The Design of Our Future
September 26, 2016
An article at Co.Exist suggests we all pause to consider what we want our world to look like, in “We Need To Spend More Time Questioning Our Technology-Driven Future.” Along with the boundless potential of today’s fast-evolving technology come consequences, many of them unforeseen. Writer Ben Schiller cites futurist Gerd Leonhard, author of the book, Technology vs. Humanity. Far from a modern Luddite, Leonhard is a consultant for Google and a daily advocate for the wonders of advancing technology. His thorough understanding of the topic allows him to see potential pitfalls, as well.
The shape of technology today calls for society to update the way it approaches doing business, says Leonhard, and move past the “industrial-age paradigm of profit and growth at all costs, or some outmoded technological imperative that may have served us well in the 1980s.” He also points to the environmental problems created by fossil fuel companies as an example—if we aren’t careful, the AI and genetic engineering fields could develop their own “externalities,” or problems others will pay for, one way or another. Can we even imagine all the ways either of those fields could potentially cause harm?
Schiller writes of Leonhard:
The futurist outlines a philosophy he calls ‘exponential humanism’—the human equivalent of exponential technology. As a species we’re not developing the necessary skills and ethical frameworks to deal with technology that’s moving faster than we are, he says. We may be able to merge biology and technology, augment our minds and bodies, become superhuman, end disease, and even prolong life. But we’re yet to ask ourselves whether, for example, extending life is actually a good thing (as a society—there will always be individuals who for some reason want to live to 150). And, more to the point, will these incredible advances be available to everyone, or just a few people? To Leonhard, our current technological determinism—the view that technology itself is the purpose—is as dangerous as Luddism was 200-odd years ago. Without moral debate, we’re trusting in technology for its own sake, not because it actually improves our lives.
The write-up gives a few ideas on how to proactively shape our future. For example, Facebook could take responsibility for the content on its site instead of resting on its algorithm. Leonhard also suggests companies that replace workers with machines pay a tax that would help soften the blow to society, perhaps even with a minimum guaranteed income. Far-fetched? Perhaps. But in a future with fewer jobs and more freely-available products, a market-driven economy might just be doomed. If that is the case, what would we prefer to see emerge in its place?
Cynthia Murrell, September 26, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
Social Media: Forever?
September 24, 2016
I love categorical affirmatives. These are statements which apply a concept to an infinite class of objects, entities, and actions. Forever is a long, long time, and it is one of my favorite words to read in high-technology analyses by wizards. Consider “5 Ways Social Media Has Changed Business Forever.” Let me be clear. I have difficulty with the concept forever. Infinity was enough of a challenge when Miss Martens, my freshman math teacher, introduced the concept of performing mathematical operations on collections of infinitudes.
 |
 |
Grecian urn versus Snapchat. Which is forever? How about neither?
But for social media, forever it is.
The write up identifies five consequences of communication. For me, social media is communications. Granted the mechanisms are not face to face yapping over the fence. But I will suspend disbelief and highlight the five “forever” changes that social media hath wrought:
- Targeted advertising. I assume this means the ads I see when I visit a Web site using cookies which “know” me. Note that we use a variety of methods to make some of our online activity slightly less transparent. Details of some of the methods will appear in our forthcoming Dark Web Notebook, which if you want a copy can be reserved by writing benkent2020 at yahoo dot com.
- Organic marketing “like never before.” Another categorical. I recall that Genghis Khan did some organic marketing which worked quite well. True, he did not have an online connection, but the social folks diffused his message quickly.
- Fears of being trashed on social media by social media users. I understand fear. Ah, Columbia and other far off lands. Believe me. Social media criticism can appear on the fear scale, but the key difference is the ease and speed with which negative information diffuses. But whispering worked pretty well for some folks in Stalin’s social construct. Perhaps there is “fear” and “FEAR.”
- Real time customer service. Give me a break. What customer service? A chatbot may not be able to answer my questions about dead links in iTunes or where my lost suitcase is.
- Flexibility in content “dissemination.” I love flexibility. But when I worked in my first “real” job at Halliburton Nuclear, we had paper. We had fax machines. We had film-based transparency “presentations.” We had conference calls. We had face to face meetings. We had jet travel to whisk us really lucky types from New York to lovely Cleveland in a nonce. We had a PR firm to talk, spam, and fast dance. I am not sure how much more flexible I would be if I did not have the censoring services intermediating life for today’s marketers.
Forever. Think of this statement by John Keats:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Social media is just like a hand crafted, old fashioned Grecian urn. Well, maybe a tweet, a Facebook post, or a Snapchat may not last a few millennia. Close enough for millennials.
Stephen E Arnold, September 24, 2016
For the Paranoid at Heart: New Privacy Concerns from Columbia University and Google
September 23, 2016
The article on PhysOrg titled Location Data on Two Apps Enough to Identify Someone, Says Study illustrates the inadequacy of deleting names and personal details from big data sets. Location metadata undermines the anonymity of this data. Researchers at Columbia University and Google teamed up to establish that individuals can easily be identified simply by comparing their movements across two data sets. The article states,
What this really shows is that simply removing identifying information from large-scale data sets is not sufficient,” said Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab who was not involved in the study. “We need to move to a model of privacy-through-security. Instead of anonymizing data and making it public, there should be technical controls over who gets access to the data, how it is used, and for what purpose.
Just by bringing your phone with you, (and who doesn’t?) you create vast amounts of location metadata about yourself, often without your knowledge. As more and more apps require you to offer your location, it becomes less difficult for various companies to access the data. If you are interested in exploring how easy it is to figure out your identity based on your social media usage, visit You Are Where You Go.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 23, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
Ancient History Tumblr Hack Still Beats Myspace Passwords Sale
September 19, 2016
Personal information remains a hot ticket item on the darknet. Metro shared an article highlighting the latest breach, More than 65million Tumblr emails sold on the darknet. While the leak happened in 2013, Tumblr has now reported the magnitude of the database that was hacked. As a call to action, the article reports Tumblr’s recommendation for users to change their passwords and look out for phishing attempts. The article reports,
The database includes email addresses and passwords. These are heavily protected by a procedure which makes it extremely difficult to reproduce the passwords. The database has turned up on the darknet marketplace The Real Deal at a price of £102, reports Motherboard.
Troy Hunt, who runs the security research site Have I Been Pwned, said the leak is an example of a ‘historical mega breach’. Users who fear their credentials were involved in the Tumblr hack can find out here.
Let’s not forget the more recent hack of potentially the largest login credentials theft: Hacker offers 427 million MySpace passwords for just $2,800. Many are commenting on the low price tag for such a huge quantity of personal information as a sign of MySpace’s lack of appeal even on the Dark Web. When login information including passwords are stolen, phishing attempts on the site are not the only issue for victims to be concerned with; many individuals use the same login credentials for multiple accounts.
Megan Feil, September 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
Instance of the LinkedIn Blue Pencil
September 15, 2016
I love LinkedIn. I love the wonky email inducements to pay. I love the quirky information posted by people who are looking for jobs, consulting gigs, or a digital water cooler.
But what I love most is learning about alleged instances of bowdlerization, restrictions, information black outs, and what might be labeled “censorship.”
Let me be clear. The example comes from an individual with whom I have worked for 12, maybe 15 years. I am reporting this alleged suppression of information to shine some light on what seems to be one more step in restricting factoids and opinions. As I said, I love LinkedIn, which I have described as the social Clippy now that Microsoft will embrace the system in its services. Eager am I. I loved Bob too.
I learned from a person who was a US Marine officer and also a former Central Intelligence Agency professional that a post about the democratic candidate for the presidency was deleted. The author was put in LinkedIn’s dunce cap. You can read the original “Owl” post at this link.
Here’s what I learned. Note that this information came to me from Robert David Steele Vivas, the person who was summarily sent to sit in the corner of the LinkedIn virtual professional meet up on September 13, 2016.
Steele says:
Yesterday I was censored by LinkedIn when I tried to post a story on “The Madness of Queen Hillary.” Coming as it does in the aftermath of Google manipulating both search and spam results in favor of Hillary Clinton, Facebook blocking YouTubes from Alex Jones, and Twitter censoring trending results associated with Hillary Clinton’s health, I have realized that the major social media enterprises have become part of a police state where the opinions of we “unredeemable deplorables” are easily censored.
Intrigued, I ask Steele what happened then? He says:
My three attempts to post were blocked, and then I found that my profile was restricted from posting. I immediately deleted the account, LinkedIn, while efficient at censoring, is inefficient at elective deletions, so it will take a few days.
How were you told about this action? Steele states:
I was neither warned nor notified. I discovered the censorship when I found that I had lost functionality.
In a time when smart software promotes false news stories, I wanted to know if Steele knew if the action was taken by a human or an artificially smart chunk of code. Steele replies:
Presumably this was a software-driven trigger that closes down commentaries using negative words in association with Hillary Clinton. However I have also noticed that both the Clinton camp and the Israeli lobby have perfected the use of spam reports to silence critics — there is no court of appeals if you are maliciously labeled a spammer. I suspect the censorship resulted from a mix of the two anti-thought measures.
Why I asked myself would LinkedIn censor a member’s essay about a campaign that is dominating the news cycle in just about every form of media I check out? I asked Steele this question, and he writes:
Eric Schmidt is on record as saying that he has the right and the ability to control “hate speech” online. The “digital innovators” in the White House are all committed to Hillary Clinton in part so they can keep their jobs and continue to play with new means of manipulating the information environment. This happened because the White House ignored my 1994 letter calling for major investments in the integrity and security of the cyber domain (and actually allowed NSA to gut what security existed, with the complicity of IT CEOs, for the convenience of our mass surveillance program), and because in the absence of legitimate oversight in the public interest, social media enterprises will trend toward the abuse of their power, much as banks and corporations have in the material world.
Living in rural Kentucky, I am not certain that I am qualified to comment about the actions of smart software and even smarter executives. I have several thoughts I want to capture before I leave this vallis lacrimarum:
- LinkedIn has some content which strikes me as subpar. If the outfit is editing and blocking content, the process seems a bit hit and miss. I prefer some substantive, thought provoking information, not recycled marketing jargon.
- What other content has been blocked? Is there a Web site or social media stream where instances of censorship are captured and commented upon? I checked several pastesites and drew a blank.
- I assume that LinkedIn operates like a mall; that is, the mall owner can run the mall any old way he or she wishes. But how does one evaluate a professional who may be qualified for a job or a consulting gig if the information that professional supplies to LinkedIn is blocked. Doesn’t this distort the picture of the potential hire? What about a felon who creates an identify on LinkedIn and then is revealed by another LinkedIn user. Will LinkedIn block the revelatory information and allow the felon to cruise along with a false background?
As I said, the LinkedIn system is a fave at Beyond Search. I think it is difficult to make an informed decision without having access to information created by a LinkedIn member. What else is missing from the LinkedIn data pool?
Stephen E Arnold, September xx, 2016
Elastic Links Search and Social Through Graph Capabilities
September 13, 2016
The article titled Confused About Relationships? Elasticsearch Gets Graphic on The Register communicates the latest offering from Elasticsearch, the open-source search server based on Apache’s Lucene. Graph capabilities are an exciting new twist on search that enables users to map out relationships through the search engine and the Kibana data visualization plug-in. The article explains,
By fusing graph with search, Elastic hopes to combine the power of social with that earlier great online revolution, the revolution that gave us Google: search. Graph in Elasticsearch establishes relevance by establishing the significance of each relationship versus the global average to return important results. That’s different to what Elastic called “traditional” relationship mapping, which is based on a count of the frequency of a given relationship.
Elasticsearch sees potential for their Graph capabilities in behavioral analysis, particularly in areas such as drug discovery, fraud detection, and customized medicine and recommendations. When it comes to identifying business opportunities, Graph databases have already proven their value. Discovering connections and trimming degrees of separation are all of vital importance in social media. Social networks like Twitter have been using them since the beginning of NoSQL. Indeed, Facebook is a customer of Elastic, the business version of Elasticsearch that was founded in 2012. Other users of Elasticsearch include Netflix, StumbleUpon, and Mozilla.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 13, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
A Snapchat Is Worth a Thousand Twitter Characters or More
September 8, 2016
The article titled Snapchat Passes Twitter in Daily Usage on Bloomberg Technology provides some insights into the most popular modes of communication. As the title suggests, that mode is not with words. Rather, 150 million people appear to prefer images to language, at least when it comes to engaging with other on social media. The article reveals,
Snapchat has made communicating more of a game by letting people send annotated selfies and short videos. It has allowed people to use its imaging software to swap faces in a photo, transform themselves into puppies, and barf rainbows… Snapchat encourages people to visit the app frequently with features such as the “Snapstreak,” which counts the number of consecutive days they’ve been communicating with their closest friends. Snapchat’s other content, such as news and Live Stories, disappear after 24 hours.
Other Silicon Valley players have taken note of this trend. Facebook recently purchased the company that built Masquerade, an app offering photo-manipulation akin to Snapchat’s. Are words on their way out? The trend of using abbreviations (“abbrevs”) and slang to streamline messaging would logically result in a replacement of language with images, which can say volumes with a single click. But this could also result in a lot of confusion and miscommunication. Words allow for a precision of meaning that images often can’t supply. Hence the crossbreed of a short note scrawled across an image.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 8, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
Google and Social Media: A Trail of Tears
September 6, 2016
I read “Why Alphabet Inc Is Killing Google Plus.” The write up was a surprise here in Harrod’s Creek. Our operating assumption was that Facebook kicked Google Plus to the curb years ago. Nevertheless, an intrepid analyst flipped open a paper road map and retraced the journey of the + or Plus service. By the way, how do those searches for Google + work?
The write up reports:
Google has a rather long list of social media also-rans, including Orkut, Reader, Wave, and more recently, Buzz, the ill-fated Gmail-based social network that imploded following a catastrophic user policy violation and a class action lawsuit.
We thought that YouTube is Google’s new social play. It’s Facebook killer perhaps?
We learned:
Alphabet Inc did little to differentiate Google Plus from existing social media sites, and the result was that the platform ended up looking little more than a Facebook clone. The company did outthink Facebook on some aspects, notably Circles, a feature that allows users to better customize the privacy of what they share. But FB was no slouch in the “me-too” game either, and soon introduced a similar feature. In the end, there was little reason for people to switch from FB to Google Plus. Additionally, Google’s playbook of tying Gmail, Google Drive and a host of apps to Google Plus did not go down well with most users. People still remembered the Buzz fallout, and many were jittery about letting Google use their personal data to tailor its ads.
Yep, but ancient history at least in mobile Internet time.
My view is that Google Plus or + was a “me too” play. These, if they work, often yield up to 60 percent of the market number one’s revenue. If they flop, users go elsewhere.
But which is the bigger failure:
- Google big bets like solving death and Loon balloons
- Google Fiber
- Google’s social media efforts?
Looking at Google’s revenue it appears that Google remains a one trick pony. Even more troubling is that the DNA of that particular steed comes from the Yahooligans’ GoTo.com/Overture.com inspiration.
Net net: Google is struggling with innovation just as it has for more than a decade. Social me toos, solving death, becoming the new Bell Telephone—great ideas, just expensive ones which have not performed.
We love the Alphabet Google thing. We love the notion of objective search results. We love personalized ads. We love the internal systems.
We love everything except the company’s inability to diversify its revenue. Now the GOOG is in cost saving mode, and it may be too little too late.
Stephen E Arnold, September 6, 2016
Do You Use Social Media? Too Bad, You Are Now Evil
September 2, 2016
An ignorant understanding of social media can yield many humorous results; that is, grandparents who do not understand how to use Facebook or Twitter. It can also, however, lead to consequences more dire than the average Facebook user imagined. The International Business Times reports that “Zimbabwean Government Brands Social Media Users As ‘Cyber Terrorists’ And Reiterates Threats” is taking things too far The media is prone to create sensationalism around events that tend to be more mild. In this case, social media activists who take to Facebook, Twitter, and other channels to voice their disproval of the Zimbabwean government are labeled terrorists.
In the United States, we take our right to freedom of speech, for granted and the Zimbabweans are protesting the current government. Zimbabwe cracks down on any civilian demonstrations, but the country is now in the most provocative civilian movement in recent years. The leader of the moment, Pastor Evan Mawarire, has fled for his life and sought asylum in other countries. The Zimbabwe government is calling all Mawarire’s supporters “cyber terrorists”:
“On Tuesday (16 August), information minister Christopher Mushohwe warned that online activities are being monitored and that the government would deal with activists working with ‘Diaspora cyber-terrorists.’ ‘They must be warned that the long arm of the law is encircling them,’ he told press in Harare. ‘There are people who are now in trouble because they thought Mawarire was their leader. Where is Mawarire now?’ the minister said, in reference to #This Flag’s figurehead’s US stay.”
The Zimbabwe government is also saying that the current civil unrest will result in a war similar to what is currently happening in Syria. Social media is simply the tool Zimbabwe activists are using to pressure their government into making changes and to communicate their message.
Anything that be used to spread the activists’ message would be deemed as “terroristic” or “evil” in the eyes of the government because it is undermining their power. Do I hear a comparison of China’s limitation on information as well as North Korea keeping its citizens ignorant? The Zimbabwe protestors are not terrorists and social media is not only a communication hub.
Whitney Grace, September 2,2016
Social Media Snooping Site Emerges for Landlord and Employers
September 2, 2016
The promise of unlocking the insights in big data is one that many search and analytics companies make. CNet shares the scoop on a new company: Disturbing new site scrapes your private Facebook and informs landlords, employers. Their website is Score Assured and it provides a service as an intermediary between your social media accounts and your landlord. Through scanning every word you have typed on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even Tinder, this service will then filter all the words through a neuro-linguistic programming tool to provide a report on your reputation. We learned,
There’s no reason to believe that Score Assured’s “analysis” will offer in any way an accurate portrayal of who you are or your financial wherewithal. States across the country are already preparing or enacting legislation to ensure that potential employers have no right to ask for your password to Facebook or other social media. In Washington, for example, it’s illegal for an employer to ask for your password. Score Assured offers landlords and employers (the employer service isn’t live yet) the chance to ask for such passwords slightly more indirectly. Psychologically, the company is preying on a weakness humans have been displaying for some time now: the willingness to give up their privacy to get something they think they really want.
Scraping and finding tools are not new, but could this application be any more 2016? The author of this piece is onto the zeitgeist of “I’ve got nothing to hide.” Consequently, data — even social data — becomes a commodity. Users’ willingness to consent is the sociologically interesting piece here. It remains to be seen whether the data mining technology is anything special.
Megan Feil, September 2, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
