The Worlds Wealthiest People Should Fear Big Data
November 24, 2017
One of the strengths that the planets elite and wealthy have is secrecy. In most cases, average folks and media don’t know where big money is stored or how it is acquired. However, that recently changed for The Queen of England, several Trump cabinet members, and other powerful men and women. And they should be afraid of what big data and search can do with their info, as we learned in the Guardian’s piece, “Paradise Papers Leak Reveals Secrets of the World’s Elite Hidden Wealth.”
The story found a lot of fishy dealings with political donors and those in power, Queen Elizabeth having tax-free money in the Caymans and more. According to the story:
At the centre of the leak is Appleby, a law firm with outposts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. In contrast to Mossack Fonseca, the discredited firm at the centre of last year’s Panama Papers investigation, Appleby prides itself on being a leading member of the “magic circle” of top-ranking offshore service providers.
Appleby says it has investigated all the allegations, and found “there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, either on the part of ourselves or our clients”, adding: “We are a law firm which advises clients on legitimate and lawful ways to conduct their business. We do not tolerate illegal behaviour.
Makes you wonder what would happen if some of the brightest minds in search and big data got ahold of this information? We suspect a lot of the financial knots this money ties to keep itself concealed would untangle. In an age of increasing transparency, we wouldn’t be shocked to see that happen.
Patrick Roland, November 24, 2017
Google: Headphones and Voice Magic
November 23, 2017
I read two interesting articles. Each provides some insight into Google’s effort to put the NLP and chatbot doggies in an Alphabet corral.
The first article is “Google SLING: An Open Source Natural Language Parser.” To refresh your memory, “SLING is a combination of recurrent neural networks and frame based parsing.”
The second article is “Google Introduces Dialogflow Enterprise Edition, a Conversational Apps Building Platform.” The idea is to provide “a platform for building voice and text conversational applications.”
Both are interesting because each seems to be “free.” I won’t drag you, gentle reader, through the consequences of building a solution around a “free” Google service. One Xoogler watches me like a hawk to remind me that Google doesn’t treat people in a will of the wisp way. Okay. Let’s move on, shall we?
Both of these systems advance Google’s quest to become the Big Dog of where the world is heading for computer interaction. Both are germane to the wireless headphones Google introduced. These headphones, unlike other wireless alternatives, can translate. Hence, the largesse for free NLP and voice freebies.
I read “Trying Out Google’s Translating Headphones” informed me that:
The most important thing you should know about Pixel Buds is that their full features only work with Google’s newest smartphone, the Pixel 2.
Is this vendor lock in?
I learned from the write up:
To be honest, it’s not exactly real-time. You call up the feature by tapping on your right earbud and asking Google Assistant to “help me speak” one of 40 languages. The phone will then open the Google Translate app. From there, the phone will translate what it hears into the language of your choice, and you’ll hear it in your ear.
Not quite like Star Trek’s universal translator, suggests the article. I noted this statement:
it’s worth realizing that the Pixel Buds are more than just a pair of headphones. They’re an early illustration of what we can expect from Google, which will try to make products that stand out from the pack with unusual artificial intelligence services such as translation.
A demo. I suppose doing the lock in tactic with a demo is better than basing lock in on vaporware.
Then there are the free APIs. These, of course, will never go away or cost too much money. The headphones are $159. The phone adds another $649.
Almost free.
Stephen E Arnold, November 23, 2017
Analytics Tips on a Budget
November 23, 2017
Self-service analytics is another way to say “analytics on a budget.” Many organizations, especially non-profits, do not have the funds to invest in a big data plan and technology, so they decide to take the task on themselves. With the right person behind the project, self-service analytics is a great way to save a few bucks. IT Pro Portal shares some ways how to improve on an analytics project in, “Three Rules For Adopting Self-Service Analytics.” Another benefit to self-service analytics is that theoretically anyone in the organization can make use of the data and find some creative outlet for it. The tips come with the warning label:
Any adoption of new technology requires a careful planning, consultation, and setup process to be successful: it must be comprehensive without being too time-consuming, and designed to meet the specific goals of your business end-users. Accordingly, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach: each business will need to consider its specific technological, operational and commercial requirements before they begin.
What are the three tips?
- Define your business requirements
- Collaborate and integrate
- Create and implement a data governance policy
All I can say to this is, duh! These are standard tips that can be applied, not only for self-service analytics but also BI plans and any IT plan. Maybe there are a few tips directly geared at the analytics field but stick to fewer listicles and more practical handbooks. Was this a refined form of clickbait?
Whitney Grace, November 23, 2017
Think Facebook Is Going to Fix Its Data Issues, Think Again
November 23, 2017
Facebook has been in hot water lately with its massive flubs with fake news. But the water is about to get scalding when you look at how fast and lose it plays with data. We learned some shocking things from a Fast Company story, “This Time, Facebook is Sharing Its Employees’ Data.”
According to the story:
Still, through a little-known arrangement, Facebook Inc. routinely shares the sensitive income and employment data of its U.S.-based employees with the Work Number database, owned by Equifax Workforce Solutions. Yes, that Equifax.
Every week, Facebook provides an electronic data feed of its employees’ hourly work and wage information to Equifax Workforce Solutions, formerly known as TALX, a St. Louis-based unit of Equifax, Inc. The Work Number database is managed separately from the Equifax credit bureau database that suffered a breach exposing the data of more than 143 million Americans, but it contains another cache of extensive personal information about Facebook’s employees, including their date of birth, social security number, job title, salary, pay raises or decreases, tenure, number of hours worked per week, wages by pay period, healthcare insurance coverage, dental care insurance coverage, and unemployment claim records.
This is pretty groundbreaking news. If the social media king can’t even keep its own employee data safe from the Equifaxes and hackers of the world, how safe are we supposed to think they keep our own data? For Facebook to earn back customer trust, it’ll have to jump through some pretty serious hoops. We’ll sit back and wait for the circus to arrive, in that case.
Patrick Roland, November 23, 2017
Amazon: The New Old AT&T
November 22, 2017
I read “AWS Launches a Secret Region for the U.S. Intelligence Community.” The write up does a reasonable job of explaining that Amazon has become a feisty pup in the Big Dog in the upscale Potomac Fever Kennels.
The main idea, as I understand it, is that Amazon is offering online services tailored to agencies with requirements for extra security. Google is trying to play in this dog park as well, but Amazon seems to have the moxie to make headway.
I would point out that there are some facets to the story which a “real” journalist or a curious investor may want to explore; specifically:
- AT&T of Ashburn fame may be feeling that the attitude of the Amazon youthful puppy AWS is bad news. AT&T with its attention focused on the bright lights of big media may be unable to deal with Amazon’s speed, agility, and reflexes. If this is accurate, this seemingly innocuous announcement with terms like “air gap” may presage a change in the fortunes of AT&T.
- IBM Federal Systems, the traffic disaster in Gaithersburg, may feel the pinch as well. What happens if the young pup begins to take kibble from that Beltway player? A few acquisitions here and few acquisitions there and suddenly Amazon can have its way because the others in the kennel know that an alpha dog with tech savvy can be a problem?
- The consulting environment may also change. For decades, outfits like my former employer, the Boozer, have geared up to bathe, groom, and keep healthy the old school online giants like AT&T, Verizon, et al. Now new skills sets may be required for the possible Big Dog. Where will Amazon “experts” come from? Like right now, gentle reader.
In short, this article states facts. But like many “real” news stories, there are deeper and possibly quite significant changes taking place. I wonder if anyone cares about these downstream changes.
Leftover telecom turkey anyone?
Stephen E Arnold, November 22, 2017
The FG Snipers Draw a Bead
November 22, 2017
Facebook (hereinafter “F”) and Google (hereinafter “G”) are the part of the new sport FG sniping. Favored by the Guardian and other “real” publishers, F and G are plump, apparently arrogant, and seemingly clueless targets. The horrible companies do not “give back” to the “real” magazines and newspapers which have been eroded by the flow of clicks flowing to F and G.
A fun example of this blood sport appear in “Why Magazine Mogul Tina Brown Is ‘Angry and Upset’ at Google and Facebook.” I highlighted three comments Tina Brown (Oxford graduate and traditional print journalist) allegedly made to a “real” journalist who has gone over to the dark side of online content creation.
Number One:
I [Tina Brown, Oxford graduate] am very angry and upset about the way advertising revenue has been essentially pirated by the Facebook-Google world
Ahoy, mates. Google indexes. “Real” publishers tried this; for example, the New York Times and its fumbling with LexisNexis and its own Jeff Pemberton led initiative decades ago. Google succeeded; the NYT and other “real” publishers failed. Sour grapes?
Number Two:
When you don’t have human beings who have judgment, who have taste, who have a sense of responsibility, you can have any old Russian hacker dishing it out to the American public.
Not just any “human beings.” The “right” type of human being is a trained journalist like those who do the “This Week in Google” podcast perhaps? Plus, last I knew, F and G had human beings. Mr. Brin, for example, allegedly behaved in a human manner with a certain Google Glass marketing maven. The disconnect is that some human beings are more adept at applying technology to content processing and delivering what users want. On the other hand, “real” publishers certain knew how to generate “yellow” journalism and engage in other fascinating human activities.
Number Three:
People don’t know what’s important or where to find it.
To be clear, some people do know what’s important and where to find it. The problem is that People Magazine or the grocery store tabloid the National Enquirer are not much different from “real” newspapers and magazines.
What the issue is, of course, is the fact that traditional publishing has found itself marginalized. The arbiters of taste and judgment from places like Oxford and Yale are a bit overwhelmed because they don’t get traffic or a sufficient number of likes.
Where in the modern economy is the “law” which says that F and G have to give back to the outfits which have failed to adapt to the new world.
I guess Darwinian principles (Darwin was a Cambridge graduate) don’t apply to those Oxford graduates who wish to enshrine dead tree methods. From my vantage point in Harrod’s Creek, Darwin (a Cambridge graduate) is alive and well. Just look at those informed individuals living in trailers living by the creek. Also, in forward leaning places like Palo Alto, one can observe on the way to F and G the lines of SUVs and motor homes which provide safe havens for Facebook posts and Google searches.
Life would be so much better if time stood still. Are F and G clueless? Should large companies “give back”? One could consult Adam Smith I suppose. Oh, Smith was an allegedly unhappy Oxforder. Nasty intellectual environment my economics professor observed as I recall.
Failure can be unpalatable. Zeros and ones leave a bitter after taste on the tongues of some arbiters of taste.
Stephen E Arnold, November 22, 2017
Google Made AI Learning Fun
November 22, 2017
Games that are supposed to be educational and fun usually stink worse than rotten fruit (except for Oregon Trail). One problem is that these games are not designed by gamers, i.e. people who actually play games! Another problem is that when gamers do design games they lack the ability to convey in a learnable manner. Thankfully Google has both gamers and teachers. According to Engadget, Google has a fun way to learn about AI: “Google Created A Fun Way To Learn Simple AI.”
Google invented the Teachable Machine that teaches users simple ways to learn about AI with only a webcam and microphone. What is great about the Teachable Machine is that it does not require any coding experience in order to use it. Anyone from children to adults can use it and it has already been used to do silly and stupid things along with smart and practical uses.
Teachable Machine conveys just how important pattern recognition is becoming in the technology world. It’s used in photo apps to recognize faces and objects, but it also powers supercomputers like IBM’s Watson. Looking ahead, we might eventually be able to use similar machine learning techniques to train our smarthomes. For example, it could automatically turn on your living room lights and TV when it detects you’ve come home. Or a pet feeder could dispense more food when your cat sits in front of it.
It is neat to play around with Teachable Machine and get your computer to do simple commands. The article ends on a sour and scary note: machine learning technology will always be watching and listening to users to learn more. Yes, very creepy.
Whitney Grace, November 22, 2017
It Is Time Our Tech Giants Went on a Goodwill Tour
November 22, 2017
As our tech giants pull in more cash, it’s time they gave more back to society. But how? That’s the central question of a fascinating Business Week article, “Hate Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google? Get in Line.”
According to the story:
All of the sudden our tech giants find themselves in a PR pickle: They are posting record earnings and seem unstoppable in business, but they desperately need to convince the public they’re not scarier than a pack of velociraptors on meth.
The story partially follows California congressional candidate, Ro Khanna, who thinks he has some answers for these hated behemoths.
Khanna wants the tech giants to see this moment as an opportunity—“a chance to respond to the challenges facing our country,” he wrote. “The hope is that they will answer the nation’s call to advance the common good, from expanding job opportunity to communities across the country to ensuring that online platforms do not contribute to polarization or misinformation.
This is a chance for those behemoths to really make an impact on something other than their pocketbooks. Perhaps, these businesses like Amazon and Facebook, which are obsessed with the real-time operation can extend that to charitable deeds. To see a real-time charitable impact, like this would likely surge giving.
Patrick Roland, November 22, 2017
Dark Cyber: A New HonkinNews Series from Stephen E Arnold
November 21, 2017
HonkinNews is back with a new series of videos. You can watch the program at this link on YouTube. Dark Cyber presents selected news from the Beyond Search blog and from the research conducted for Stephen E Arnold’s Dark Web Notebook, a companion to the hidden Internet tailored to the needs of security, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals. In this first Dark Cyber program, you will learn about an information-packed report about surveillance technologies and practices. The report, published by the Electronic Freedom Foundation, is available without charge. The push for a backdoor to encrypted information continues. We report that Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky is criticizing Facebook and Google for the firm’s perceived reluctance to assist with certain legitimate requests for information. But the Kentucky senator is a small cog in a larger push by the US government to obtain backdoors to unlock encrypted data. Funding continues to flow into Dark Cyber firms. We review three cash infusions and compare those amounts to the massive funding provided to the UK firm Darktrace. Arnold addresses the widely-held belief that the Tor software bundles delivers bulletproof Web access. One key point is that Tor’s security fixes do not address the monitoring of Tor entry and exit servers and log file analysis. For daily news and information about the Surface Web and Dark Web, read Beyond Search at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress. PS. Yes, there is a Harrod’s Creek duck in the video. Here’s that link again: https://youtu.be/a6WiGC2W13g
Kenny Toth, November 21, 2017
Healthcare Analytics Projected to Explode
November 21, 2017
There are many factors influencing the growing demand for healthcare analytics: pressure to lower healthcare costs, demand for more personalized treatment, the emergence of advanced analytic technology, and impact of social media. PR Newswire takes a look at how the market is expected to explode in the article, “Healthcare Analytics Market To Grow At 25.3% CAGR From 2013 To 2024: Million Insights.” Other important factors that influence healthcare costs are errors in medical products, workflow shortcomings, and, possibly the biggest, having cost-effective measures without compromising care.
Analytics are supposed to be able to help and/or influence all of these issues:
Based on the component, the global healthcare analytics market is segmented into services, software, and hardware. Services segment held a lucrative share in 2016 and is anticipated to grow steady rate during the forecast period. The service segment was dominated by the outsourcing of data services. Outsourcing of big data services saves time and is cost effective. Moreover, Outsourcing also enables access to skilled staff thereby eliminating the requirement of training of staff.
The cloud-based delivery is anticipated to grow and be the most widespread analytics platform for healthcare. It allows remote access, avoids complicated infrastructures, and has real-time data tracking. Adopting analytics platforms help curb the rising problems from cost to workforce to treatment the healthcare industry faces and will deal with in the future. While these systems are being implemented, the harder part is determining how readily workers will be correctly trained on using them.
Whitney Grace, November 21, 2017
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