Privacy and Search Take a New Turn
September 10, 2018
For far too long we have been living in the Wild West of search: there are too few rules and personal data has been far too fluid. While we wait for the Googles of the world to change their policies (fat chance!) the time has come to find alternatives for those of us who care about keeping their privacy a top priority. We learned more about this revolution from a Make Use Of story, “Avoid Google and Bing: 7 Alternative Search Engines That Value Privacy.”
According to the story:
“Functionally, SearX is a metasearch engine, meaning it aggregates data from a number of other search engines then provides you with the best mix available. Results from several of the other search engines on this list—including DuckDuckGo, Qwant, and StartPage—are available. You can customize the engines that SearX uses to find results in the Preferences menu.”
Is a new search engine the answer? Probably not likely. In another time, we might point to the idea that the world has room for more search engines, but with the rise of voice search and the amount of money needed to research this type of thing, the odds of a new search engine taking over for Google or the like is very much impossible.
Patrick Roland, September 4, 2018
Management Tips from a Tech Centric Outfit
September 10, 2018
I read “Focus on End User Technology, Retain Your Employees.” Darned amazing. The write up from the ever fascinating, real news outfit Computerworld asserts:
…over 70% said that U they strongly prefer fast in-office technology and, without it, 20% of millennials said they would actually quit.
I love that “actually quit.”
But Computerworld seems unaware that at several high profile high technology companies stuffed with youthful workers and those who are mentally young face employee push back.
If the argument in the Computerworld management essay were accurate, these are the companies which should have happy employees.
Yep, that timely device refresh will thwart protests, walk outs, and staff resignations due to company work for the US government.
Ah, management thinking in 2018. Refreshing, just like a new device.
Stephen E Arnold, September 10, 2018
IBM Embraces Blockchain for Banking: Is Amazon in the Game Too?
September 9, 2018
IBM recently announced the creation of LedgerConnect, a Blockchain powered banking service. This is an interesting move for a company that previously seemed to waver on whether it wanted to associate with this technology most famous for its links to cryptocurrency. However, the pairing actually makes sense, as we discovered in a recent IT Pro Portal story, “IBM Reveals Support Blockchain App Store.”
According to an IBM official:
“On LedgerConnect financial institutions will be able to access services in areas such as, but not limited to, know your customer processes, sanctions screening, collateral management, derivatives post-trade processing and reconciliation and market data. By hosting these services on a single, enterprise-grade network, organizations can focus on business objectives rather than application development, enabling them to realize operational efficiencies and cost savings across asset classes.”
This, in addition, to recent news that some of the biggest banks on the planet are already using Blockchain for a variety of needs. This includes the story that the Agricultural Bank of China has started issuing large loans using the technology. In fact, out of the 26 publicly owned banks in China, nearly half are using Blockchain. IBM looks pretty conservative when you think of it like that, which is just where IBM likes to be.
Amazon supporst Ethereum, HyperLedger, and a host of other financial functions. For how long? Years.
Patrick Roland, September 9, 2018
Algorithms Can Be Interesting
September 8, 2018
Navigate to “As Germans Seek News, YouTube Delivers Far-Right Tirades” and consider the consequences of information shaping. I have highlighted a handful of statements from the write up to prime your critical thinking pump. Here goes.
I circled this statement in true blue:
…[a Berlin-based digital researcher] scraped YouTube databases for information on every Chemnitz-related video published this year. He found that the platform’s recommendation system consistently directed people toward extremist videos on the riots — then on to far-right videos on other subjects.
I noted:
[The researcher] found that the platform’s recommendation system consistently directed people toward extremist videos on the riots — then on to far-right videos on other subjects.
The write up said:
A YouTube spokeswoman declined to comment on the accusations, saying the recommendation system intended to “give people video suggestions that leave them satisfied.”
The newspaper story revealed:
Zeynep Tufekci, a prominent social media researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has written that these findings suggest that YouTube could become “one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the 21st century.”
With additional exploration, the story asserts a possible mathematical idiosyncrasy:
… The YouTube recommendations bunched them all together, sending users through a vast, closed system composed heavily of misinformation and hate.
You may want to read the original write up and consider the implications of interesting numerical recipes’ behavior.
No Surprise: Some Analytic Jobs are Still Done By Humans
September 8, 2018
Once in a while we stumble across something that truly surprises us. Like how some jobs you thought could be erased by artificial intelligence or machine learning in about five seconds, still exist. Take, for example, this handy list of airport WiFi passwords from around the globe that we discovered at FoxNoMad, entitled (yep, you guessed it) “A Map of Wireless Passwords From Airports and Lounges Around the World.”
According to the page:
“Finding an open wireless connection in many airports is not always easy, or possible, without a password (or local phone number which is stupid). The difficulty of getting online is why I asked you for and created an always-up-to-date list of airport wireless passwords around the world. You’ve been sending me your tips regularly and I post on the foXnoMad Facebook page when there’s a new password or airport added.”
One look is like stepping into a digital time machine. There’s something quaint about this simple map updated by individuals on their own after they use an airports Internet. It’s shocking that an algorithm has not done this all by now. Much like the job of quality assurance tester mentioned here there is still a shocking amount of work out there that AI has not done. Soak up the good news while you can, we say.
Patrick Roland, September 8, 2018
PR Coup? Russia Wields Blockchain for Good
September 7, 2018
We think is the most interesting use of blockchain yet. Crypto-currency news site BitNovosti reports, “Siberian Federal University Suggests Using Blockchain for Making Fair Waiting Lists for Kindergartens.” The article tells us:
“The existing technologies used for creating waiting lists for kindergartens do not provide full protection against data distortion when it comes to listing order, time of registration, etc. But blockchain guarantees the immutability of sequence of names in waiting lists. The blockchain technology precludes the possibility of adding false data blocks or removing any blocks already in the chain, as these procedures would be easily traceable within the system. Neither one can add any unjustified data elements to the structure, nor remove any data elements which it already incorporates. All sorts of unauthorized interference with the system are completely ruled out, as all the wrongdoings aimed at bringing in changes to the database are preventable by means of comparing them with other copies of the same blockchain stored by other participants in the system. The technology does not presuppose any central server, as databases are distributed between all the system’s users. Thus, a blockchain-based system is absolutely transparent, whereas the insertion of new information into it is impossible without the users’ consensus.”
This is one in a series of projects in Russia that have embraced the use of blockchain technology to benefit society. Other uses include managing social-services payments and plans for patient control over medical records. More applications are being planned in areas like education, charity, and adoption.
Cynthia Murrell, September 5, 2018
The Organization Of The Dark Web
September 7, 2018
The Internet is a sprawling, unorganized digital expanse, while the Dark Web is smaller, underground, unorganized trailer court. Because it is smaller, it is easier to create a Dark Web map. The Recorded Future took on the endeavor and described the Dark Web’s structure in: “Dark Networks: Social Network Analysis Of Dark Web Communities.”
While the Dark Web is considerably smaller than the Internet it is quite big and there is a huge amount of data that cannot be classified. Using social network analysis, Recorded Future found three distinct Dark Web communities:
“We found three distinct communities of actors in dark web and special-access sites: low-tier underground forums, higher-tier dark web forums, and dark web markets. These three clusters line up with our expert intuition of the dark web, appearing almost as if no other sensible organization is possible in retrospect. Additionally we found notable cross-posting between low-tier and higher-tier forums. The results of this research are directly reflected in Recorded Future’s product and ontology. This new categorization helps security teams obtain targeted, relevant dark web intelligence, facilitates their understanding of threats, and opens a window into the methods, tactics, and motivations of threat actors.”
The next part of the article explains how Recorded Future collected its data and discovered patterns between the three tiers. From the gathered data, they made visualizations of the connections between the tiers. The visualizations yielded more information about the communities, including that the low-tier underground forums are free, open access, and house the novices. The higher-tier Dark Web forums are restricted through a vetting process, sites are hosted on Tor, and experienced criminals and Dark Web markets are generally open, because they are selling services.
The Dark Web has various levels and interconnections between the three tiers. There are restricted communities that overlap with each other and there is a huge commerce section. It sounds like the regular Internet, except it deals in illegal services and goods. Google, along with In-Q-Tel, was an early investor in Recorded Future.
Whitney Grace, September 7, 2018
Four Chrome Extensions for More Efficient Searches
September 7, 2018
Education resource site Educational Technology and Mobile Learning suggests four extensions for the (Google-owned) Chrome browser to better find relevant content in the brief write-up, “4 Tools to Effectively Search the Web.” The write-up specifies:
“In today’s post we are sharing with you four practical Chrome extensions that will enable you to search the web in more efficient and effective ways. More specifically, using these extensions you will be able to easily access and search for scholarly articles, find similar web pages to the page you are currently browsing, initiate a Google search using images, and many more.”
At the top of the list is the Google Scholar extension, which speeds up access to scholarly articles found through Google Scholar search. The next suggestion is TinEye Reverse Image Search, which returns not similar images, but exact matches (complete with potentially valuable context and metadata). Then there are Google Similar Pages and Google’s Search by Image, each of which does what one would imagine. These tools certainly could be helpful for those who use Chrome.
Cynthia Murrell, September 5, 2018
Is An Operating System Needed For Collective Intelligence?
September 6, 2018
Humans love labels, organizing, and order. The more the Internet becomes commonplace in our daily lives, the more organization becomes important. The Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network has an interesting discussion on the need for an operating system for humanity’s collective intelligence in the article, “#237 Matan Field: DAOstack-An Operating System For Collective Intelligence.”
Looking back through history, humans cooperating and acting in collective organization has had an important impact at historical milestones. Think the discovery of fire, invention of the wheel, war, Industrial Revolution, etc. But what does it mean for humanity when the Internet runs more of our lives?
“As we move towards an increasingly connected and automated society and economy, there will become a need for decentralized infrastructure which enables companies and markets to make fast decisions at scale. We’re joined by Matan Field, CEO of DAOstack, a new platform that aims to become the operating system for collective intelligence. DAOstack is building a toolset to allow decentralized governance and building self-organizing collectives at scale.”
This podcast focuses on how a DAOstack would enable a collective intelligence operating system, its importance, and why we are going to need one.
I can see the importance of a centralized operating system, but then my science fiction imagination comes into play. I have visions of HAL 2000 and its many descendants taking over the world. Or robots. Robots taking over the world. What about the Borg? There is them too. Would it not be more intuitive to create a bunch of smaller collective operating systems that sync up than putting all the eggs…ahem…data in one basket?
Whitney Grace, September 6, 2018
Microsoft: Becoming a Socially Focused Giant
September 6, 2018
US citizens have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft’s technology powers most of the country’s infrastructures, businesses, personal lives, and more. At the same time, however, Microsoft’s technology is prone to problems, causing an endless amount of headaches. Microsoft also has a reputation about caring more about a profit than its customers. Has it suddenly had a change of heart? According to a new post on Microsoft’s blog, the company is now interested in participating and/or protecting democracy, “We Are Taking New Steps Against Broadening Threats To Democracy.”
Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote the post about how the Internet is being used by foreign entities to disrupt governments, steal information, and spread disinformation. Smith cites the 2016 US election and the 2017 French elections. Smith and by proxy Microsoft says that the tech sector has a responsibility to defend democracy against further security threats:
“We’re concerned that these and other attempts pose security threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections. That’s why today we are expanding Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program with a new initiative called Microsoft AccountGuard. This initiative will provide state-of-the-art cybersecurity protection at no extra cost to all candidates and campaign offices at the federal, state and local level, as well as think tanks and political organizations we now believe are under attack. The technology is free of charge to candidates, campaigns and related political institutions using Office 365.”
The post goes on to explain how Microsoft’s crime unit tracked six web sites associated with Strontium, a group associated with the Russian government and known for interference. These web sites were designed to mimic real US non-profit political organizations and other political groups with the goal to spread disinformation. The blog post also advertises Microsoft’s new AccountGuard and advocates its Microsoft Defending Democracy Program started in 2018.
Microsoft is interested in protecting the US electrons from interference, but it also interested in protecting its reputation and political supporters. Does Microsoft have stakes in social media companies? Facebook, maybe?
Whitney Grace, September 6, 2018
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