Advice for High School Science Club Type Managers
October 25, 2018
I spotted an interesting quote in “Aramark Exec: ‘Trying to Explain AI and Machine Learning to the C-Suite Is a Waste of Time’”.
Here it is:
“Trying to explain AI and machine learning to the C-suite is a waste of time,” said Pavan Arora, Chief AI Officer at Aramark. “Instead, show them what you can do. In doing so, you need to figure out your metric for this work. For example, if you’re looking at labor and optimization, the metric is about reducing over time and data optimization.”
Is this attitude one of the reasons companies like Facebook and Google take a more general approach to explaining exactly what their systems are doing?
High school science club management theory: Explaining why one puts a motorcycle on the roof of the high school is a waste of time. “They” would not understand. Now about those MIT pranks?
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2018
Online Ad Fraud! Who Knew?
October 24, 2018
I read “Apps Installed On Millions Of Android Phones Tracked User Behavior To Execute A Multimillion-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme.” Goodness, first my faith in Facebook’s data about video ad performance was eroded a tiny bit. Now there are allegations about Android app ad fraud. The write up uses the word “cabal.”
The online advertising business, in my opinion, has been a bastion of integrity. Sure, there were baseless assertions about robot clickers which depleted a competitor’s online ad checkbook. There were squishy numbers about the number of human eyeballs versus crawler clicks. And there were ads for interesting products and services which online ad vendors suggested were real, true blue commercial messages.
Yes, integrity. Online advertising. Bound at the hip.
But there is this write up in Buzzfeed which states:
But an investigation by BuzzFeed News reveals that these seemingly separate apps and companies are today part of a massive, sophisticated digital advertising fraud scheme involving more than 125 Android apps and websites connected to a network of front and shell companies in Cyprus, Malta, British Virgin Islands, Croatia, Bulgaria, and elsewhere. More than a dozen of the affected apps are targeted at kids or teens, and a person involved in the scheme estimates it has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from brands whose ads were shown to bots instead of actual humans.
I know that it takes smart filters to verify apps in crime free locations like Cyprus, Malta, and Bulgaria. And the British Virgin Islands? Unthinkable.
But the article presents some data which suggest that a modest amount of money is in play; to wit:
App metrics firm AppsFlyer estimated that between $700 million and $800 million was stolen from mobile apps alone in the first quarter of this year, a 30% increase over the previous year. Pixalate’s latest analysis of in-app fraud found that 23% of all ad impressions in mobile apps are in some way fraudulent. Overall, Juniper Research estimates $19 billion will be stolen this year by digital ad fraudsters, but others believe the actual figure could be three times that.
Google, of course, was quick to take action. Google cares.
I am disappointed that this infinitesimal aberrations in an integrity filled business have been reported as “true” fact.
More data are needed, please. I know that Facebook and Google can explain this misguided assertion.
My goodness, manipulation of online advertising. Shocking. Shocking.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2018
Protestors Want Palantir to Drop US Government Contract
October 24, 2018
The United States needs massive immigration reform. One of the arguments surrounding the US immigration controversy is if illegal immigrants are truly criminals and should be treated as such? Palo Alto Online shares how one tech company’s software is being used to for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Protestors Demand Palantir End ICE Contract.”
Palantir Technologies is based in Palo Alto and its software powers a database on immigrants that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to enforce immigration law. Protestors met at the company’s headquarters in July with an attempt to deliver a protest letter to CEO Alex Karp. Those who were at protest include Tech Workers Coalition, Sacred Heart Community Service, Silicon Valley Rising, Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Working Partnerships USA, and SEIU United Service Workers West.
The protestors claim that Palantir enables ICE to abuse immigrants and refugees and the company should end its relationship with ICE on a morality stand. Palantir locked its office and did not send out a representative to collect the letter. Protestors also want Silicon Valley to stand up to the Trump administration and not be complicit with its actions. Palantir is not the only company with ICE contracts:
“According to a June 20 report by NBC News, Palantir accepted more than $4.9 million from ICE on May 30, which is part of a $39 million contract dating back to 2015 for operations and maintenance of Falcon, the company’s intelligence database, which tracks immigrants’ records and relationships, NBC found in a government database search.Other tech companies have also taken ICE contracts, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, according to the NBC report. The protesters said that employees at some of the other firms have asked their companies to turn down ICE contracts.”
With an alleged Palantir IPO approaching, dumping contracts does not seem to be a workable idea.
Whitney Grace, October 24, 2018
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More Pressure on For Fee Legal Publishers
October 24, 2018
One of the things we take for granted in the United States is information access. The US Constitution and other laws make it mandatory that certain information is shared with the public for transparency. Other reasons are laws like the Freedom of Information Act that declassifies confidential information when it is no longer a security risk. The Electronic Frontier Foundation shares how the US Court of the Appeals of the Federal Circuit shares its documentation, “Federal Circuit Makes Briefs Immediately Available To The Public.”
The Federal Circuit Court will now make its briefs available to the public. Before briefs were only available after a period of days when they were reviewed by the Clerk’s Office. However, the Clerk’s Office wants to be clear that all received briefs will be marked as “tendered,” until the office has accepted them for filing, then they will be publicly available. The instant access is a victory:
“While this is perhaps a small change, we appreciate that the Federal Circuit is making briefs available upon filing. We had encountered delays of 7 days or more (this meant that the parties’ briefs were sometimes not available until after supporting amicus briefs were due). Ultimately, the public’s right of access to courts includes a right to timely access. The Federal Circuit is the federal court of appeal that hears appeals in patent cases from all across the country, and many of its cases are of interest to the public at large.”
The Federal Circuit’s former access to briefs conflicted with other actions it holds on transparency. The good news is that the Federal Circuit will only seal information if there is good reason and if parties want to have more than fifteen consecutive words sealed they need to file a separate motion. Hopefully more federal district courts will not seal as many records, because the Federal Circuit is not doing so.
Whitney Grace, October 24, 2018
Factualities for October 24, 2018
October 24, 2018
Believe ‘em or not, especially the nice, round, chubby numbers:
- 33 percent of US adults hit with identity theft. Source: DarkReading
- 45 out of 50 companies illegally void warranties for electronics. Source: Reddit.com
- 000000. Kanye West’s iPhone pass code. Graham Cluley
- $50,000 per hour. Cost of Flying the F 35 fighter aircraft for one hour.
Source: New York Times page A 19 October 12, 2018 - 29 million people. Number of individuals probably affected by the September Facebook breach. Source: Facebook
- 30 000. Number of US Department of Defense personnel records which may have been breached by hackers. Source: Cyberscoop
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2018
Google Plus: A Moment of Contemplation and Reflection
October 24, 2018
If you miss Google Plus, you will want to read “Goodbye, Google+: A Eulogy for the Last Great Social Network.”
Here’s my favorite part of the write up:
Over its 20-year history, Google has succeeded wildly with products in a great many businesses: Search, Gmail, YouTube, Android and others. But it tends to fail with products that involve public social interaction. In fact, it’s earned a reputation as something of a social site serial killer. High-profile failures include Orkut, Buzz, and Wave. But even more obscure social properties also got “sunsetted” by Google: Spaces, Profiles, Wildfire, Jaiku, Schemer, Lively, Hello, Dodgeball, Aardvark, Friend Connect, Latitude, Talk, Helpouts and others.
Hell-pouts? Hmm.
The write up finds much to like in Google Plus. Obviously the author was in the minority because Facebook remained unphased by Google Plus. With lots of Xooglers working at Facebook, why worry? These sneaker wearers knew what “putting wood behind Google Plus” really meant I hypothesize.
The main point of the write up is that Google Plus was super in 2014. As each year tumbled by, the meh factor increased.
So, Google Plus? Meh, who cares.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2018
The World Brain Idea Is Back
October 23, 2018
Remember when the Internet was innocent and also a dangerous place? Now the Internet is a necessary tool and an even more dangerous place. World Brain wants to change that. World Brain wants to make the Internet troll free, end the dissemination of false news, users enjoy privacy, and freedom to choose their providers for the best service. I say World Brain is idealistic and naive, but maybe not. Here is their vision:
“Imagine a world where the internet supports a well-informed, less polarized society. Connected communities where individuals enjoy full data ownership, privacy and the freedom to choose the providers they get the best service from, without lock-ins.
This is what World Brain is working to achieve. If you want to be a part of this journey, or are simply interested in our approach, here’s deeper insight into our vision, values and a roadmap.
World Brain is an open-source software collective with the mission of making it 10X+ faster for people to organize, recover, share and discover the most useful and knowledge-expanding content on the web.”
Okay, please stop laughing. World Brain might have something here and their first product is Memex, a free, private browser extension that organizes and finds Web sites. That is actually a good idea. The idea behind Memex is to curate, discover, and share content as well as help researchers.
While Memex is free, World Brain does have a SAS cloud for 10 euros a year (it is a special deal). The Memex cloud offers Memex on all the devices, encrypted cloud backup, ability to search other apps and services, monetize data, WordPress-like plugins, and self hosting.
Okay, World Brain this is a very good idea. I am sold. My question is how will Memex monetize my content?
Whitney Grace, October 23, 2018
Facebook Sidesteps Balloons and Goes for Satellites
October 23, 2018
How can Facebook elevate its trust factor? Forget gliders. Facebook is now into satellites.
The Verge shares how Facebook wants to bring the Internet to the world in, “Facebook Is Developing An Internet Satellites After Shutting Down Drone Project.”
According to an application filed with FCC, Facebook has registered company called PointView Tech, LLC. and is working on a satellite called Athena. Athena will ideally be used to provide Internet broadband services to unserved and underserved areas around the world. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom. It is a fitting name, because the satellite Athena will spread wisdom and information.
Facebook had planned to use drones to bring Internet access through the Aquila project, but this was shunted. Aquila will instead focus on designing onboard software systems to guide the satellite.
“Now, it sounds like Facebook will continue to try and develop its own hardware, just a different variety this time. According to a September 2017 report on broadband development, more than half of Earth is still not online, and that the only way to do so would be to use low Earth orbit satellites that sit in space about 100 to 1,250 miles above the surface. There’s already a booming industry around satellite internet, with key players like SpaceX investing heavily in the space to become the new internet service providers of an untapped market. SpaceX launched its first satellites back in February.”
The article also points out that Facebook has ulterior motives in bringing the Internet to underserved and unserved areas. Facebook heads to space.
Whitney Grace, October 23, 2018
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DarkCyber for October 23, 2018, Now Available
October 23, 2018
DarkCyber, Stephen E Arnold’s video news program about the Dark Web and lesser known Internet services, is now available. You can view the video at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress or on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/296379232.
This week’s program includes four stories.
Bing and Google allegedly display content not appropriate to some users. Bing suggests links to content related to images not suitable for young people. Google allegedly returns results to YouTube videos which explain how to purchase illegal substances on the Dark Web. DarkCyber’s research team verified that content some individuals may find problematic do appear in search results. YouTube “how to” videos are findable by exploring pages deeper in a Google search result set; for example, pages six and following. The conclusion is that even when “safe search” features are activated links to topics which may be interpreted as offensive are easy to find, even for novice Web searchers.
The second story reveals that old school exploits and hacks have found a new lease on life. Bad actors are using standard office software and widely used utilities to obtain access to confidential information, employee email, and customer data. The method involves luring an employee to click on a link such as a document allegedly containing a list of employees at another company. Once the document is opened, a known vulnerability in Microsoft Office Dynamic Data Exchange is used to take over the target’s computer. DarkCyber reveals the simple fix to use to protect from this old school exploit.
The third story presents information about the system and method used by the now defunct Psy-Group. This firm has been identified as an organization of interest in the Robert Mueller investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged interactions related to the 2016 election. DarkCyber walks through the principal components of a psychological operation designed to push the hot buttons of individuals associated with certain topics and political ideas. The DarkCyber video includes a link to additional documents related to the Psy-Group’s methods, which appear to be similar to those used by Cambridge Analytica.
The final story provides information about the decrease in Facebook usage in 2017. However, among one group, Facebook has become a must have social network. This user group is law enforcement officers. These professionals adopt false personas and work to obtain access to closed Facebook groups in order to gather information related to an investigation. The use of false personas is becoming a standard practice, and the data gathered are admissible in certain proceedings.
Beginning on October 30, 2018, DarkCyber presents a four part series about Amazon’s policeware initiative. The videos explain the importance of the Department of Defense’s JEDI procurement, the principal components of Amazon’s machine learning system, how Amazon will work to create a new type of vendor lock in, and the use of the Amazon policeware platform as a jumping off point for regulatory services in the US and expansion of its customer base outside the United States.
Kenny Toth, October 23, 2018
Which Is the Winner: Google Speech or Amazon Transcribe?
October 22, 2018
The answer appears in a write up called “Google Speech Vs Amazon Transcribe: The War Of Speech Technology.” Spoiler: It looks like Google stomps Amazon in this remarkable analysis.
When it comes to languages supported, Google is king; 119 to Amazon’s paltry dozen or so.
Which system does better with long talking, it is a tie. Two hours is the audio limit. But the write up does not explain if the two hours are chunked or if multiple two hour blocks can be strung together. Important information excluded or ignored in this head to head analysis.
Programming languages? Looks like a toss up. But Amazon supports Dot Net, which may be important at clients like the US Department of Defense.
Privacy? Yeah, well, not much information. The write up ignores Amazon’s federation capabilities and its cross correlation analytics. And Google? Yeah, advertising. We know what that means.
Audio formats? Google seems to cover the bases. The write up ignores the Amazon APIs, which is not surprising because none of Amazon’s law enforcement and policeware capabilities seem to have hit the author’s radar.
Vocabulary? Well, if Google supports more languages, whatever vocabulary tweaking it permits will crush Amazon’s capabilities.
Additional features? Google can do emotions. Right, Alexa cannot it seems. The Beyond Search goose thinks the author should check into Alexa’s capabilities with regard to Amazon Sagemaker. Just a thought: You, gentle reader, may want to check this out as well.
Wrap up?
Both are equal. But the way the write up presents information, Google is the implicit winner.
The Beyond Search goose happens to disagree. What are those Alexa enabled gizmos doing? Interesting question which this Analytics India article does not address.
Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2018
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