Social Media: Must Have Information
June 13, 2018
At the intel and LE conference in Prague, one of the items of received wisdom was, “Social media is very, very useful.” What struck me last week was that this view seemed to be held by authorities throughout the world. Just a few years ago, social media was a great unknown. Today it is known and highly desired.
Text-based social media tools, such as Twitter and Facebook remain the kings of social media in English-speaking countries like the United States and Great Britain. However, this is not the case around the world, where visual social media tools are overtaking them. We learned more from a recent ZD Net story, “What’s Driving Middle East’s Rush to Social Media?”
According to the story, Facebook is very popular in Saudi Arabia and UAE, but Snapchat, Instagram and the like are absolutely exploding.
“However, in some Middle East countries, Facebook use has dropped substantially, by up to -20 percent, since 2013. Reasons for this decline aren’t clear but may include privacy concerns and preferences to use newer and more visually orientated social networks.”
Eastern Europe and the Middle East are two geographic areas where visual social media has gained traction. The marketing world is already hip to this trend. Many wise ad agencies and brand-centric marketers are touting the power of visual social media to construct a company’s narrative and brand. This is not just a blip on a radar, but a global phenomenon that is poised to leave text-based social media in the dust.
Local and regional data sources complement the information generated by their US based counterparts.
Patrick Roland, June 13, 2018
Google: Arm Wrestling with Oneself
June 13, 2018
A typical fiction trope is human vs. creation. The most famous work with this concept is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, followed closely by an endless science-fiction list that deals with humans vs. robots. While most humanity vs. creation stories focus on a dystopic future, the real life drama focus h job replacement and human skill obsolescence. The New York Times reports that “Early Facebook And Google Employees Form Coalition To Fight What They Built.”
Former Google and Facebook employees banded together to form the Center for Humane Technology. Partnering with Common Sense Media, the Center for Humane Technology’s purpose is to educate parents, students, and teachers about the social media’s dangers. The Center for Humane Technology’s founders built the social media technologies and companies, so they know what Facebook and Google are made of and the their potential health dangers.
“The effect of technology, especially on younger minds, has become hotly debated in recent months. In January, two big Wall Street investors asked Apple to study the health effects of its products and to make it easier to limit children’s use of iPhones and iPads. Pediatric and mental health experts called on Facebook last week to abandon a messaging service the company had introduced for children as young as 6. Parenting groups have also sounded the alarm about YouTube Kids, a product aimed at children that sometimes features disturbing content.”
Among the members are Dave Morin, Justin Rosenstein, Lynn Foxx, Jim Steyer, and Tristan Harris. Inspired by anti-drug campaigns, the Center for Humane Technology aims to understand the affect technology has on children’s brains. They also plan to lobby Congress to curtail tech companies’ power.
Now there’s a subplot. “Inventor Says Google Is Patenting Work He Put in the Public Domain” asserts that Google took another’s work and seeks to obtain a patent for a compression system and method. Both Facebook and Google appear to have adopted some of the open source technology.
Is Google arm wrestling itself? What happens if it loses the contest?
Whitney Grace, June 13, 2018
Amazon Scraper
June 12, 2018
Short honk: Want to scrape Amazon content?
Amazon has renamed a previous tool and released it as open source. Navigate to Microsoft’s GitHub and download Amz2csv. The tool performs as advertised.
One question which we are pondering is, “Why is Amazon releasing this tool as open source?”
We also wondered, “What other content acquisition tools and filters does Amazon possess?”
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2018
Google Search Evaluator Handbook
June 12, 2018
How does Google shape search results? The pay to play search giant allegedly has a guide for individuals who interact with the automated search system. The information appears at this link. The information dates to 2017. There may be a revision or additional instructional material online. If we come across that information, we will post the link in Beyond Search.
The information is described as “Search Quality Rating System.” A sample from the table of contents for the documentation appears below:
An example of the information provided to the human making quality decisions appears below:
Here’s the guidance for queries about kittens:
In my first Google monograph (The Google Legacy, 2004), I gathered about 100 factors allegedly used to determine “quality” of Google search results. What I found interesting is that Google’s listing has many more entries than I identified 14 years ago.
Quality, it seems, is more difficult to pinpoint today. The rules for relevance, however, seem to have been marginalized.
I do know that in order to obtain useful results from Google, I have to craft my queries carefully. In fact, creating a query for an old school Boolean system is easier to do. Google has added on to what was essentially a key word system by wrapping layers of software around an ageing core.
Worth spending a few minutes with the document in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2018
DarkCyber, June 12, 2018, Now Available
June 12, 2018
DarkCyber for June 12, 2018, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/274326974 .
Stephen E Arnold’s DarkCyber is a weekly video news and analysis program about the Dark Web and lesser known Internet services.
The first story focuses on torrents. ThePirateBay has long been associated with making it easy to access copyrighted content. With ThePirateBay offline, those in search of free copyrighted content have created a proxy list. The idea is that a bad actor can located copyrighted materials and sidestep paying for access. Although these torrent finder sites come and go, a list is easily available for anyone looking for what ThePirateBay made findable.
Next, Stephen reports that the Dutch police, in cooperation with other nation’s law enforcement agencies, have shuttered MaxiDed. The site, allegedly operated by citizens of Moldova, provided hosting and online services. MaxiDed allowed individuals and organizations wanting to distribute malware, host Dark Web sites, and engage in other online activities a safe harbor. The MaxiDed marketing explained that the service was “bulletproof.” DarkCyber reveals that MaxiDed was not.
The third story continues DarkCyber’s explanation of Amazon’s “policeware” initiative. The Amazon Rekognition service makes it possible for law enforcement to identify individuals in images and video. Unlike some other systems, Amazon’s approach allows real time facial recognition. Also, the system can identify up to 100 individuals in a group photo. This service complements Amazon’s streaming data service revealed in the June 5, 2018, DarkCyber video. Stephen E Arnold said: “Amazon’s push into services which seem tailor made for law enforcement, regulatory entities, and intelligence professionals continues. Its facial recognition service called ”Rekognition“ could revolutionize how authorities identify possible bad actors. The use of Amazon’s cross correlation method could significantly rework the law enforcement landscape in a very short period of time.”
The final story makes the economics of selling synthetic opioids clear. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, a kilogram of fentanyl or an analogue can generate orders of magnitude more money when sold on the street. Also, obtaining bulk quantities of fentanyl analogues is possible. China, for example, does not regulate analogues as closely as it does fentanyl itself.
Kenny Toth, June 12, 2018
Google: Allegations of a Disturbing Kind
June 11, 2018
In a pointed allegation, one online filmmaker cuts Google no slack for an unintended leak of his content. BBC News reports, “Google ‘Stole My Videos”, Says Film-Maker Philip Bloom.” Bloom, who expects to be paid for his footage, is understandably upset to see his hard work loose on the Internet. It seems an executive at Google used some 73 seconds of Bloom’s work in a thought-experiment video, called “the Selfish Ledger,” meant for limited internal viewing that was somehow leaked online. (How that person accessed the footage in the first place is unclear here.) Whether such internal usage, if successfully kept in-house, counts as fair-use seems ambiguous. Writer Leo Kelion tells us:
“The technology company used material from more than half a dozen of Philip Bloom’s films to make a provocative presentation about ways it could exploit users’ data in the future. Mr Bloom makes a living from selling rights to his footage, among other activities. Google insisted that it took copyright law seriously. It said that the ‘thought-experiment’ video had been intended to be seen by only a handful of people. It was made in 2016 by the head of design at X, Google’s research and development division.
Google added that the executive had now been reminded about its strict copyright rules. However, despite being aware of Mr Bloom’s claim since last Friday, the technology company declined to say whether it now intended to make a payment.”
I wouldn’t say either, if I were Google. It is hard to see, from the little information we have here, how much damage may have been done to Bloom or whether Google can be held legally liable. The clamor certainly cannot be helping their PR department, though, especially since folks were already criticizing the corporate video itself; The Verge called it an “unsettling vision of Silicon Valley social engineering.” In fact, it was that Verge article that brought Bloom’s attention to the matter in the first place, Kelion writes. For its part, Google insists the “unsettling” video in no way represents their actual philosophy and, meanwhile, has reminded the responsible party of the importance of respecting copyrights. Bloom remains unsatisfied.
Cynthia Murrell, June 11, 2018
A Healthy Perspective on AI Advances
June 11, 2018
We see a lot of write ups that hype AI, like this piece at The Verge on DeepMind’s venture into chess playing.
An article at DataCenterNews, “Expert Opinion: 5 Myths Surrounding the ‘AI Hype Train’” warns us that, despite such performances, AI has a long way to go before it becomes ubiquitously useful. We’re told:
“While the technology represents an exciting new utility with a wide variety of potential use cases, it does not herald the arrival of a brave new sci-fi future. … While there is no doubt that the nascent technology shows cause for excitement, it’s also clear that for the vast majority of businesses, the time to embrace AI is still somewhere down the road.”
Here are the five myths the article busts: AI is going to replace all jobs; AI is a singular, tangible product; Every enterprise needs an AI strategy; AI technologies are autonomous; and AI will quickly become smarter than humans (yikes!) See the article for the reasons each of these ideas is (as of yet) untrue. The piece concludes:
“AI represents an exciting collection of emerging technologies, and for many businesses, it will eventually make a big impact. Through productivity and personalization improvements as a result of AI, global GDP in 2030 will be 14 percent higher – the equivalent to US$15.7 trillion. As AI achieves more widespread adoption, it’s important for business leaders not to get distracted by shiny objects and keep their eyes on their business objectives for now.”
We concur. Do not succumb to the hype and buy into AI technology if it is not (yet) right for your business. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more developments because some of Google’s professionals are not completely comfortable with the use of the firm’s smart software for war fighting.
Cynthia Murrell, June 11, 2018
Google, Insubordination, and Policies
June 10, 2018
Are we reading this right? It almost seems as if this campaign is very directly urging certain workers to be insubordinate; Recode reports, “Google Employees Are Being Targeted With This Ad Urging Them To Consider Their Role In Making Search Rankings More Fair.” The group behind the social-media ads is called Focus on the User, and is spearheaded, significantly, buy Yelp and TripAdvisor. The video, promoted on social media, very specifically targets Google employees and their own personal ethics on the matter of fairness in search rankings. Reporter Shirin Ghaffary writes:
“The video claims that Google gives ‘preferential treatment to some of its own content’ such as local listings. (Thus the interest from Yelp and TripAdvisor.) The argument: Instead of Google showing the most relevant results, the company sidesteps its own algorithm to show you only ‘what Google wants you see’ — which is often Google’s own content. It’s an issue that Yelp has taken up publicly with the search giant for years; it recently filed a complaint with the EU’s antitrust watchdog. Google, though, is still Google: Massive, profitable and growing. Google has publicly denied similar claims. But the video calls for Google employees to ‘share this message and discuss it with your colleagues’ — and to bring it up at all-hands meetings.”
This is an interesting approach; we wonder if it will work. Ghaffary points to recent employee protest and even resignations in the face of Google’s military-related endeavors, so perhaps this appeal to the underlings will make some difference.
We also found interesting two developments for the online ad giant.
First, the company issued policies that seem to assure anyone interested about Google and the military. “In Wake of Project Maven Backlash, Google Unveils New AI Policies,” I learned:
In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company won’t stop working with the military entirely: It will still potentially work with the armed forces on areas including cybersecurity, recruitment and training, veterans’ healthcare and search and rescue. Google is widely seen as a potential contender for a massive contract to move Defense Department systems to cloud servers.
So we are or we aren’t?
The second item is that Google does quite a bit of government work. The details appear in “The Ties between Silicon Valley and the Military Run Deep.” For a “real” journalism outfit, I found the omission of Google’s team up with In-Q-Tel to help fund Recorded Future interesting.
Net net: What’s true? What’s a policy? What’s government work?
Answer: Money, influence, and a way to capture business which will block competitors like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and many others from extending their technology in agencies struggling to tap into simpler, more effective technologies.
The problem is that no one wants to just be up front about the revenue potential, the competitive stakes on the table, and the influence certain projects deliver.
Ever wonder who designed the US Navy? Worth checking out to understand how contracts and projects can cascade through the decades and pose competitive barriers for many other firms.
Yep, some companies listen to their employees and then move forward. Like an aircraft carrier. Do you have the answer to the Navy question in hand?
Cynthia Murrell, June 10, 2018
Forbes Does a Semi Rah Rah for Amazon Rekognition
June 9, 2018
I ran through some of our findings about Amazon’s policeware capabilities. Most of the individuals who heard my lectures were surprised that an eCommerce vendor offered high value tools, products, and services directly useful for law enforcement and intelligence professionals.
Why the surprise?
I think there are a number of reasons. But based on conversations with those in my lectures, two categories of comments and questions capture the reaction to the US government documents I reviewed.
First, Europeans do not think about Amazon as anything other than a vendor of products and a service which allows relatively low cost backend services like storage.
Second, the idea that a generalist online eCommerce site and a consumerized cloud service could provide industrial strength tools to investigators, security, and intelligence professionals was a idea not previously considered.
I read what might be an early attempt by the US media to try and explain one small component in Amazon’s rather large policeware system. In “We Built A Powerful Amazon Facial Recognition Tool For Under $10,” a member of the magazine’s staff allegedly “built” a facial recognition system using Amazon’s Rekognition service.
I learned:
because Rekognition is open to all, Forbes decided to try out the service. Based on photos staff consensually provided, and with footage shot across our Jersey City and London offices, we discovered it took just a few hours, some loose change and a little technical knowledge to establish a super-accurate facial recognition operation.
Based on my experience with professionals who work in the field of “real” news and journalism, the Amazon system must be easy to use. Like lawyers, many journalists are more comfortable with words that technology. There are, of course, exceptions such as the Forbes’ journalist.
In order to present a balanced viewpoint, Forbes included a cautionary chunk of information from a third party; to wit:
“This [Rekognitioin] underscores how easily a government can deploy Amazon’s face recognition to conduct mass surveillance,” ACLU technology and civil liberties attorney Matt Cagle said of Forbes’ project. “Now it’s up to Amazon. Will it stop selling dangerous technology to the government? Or will it continue compromising customer privacy and endangering communities of color, protesters and immigrants, who are already under attack in the current political climate?”
What did Amazon contribute to the write up? It appears Amazon was okay with keeping its lips zipped.
I think it may take some time for the person familiar with Amazon as a source of baby diapers to embrace Amazon as a slightly more robust provider of certain interesting technology.
Our research has revealed that Amazon has other policeware services and features sitting on a shelf in a warehouse stuffed with dog food, cosmetics, and clothing. We offer a for fee briefing about Amazon’s policeware. Write benkent2020 at yahoo dot com for details.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2018
Talking to Software: Policeware Vendors Ignored This Next Big Thing
June 9, 2018
On the flight from somewhere in Europe to Kentucky, I reflected on the demonstrations, presentations, and sales pitches to which I was exposed at a large international law enforcement and intelligence conference.
I realized that none of the presenters or enthusiastic marketers tried to tell me about chatbots. The term refers to a basket of technologies that allow a user to ignore tapping or keyboarding to get actionable information.
When the flight landed, I noted a link in my feed stream to “Chatbots Were the Next Big Thing: What Happened?” My personal experience from four days of talking to humans and listening to explainers was that chatbots were marginalized, maybe left in the office file cabinet.
The write up states:
…Who would monopolize the field, not whether chatbots would take off in the first place:
“Will a single platform emerge to dominate the chatbot and personal assistant ecosystem?”
One year on, we have an answer to that question.
No.
Because there isn’t even an ecosystem for a platform to dominate.
That seems clear.
The write up points out that chatbots were supposed to marginalize applications. One of the more interesting items of information in the article is a collection of chatbots stuck for an answer.
Net net: Like quantum computing, smart software has potential. But technologies with potential have been just around the corner for many years.
Marketing, confident assertions, and bold predictions are one thing. Delivering high value results remains a different task.
Stephen E Arnold, June 9, 2018
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