to manage? Although the current lockdown plan is just a short term one, it’s impact could well be very long term.

Education is shifting online

Social distancing is particularly critical in education, but putting shutting schools and colleges down completely isn’t the ideal solution. To tackle this, courses are shifting online, with apps and video conferencing tools helping classes continue to function remotely.

Video conferencing tool Zoom recently announced that it is offering its services to public K-12 schools in a handful of affected countries for free. Similar steps are being taken by Kahoot, Scholastic abroad.

In India as well, platforms such as Vedantu, Toppr, and Byjus are offering free online courses to keep students occupied at home. The pandemic represents a massive opportunity for ed-tech to step up and show how it can keep education functions flowing even when participants are remotely located.

Meet Namya Joshi, the 13-Year-Old From Ludhiana Whom Satya Nadella Praised On Stage

At the same time, it’s important to remember — particularly in a country like India — that not all students have access to the Internet and smart devices. It’s going to be challenging to make sure that no child gets left behind, and even as virtual classrooms gain steam, we should not lose sight of the marginalises people in our society.

Making it easy to not go out

Various other companies are making it easier to avoid going out in unique ways, or keeping productivity high digitally. OnePlus is offering doorstep repairs for its devices, while various food delivery platforms including Swiggy, Zomato, McDonalds, and Dominos have introduced ‘contactless’ deliveries.

With contactless delivery, the executive will leave your order outside your door

Korg and Moog are enabling musicians to continue working even away from their equipment by making their synthesiser apps for iOS and Android free for a limited time. Adobe too is enabling students to access its Creative Cloud apps amidst closures, to allow them to keep learning and working on apps that are typically only accessed on university campuses.

The rise of the bidet spray

Finally, we address a core bodily function, and how Coronavirus is changing things. Although toilet paper hoarding isn’t a huge problem in India because of the way things are done here, it’s affecting people in the West significantly. Incredibly enough, buyers are turning to the good old bidet spray as a way to keep clean, with sales going up in markets such as North America, where its adoption has typically been limited.

In conclusion, the Coronavirus outbreak could change the way we as a society operate; the social aspects of our lives could change significantly even after the threat of COVID-19 is dealt with, with technology playing a huge part in the future.

Is Redmi Note 9 Pro the new best phone under Rs. 15,000? We discussed how you can pick the best one, on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

#News

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paranoidsbible · 7 years

Text

Facebook: Precursor to Social Media Troubles

===Facebook: Precursor to Social Media Troubles=== Non-profit and free for redistribution Written on July 16th | 2017 Published on July 16th | 2017 For entertainment and research purposes only

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DISCLAIMER The Paranoid's Bible and its writers hold no responsibility for the acts of others. The Paranoid’s Bible is for research and entertainment purposes only. Please visit our blog for more PDFs and information: http://www.paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

====Preface==== The main purpose of this guide is to provide you, the reader, arguments as to why you should leave social media and networks, especially Facebook. The second purpose is to educate you about the dangers that social media and networks present as a whole, which ranges from governments and corporations modifying, twisting and overall polluting information. In order for us to do this, however, we’ll be borrowing heavily from Richard Stallman, Salim Virani and Vicki Boykis, who’ve already went above and beyond when doing their research and investigating these issues. While they may have mainly focuses upon Facebook, the truth is that what they have to say applies heavily to Web 2.0 and beyond with how the end user interacts with any services they sign up for, especially any that demand your information in order to create an account. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ===The Claim=== Many people who try to research the malpractices of Facebook or other social networks are usually met with blogs, sketchy sites and MSM articles on the matter, most of which usually gloss over important details or dummy everything down to the point where it seems like it’d be okay to use social networks. However, if you’re lucky or did your search query correctly, you should come across two to three links, which we listed below. https://stallman.org/facebook.html https://stallman.org/facebook-presence.html http://www.salimvirani.com/facebook/ These links standout because they belong to two individuals who actually know what they’re talking about, both of whom know more than most when it comes to privacy. Richard Stallman and Salim Virani have written some thorough articles on the matter concerning privacy and social networking, which is which why we’re dedicating this chapter to their claim: Facebook is unsafe and violates your privacy. Following Stallman’s article, we see (some of) the reasons to not use Facebook as such: * Facebook requires your real name or a known alias to go by * They try to trip up their user’s into giving away info - http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/facebook-snitch-on-friends-that-arent-using-real-names/ * After the cross dresser incident, FB has changed their policy but not really - https://www.engadget.com/2015/06/25/women-lgbt-safety-facebook-policy/ * Blackmail is rampant on FB - http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001133.html * Your profile will always end up in the public’s eye - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/29/facebook-privacy-secret-profile-exposed * FB has secret software that allows governments to censor - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/23/facebook-secret-software-censor-user-posts-china * The infamous square boob incident - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/20/facebook-bans-breast-cancer-video-square-breasts * FB is one of your larger purchasers of personal information - https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-doesnt-tell-users-everything-it-really-knows-about-them * FB’s app spies on SMS messages - https://archive.is/f3uKM * FB tricks you into allowing other websites to make accounts in your name - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/facebook-info-sharing-created-zoosk-com-dating-profile-for-married-woman-1.2844953 * FB loves to diagnose people - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/01/facebook-target-mental-health-data-online It makes you addicted to their service - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-secret-ways-social-media-is-built-for-addiction The above is just a sampling of what Stallman has dug up and found. The links and resources he has provided also go into greater detail on this disturbing trend of websites using their users. We encourage you to visit his links and read up on these issues, especially now that we’re going to discuss Virani’s claims. Virani’s claims, while quite similar to Stallman’s, came after he was concerned about his friends and family. Reading through this article you can see that Virani was not only a supporter of Facebook but also, to an extent, an advocate. You can see he brings up some points that Stallman doesn’t, however both articles are a good resource. Virani’s claims are thus: * FB sells your likes - http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/01/21/facebook-is-recycling-your-likes-to-promote-stories-youve-never-seen-to-all-your-friends/ * FB loves to sneak things through - http://www.zdnet.com/article/is-facebook-damaging-your-reputation-with-sneaky-political-posts/ * They know what you’re reading - http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/telecom/internet/stalking-on-facebook-is-easier-than-you-think * Because of this, insurance companies love to mine your data - http://www.insure.com/car-insurance/social-media-future.html * Facebook delivers your info to the NSA - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data So, looking at a sampling of the two articles above, we already see that Facebook, as an example, represents the potential harm all social media networks can do to its users. While FB is more popular than most, we must assume that if it happens there it’ll happen elsewhere, ergo social media networks pose a harm to our privacy and security as individuals and potentially even activism. This means that it also has the potential to be used as a weapon to enforce societal contagions—memes—as a way to groom users and steer them toward Government or corporate approved behavior and trends. Moving onto the next chapter, we’ll present the information people have discovered that supports, at the very least, how Facebook (and possibly other social media sites) is a danger to its users. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ===The Evidence=== Using the information found at https://veekaybee.github.io/facebook-is-collecting-this/ and https://labs.rs/en/ , we can further see that, in the end, FB has no real qualm about violating your rights and privacy. Looking at the article written by Vicki Boykis we can see what information is collected by FB, and in Vicki’s own words… “TL;DR: Facebook collects data about you in hundreds of ways, across numerous channels. It’s very hard to opt out, but by reading about what they collect, you can understand the risks of the platform and choose to be more restrictive with your Facebook usage.” Actually reading the article, we can see that any user entered data is collected and placed into their (FB’s) database through hundreds of various means, which show cases how FB works with big data. Hive, Hadoop, Hbase, Bigpipe, MySQL, Memcacher, Thrift and much more are used in various ways, all working to keep the house of cards that is Facebook propped up and running while housed in massive data centers located around the world, like the one in Prineville, Oregon. Caching, collecting and archiving your information and data, possibly passing it through a backroom server owned by the government or at the very least one of its agencies. It doesn’t stop there, either. Facebook is known for collecting your keystrokes and tracking your mouse’s movements, even using some of this data to conduct studies. This means everything is now potentially saved, even if you wanted it deleted. They keep track of things you edit and delete, the meta data and other items besides what you leave up and/or post. Again, this shows just a tiny bit of FB collects on you, especially how they can use this to possibly predict things you want to say or do, thus we end up in the realm of pre-activities. Pre-crime and similar notions from movies suddenly rear their ugly heads, showing you that possibly in the near future you could end up on a list just for something you didn’t say. They use all of this to make extrapolations about whom and what you are, what you do and how much time you spend on their site doing anything, regardless of what it is you’re doing. You’ll never not exist on Facebook if you made an account simply because they’ve traces of you everywhere, constantly being catalogued, cached and backed up somewhere for others to find. This is why FB and social media is dangerous in general—one database leak and some information you thought gone could resurface. Don’t believe us? Go and look here: https://www.facebook.com/help/302796099745838 Download your personal subset and see just what Facebook has on you, especially how they generated Ads they believe you’d be interested in. Pair this with what information you give them and combine it. See how disturbing it is with the general information you gave them to fill out your profile? See what they can deduce with such tiny bits of information? You’re marked by this beast now and if FB or any social network really wanted to, they can sell this information whenever they wanted to other companies. Not only does its employees have access to your private information (https://www.quora.com/Do-Mark-Zuckerberg-or-Facebook-employees-have-a-skeleton-key-granting-them-access-to-every-members-Facebook-profile-page-and-information) but you’re also a guinea pig to them, no better than a rodent to poke and prod for their own experiments. They don’t care about you, you’re just a human cattle to them for them to do with as they please. Again, don’t believe us? Checkout their research webpage (https://research.fb.com/). Noticed it? “At Facebook, research permeates everything we do.” * They monitor your emotions - https://research.fb.com/support-when-you-re-feeling-blue/ * They manipulate your emotions - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds * They want you to strap on the digital feed sack and never leave - http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/news-feed-fyi-taking-into-account-time-spent-on-stories/ You end up in a bubble, isolated from all other conflicting sources and opinions. You end up becoming trapped and only fed the things you like, which means you don’t get a healthy diet of information. They fatten you up on narratives they decide are good for you besides you clicking like or dislike. This means they can control the flow of information, making you a useful idiot for whatever side they support. They don’t want you free and thinking critically, they want you to do as they say. Now, before we spend too much time on the above article, we urge you to give it a read and look it over. Like the other articles we’ve mentioned, it goes into great detail about how much FB invades your personal life and wants to actively expose and track people wherever they are, especially if they can make a buck off that information. Moving onto the information from Labs.rs (https://labs.rs/en/category/facebook-research/), you’ll find their trilogy of articles. The first one you’ll find the most informative, especially the maps they’ve made. As you read their articles and look at the maps they’ve created, you soon realize just how far of a rabbit hole we’re digging into. The end result being: YOU’RE FACEBOOK’S PRODUCT While Facebook can claim they don’t sell your information, you can find numerous articles on the matter that they do, especially to advertisers. * FB sells your web browsing data - https://consumerist.com/2014/06/12/facebook-is-now-selling-your-web-browsing-data-to-advertisers/ * The price of free - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2986988/privacy/the-price-of-free-how-apple-facebook-microsoft-and-google-sell-you-to-advertisers.html Privacy has been privatized - http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-information-nsa-iphone-android-data-personal-2016-2 This means that using FB or any social network is a move against your overall level of privacy and security. Add the fact that there’s no guarantee that Facebook or any social network isn’t manipulating your feed continuously, you soon can see what the potential scenarios that can happen. What is preventing someone from using social media to spread enough gloomy news and information to cause a massive wave of suicides? With people claiming teenage suicides are contagious (http://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/28/teen-suicide-contagious-colorado-springs-511365.html) and social media being a possible contributors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide) all it’d take is for the wrong person in control of the right website and then we begin to see why there needs to be more laws in favor of our privacy and security when it comes to these websites. ___References:___ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ===The Realization==== Social Media was believed to be, like the radio, a means to end miscommunication and bring about an era of information sharing the likes of which we’ve never seen before. However the sad truth is that it has become yet another tool for those in power to use against an unsuspecting populace. The US government being one of the bigger exploiters, especially the NSA, has worked with such infamous individuals like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and their websites in order to aggregate information on as many users as possible. It’s nothing more than domestic and foreign spying and one of the many reason why you, as an internet user, should abandon all forms of social networking (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter…ETC). This is because they're no more than breeding grounds for the cancerous tumors of surveillance and so-called legal operations meant to sniff out supposed terrorists that usually end up being some bullied kid in high school venting about jocks and cheerleaders. The Obama administration even acknowledges this much and admitted to wanting backdoors, but if that doesn’t bother you maybe the fact that many abusive individuals use apps and malware to track down their targets or partners will make you think twice about using Facebook and other social networking sites with such naivety. Social networks have become a vice, whether this was intentional or not is irrelevant, as it has shown to be as addictive as any drug. It also has even led to an increasingly common trend: FoMo; Literally the fear of missing out. These websites and their communities will continue to be a vice for our species until we can learn to properly use such social networks with moderation and with responsibility. ___References:___ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/the-nsa-is-using-facebook-to-hack-into-your-computer-20140312 http://www.globalresearch.ca/domestic-spying-and-social-media-google-facebook-back-doors-for-government-wiretaps/5334449 http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/25/spyware-smartphone-abusive-men-track-partners-domestic-violence http://www.casacolumbia.org/newsroom/press-releases/2011-national-teen-survey-finds https://theintercept.com/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-british-spies-seek-control-internet/ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/14/gchq-tools-manipulate-online-information-leak ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ===The Conclusion=== The real truth as to why you need to give up social media is because, if you truly want to fight the establishment or punch up, you need to disappear in order to be seen or heard. With all this information online being archived and housed in data centers where everything’s checked, marked and catalogued the only real way to get anything done is to scrub your digital footprint off of the internet and start looking into information security. While you can find most everything you need to do this over at the PB’s library (https://paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/library), you still won’t get far if you don’t cut ties with social media. If you want to be an activist or a spokesperson for some cause and/or oppressed people, it won’t work if all the establishment or your opponents have to do is a quick search query on any number of engines and bring up the fact that you said something that currently isn’t up to par with what society deems good or bad. Look toward China and their cyberpunk-ish dystopian point system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System) they want to put into place where everyone’s rated by social points that anyone can add or take away. This could be the future of the world, one day, if no one starts acting and working toward a revolution where our information is just that, our information. Not to be one of those people, however if you look at current pop-culture you’ll find an animated series from Japan called Psycho-Pass. It’s set in the future and an entire country is controlled by a system where right and wrong is decided solely by the system, which is almost freakishly close to what happening in today’s day and age. You’ve children now being watched by mega-corporations, where even their schools, parents and daily lives are also monitored. They begin to self-censor because they fear social-castration where they’re ostracized and their brand is meaningless and shunned by the other living-brands due to things said online, in private or caught by a passing smart phone and uploaded to social media. This creates a toxic environment where children (and everyone in general) is limited to the things and ideas they’re exposed to and exploring past what’s deemed appropriate is a sentence of living-death where no one wishes to interact with you lest they too are cast to the shadows for breaking protocol. You’ll soon begin to see people readily conditioned through fear of being an outcast, ergo no one will dissent, participate in activism, challenge the status quo our simply tell someone no. This means these same people will reproduce and their spawn will fall into the same spiraling behavioral sink where you don’t want to speak against the state in fear of an arbitrary number being dropped, thus lowering your prospects in the future when you need a job or get married. Soon you’ll see critical thinking cast side all in favor marching to the same tune of whatever the deep state wants, which will all be due to people not revolting now and costing social media money VIA not participating in their schemes and deleting your accounts. You can stop future surveillance by dissenting right now and by isolating yourself from social networks and media, thus starting a trend where if enough people were to up and remove themselves from a site like Facebook you’ll see their bottom line falter. You can prevent people from being politically timid and docile like the voter-cattle the deep state wants, and all it takes is saying no to social media and networks. If you’re from the US or any Western country, you’ll see what made us special slowly erode due to activist judges and people too worried about hurting the feelings of others. Disregard the arbitrary numbers and mooing of those not currently in the know, as you can prevent things like the destruction of the Bill of Rights by not participating in the rat race of self-implication that’s social media. Why let corporations and political dictate your behavior? Why let them control the narrative and determine our cultural values? Don’t let them dictate your patterns of behavior or the behavior society as a whole with threats of a good-citizen-point. This isn’t a Left or Right political issue, nor is it an issue about genetalia, men, women or chromosomes. This is an issue about privacy and freedom. This is an issue of rights. You’ve the powers-to-be working to use women against themselves, and the same with men and children and various racial groups. This will continue to snowball and force to reality a self-censored public if we don’t start making our voices heard through our actions. The more to submit and make accounts, the more that fall prey to the need for approval from internet strangers and the nanny-state the governments are forcing. Don’t believe the above? Then how about some more evidence and reasons as to why you need to leave your social media accounts VIA some links and discussion points below? * Many privacy advocates and various individuals agree, Facebook’s (and social media) a danger to our freedoms and rights. https://stallman.org/facebook.html |https://www.salimvirani.com/facebook/ | https://labs.rs/en/ | https://veekaybee.github.io/facebook-is-collecting-this/ * They’ve already started the narrative that if you aren’t on social media, or simply are introverted, you’re a potential problem. http://www.medicaldaily.com/your-social-media-presence-may-tell-whether-youre-narcissist-introvert-or-sociopath-270299 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-tech-abandoners-people-without-facebook-accounts-are-suspicious/ * It’s comprised of nothing more than lies, deceit and overall manipulation for simple arbitrary and made up numbers that can hurt your self esteem and overall health. https://conversionxl.com/online-manipulation-all-the-ways-youre-currently-being-deceived/ | http://illusionofmore.com/social-media-manipulate/ | http://fortune.com/2015/12/30/social-media-emotions/ | https://www.independent.co.uk/student/istudents/filters-and-photo-manipulation-on-social-media-sites-are-creating-a-generation-of-deluded-a6852736.html * Again, it’s like a drug and can cause addiction. http://www.medicaldaily.com/facebook-addiction-activates-same-brain-areas-drugs-how-social-media-sites-hook-you-320252 * The astroturfing’s real and it’s aimed at women and young people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing | http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/07/women_young_people_experience_the_chilling_effects_of_surveillance_at_higher.html * The people behind it, like Zuckerberg, are the closest things we’ve to Bond villains. https://boingboing.net/2015/05/21/mark-zuckerberg-just-dropped-a.html | http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/01/18/business/facebooks-zuckerberg-sues-to-force-land-sales/ | https://trak-in.cdn.ampproject.org/c/trak.in/tags/business/2017/06/07/facebooks-evil-patents-discovered-your-emotions-may-soon-be-secretly-recorded-by-your-own-camera/amp/ | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/the-mark-zuckerberg-manifesto-is-a-blueprint-for-destroying-journalism/517113/ | http://www.barstoolsports.com/dmv/mark-zuckerberg-confirmed-facebook-is-working-on-reading-your-mindtelepathy-and-the-details-are-wild/ * Deleting your social media outright lessens your chances of being doxed. * The government can legally access your profiles, accounts and information. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-27/us-government-can-legally-access-your-facebook-data-and-now-we-know-how ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ===Afterword=== The arguments have been made a thousand times as to why social media and networking is a bad thing and no matter what we say or do, we can’t really rephrase it anymore. This is why we made this guide, to provide arguments and information as to why you should say goodbye to social networks and learn to live without them. They’re a tool to undermine any initiatives taken against censorship and oppression, as their main goals are to ultimately get people to self-incriminate.

#social media #social networking #facebook #dox #infosec

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blogmargaretsummers · 4 years

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Managing Your Online Presence During the Pandemic

Quite a few industries and business sectors around the world have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Some sectors have been able to take advantage of all their hardware, software, and connectivity tools in order to continue to do business in the way that public health professionals recommend for everyone: At home, within a social bubble, and minimizing social contact as much as possible.

Leveraging personal computing and connectivity to work from home has not been a smooth ride for everyone. Even some of the most tech-savvy individuals, the kind who enjoy collecting the latest gadgets and apps, have realized that full-time remote work is not exactly what they expected. If you are used to occasionally sending emails from home or participating in Skype conferences from time to time, working full shifts in this fashion will be a challenge. On the flip side of that coin are freelancers and field employees who are used to working from home or on a remote capacity; these are the professionals who can teach the rest of us to adjust to this new reality.

One thing we have learned from professionals who are used to telecommuting is the need to maintain an adequate internet presence. You may have noticed how many Twitter users have changed their profile pictures with photos that show them wearing a surgical mask or a cloth face covering. While this is mostly done for the purpose of solidarity and to encourage others to follow measures to mitigate contagion, there is a strong underlying idea to keeping online profiles up-to-date.

As you can see from this Crunchbase example, activity has been updated to reflect recent news stories, Twitter posts, and LinkedIn updates; this is a simple and effective way to refresh online profiles. Since more people are meeting online in lieu of doing so in person, there is a greater chance that they will query your online profiles; to this effect, you should not forget about search engine optimization since more users will begin their queries on Google. Placing strategic SEO keywords and key phrases within the narrative section of internet profiles can help the Google crawler understand why they should be listed higher on the search engine results page.

Aside from your online profiles, you should not forget about your personal appearance when participating in video conferences. Whenever possible, connect your personal computing devices over Ethernet cables instead of relying on Wi-Fi connections; this would not only increase connectivity but also the security of communications. Keep in mind that you should be looking directly at the camera lens when speaking to those who are involved in the conference. We often make the mistake of looking at whatever is being displayed on our screens; this is a natural reaction in a Zoom meeting because we are used to seeking the eyes of those whom we meet with in real life. In the case of teleconferences, we should get used to the idea of the camera lens being the eyes of others.

The post Managing Your Online Presence During the Pandemic appeared first on Baltimore News Journal.

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sillyanimegamingroad · 4 years

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Gartner explores how connected car tech can help reduce Covid-19 spread

James is editor in chief of TechForge Media, with a passion for how technologies influence business and several Mobile World Congress events under his belt. James has interviewed a variety of leading figures in his career, from former Mafia boss Michael Franzese, to Steve Wozniak, and Jean Michel Jarre. James can be found tweeting at @James_T_Bourne.

How can connected car technologies help against the spread of Covid-19? Analyst firm Gartner has argued in its latest note that vehicle manufacturers can focus their efforts on hygiene and maintaining social distancing.

CIOs at automotive companies ‘should work with internal and external technology partners to incorporate technologies that help lessen the risk of the Covid-19 infection to car occupants,’ the company said.

The four primary areas of focus are cabin disinfection, cabin air purification, human machine interfaces, and more general connected car functionalities.

For the former, ultraviolet lights in car cabins can be used to disinfect frequently touched surfaces, Gartner noted. Plastic and glass surfaces can be replaced by anti-microbial equivalents, while a car’s climate control can heat up the cabin for extended periods to reduce the risk of contamination. Many Asian countries have in-car plasma air purifiers as standard, meaning such technology is ready for global adoption.

Much as Amazon Alexa and other voice assistants have been tweaked to help with coronavirus-related queries – SVP Tom Taylor told GeekWire last month that there had been a ‘huge increase’ in home-based voice commands – Gartner argued the same can occur in the car. An effective voice assistant can help reduce contact with cabin surfaces, as well as detect early symptoms.

In terms of wider functionalities, Gartner also recommended automated door locks and stopping and starting the engine through mobile apps, again lessening the amount of tactile contact with a vehicle. Contactless payments for wider use cases should also be considered, the company added.

“The new normal set by Covid-19 will clearly influence how people travel,” said Pedro Pacheco, Gartner senior research director. “The fear of infection is starting to drive some travellers away from public transport placing a greater emphasis on private cars and shared mobility services.

“However, even within these, individuals want reassurance against contagion and several technologies are being put in place in response to that need,” Pacheco added.

Interested in hearing industry leaders discuss subjects like this? Attend the co-located 5G Expo, IoT Tech Expo, Blockchain Expo, AI & Big Data Expo, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo World Series with upcoming events in Silicon Valley, London, and Amsterdam.

Tags: connected cars, covid-19, gartner

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psych0l0gical-effects · 1 year

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U12A6 SUN APR 23

Content:

End of the unit sheet! I relearned (and mastered) a LOT!

-Mastered 9 technologies and pastimes: the radio, the calculator, women riding bikes, reading novels, written word, the newspaper, landline phones, antibiotics, the erasure.

-Mastered if we can identify photoshopped images on the Internet: short answer, we sometimes can

-Mastered the 3 primary decision-making heuristics: Representative heuristic, availability heuristic, and anchoring and adjustment

-Mastered identifying positive effects of Internet use on the cognitive, health, and psychological aspects of aging

-Mastered Identifying positive effects of Internet use on child development: overall, moderate use give the best outcomes

-Mastered the five factors in the Big Five Factor Personality theory: OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

-Mastered four famous selfies made prior to the Internet (and smartphones). MY FAVORITE IS GEORGE HARRISON <3

-Learned term project is due this coming FRIDAY! NO LATE.

Reflection

I'm realizing that as I spend my two additional hours each week writing the content I've learned throughout the semester that mastery of the course review sheets is very apparent. I don't look at previous ones or ever need help since I've been doing them each week AND rewriting them each week in my journal. I know we learned that repetition over time is super beneficial for mastery of content, but experiencing it in this way is awesome. I will definitely be taking this strategy to my other classes because this is so incredibly helpful. I have 3 final exams so this is a good reminder that the mastery will not come over a few days, or even a few weeks. Thus with that logic, i'm already behind. A note for myself: I am needing to spend time transcribing my journal entries into my computer and then Tumblr.

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