Google Cannot Patch Up Its Local News Service
September 27, 2019
A Xoogler had an idea for local news. Patch flopped. “Google Shutters Bulletin, Its Hyperlocal News Experiment” reports:
In a letter to users (obtained by Android Police), Google said in two weeks the Bulletin app will no longer be accessible. Users who shared content on the app will be able to download their posts until November 22nd. One reason Bulletin never took off was that it wasn’t highly publicized, so chances are few people are going to miss this.
With the erosion of daily and weekly newspapers, how does a person get information about a particular city?
Not easily and maybe not at all.
What value were those old fashioned information services? Well, those old fashioned outfits provided advertising opportunities to zippy outfits like Google.
Who cares? Probably not too many Silicon Valley types. Anyway Google tried.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2019
Amazon and Certified for Humans
September 26, 2019
Amazon’s product announcements were extensions of the company’s surveillance technology. The innovations gather a wide range of fine-grained data which LE and intel professionals may find interesting.
But one innovation caught DarkCyber’s attention.
“Alexa’s Certified for Humans Wants to Eliminate Smart Home Headaches” reports:
Amazon wants you to be able to set up your smart home even if you don’t know anything about tech.
We noted this statement in the write up:
As with the rest of Amazon’s wide range of compatible smart home devices, you’ll of course be able to control these gadgets with a voice command to the company’s assistant, Alexa.
DarkCyber is confident that the “real” journalists who are playing catch up for outfits which cover up some interesting Epstein related activities will reveal the scope of Amazon’s LE and intel activities.
This Amazon certification is designed to make sure that more than the tech savvy can provide a stream of high value data to users, vendors, and — just maybe — to Amazon’s online data marketplace. DarkCyber thinks of this initiative as a “push down” effort as a way to expand the data flows, services, and “conveniences.”
Curious about this? Write benkent2020@yahoo.com for information about our Amazon policeware webinar.
Stephen E Arnold, September 26, 2019
Mithril Capital Tarnished by Federal Probe
September 26, 2019
This is a true or false situation.
You may be familiar with Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies and has since used his billions to become a prominent venture capitalist. So prominent, in fact, that his involvement as co-founder helped Mithril Capital raise over $1billion. Now, though, Vox Recode reports. “The FBI Is Investigating a Venture Capital Fund Started by Peter Thiel for Financial Misconduct.” The investigation centers on Ajay Royan, Mithril co-founder who has a long history of working with Thiel. Though the probe is in its early stages, investigators have questioned individuals “close to Mithril” about possible financial misconduct. We’re told Mithril’s investors have complained in recent years that Royan failed to invest some of their cash in startups while collecting a fortune in fees for himself. Reporter Theodore Schliefer specifies:
“Mithril is likely collecting as much as $20 million a year in management fees, sources familiar with the figures have previously told Recode — an unusually large haul for a venture capital firm that each month has a smaller and smaller staff and therefore smaller and smaller expenses. (Mithril disputed the $20 million figure but did not provide an alternative.) At least 75 percent of the firm’s management company is owned by a Cayman Islands limited company that is, in turn, owned in excess of 75 percent by Royan, according to legal documents. So some of that money is going to Royan directly as salary. Those management fees go further in a low-tax state like Texas, where Mithril Capital said it was moving late last year. Several employees resisted the sudden move to Austin, which has a much smaller startup scene than Silicon Valley. Royan has said the move was rooted in his distaste for the Bay Area. But beyond that, two sources told Recode that Mithril leaders alluded to tax advantages when privately explaining the multiple reasons for the move. Mithril denied this.”
While denying any wrongdoing, Royan is sensibly cooperating with investigators. He also seems to be playing defense, offering uncharacteristic interviews at several financial and tech news outlets. Schliefer observes Thiel’s reputation is suffering from the association, though his direct involvement with the firm appears to be minimal.
The lengthy article shares some interesting details about the firm. Several staff members have recently bailed, for example.
Would an analysis of the available data with the Palantir Gotham system provide some insight?
Cynthia Murrell, September 26, 2019
Legal AI Software Vendors
September 26, 2019
DarkCyber spotted a list of the leading AI software market players. The source is Empowered News. Here’s the list:
Casetext Inc.
Everlaw
IBM Corporation
Klarity
LegalSifter Inc.
LexisNexis
Luminance Technologies Ltd.
Nalanda Technology
Neota Logic
OMNISofware.
IBM and LexisNexis are are included. Presumably Watson does legal work. LexisNexis is a legal and news for-fee research system. Since it is on this list, obviously the company provides “artificial intelligence” solutions to lawyers.
Other firms are less well-known outside of the legal community. The omission of Kcura (now Relativity) is interesting. This firm has some interesting technology which is reasonably “intelligent”.
At one time, Xerox — yes, Xerox — was in the legal biz. Whatever the Rochester company is up to is not sufficient to make the list.
Stephen E Arnold, September 26, 2019
Google Search Index: Losing Relevance
September 25, 2019
Google’s search and indexing algorithms work twenty four hours, seven days a week. As the world’s most popular and, arguably, powerful search engine, Google does encounter hiccups. Your Story shares how Google’s index went down in April 2019 and how they addressed it in the article, “Google’s Loss of Parts Of The Search Index.”
In April, Google temporary lost parts of its search index, then the following month new content was not being indexed. More problems occurred in August, but Google repaired the issue. The glitches arose when Google was implementing updates that resulted in losing pieces of the provisioning systems. When the issue was reported, Google quickly fixed it again.
More problems are still popping up:
“While there were problems with the Search Index, Search Console was also affected. Because some data comes from the search index. As soon as Google had to return to a previous version of the Search Index, it also stopped updating the Search Console data foundation. That was the reason for the plateaus in the reports of some users. Thus, some users were initially confused; The reason was that Google had to postpone the Search Console update by a few days.
Other bugs on Google have sometimes been independent of Search Index issues. For example, problems with the indexing of new News Content. In addition, some URLs began to direct Googlebot to pages that were not directly related. But even these inconveniences could be resolved quickly.”
Does anyone else see the pattern here?
Whitney Grace, September 25, 2019
Cyber Security: Not for Cloud Misconfigurations
September 25, 2019
DarkCyber has been discussing the apparent ineffectiveness of the cyber defense technology offered by dozens of vendors. Despite the escalation in marketing hype, security issues are like exhaust fumes — everywhere. “99 Percent of All Misconfigurations in the Public Cloud Go Unreported” flashes credibility lights with its “99 percent” and “all” headline.
The write up asserts:
The surge in adoption of cloud-based technologies and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has added a new facet to cyber threats — the loss of information caused by misconfigurations and weak credentials in the public cloud space.
That statement sounds plausible.
The write up adds:
The report says that the top ten most commonly-misconfigured settings in AWS, the most popular IaaS provider for enterprise firms alongside Microsoft Azure, are as below:
- EBS Data Encryption
- Unrestricted Outbound Access
- EC2 Security Group Port Config
- Provisioning Access to Resources using IAM Roles
- Unrestricted Access to Non-Http/Https ports
- Unrestricted Inbound Access on Uncommon Ports
- Unused Security Groups
- Unrestricted ICMP Access
- EC2 Security Group Inbound Access Configuration
- EC2 Instance Belongs to a VPC
If the data are accurate, Amazon is a security “challenge.”
Has Amazon done enough to make certain that its customers are not creating risks for others? If Amazon is a security problem, are the vendors of pricey cyber security systems providing tools and solutions that shore up known weak spots?
Two questions. Answers?
Stephen E Arnold, September 25, 2019
Google and Right to Be Forgotten: Selective Indexing Gets a Green Light
September 25, 2019
DarkCyber noted this BBC article: “Google Wins Landmark Right to Be Forgotten Case.” The main point seems to be that references under the “right to be forgotten” umbrella apply only in Europe. The BBC stated:
There has been a lot of interest in the case since, had the ruling gone the other way, it could have been viewed as an attempt by Europe to police a US tech giant beyond the EU’s borders.
Several observations may be warranted:
- Google can indeed filter search results; thus, objective results are unlikely
- The index pointers are blocked, which means that those in another country can view proscribed links and maybe – just maybe — a Google super user can view what’s in the Google indexes
- The “algorithms” which are allegedly working automatically may not; therefore, human adjustments to modify search results are probably available to certain search engineers.
If these observations are more than hypotheticals, will the index tuning have an impact on other legal matters in which Google is involved? Query reshaping and search results filtering are a fact of Google life.
Stephen E Arnold, September 25, 2019
Why Society Emulates Sheep: Quick Look That Up on Your Mobile Device
September 24, 2019
On a recent visit to Eastern Europe, I learned that in several countries, there was a hierarchy among shepherds. The job of watching sheep fell to those lower in the shepherd hierarchy. The person who could train horses and dogs, knew the ins and outs of the less-than-brilliant sheep, and showed some moxie — that individual was at the top of the sheep heap.
I read “The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think” and thought about shepherds and sheep. The Nielsen Norman Group reported:
Across 33 rich countries, only 5% of the population has high computer-related abilities, and only a third of people can complete medium-complexity tasks.
The idea is that those without expertise are likely to be sheep-like. Now sheepness is not a bad thing. Sheep are docile and seem content to go along with whatever the shepherd hierarchy decides. Even when getting shorn, the sheep can be controlled, and they don’t seem to form a group and wait for the person with the shears to turn his back so a stampede can nuke the individual with the shears.
But in today’s world with its technical hierarchy, the Nielsen Norman Group data suggest that a hierarchy exists for technology.
This is useful information for those at the top of the technology skill heap.
Think about the shepherd hierarchy. Which is better? The person with expertise or the freshly-shorn sheep? What is the likelihood that those with limited technical expertise can accurately perceive what today’s digital shepherds are doing.
Herding, shearing, or anticipating grilled lamb shank?
Stephen E Arnold, September 24, 2019
Google: Managing Staff a Challenge
September 24, 2019
DarkCyber is not sure about the accuracy of “Exclusive: Google Insider Turns Over 950 Pages Of Docs And Laptop To DOJ.” The story appeared on Saraacarter.com (the second “a” is a middle initial). Ms. Carter’s about page states:
Sara A. Carter is a national and international award-winning investigative reporter whose stories have ranged from national security, terrorism, immigration and front line coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sara A. Carter is currently an investigative reporter and Fox News Contributor. Her stories can be found at saraacarter.com. She formerly worked as a senior national security correspondent for Circa News.
The write up asserts that:
A former Google insider claiming the company created algorithms to hide its political bias within artificial intelligence platforms – in effect targeting particular words, phrases and contexts to promote, alter, reference or manipulate perceptions of Internet content – delivered roughly 950 pages of documents to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust division Friday.
The story is dated August 13, 2019, and DarkCyber spotted the link on September 23, 2019. In August 2019, Project Veritas revealed that the alleged Google insider is / was Zachary Vorhies.
Project Veritas does have a Google Document Dump page. You can view the files and download them at this link. A representative document is “Algorithmic Discrimination from and Environmental Psychology Perspective: Str5ee-Inducing Differential Treatment.”
The write up is an academic review of findings which, upon reflection, are mostly common sense. Manipulation can be accomplished via stress causing and stress relieving.
What struck DarkCyber as interesting is that the cache of documents has not made much of a splash in the last few weeks.
Other observations include:
- Unlike the now long-offline Google research papers which I cited in my 2003 Google Legacy monograph, the documents in this cache are more touchy-feely.
- Google’s ability to control its confidential documents appears to have some gaps.
- The “insider” turned canary reveals that Google is not generating happy Xooglers.
Net net: The high school science club approach to management may need some upgrades.
Stephen E Arnold, September 24, 2019
Chef Cooks Up a Management Stew
September 24, 2019
What happens when a programmer deletes open source software? The answer is to cancel a contract with the US government.
Information about this interesting not-so-passive resistance moment surfaced on the Chef blog. Barry Crist allegedly wrote:
While I and others privately opposed this and various other related policies, we did not take a position despite the recommendation of many of our employees. I apologize for this. I had hoped that traditional political checks and balances would provide remedy and that our relationship with our various government customers could avoid getting intermingled with these policies. However, it is clear that checks and balances have not provided relief to the fundamental issues of the policies in question. Chef, as well as other companies, can take stronger positions against these policies that violate basic human rights. Over the past year, many of our employees have constructively advocated for a change in our position, and I want to thank them.
The fix?
Do not renew the US government contracts. Donate money to groups “that help vulnerable people impacted by the policy of family separation and detention.”
Vice describes the employee’s deleting code and the Chef decision to dump US government contracts this way:
a ballooning activism community within tech companies and the broader tech community.
DarkCyber finds the employee push back interesting for several reasons:
- The failure of management to manage is a characteristic of a number of technology-centric firms
- Employee activism can derail a company’s business processes
- The push back appears at this point in time a function associated with educated professionals.
Without a resolution, will US government agencies turn to non-US companies to provide needed software and systems?
Will employees demand a say in what a commercial enterprise does to generate revenue to pay those who work for the organization?
Will stakeholders tolerate intentional erosion of revenues because employees can destroy or possibly corrupt data, software, and systems because of a personal perception about rightness?
Will the digital Druckers at Gartner, Gerson Lehrman, and Booz Allen offer advice which solves this management puzzle?
Without organization and span of control, work at some firms may be difficult to complete in a satisfactory manner. Getting paid to do work was a contract. An employee does this task and gets paid. If the employee does not do the work or destroys that work, the contract is broken.
Then what?
Stephen E Arnold, September 24, 2019
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