Amazon: Putting Eyes on Humans
February 17, 2021
Amazon may have a new driver at the controls of the Bezos bulldozer, but the big orange machine keeps pushing monitoring technology. “Amazon’s Driver Monitoring App Is an Invasive Nightmare” does not like the system the online bookstore uses to keep an eye on human delivery drivers. The write up states:
Mentor is made by eDriving, which describes the app on its website as a “smartphone-based solution that collects and analyzes driver behaviors most predictive of crash risk and helps remediate risky behavior by providing engaging, interactive micro-training modules delivered directly to the driver in the smartphone app.”
From my tumble down shack in rural Kentucky, the Bezos bulldozer seems to be using technology from an outfit called eDriving. There are several options available to the online bookstore. Amazon can continue to pay eDriving. Amazon can clone the system. Amazon can acquire the company, people, or technology.
Based on my on-going research into Amazon’s surveillance capabilities, the enhanced cameras, the online hook to the AWS mothership, and the use of third-parties to nudge monitoring forward is still in its early days. Amazon moves slowly and in a low profile way. Most law enforcement and intelligence organizations observe Amazon the way a tourist does a turtle in the Galapagos: Check out where the turtle is after breakfast and then note that the darned thing moved behind a rock a few fee away by noon. No big deal. Turtles move, right? Turtles are not gazelles, right?
Several observations:
- Amazon chugs along in a sprightly manner behind the curtain separating public use of a system like Mentor
- Amazon time makes it difficult for some observers to note significant change in a system or technology
- The trick to figuring out where Amazon is headed in surveillance systems is to step back and observe the suite of systems.
What does one learn?
How about Amazon as the plumbing for many of the widely used policeware and intelware systems? Who knew that Palantir Technologies is a good Amazon customer? Maybe not IBM which inked a deal with the chipper Denver based “ride ‘em cowboy” policeware firm.
How useful would Amazon’s monitoring technology be if connected to a Palantir content intake system? My guess is that it would be quite useful, and it would require the Amazon cloud to work. What’s that mean for cloud competitors like Google, IBM, and Microsoft?
Amazon’s policeware and intelware approach is a lock in dream. Where could a Mentor-type system be useful to investigators?
Sorry. I can’t think of a single use case. Ho ho ho.
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2021
A Tattoo Can Monitor Your Brainwaves
February 17, 2021
Most tattoos are works of art, but some people inject ink into their skin for medical reasons. Medical tattoos often list allergies or say “DNR” (do not resuscitate) on a person’s chest. Digital Trends share that a new type of tattoo ink can monitor brainwaves in the article: “This Game-Changing Graphene Tattoo Can Continuously Monitor Your Brainwaves.”
Brain Scientific, Inc. was founded by Baruch “Boris” Goldstein and specializes in special tattoos. These tattoos are inked on your head with a special grapheme ink, so they can monitor brainwaves. Here is a more accurate description:
“To be clear, Brain Scientific’s new Brain E-Tattoo doesn’t resemble any piece of ink you’ve seen before. It’s a small patch, about the size of a postage stamp that looks, for all intents and purposes, like a microchip wafer affixed above the ear of the wearer. While the company uses the word “tattoo” to describe it, it’s more accurately referred to as a minimally invasive, implantable, 4-channel, micro electroencephalography (EEG) with grapheme electrodes for continuous brain monitoring. And there’s a chance this bit of cyborg tech could one day help save your life.”
The idea is that the grapheme-based electrodes will be connected to a micro EEG to analyze brain patterns and alert you to abnormal brain patterns like seizures and Alzheimer’s.
Brain Scientific specializes in AI technology, but they transitioned into hardware when they could not find the right tools. Goldstein wants the grapheme tattoo to eventually replace EEG headsets and continuously monitor brain activity. With the recorded brain activity, medical professionals can observe how any changes differ from past neurological data. The grapheme tattoo can also monitor other body functions.
Grapheme tattoos may one day be programmed to download information directly into your brain. Companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google will have different grapheme tattoo types and sell exclusive content. How long before those get on the market?
Whitney Grace, February 17, 2021
Business Intelligence, Expectations, and Data Fog
February 10, 2021
Business intelligence and government intelligence software promises real time data intake, analysis and sense making, and outputs with a mouse click. Have you heard the phrase, “I have the Brooklyn Bridge for sale”? Sure, sure, I know I don’t want to own the Brooklyn Bridge, but that super spiffy intelligence software (what I call intelware), count me in.
The marketing pitch for business intelligence and general intelligence software has not changed significantly over the years. In my experience, a couple of nifty outputs like a relationship diagram and a series of buttons set up to spit out “actionable intelligence” often close the deal. The users of the software usually discover three points not making up a large part of the demos, the discussions, and the final contract for the customer’s requirements.
I read “The Age Of Continuous Business Intelligence.” The idea is appealing. Lots of information and no time to read, review, digest, analyze, and discuss the available information. In my opinion, the attitude now is “I don’t have time.”
Yep, time.
The write up asserts:
we [an outfit called KX] know that shortening the time it takes to ingest, store, process, and analyze historic and real-time data is a game changer for businesses in all sectors. Our customers in finance, manufacturing, automotive, telecommunications and utilities tell us that when processes and systems are continuously fed by real-time data that is enriched by the context of historic data, they can automate critical business decisions resulting in significant operational and commercial benefits.
The write up contains a diagram which lays bare “continuous business intelligence.”
The write up concludes:
As the research clearly shows, real-time data analytics is a critical area of investment for many firms. To ensure maximum value is derived from these investments, it is imperative that organizations – regardless of size and sector – challenge their understanding of what real-time means. By implementing a strategy of continuous business intelligence, firms can dramatically reduce the time it takes to uncover and act on insights that can materially change the game in terms of growth, efficiency and profitability.
I love that “research clearly shows.” The challenges for the continuous thing include:
- Defining real time. (According to research my team did for a project years ago, there are numerous definitions of real time, and there is a Grand Canyon sized gap among these.)
- Making clear the computational short cuts necessary to process “fire hoses”. (Yep, these compromises have a significant impact on costs, validity of system outputs, and the mechanisms for issuing meaningful outputs from sense making.)
- Managing the costs. (Normalizing, verifying, processing, storing, and moving data require human and machine resources. Right, those things.)
Net net: Software whether for business or government applications in intelligence work only if the focus is narrow and the expectations of a wild and crazy MBA are kept within a reality corral. Otherwise, business intelligence will shoot blanks, not silver bullets.
Oh, KX is hooked up with a mid tier consulting firm. What’s that mean? A sudden fog has rolled in, and it is an expensive fog.
Stephen E Arnold, February 10, 2021
IBM Acknowledges That Palantir Technologies Is Winning the Battle for Policeware and Intelware
February 9, 2021
I read “Palantir Surges on Deal to Offer Software through IBM.” Yep, the new IBM has apparently accepted reality: Its i2 Analysts Notebook products aren’t the powerhouses they were when Mike Hunter’s company was the go-to policeware and intelware product.
According to the “real” news outfit Bloomberg:
Palantir Technologies Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.are uniting in a partnership that will dramatically expand the reachof Palantir’s sales force while making IBM’s ownartificial-intelligence software easier for non-technical customers touse…
Why? The write up reveals:
Without providing a time frame, Thomas [IBM wizard] said he expects the partnershipto help boost IBM’s customers using AI to 80% from its current 20%. Palantir Chief Operating Officer Shyam Sankar said the technical fitwith IBM and its reach are part of his company’s long-term effort tofinally ramp sales. In addition to commercial customers, governmentcontracts have surged both in number and size during the pandemic. “This is the biggest [partnership] we’ve announced — expectmore,” Sankar said. He said he expects to triple Palantir’sdirect-sales team to about 100 this year, a significant hike for acompany whose management once prided itself on not employing a singlesalesperson.
A couple of minor points:
- Anyone remember the litigation between Palantir and i2 about intellectual property? Of course not.
- What Palantir executives were named in the i2 litigation? (This is a really good question by the way?)
- Do the Palantir solutions generate really happy licensees?
- How do the former i2 professionals perceive this tie up?
- How will the deal impact Palantir’s present cloud services providers?
These are questions which “real” news entities do not ask or answer.
Stephen E Arnold, February 9, 2021
Twitter and the Fire Hose for Academics
January 29, 2021
I read “Enabling the Future of Academic Research with the Twitter API.” According to the official Twitter statement:
Our developer platform hasn’t always made it easy for researchers to access the data they need, and many have had to rely on their own resourcefulness to find the right information.
Understatement, of course.
The post continues:
We’ve also made improvements to help academic researchers use Twitter data to advance their disciplines, answer urgent questions during crises, and even help us improve Twitter.
Help is sometimes — well — helpful. But self help is often a positive step; for example, verifying the actual identity of a person who uses the tweeter thing. There are some software robots chugging along I believe.
Also, charging a subscription fee. The amount is probably less important than obtaining verifiable bank information. Sure, some software robots have accounts at outstanding institutions like Credit Suisse and HSBC, but whatever account data are available might be helpful under certain circumstances.
But academics? How many academics work for non governmental or governmental entities as experts, analysts, and advisors? Will the tweeter thing’s new initiative take such affiliations into account before and during usage of Twitter data?
I assume that a tweeter senior manager will offer an oracular comment like, “For sure.”
There are three hoops through which the agile academic must jump, and I quote:
- You are either a master’s student, doctoral candidate, post-doc, faculty, or research-focused employee at an academic institution or university.
- You have a clearly defined research objective, and you have specific plans for how you intend to use, analyze, and share Twitter data from your research…
- You will use this product track for non-commercial purposes….
Sounds like a plan which will make some nation states’ academics wriggle with anticipative joy.
My view is that this new initiative may unfold in interesting ways. But I am sure the high school science club managers have considered such possibilities. Why who would hire a graduate student to access tweeter outputs to obtain actionable information for use by a country’s intelligence professionals? The answer in the twitterverse is, “Who would risk losing the trust of Twitter by doing that?” Certainly not an academic funded by an intelligence or law enforcement entity.
Right, no one. Misuse the tweeter? Inconceivable.
Stephen E Arnold, January 29, 2021
Online Axiom: Distorted Information Is Part of the Datasphere
January 28, 2021
I read a 4,300 word post called “Nextdoor Is Quietly Replacing the Small-Town Paper” about an online social network aimed at “neighbors.” Yep, just like the one in which Mr. Rogers lived in for 31 years.
A world that only exists in upscale communities, populated by down home folks with money, and alarm systems.
The write up explains:
Nextdoor is an evolution of the neighborhood listserv forthe social media age, a place to trade composting tips, offerbabysitting services, or complain about the guy down the street whodoesn’t clean up his dog’s poop. Like many neighborhood listservs,it also has increasingly well-documented issues with racial profiling, stereotyping of the homeless, and political ranting of variousstripes, including QAnon. But Nextdoor has gradually evolved into something bigger and more consequential than just a digital bulletin board: In many communities,the platform has begun to step into roles once filled by America’slocal newspapers.
As I read this, I recalled that Google wants to set up its own news operation in Australia, but the GOOG is signing deals with independent publishers, maybe the mom-and-pop online advertising company should target Nextdoor. Imagine the Google Local ads which could be hosed into this service. Plus, Nextdoor already disappears certain posts and features one of the wonkiest interfaces for displaying comments and locating items offered for free or for sale. Google-ize it?
The article gathers some examples of how the at homers use Nextdoor to communicate. Information, disinformation, and misinformation complement quasi-controversial discussions. But if one gets too frisky, then the “seed” post is deleted from public view.
I have pointed out in my lectures (when I was doing them until the Covid thing) that the local and personal information is a goldmine of information useful to a number of commercial and government entities.
If you know zero about Nextdoor, check out the long, long article hiding happily behind a “register to read” paywall. On the other hand, sign up and check out the service.
Google, if you were a good neighbor, you would be looking at taking Nextdoor to Australia to complement the new play of “Google as a news publisher.” A “real” news outfit. Maybe shaped information is an online “law” describing what’s built in to interactions which are not intermediated?
Stephen E Arnold, January 28, 2021
Palantir Titan Positioning
January 7, 2021
I spotted the jargon now used by Palantir for its Titan platform. No, the jargon is not platform. Here’s what the policeware powerhouse states at the Titan Web page:
Titan’s platform upgrade makes Gotham more performant, open, and proactive, so that the world’s institutions can continue turning data into intelligence.
I once heard a Fast Search & Transfer whiz kid use the word “performant.” In 2006, I asked, “What does performant mean?” The answer was, “It means fast.” I asked, “Like the name of your company or fast as in speed?” The reply, “Fast.” That’s the type of answer that may have contributed to some of Fast Search’s challenges.
I also like the Palantirish word “proactive,” which seems forward leaning.
The search and business intelligence vendors have been using the phrase “turning data into intelligence” for years.
To sum up, Palantir is becoming performant in marketing its platform which converts all sorts of information into “intelligence.” Now what is “intelligence”? Answer fast or performantly, please.
Stephen E Arnold, January 7, 2021
DarkCyber for December 15, 2020, Now Available
December 15, 2020
The DarkCyber video news program for December 15, 2020, is now available at this link. This week’s program includes:
- Fact or fiction: Work around iCloud security for an iPad
- Germany opens backdoor to one encrypted email system
- The Dark Web and Covid is a thing
- Smart weapons and surgical strikes: The future of war
- NSO Group in the spotlight again
- Current information about beam weapons.
You may also view the program via the embedded player on the Beyond Search Web site at this link. Plus, no begging for dollars and no advertising.
Kenny Toth, December 15, 2020
AWS Panorama: Such a Happy Name!
December 2, 2020
“AWS Announces Panorama, a Device That Adds Machine Learning Technology to Any Camera” caught my attention. (Now don’t think I ignored Amazon’s work monitoring system called Monitron, a wonderful name, very Robo Cop like. I have not.) I noted the word “all” in the title. Very wide in scope. Appropriate in an era of data harvesting. Also, I quite liked the “appliance” moniker. What could me more appropriate for a company with more than one million employees, oodles of government contracts with assorted nation states, and customers hungry to know as much as possible about humanoids and other entities of interest? A toaster, a data Hoover, a device to exploit the info-pressure differential between those with the gizmo and those monitored by the gizmo.
The write up states:
…enterprises continue to clamor for new machine learning-enabled video recognition technologies for security, safety and quality control. Indeed, as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, new protocols around building use and occupancy are being adopted to not only adapt to the current epidemic, but plan ahead for spaces and protocols that can help mitigate the severity of the next one.
And law enforcement and intelligence applications? Whoops. Not included in the write up nor in the AWS blog post. Amazon is not in the policeware and intelware business. At least, that’s what I have been told.
Stephen E Arnold, December 2, 2020
Soros: Just in Time 20-20 Hindsight
November 18, 2020
Here’s an interesting quote (if it is indeed accurate):
SFM [a George Soros financial structure] made this investment [in Palantir Technologies] at a time when the negative social consequences of big data were less understood,” the firm said in a statement Tuesday. SFM would not make an investment in Palantir today.
The investment concerns Palantir Technologies. George Soros, who is 90 years young, according to “Soros Regrets Early Investment in Peter Thiel’s Palantir,” includes this statement:
Soros has sold all the shares it’s permitted to sell at this time and will keep selling, according to the statement. “SFM does not approve of Palantir’s business practices,” the firm said.
Hindsight is 20-20. Or is it?
Hindsight bias can cause memory distortion. Because the event happened like you thought it would, you go back and revise your memory of what you were thinking right before the event. You re-write history, so to speak, and revise the probability in hindsight. Going forward, you use that new, higher probability to make future decisions. When in fact, the probabilities haven’t changed at all. That leads to poor judgment.—“Innovators: Beware the Hindsight Bias”
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2020
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