Google: Privacy May Be a Relative Concept
October 3, 2018
Google is concerned about its users privacy. It has options for users to turn off data sharing to protect their privacy. Google says it has these options…supposedly. Fortune shares how Google is breaking its privacy promises in the article, “Google Admits That It Lets Outside Services Share Your Gmail Data.” Google said last year that it would stop scanning users’ emails for keywords to use for targeted ads, but they lied.
When confronted with the deception, Google admitted to the subterfuge and also that they allow third parties to share user information with other third parties. The third parties are supposed to alert users how their information is being used. Does that happen? Probably not.
We learned:
“As Google explained in a blog post following the initial story, the kinds of third-party services that it allows to plug into Gmail include email clients, trip planners and customer relationship management systems. These services, which Google claims to thoroughly vet, typically read emails in an automated way, although humans do sometimes read them too. Users need to actively permit the apps to access their Gmail accounts, and they can revoke permission afterwards. However, Google’s blog post did not talk about the possibility of those third-party services sharing users’ data with other third parties.”
Users apparently had no idea that their data was being shared and Google did not inform them. Google’s privacy policy is broken and they might get away with it in the US, but Europe requires way more transparency. Once again this more proof that the almighty dollar trumps user protection.
Whitney Grace, October 3, 2018
Factualities for October 3, 2018
October 3, 2018
Believe ‘em or not.
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- 56 percent. The number of teens who have experienced cyber bullying. Source: Pew Research Center
- 66 months in prison. Sentence for NSA thief taking work home. Source: Daily Beast
- $80 billion. Amount spent by technology companies to maintain a competitive edge. Source: Bloomberg
- 75. The number of banks joining JPMorgan Chase’s blockchain system. Source: Bitnovosti
- 800 kilograms. The world’s biggest bird. Source: CNet
- $3,499. Starting price of a Microsoft Surface Studio 2 PC. Source: Softpedia
- 90 million. Number of Facebook access tokens lost to hackers. Source: Betanews4
- More than 70. Number of new emoji in Apple iOS 12.1. Source: Apple
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Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2018
Another Smart Software Milestone: An Image of a Hamburger Improved
October 2, 2018
I read an article which I don’t think was intended to make me laugh like an SNL cold open. But it did.
The article is “In Just Two Years, AI has Managed to Make a Slightly More Appetizing Cheeseburger.”
I learned:
Two years ago I alerted the world that it was now scientifically possible to generate an image of a cheeseburger. Today I have the pleasure of informing you yet again that this technique has been nearly perfected.
Okay, not a burger to eat. This is a burger image, a picture.
Here’s the method:
Have one algorithm try to generate and image, and another try to tell if that image is a real picture or fake. With the second algorithm acting as a guardrail, the first algorithm eventually learns what looks real and what doesn’t, and the resulting images approach photorealism.
I sort of wanted to eat a burger.
I don’t need a picture. Smart software does, however.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2018
Has Amazon Kicked IBM Watson into Action?
October 2, 2018
Amazon’s policeware, based on Sagemaker and other Amazon innovations, makes it easy to de4ploy machine learning applications. Amazon delivers, as we report in our DarkCyber video about Amazon’s machine learning approach, a Blue Apron approach to smart software intended to make sense of Big Data. You can view our four part series beginning later this month. Watch Beyond Search for details.
IBM seems to have noticed what Amazon has been doing for the last four or five years. With a bit of a late start, IBM is, it appears, emulating the Bezos buzz saw. Some information about the more pragmatic approach to rule based smart software is revealed in “IBM Launches Pretrained Watson Packs for Industries.”
I learned:
IBM outlined prepackaged Watson tools pretrained for various industries use cases such as agriculture, customer service, human resources, manufacturing and marketing.
One of Watson’s more amusing characteristics is that human subject matter experts have to figure out what questions Watson is to answer and then build a collection of text to instruct Watson on the who, what, why, etc.
Expensive, time consuming, and usually a surprise to licensees who assume that IBM Watson is a product. Ho ho ho.
Like Amazon, IBM wants to deliver ready to use packs for specific business sectors like marketing.
Now Amazon is delivering its Sagemaker meals ready to eat, microwavable data burritos, and the Blue Apron “any fool can fix dinner” smart software. IBM is sort of moving in that direction. I noted this passage:
Each Watson pack is in different states of release but take best practices and training knowledge from various IBM engagements. For instance, IBM said its Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture is generally available. IBM has integrated its weather data as well as Internet of things end points in agriculture and images to provide a “predictive view of a farm.” Farmers would get an app for real-time decision support.
Just think. Amazon is selling to a large covert government agency its smart software. IBM is working on similar initiatives but it has the farm thing nailed. Can IBM fix John Deere tractors?
Will IBM Watson beat Amazon Sagemaker?
I am not sure the two are in the same game.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2018
DarkCyber for October 2, 2018, Now Available
October 2, 2018
Stephen E Arnold’s DarkCyber is a weekly video news and analysis program about the Dark Web and lesser known Internet services. This week’s program covers four Dark Web and security related stories.
The first story reports some of the findings from Carbon Black’s study of cryptojacking. The exploit uses an unsuspecting organization’s computers to mine cryptocurrency without the knowledge of the unwitting host. Organizations in the US, according to the study, are the number one target in the world. DarkCyber reveals how to get a free copy of this report.
The second story explores a new Dark Web crowd funding site called SadaqaCoins. The purpose of the site is to make it easy for terrorist – activists to support specific projects; for example, funding ransom, purchasing weapons, or contributing money so that sacrificial animals can be purchased by the devout. Contributions are accepted in Bitcoin, Monero, and Ethereum. The SadaqaCoins’ site then provides the funds to the person or organization requesting the funds. SadaqaCoins is not a replacement for hawala method of fund transfer.
The third story provides a snapshot of a hacking tool called theHarvester. Included with Kali Linux, theHarvester acquires information about a domain, including subdomains and other information. The system uses publicly available sources of information, including Web searches, PGP registries, Shodan, and similar content resources. The software can display names, email addresses, and related information. The software tool can be used for forensic and more aggressive information gathering tasks. DarkCyber provides information so that a viewer can download the software without charge.
The final story reports that the Drug Llama has been identified and captured. A 31 year old female allegedly sold controlled substances, including fentanyl and engaged in money laundering. The investigation included state and federal law enforcement units. For now, the Drug Llama is no longer roaming the highs and lows of the Dark Web.
Watch for our Amazon Policeware series beginning on Tuesday, October 30, 2018.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2018
Manipulating the Google: A Reputation Management Method Revealed
October 1, 2018
I don’t want to go through the procedure described in “Data from the Lumen Database Highlights How Companies Use Fake Websites and Backdated Articles to Censor Google’s Search Results.” The article does a good job of explaining how Google’s weak time and date function makes it possible to neutralize certain content objects. The lever is the DMCA takedown notice.
Works most of the time in our experience with Augmentext and some related methods.
I thought it would be useful to highlight what Lumen is.
Straightaway it is a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The group, however, is an independent third party research “project.” The third parties collect and analyze requests to remove material from the Web.
These data are gathered in a database and analyzed.
Who works on these objective investigations?
There is the EFF and law school clinics. Help for the unit was provided by Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law.
What’s interesting is that Lumen is supported by “gifts from Google.” Others kick in, of course. There are no promised deliverables. The pursuit of knowledge is the goal.
More info is here.
How surprised will Google, reputation management firms, and those who want certain content objects disassociated from their name?
Pretty surprised was the consensus around the cast iron stove here in Harrod’s Creek. We just burn magazines, books, and journals hereabouts.
Stephen E Arnold, October 1, 2018
Is Bing Stuck Like a 45 RPM Recording?
October 1, 2018
At least twice a year, Microsoft releases a press statement explaining how it has made Bing smarter. The questions are always,”how and in what way?” Bing pales in comparison to rivals DuckDuckGo and Google, but it also has its staunch supporters. Thurott has shared one of the prerequisite Bing cheerleading pieces, “Bing Just Got A Whole Lot Smarter.”
Bing has added a brand new list of features to enhance user experience. One of the new features is a hotel booking option that shows higher-ranked hotels with the same nightly rate to save you money, historical price trends, hotel comparisons, and other neat tools.
If you are frugal and/or always searching for a deal, Bing will now share information about details, such as if it is in stores or expiring soon. This augments Bing’s discount feature that displays different deals in search results.
“The last area where Bing is getting improved is an interesting one: home services. Bing is partnering with Porch, a service that helps you find professionals for home services, to help surface better results within search. It will now show you things like cost ranges, which are meant to help find a “fair” or the average cost for a certain service based on your location. It will also now let you get a quote for supported home service providers from within search.”
Word about whether advertisers will get priority in search results, but they are already labeled in search results. When it comes to making Bing smarter, this is not bad. Good job, Microsoft!
Whitney Grace, October 1, 2018
Amazon: Policeware Capability Microsoft May Not Be Able to Duplicate
October 1, 2018
You, like others, are probably not interested in our Amazon policeware research. That’s super.
I do, however, want to document that Amazon has moved beyond the wonky Loon balloons and Facebook’s airplanes to a more practical view of data from above.
Navigate to “Satellite Company Partners with Bezos’ AWS to Bring Internet Connectivity to the Whole Planet.”
The idea is to get into a flow of data. If you have attended one of my Amazon Policeware lectures, you will recall the diagram that shows the data flowing into a nifty construct built painstakingly since 2008.
The policeware angle is to make sense of these and other data via cross correlation and other functions.
New partners, new data, and new outputs — Amazon is moving forward, and I am not sure Microsoft as well as fellow travelers like Google and Oracle can match Amazon’s forced march in its effort to reword the intelligence and law enforcement intelligence ecosystem.
For me, our analysis of Amazon is a reminder of what we discovered in 2002 when my researchers and I were working on Google’s patents, technical articles, and hires PhD theses.
No one cared until BearStearns paid to recycle some of the more interesting facets of our work. Want to know more. Write the every faithful BenKent2020 at yahoo dot com for information about our for fee briefing on this subject.
Stephen E Arnold, October 1, 2018
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