The Internet of Infomercials: Datasphere Thumbtypers Fret
November 30, 2020
I found “The Ad-Based Internet Is About to Collapse. What Comes Next?” interesting because of two points. The first was this passage:
For example, even as the value of the digital ad industry was continuing to rise, the average clickthrough rate on Google’s display ads fell to 0.46% in 2018, ad fraud was expected to jump 21% to $42 billion in 2019, and a Google study found 56% of its display ads may not even be seen by a human. These stats suggest the product being sold is not nearly as effective or valuable as many purchasers of digital ads believe it to be.
Massive hucksterism. Got it.
And how about a fix to the Internet of Infomercials? Try this:
Logic editor Ben Tarnoff suggests that the proper organizational structure would depend on the scale of the service. In some cases, cooperatives would be ideal.
Several observations:
- The author is describing external characteristics of online information, not the dynamics of the datasphere
- Cooperation is an interesting idea; however, in a datasphere, cooperation is not the “it takes a village” fairy tale
The nature of online is now being considered by thumbtypers. News flash: It’s too late to pull disconnect. Goldfish in a fish bowl accept their environment as the norm. Replace the glass container with zeros and ones and what do you get? Fish in one environment trying to figure out another environment without the means to figure out what’s TikTok-ing, Parler-ing, and Facebook-ing.
Stephen E Arnold, November 30, 2020
Younger Person Explains the Information Age
November 30, 2020
Do you pay attention to young people? Some have great ideas; others edge up to an idea and back away; and others just explain the world the way it really is. To test your receptivity to that I call the jejune ethos, navigate to “The Paradox of the Great Information Flood.” Note that the younger person does not go with the “tsunami” metaphor. This is no wave; this is a flood which means, according to Dictionary.com:
A great flowing or overflowing of water, especially over land not usually submerged. Any great outpouring or stream.
One minor point: Floods recede, but let’s look at other revelations.
- Central authority is not a hot ticket.
- More information produces more uncertainty.
- Existential wobbling and nihilism-on-the-rise are us.
How do these observations stack up against the reality of online information. I would point out a few modest differences; for example:
- Online information fosters surveillance ecosystems
- Online information erodes traditional structures; that is, the authority thing, the certainty thing, and the wobbling thing
- Online information evolves into monopolies; for example, Google in search and other FAANG centroids
- Online information requires deleting “old”, “historical,” and fungible data and information
- Online information is manipulable; that is, the deep fake capability is the norm
- Online information facilitates blurring the real with the construct; that is, gameification of data and experience.
Net net: The essay addresses observable facets of the information flood. Floods and tsunamis don’t capture what has been in operation since the mid 1970s. Floods go away; waves pass.
Digital information refines permanence. Hello, world. You are neither brave nor new. Thumb typers are justifiably uncertain, wobbly, and suspicious of “authority.”
Stephen E Arnold, November 30, 2020
Fact Checking Backward Through Time
November 26, 2020
Hooray for the truth! Though Business Dateline introduced corrections to online news stories in the mid-1980s, most online indexing services never bother to fix errors. Now, Internet archive the Wayback Machine is addressing this oversight with “Fact Checks and Context for Wayback Machine Pages,” the site announces on its blog. Writer Mark Graham reports:
“Fact checking organizations and origin websites sometimes have information about pages archived in the Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive has started to surface some of these annotations for Wayback Machine users. We are attempting to preserve our digital history but recognize the issues around providing access to false and misleading information coming from different sources. By providing convenient links to contextual information we hope that our patrons will better understand what they are reading in the Wayback Machine. As an example, Politifact has investigated a claim included in a webpage that we archived. Our.news has matched this URL to the Politifact review which allowed us to provide a yellow context banner for Wayback Machine patrons. In a different case, we surfaced the discovery that a webpage is part of a disinformation campaign according to the researchers at Graphika and link to their research report. As a last example, the Internet Archive archived a Medium post that was subsequently removed based on a violation of their Covid-19 Content Policy.”
The post supplies screenshots to illustrate the yellow context banners in each of the above examples. Graham makes it a point to acknowledge the work of several organizations that make it possible for the Wayback Machine to supply this context: FactCheck.org, Check Your Fact, Lead Stories, Politifact, Washington Post Fact-Checker, AP News Fact Check, USA Today Fact Check, Graphika, Stanford Internet Observatory, and Our.news. We are glad to see veracity still matters to many.
Cynthia Murrell, November 25, 2020
Court Case Hunger? Judyrecords Is Available
November 24, 2020
Unable to pay the fee for LexisNexis-type commercial search systems? You are not alone. If you want information from court records, navigate to Judyrecords. Within the last couple of months, the system has added more than 35 million cases. Aren’t these data available for free elsewhere? Sure, if you like going through hoops like verification procedures. Judyrecords lets a user plug in the names of entities and view results. I ran one of my go to queries: “Palantir IBM.” Here are the results:
This may not be important to you, but for those who have to wade through for fee legal search systems, Judyrecords is helpful. But for how long? Yes, that is a good question. For now, however, give it a whirl. Keep in mind that US court systems without online technology or special arrangements for document access prevent the system from being comprehensive. Lawyers enjoy results which must be checked by billable professionals, however.
Stephen E Arnold, November 23, 2020
Deep Fakes Are Old
November 24, 2020
Better late than never, we suppose. The New York Post reports, “BBC Apologizes for Using Fake Bank Statements to Land Famous Princess Diana Interview.” Princess Diana being unavailable to receive the apology, the BBC apologized to her brother instead for luring her into the 1995 interview with counterfeit documentation. Writer Marisa Dellatto specifies:
“Network director-general Tim Davie wrote to Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, to acknowledge the fraudulent actions of reporter Martin Bashir 25 years ago. Last month, the BBC finally admitted that Bashir showed Spencer bank statements doctored by a staff graphic designer. Spencer had alleged that Bashir told his sister ‘fantastical stories to win her trust’ and showed him fake bank records which reportedly helped land Bashir the interview. At the time, the princess was apparently deeply worried she was being spied on and that her staff was leaking information about her. Bashir’s ‘evidence’ allegedly made her confident to do the interview, one year after she and [Prince] Charles split.”
This is the interview in which Princess Di famously remarked that “there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” and the couple filed for divorce in the weeks that followed. (For those who were not around or old enough to follow the story, her statement was a reference to Prince Charles’ ongoing relationship with Camila Parker Bowles, whom he subsequently married.)
For what it is worth, a BBC spokesperson insists this sort of deception would not pass the organization’s more stringent editorial processes now in place. Apparently, Bashir also intimidated the Princess with fake claims her phones had been tapped by the British Intelligence Service. Though it did issue the apology, the BBC does not plan to press the issue further because Bashir is now in poor health.
Cynthia Murrell, November 24, 2020
Useful Service or Email Collector?
November 16, 2020
Here is a possibly useful service—Please-unsubscribe.com does just what its name suggests: Unsubscribe clients from bothersome marketing emails for a small fee. The service’s entrepreneur reassures:
“Forward marketing emails to hey@please-unsubscribe.com and we will take care of the rest. Here is an example. … Each unsubscribe uses 1 Credit. Over time, you should need this service less and less 🙂 Fresh accounts start with 5 Credits. Credits are initially locked to the source email address. For example, if your email is john.smith@example.com, then your credits will only work with that email address. To change your source email address (or add a member), please message: support@please-unsubscribe.com. For example, you can add multiple members of your family or friends to share a single credit pool.”
One begins by simply forwarding any marketing email and the first five credits will be assigned. Once they are used up, the user will be asked to enroll through Stripe or PayPal. We’re told unsubscribe requests are usually processed within 24 hours, and users receive a monthly report describing the junk email that has been halted. The page, which is written in the tone of a casual conversation, ponders the value of moving to a weekly report vs. not cluttering its users’ inbox (when they were tasked to do just the opposite). Depending on how many credits one buys, the cost is between 20 and 50 cents per pesky sender. We are also told the service respects users’ privacy. It pledges to never sell data and to place processed emails into Google Workspace’s trash to be purged within 30 days.
We found this part interesting—For now, anyway, this service is not automated. The job is performed by an actual person. The page specifies:
“Currently, there is no automation. Oftentimes, these marketing emails contain hard-to-find, low-opacity links. But it’s nothing that a real human can’t tackle. At this time, the only processor is my high-school sister. I pay her $15/hour. In the future, automation might be worth it. But for right now, hiring a real human is a pretty good deal for the task.”
One wonders what will happen when and if the service becomes popular; the sister may soon become overwhelmed. Will please-unsubscribe turn to automation or hire more workers? We would be curious to learn the answer.
Cynthia Murrell, November 16, 2020
Contact Tracing Apps: A Road Map to Next Generation Methods
October 30, 2020
I read “Why Contact-Tracing Apps Haven’t Lived Up to Expectations.” The article explains that the idea of using a mobile phone and some software to figure out who has been exposed to Covid is not exactly a home run. The reasons range from people not trusting the app or the authorities pushing the app, crappy technology, and an implicit message that some humans don’t bother due to being human: Sloth, gluttony, etc.
The write up appears to overlook the lessons which have been learned from contact tracing applications.
- The tracers have to be baked into the devices
- The software has to be undetectable
- The operation has to be secure
- The monitoring has to be 24×7 unless the phone is destroyed or the power source cut off.
These lessons are not lost on some government officials.
What’s this mean? For some mobile phone operations, the insertion of tracers is chugging right along. Other countries may balk, but the trajectory of disease and other social activities indicated that these “beacon” and “transmit” functions are of considerable interest in certain circles.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
Google Filtering: How Smart Is Software?
October 27, 2020
I included a screenshot illustrating YouTube search results which make it clear how to obtain without charge copy-protected commercial software. You can read that story and see the screen shot at this link. I want to document a Reuters’ report called “Italy’s Communications Watchdog Fines Google for Betting Ad.” The news item documents that Google was fined for running gambling ads. The DarkCyber research team has been monitoring some of the questionable video streaming sites. Advertisements are appearing on these sites in greater numbers. What vendors are providing these paid messages? At this time, there’s no open source information about the intermediaries involved.
Questions:
- Why doesn’t filtering by key word work for Google advertisements? Gambling seems to be a no brainer.
- Why are Google YouTube search results providing recently updated links to video content which appears to violate a number of rules and regulations? The word “crack” is like gambling a seemingly obvious yellow caution light.
- What are the names of the ad agency intermediaries providing advertisements to what appear to be illegal video streaming sites?
Interesting? The DarkCyber research team finds the subject engaging. Smart software seems to have some blind spots.
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2020
Pundit Wants Everyone Unplugged
October 21, 2020
Douglas Rushkuff is a prominent writer on technology, media, and the future. According to Coin Desk, Rushkuff believes that when it comes to the Internet’s development: “‘We Blew It.’ Douglas Rushkoff’s Take On The Future Of The Web.” Rushkoff does not like that the big tech companies, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are monetizing our attention. He recommends that people unplug from screens and return to the world around us.
The interview focuses on Rushkuff’s experience writing about the Internet’s early days. He described the early days of the Internet as an altruistic, idealist time, when the Internet was viewed as a way to combat established powers and hierarchies. Rushkuff stated everything disappeared when:
“I think people sense the potential is still there. If we hadn’t weaponized this stuff against humanity in the name of increasing the Nasdaq stock exchange, what may have we gotten? Would we have saved – now it’s too late – civilization? That was the last moment at which we had the potential to change the world. But we decided it was more important to build up our 401(k)s.”
He believes that humanity might have passed a tipping point for civilization’s salvation. The biggest problems are climate change and more diseases. He notes that whenever a new technology is invented such as crypto currencies, people are not using them for their intended purpose. Instead they are being used to generate money and support the old power structures.
Rushkuff advises people to support mutual aid endeavors, where people cooperate and help each other for society’s benefit. Crypto currencies are a way to establish mutual aid and authenticate business transactions without relying on big business and/or banks.
In the 1990s, Rushkuff wrote of the dangers about teaching computers how to manipulate human behavior and thought. Based off how technology is advancing, computers will only get better at understanding humans. His views on the future are thinking, but he does offer some wise words:
“When you only look forward you don’t see your own exhaust. There’s a disconnect from the consequences of your actions.”
Hindsight is twenty-twenty when one rides the Google bus.
Whitney Grace, October 21, 2020
Freeware Tool GT4T for Translating Text
October 20, 2020
Here is a more efficient solution for those translating from one (human) language to another. Ghacks.net suggests we “Translate Microsoft Office Documents or Text from Any Word Editor and Get Dictionary Definitions Instantly with GT4T.” Writer Ashwin explores the freeware tool and takes us along for the ride with instructions and plenty of screenshots. He writes:
“Translating is no easy task, it requires precision, and you may be constantly looking up words that you don’t know or are unsure about. Opening up the browser every few seconds isn’t going to be productive either if you are working in desktop programs, e.g. Microsoft Word. GT4T is a freeware tool that can help translate text from any word editor quickly. The name stands for Google Translate for Translators, and obviously the program requires an internet connection to work. It does support other translation services, more on this later. The application doesn’t have a GUI window to work with. Instead, it runs in the background, you can access it using a couple of keyboard shortcuts.”
The write-up walks us through setting up the app with the languages one is working with and describes how to translate text in any program. One important caveat—GT4T replaces the original text (in the document and on the clipboard) with the translation, so users will want to save the original version separately. The tool supports the following services, and provides a way to switch between them: Google Neural, Microsoft Translator, Youdao, Yandex, Google Phrase Based, DeepL Pro, Baidu, Tencent, Sogou, CloudTranslation, NiuTrans, Systran, TradooIT, and Papago.
Ashwin describes the pop-up dictionary function and tells us how to create custom profiles with specified languages for different projects. GT4T is available for Mac and Windows, though it does not have a version tailored to mobile devices. Users may notice a “Snore Toast” shortcut in Windows’ Start menu—do not be alarmed, we’re advised, that is just to display toast notifications related to the tool.
Cynthia Murrell, October 20, 2020
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