Google: Some Interesting News Regarding an Interesting Company?
July 9, 2019
DarkCyber noted a handful of interesting Google news items. We assume that each of these is true, or in the words of one podcast, “actual factual” information.
First, Digital Journal reports that Google is working on cold fusion. The write up explains:
Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction taking place at room temperature (hence the reference to ‘cold and contrasting to the “hot” fusion which papers within stars or as part of hydrogen bombs). There is currently no accepted theoretical model that would allow cold fusion to occur, and when attempted results have not been reproducible.
Nevertheless, Digital Journal reports via Physics World:
Google together with several research institutes in the U.S. is reported to have reopened what they call the “cold case” of cold fusion. Despite the many failures to observe cold fusion, the scientists contend that the case is not yet closed, and that cold fusion energy is indeed achievable. Google are investing $10 million into the project and there are thirty scientists involved.
Second, “YouTube Software Engineer Injures 8 in Drug-Induced Fourth of July Rampage, Police Say” reports that a person allegedly a Google YouTuber, ingested LSD and behaved in an manner which caused Sonoma county officers to shoot him.
The news story summarized these actions by the alleged Googler:
- To get past his friends trying to stop him, Koffi choked one, stabbed one with a pencil and punched two in the chest, side and face.
- While trying to get away in his rental car, he hit the car parked behind him and lodged the sedan into the house’s garage.
- Koffi ran down the street before a security guard began questioning him. He stabbed the guard’s chest with the metal stake end of a landscape light, then sped away in the guard’s running and unlocked truck.
- On the road, he hit two pedestrians. He then struck a woman walking on a bluff. After hitting a wall, he drove through the side yard of a home and got back on the road in time for two patrol cars to pull up.
- Koffi accelerated toward the officers, ramming into one patrol car as a deputy fired a gun. He didn’t stop until he was shot at least three times through the windshield.
Third, Google researchers allegedly discovered a way to brick (disable) Apple iPhones with an iMessage. According to BGR (Boy Genius Report):
The only fix is a factory reset and there’s no way to recover lost data that wasn’t backed up….The good news is that Apple patched this issue in iOS 12.3, which means that you’re safe as long as you’ve updated to the latest stable iOS release, or if you’re on an iOS 13 beta.
Cold fusion, LSD, and bricking iPhones — linked with a single threat: The Google. Dare I use the acronym: HSSCMM? No, not even high school science clubs could pull off these three events in a week or so.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2019
Exclusive: DataWalk Explained by Chris Westphal
July 9, 2019
“An Interview with Chris Westphal” provides an in-depth review of a company now disrupting the analytic and investigative software landscape.
DataWalk is a company shaped by a patented method for making sense of different types of data. The technique is novel and makes it possible for analysts to extract high value insights from large flows of data in near real time with an unprecedented ease of use.
DarkCyber interviewed in late June 2019 Chris Westphal, the innovator who co-founded Visual Analytics. That company’s combination of analytics methods and visualizations was acquired by Raytheon in 2013. Now Westphal is applying his talents to a new venture DataWalk.
Westphal, who monitors advanced analytics, learned about DataWalk and joined the firm in 2017 as the Chief Analytics Officer. The company has grown rapidly and now has client relationships with corporations, governments, and ministries throughout the world. Applications of the DataWalk technology include investigators focused on fraud, corruption, and serious crimes.
Unlike most investigative and analytics systems, users can obtain actionable outputs by pointing and clicking. The system captures these clicks on a ribbon. The actions on the ribbon can be modified, replayed, and shared.
In an exclusive interview with Mr. Westphal, DarkCyber learned:
The [DataWalk] system gets “smarter” by encoding the analytical workflows used to query the data; it stores the steps, values, and filters to produce results thereby delivering more consistency and reliability while minimizing the training time for new users. These workflows (aka “easy buttons”) represent domain or mission-specific knowledge acquired directly from the client’s operations and derived from their own data; a perfect trifecta!
One of the differentiating features of DataWalk’s platform is that it squarely addresses the shortage of trained analysts and investigators in many organizations. Westphal pointed out:
…The workflow idea is one of the ingredients in the DataWalk secret sauce. Not only do these workflows capture the domain expertise of the users and offer management insights and metrics into their operations such as utilization, performance, and throughput, they also form the basis for scoring any entity in the system. DataWalk allows users to create risk scores for any combination of workflows, each with a user-defined weight, to produce an overall, aggregated score for every entity. Want to find the most suspicious person? Easy, just select the person with the highest risk-score and review which workflows were activated. Simple. Adaptable. Efficient.
Another problem some investigative and analytic system developers face is user criticism. According to Westphal, DataWalk takes a different approach:
We listen carefully to our end-user community. We actively solicit their feedback and we prioritize their inputs. We try to solve problems versus selling licenses… DataWalk is focused on interfacing to a wide range of data providers and other technology companies. We want to create a seamless user experience that maximizes the utility of the system in the context of our client’s operational environments.
For more information about DataWalk, navigate to www.datawalk.com. For the full text of the interview, click this link. You can view a short video summary of DataWalk in the July 2, 2019, DarkCyber Video available on Vimeo.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2019
DarkCyber for July 9, 2019, Now Available
July 9, 2019
DarkCyber for July 9, 2019, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://www.vimeo.com. The program is a production of Stephen E Arnold. It is the only weekly video news shows focusing on the Dark Web, cybercrime, and lesser known Internet services.
This week’s story line up includes: Amazon’s drone-centric surveillance technology; Mauritania loses Internet access; cyber criminals stumble at the US Post Office; the US develops THOR to kill drone swarms; and cyber crime for vertical markets grows.
This week’s lead story pivots on Amazon’s patent US 10,313,638 “Image Creation for Geo-Fence Data.” This invention makes it possible for an Amazon drone delivering packages or performing some other function like verifying that a driver dropped off an order to perform other functions. The specific example described in the patent is for Amazon to parse drone footage within a specific area and then extract data about a person or other entity. The idea is to geo-fence a front yard, a back door, or some other location and then extract the image and assign metadata to that extracted object. In short, deliveries plus surveillance. The invention makes us of the Amazon Web Services’ suite of services; for example, cross correlation of drone captured data with facial recognition, purchase history, and financial information.
Other stories in the July 9, 2019, program are:
First, Bromium and the Surrey Crime Research Lab in the UK have published information about a new trend in cyber crime. Instead of Dark Web bad actors just offering generic malware, SCRL reports that specialized software has become more widely available. The “vertical” malware is purpose built to attack retail, health care, and financial institutions. The technology needed to compromise an employee’s mobile device and corporate network access has been fine-tuned to deal with the security procedures in place for banking, finance, and credit card providers. Instead of relying on general purpose exploits, malware like Ramnit is bundled with tools able to penetrate hospitals and retail operations. Bromium provides a summary of some of the SCRL results, and DarkCyber provides information necessary to register to obtain this high value report.
Second, the US government, assisted by three commercial enterprises, has develop a system to kill or disable a swam of drones. The technology makes use of a directed beam which interferes with the electronics of a group of drones. The idea is that a swarm of drones can operated in an autonomous and semi-autonomous manner to compromise US security or perform in an offensive manner; for example, deliver poison, explosives, or surveillance devices. The THOR (Tactical High Power Microwave Responder) can be set up by two people in less than three hours. The beam defense is operated with a hand held controller. The technology can be mounted on a variety of platforms, included land based vehicles.
Third, two individuals based in the US shipped more than 25,000 packages containing controlled substances. The duo collected more than $8 million from the sale of narcotics and fake prescription drugs like Adderall. US investigators broke the case because the team used Stamps.com, an online service for postage. One of the bad actors signed up for the service using his real name and home address. Agents purchased four batches of narcotics and then raided the operation. In that raid, a commercial pill press was seized along with other evidence. When arraigned, the duo pleaded “Not guilty.”
Finally, Mauritania, a northwest African nation with a population of four million lost Internet access. An estimated 800,000 citizens had been unable to send email, use Facebook, and other online services. The government took this step in order to help quell political unrest in that country. Other countries in that region’s Internet shut down zone are Ethiopia and Sudan.
Kenny Toth, July 9, 2019
The Ease with Which Search Marketing Experts Manipulate Relevance and the Clueless
July 8, 2019
The New York Times (paywall, gentle reader, take heed) ran an opinion editorial “real news” item called “I Used Google Ads for Social Engineering.” You can locate the write up on page A 23 of the July 8, 2019, dead tree edition in the version of the paper that is distributed in rural Kentucky. By the way, good luck with that.
The write up contains some interesting factoids; for example:
- “Three out of four smart phone owners turn to Google first to address their immediate needs.” (Immediate needs? Remind me where I put the dog’s shock collar? No. Help me insert a video snip in my weekly DarkCyber video? No. Explain why my Android phone no longer allows me to hear voicemail? No. And I could go on but three fourths of my immediate needs require my attention be directed at Google? Really?)
- A person has 150 micromoments a day. (No, I don’t know what a micromoment is, and I hope I don’t learn either.)
- Redirection is a method which diverts my attention from what I wanted to what Google wanted me to want. (Yeah, that sounds just wonderful.)
The point of the write up is:
Google left behind a blueprint. The blueprint shows, step by step, how you can create your own redirect ads to sway any belief of opinion – held by any Google user, anywhere in the world – of your choice.
Really?
Just a question: “Why hasn’t an entity used the technique to deal with the border crisis or Iranian leaders’ desire to generate explosive material if Google Ads are so darned effective?”
The write up admits there are some weaknesses in Google’s approach.
No kidding? How about making Google the focus of what search engine optimization experts actually do: Distort relevance so poor, little Google doesn’t know what’s what about a particular topic?
The write up identifies one measure of success:
Nine days after my campaign began [to prevent suicide], the ads were accepted by Google. My ad was the first result across the United States when someone Google with suicidal intent. I showed unique ads to suicidal people who were physically located around the Golden Gate Bridge. Nearly one in three searches who clicked my ad dialed the hotline – a conversion rate of 28 percent. The average Google Ads conversion rate is 4 percent. The campaign’s 28 percent conversion rate was met in the first week.
Who can dispute the value of Redirect, Google Ads, and clicks?
Not me.
The write up points out:
Click data can be used for harm by a redirector whit bad intentions. If redirectors can groom ISIS sympathizers, they can also use it to groom school shooters. A redirector using a call forwarding service can link up with like minded terrorist by having clickers’ calls directed to their phones.
There you go. The how to manipulate method. Pederasts, are you paying attention? Credit card scammers, pay attention? Contraband vendors, you need Google Ads, right now.
The write up continues:
Using Google’s ISIS campaign blueprint, anyone can access the platform’s precise targeting tools and redirect ads to help further his or her own agenda. For instance, swaying peoples’ political beliefs during an election.
Why does this method work like a champ?
More than 50 percent of people still can’t differentiate between an ad )redirect or not) and an organic result on Google.
The person writing the article was at the time of the writing a Google certified partner and the founder of an outfit called Berlin SEM. I think SEM means “search engine marketing.”
Let’s step back and look at a handful of questions:
- Is this “news” or is it a marketing play designed to make the phone ring and the email flow to Berlin SEM?
- Are there mechanisms in place at Google or elsewhere to prevent this type of exploitation, what some call a “dark method”?
- Are the data presented in the write up or available from other sources able to tie an action to a Google ad budget; that is, “How much does it cost (money and time) to skew an election, cause me to buy an shirt, or perform some other action I did not want to perform?
DarkCyber is one the fence about [a] the benefit of presenting information about behavior manipulation via ads and [b] the inappropriateness of presenting a partial description of what an effective distortion campaign requires.
But an opinion editorial is not designed to be data heavy, thorough, and comprehensive. In fact, the write up is another example of trying to criticize Google and making the Google method into a service some advertisers will want to use now and more often.
The message strikes DarkCyber as, “That Google advertising is just what I need to make sales.”
Good job. Boost that usage of Google because micromoments are just an opportunity to distort. Don’t forget the tweets, the Facebook posts, the traditional news release, and for fee content placement.
Combo propaganda campaigns are more effective and warrant more comprehensive explanation, analysis, and discussion, not advertorials.
Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2019
From the Desk of Captain Obvious: How Image Recognition Mostly Works
July 8, 2019
Want to be reminded about how super duper image recognition systems work? If so, navigate to the capitalist’s tool “Facebook’s ALT Tags Remind Us That Deep Learning Still Sees Images as Keywords.” The DarkCyber teams knows that this headline is designed to capture clicks and certainly does not apply to every image recognition system available. But if the image is linked via metadata to something other than a numeric code, then images are indeed mapped to words. Words, it turns out, remain useful in our video and picture first world.
Nevertheless, the write up offers some interesting comments, which is what the DarkCyber research team expects from the capitalist tool. (One of our DarkCyber team saw Malcolm Forbes at a Manhattan eatery keeping a close eye on a spectacularly gaudy motorcycle. Alas, that Mr. Forbes is no longer with us, although the motorcycle probably survives somewhere unlike the “old” Forbes’ editorial policies.
Here’s the passage:
For all the hype and hyperbole about the AI revolution, today’s best deep learning content understanding algorithms are still remarkably primitive and brittle. In place of humans’ rich semantic understanding of imagery, production image recognition algorithms see images merely through predefined galleries of metadata tags they apply based on brittle and naïve correlative models that are trivially confused.
Yep, and ultimately the hundreds of millions of driver license pictures will be mapped to words; for example, name, address, city, state, zip, along with a helpful pointer to other data about the driver.
The capitalist tool reminds the patient reader:
Today’s deep learning algorithms “see” imagery by running it through a set of predefined models that look for simple surface-level correlative patterns in the arrangement of its pixels and output a list of subject tags much like those human catalogers half a century ago.
Once again, no push back from Harrod’s Creek. However, it is disappointing that new research is not referenced in the article; for example, the companies involved in Darpa Upside.
Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2019
The Online Titans Deliver News As Slivers of Information
July 8, 2019
Last week a person who plays piano in our local symphony orchestra asked me, “How can I keep track of the news?”
Ever helpful, I immediately responded The Big Project. If you are not familiar with this service, navigate to this link for news. The service is a useful place to look for US and non-US news. Content is in English as well as in other languages. The layout takes a bit of learning, but the service is a good one.
But the write up “Google News vs Microsoft News: Which News Reader Is Better” goes in a different direction. In the article, the two choices are Google and Microsoft. The methods of access are mostly mobile centric.
The bottom line seems to be a fine “no decision” by the experts at Guiding Tech. The article states:
Here is what I think. Google News is better when it comes to managing sources and finding content or news stories. You can control and add topics, blogs, and magazines. The Full Coverage and Timeline feature are beneficial. Microsoft News offers a better reading experience. The dark mode is consistent, it blocks ads effectively, and you can change the layout or even font size.
Gentle reader, compare these two news services to the content available from The Big Project. Answer these questions:
- Which of the three allows explicit access to specific sources?
- Which of the three contain content in more than one language?
- Which of the three makes it possible to follow a story across publications and countries?
Like much US generated information, the perspective within the American lens is different (sometimes) from that which is available from multiple lenses.
Informed or uninformed? Which is better? In Harrod’s Creek, we go with the multiple source approach. Big slices and chunks of news, please, not slivers, not tiny slivers from a curated selection of just okay sources.
Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2019
Amazonia for July 8, 2019
July 8, 2019
Even though many Amazonians celebrated the Fourth of July with their Amazon-ordered grills, spatulas, aprons, and Whole Foods’ goodies — the company’s Bezos bulldozer pulverized some small shrubs and a big tree or two. Here’s a selection of Amazon’s harvest from the previous week.
A Glimpse of the Future of Government IT Procurement
JEDI has not been awarded. Australia, however, has decided upon a country wide Amazon AWS deal. Australia will use the Amazon platform for its government IT. If the deal holds and the system works, traditional procurement approaches will be kicked to the side of the Information Highway. The idea is standardization, lower costs, and efficiency. The fact that these benefits may be difficult to quantify and deliver is beside the point. For details, navigate to “Australia-Wide AWS Deal Could Signal the End for Legacy IT Procurement.” DarkCyber wants to remind you, gentle reader, that the country is a member of the Five Eyes group. Most of the members behave in surprisingly similar ways. Amazon could land IT deals in Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and the United States. JEDI is important to big outfits like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and the companies in these firms’ orbits.
Amazon’s Delete Does Not Delete
I know. Delete means gone, disappeared, vaporized into the ether. Well, not at Amazon. Amazon allegedly retains Alexa recordings even if an authorized user deletes them. There are many different reports about this Amazon approach to deletion. These come from IAfrican to Silicon Republic. Devices can listen. Amazon sells its own line of surveillance devices. Now these devices are migrating to other countries; for example, the UK. Will delete mean retain in other countries too?
What Happens When an Amazon Third Party Seller Fools You?
That’s a good question. I received a pair of hiking pants allegedly with a 36 inch waist. My leg would not fit through the pants leg. I sent the pants back and asked for a replacement pair. I got the replacement with a label stating 36 inch waist. Same problem, my leg would not fit. Never got to the waist. I gave up.
No more. I just gave up.
“Amazon Can Be Held Liable for third Party Sales, Court Rules” suggests a different path. DarkCyber learned:
Wednesday’s ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a lower court decision, and has the potential to expose Amazon to numerous lawsuits related to defective or counterfeit products sold by third-party sellers on its site, Reuters reported. Up to now, such lawsuits have been batted away by Amazon, but this may no longer be the case going forward.
DarkCyber buys hiking pants at a local retail store. That outfit has a dressing room, not a court judgment, a procedure, and merchants who can be surprisingly clever humanoids.
Amazon’s Approach to Smarter Work
The Verge reported about Amazon’s semi-secret conference called re:MARS. At the conference Amazon revealed smart software and smarter robots. According to the write up:
re:MARS is the first public version of Amazon’s secretive MARS (machine learning, automation, robotics, and space) conference. MARS is usually a private event where a few hundred scientists, creatives, and business types are hosted by Jeff Bezos. They eat canapés, attend group meditations, and discuss technologies that will make or break the future. The chat is pretty much the same here in Vegas. But instead of 200 select attendees, there are 3,000 of us shuffling around in lanyards, backpacks, and comfy shoes. And instead of luxury workshops on blacksmithing and sausage making, there are seminars on how to build better robots, smarter AI, and maybe even colonize the Solar System.
Amazon seems to be more “public”. In addition to getting publicity, the Verge quotes one attendee as saying:
“It seems like they’re trying to get the smartest people in the same building and get them to talk to one another,” said Michael Bell, a PhD candidate and research fellow at Harvard’s School of Engineering who was demoing the university’s latest work with soft robotic grippers. “People have come by and asked me whether they can use these things to clean up the oceans. You don’t really get that at other conferences.”
Amazon, therefore, is innovating in conferences as well as drone surveillance within a geo-fenced area. (See the Tuesday, July 9, 2019, DarkCyber for more about this five year old Amazon innovation.)
The conference was interrupted by a pro-animal protester. The author of the write up suggested he felt like a package on a conveyor belt. Plus robots are in the Amazon future.
Chug, chug, chug goes the Bezos bulldozer.
Cat Flap with DeepLens
Digital Trends revealed that an Amazon employee connected the smart DeepLens video camera to an automatic pet door. The link up work. The feline can no longer bring dead animals into the Amazon worker’s home. The Rekognition image recognition system seems to work well for dead birds, deceased squirrels, and terminated rats. People? DarkCyber can only point to the next story in this week’s Amazonia.
Amazon Facial Analysis: Some Blind Spots?
An online information service called Jezebel published “Amazon’s Facial Analysis Program Is Building a Dystopic Future for Trans and Nonbinary People.” DarkCyber has a hunch that this means that Amazon’s facial recognition is [a] inaccurate and [b] biased. You will have to judge for yourself. DarkCyber noted this passage:
Rekognition, in particular, has some prodigious—and highly concerning—blind spots, especially around gender identity. A Jezebel investigation has found that Rekognition frequently misgenders trans, queer and nonbinary individuals. Furthermore, in a set of photos of explicitly nonbinary individuals Rekognition misgendered all of them—a mistake that’s baked into the program’s design, since it measures gender as a binary. In itself, that’s a problem: it erases the existence of an already marginalized group of people, and, in doing so, creates a system that mirrors the myriad ways that nonbinary people are left out of basic societal structures. What’s more, as Rekognition becomes more widely used, among government agencies, police departments, researchers and tech companies, that oversight has the potential to spread.
As Amazon becomes less secret and marginally more open, criticism of Amazon has increased. DarkCyber is not convinced that facial recognition systems vary much from developer to developer. Nevertheless, Amazon image technology is being sold and applied in interesting new ways.
Amazon and Automation: Job Losses? Yep.
“Amazon’s Future Vision of AI, Warehouse Bots and Alexa” is an exclusive look at Amazon’s artificial intelligence and automation work and how it may impact jobs.” In a nutshell, humans will have a tough time getting hired after Amazon’s vision is implemented. The write up points out:
Amazon executives say they don’t see gloom and doom in AI and automation, noting that they continue to hire thousands more people to work alongside their warehouse bots and to create the latest machine-learning code.
By the way, code camps may not provide the ticket to future employment. One can give Amazon’s training programs a try. Universities are embracing the Amazon way. Student loans? Not an Amazon problem.
Amazon to Add Jobs in the UK
Forbes reports that Amazon will add 2,000 jobs in the Brexit-challenged country. If those hires take place, Amazon will employ 29,500 people across its more than 17 locations. Forbes suggests that these will be low wage jobs in the Amazon “fulfillment network.” That euphemism translates to warehouses for the DarkCyber team.
Amazon Prime Twitches
DarkCyber has noted that Twitch has out delivered on the Hong Kong riots as YouTube sat back and mostly ignored them. Many of the people with whom Amazon talks after our lectures about Dark Web Version 2 are not clued in about Twitch. Learning about Twitch might be a good idea. Who knows you, gentle reader, might become a streamer.
Amazon wants to be more Twitchy if the information in “Twitch Will Join Amazon Prime Day with Giveaways, Events and QVC Style Live Show” is accurate. QVC is a 24 hour a day live shopping cable TV show. Twitchers stream 24 hours a day, right? Probably a coincidence. DarkCyber highlighted this passage from the write up:
Given its push for more live video, it only makes sense that Twitch would get involved with Prime Day in this way, too. Beyond Twitch’s plans for live video, the streaming site is also offering a number of giveaways and hosting live events.
Perhaps this time Amazon live shopping will deliver the bucks that company needs to pay its taxes, innovate, and support charities. Perhaps?
AWS Security
Cloud computing offers benefits and drawbacks. On the drawback side of the teeter totter is security. “AWS CISO Talks Risk Reduction, Development, Recruitment” reports that:
To mitigate this risk [from insider threats], Schmidt launched an initiative within AWS to radically reduce employees’ access to data by 80%. This was a large number, he noted, and one he partly chose to raise eyebrows – and partly because of its effectiveness. Reducing data access by 10 or 20 percent wouldn’t have had the same effect; an 80% cut forced investment in security tools.
Amazon AWS itself figures in some security issues; for example, data left exposed on AWS systems can be discovered and compromised by bad actors. To cite one example: Navigate to this TechRadar report. Data from Fortune 100 companies were exposed online. The write up, however, does not address that real time, here and now risk. Insider threats are a problem, but are they more significant than the security methods in place for AWS customers? Taken together, is it possible that Amazon has more security issues than some perceive?
Amazon Goes North to Alaska
Amazon’s delivery service has expanded to Alaska. According to Business Insider (pay wall may apply):
Amazon Air is adding another gateway to its network of airports: Anchorage, Alaska. Amazon’s in-house air cargo fleet, which will total 70 planes by 2021, is key to the e-commerce behemoth’s plan to achieve one-day shipping for its Prime members this year.
Alaska is closer to some of Amazon’s providers. FedEx and UPS are likely to dismiss Amazon’s ambitions, but DarkCyber believes that Amazon can disrupt because it may have a slight advantage: Lower wages due to some of its policies.
Amazon: South to Buenos Aires
The New York Times (gentle reader, you may have to pay to access the source article,” reports that AWS will set up a data center in Argentina. This is the seventh data center Amazon has set up in an area which contains the actual organic, green Amazon.
Partner and Integrators
Last week was a quiet one for Amazon’s partner / reseller category.
eLogic Learning is now partners with AWS. Training courses will be parked in the Amazon cloud. Source: MarketWatch
Velocity Technology Solutions is now a strategic collaborator with Amazon. DarkCyber does not know what a strategic collaborator is, but it appears to have something to do with moving to the Amazon cloud. Source: MarketWatch
Amazon: A TV News Focal Point
Love Amazon? Want to know how it changed your life. ABC has the answer. View the video at this link.
Google: Ever Flexible, Ever Accommodating to Its Values
July 7, 2019
Is Google taking its workers’ concerns seriously? Business magazine Inc. levels some strong criticism at the company in its piece, “Google Rejected Employees’ Plea to Reform its Sexual Harassment Policy. Here’s Why that Is a Big Mistake.” Sure, Google did make a few changes to its policy after last year’s walkout, but those changes fell short of employee demands. Shareholders attempted to remedy that at their June meeting with a simple proposal:
“RESOLVED, Shareholders request management review its policies related to sexual harassment to assess whether the Company needs to adopt and implement additional policies and to report its findings, omitting proprietary information and prepared at a reasonable expense by December 31, 2019.”
Sounds reasonable to right? Not, apparently, to Google’s board of directors, which recommended against the resolution, or Larry Page or Sergey Brin, who’s “no” votes held the weight of their combined 51% of the vote. (The two cofounders together own only 13% of the stock, but that’s a paradox for another time.) On top of that, company brass demonstrated their disdain for the issue: CEO Sundar Pichai refused to answer questions at the meeting, and neither Page nor Brin even bothered to show up. Writer Suzanne Lucas reproaches the company:
“Rejecting a proposal to assess sexual harassment policies basically states, ‘We’re happy as we are.’ Except, the ‘we’ here includes all employees (and contractors) who aren’t happy. And Alphabet leadership blatantly indicated that they were not interested in listening to the little people. … “When you don’t show up, you don’t answer questions, and the voting is ‘ceremonial’ rather than meaningful, you’re screaming, ‘I don’t care!’ And while businesses exist to make money, you can’t keep a business going with unhappy employees. If you don’t listen to reasonable proposals, you’re not going to keep people happy.”
Indeed. Lucas outlines four components she says make for an effective sexual harassment policy: bright-line rules; investigating each and every claim, preferably through an outside entity if executives are involved; making no exceptions for the most valuable employees; and open reporting within the company (without naming names). See the write-up for details on each of these points.
Will Google change its tune, or will it continue to pretend it does not have a sexual harassment problem? Time’s up. A or B?
Cynthia Murrell, July 7, 2019
Google: Instructional Hacking Policy Is Nothing New
July 6, 2019
I read “YouTube Says Its Policy on Instructional Hacking Videos Isn’t New.” The subtitle for the article is:
But a specific ban against instructional hacking could have negative consequences.
Maybe bad publicity?
The write up states:
This week Kody Kinzie, co-founder of the ethical hacker group Hacker Interchange, reported that its YouTube channel had received a strike for breaking one of its rules. Which rule? A ban against “Instructional hacking and phishing: Showing users how to bypass secure computer systems.” Fellow information security professionals and others — including some Google employees — came out in support of the Null Byte channel and its Cyber Weapons Lab series, while YouTube retracted the strike and reinstated the removed videos.
Yes, information is bad, no good. Plus, flip flops are part of a busy, bright Googler’s day.
The article includes a list of bad things one must not do on the Google. Examples include eating disorders and instructional theft. What is “instructional theft”? Stealing Sony Vegas 15? I noted this statement in what appears to be an official Google statement of policy:
Please note this is not a complete list.
DarkCyber has come across information designed to meet the needs of individuals with an unusual interest in the behaviors of young children, data about hacking commercial software, videos supporting the for fee activities of “talent” who collect money via “donations”, and similar topics. Example? Sure, how about this:
Several observations:
- Policies are a bit like those implemented by parents who say, “Because I said so.”
- Google generates situational decisions because its policy appears to be “react”, handwave, and move on
- Responsibility for what Apple’s Tim Cook calls chaos is an uncomfortable burden and best left for others to shoulder. Interns? New hires? People who cannot catch on with a hot project team? Castoffs from Dodgeball, Orkut, WebAccelerator, etc.?
Fascinating stuff, particularly the “Please note this is not a complete list.” Perhaps there is no list, just whatever whatever is needed to douse a brush fire and generate clouds of smoke to season red herrings?
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2019
Google to Kiwis: You Are Flightless Birds, Not Us
July 5, 2019
I read “Google Suspends Trends Email Alerts in New Zealand after Breaching Court Order.” The headline caught my attention. New Zealand? Home of Kim Dotcom. Get away spot for some Silicon Valley Lord of the Rings admirers? A handy place to experience earth tremors.
The write up reminded me:
Google has backed down in a spat with the New Zealand government after its email alert system Trends breached a court order suppressing details of a high-profile murder case. According to Reuters and AFP, Google has suspended its Trends feature in the country following outcry from the New Zealand government.
I can understand Google’s point of view. New Zealand is a mere country and a small one at that. It is far away, and it does not click as much as an important country’s residents.
The hassle surfaced because an automated Google alert named the person who killed another. Stating the alleged killer’s name was a no no. Google ignored that court order.
Google said, “Yo, we’re sorry.” However, Google was not too keen on making changes to its systems because a mere country wanted the US firm to follow the laws of that lesser nation state.
Here’s the nifty part. The write up reported:
New Zealand politicians reacted strongly to this reply, with justice minister Andrew Little accusing Google of “flipping the bird” at the country’s legal system.
What’s the problem with Google (a big virtual country) doing what’s good for itself. Plus, little countries have to be careful because Google has digital firepower and could use it to send a message. Oil embargo? Forget that? How about no email and no Web traffic?
The write up included this statement:
In the UK, for example, politicians have argued that Facebook is incapable of policing “harmful” content on its platform, and needs to be overseen by domestic regulators. In France, Google has been fined millions of dollars for failing to meet EU data privacy laws. And in New Zealand, Facebook was strongly criticized by prime minister Jacinda Ardern for failing to stop the spread of videos of the Christchurch terrorist attacks. “They are the publisher not just the postman,” said Arden in March. “There cannot be a case of all profit no responsibility.”
Get real. This is the Google politicians and officials are irritating. What about removing New Zealand and the UK from Google Maps?
If you are not on Google, you don’t exist. Understand?
Stephen E Arnold, July 5, 2019
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