TikTok: A Good Point about Data Collection
April 21, 2021
I wish I could recall which addled Silicon Valley podcaster explained that TikTok was not a problem. I would urge this individual to read in the British paper the article “Case Launched Against TikTok over Collection of Children’s Data.” The essay explains:
Despite a minimum age requirement of 13, Ofcom found last year that 42% of UK eight to 12-year-olds used TikTok. As with other social media companies such as Facebook, there have long been concerns about data collection and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating TikTok’s handling of children’s personal information. Longfield said: “We’re not trying to say that it’s not fun. Families like it. It’s been something that’s been really important over lockdown, it’s helped people keep in touch, they’ve had lots of enjoyment. But my view is that the price to pay for that shouldn’t be there – for their personal information to be illegally collected en masse, and passed on to others, most probably for financial gain, without them even knowing about it. “And the excessive nature of that collection is something which drove us to [challenge] TikTok rather than others.
The cloud of unknowing swirling around individuals who insist that data collection from children is no big deal is large and possibly impenetrable.
TikTok says it is an outfit staying within the bright white lines. Nevertheless, according to the write up:
In February last year, ByteDance, the Chinese company legally domiciled in the Cayman Islands that owns TikTok, was fined a record £4.2m ($5.7m) in the US for illegally collecting personal information from children under 13.
Add to the actions which triggered the fine, TikTok is an outfit associated with China. The data from TikTok might add some useful insights about user predilections if those data flow into a Chinese aggregation system.
To the cheerleaders for TikTok, I would suggest a rethink of your position. However, it is possible that funding for some cheerleading squads may be coming from interesting sources and carry along some other agendas. Bad actors can operate within a regulation lax environment. That’s a reality.
Stephen E Arnold, April 21, 2021
Googzilla Rising: This Is a Surprise?
April 21, 2021
It looks like Google is currently at the top of the digital marketing heap, but Facebook delivers the best quality to advertisers. Marketing attribution firm AppsFlyer regularly assembles data on the top media sources that partner with advertisers around the world. For this, its 12th edition, the firm analyzed 580 media sources, 29-billion installs, and over 16,000 apps in the second half of 2020. IT-Online summarizes the results in, “Google Tops Media Performance Index.”
We learn:
“In this edition, Google extended its lead over Facebook at the top of the Retention Index’s Universal Power Ranking, which ranks media sources by their ability to drive loyal users at scale. Google’s share in the global non-organic app install pie also increased by 15%. This was driven by the search giant’s continued growth in Android, especially in emerging markets such as Africa. In contrast, Facebook’s share of the global non-organic app install pie dropped 10% in Index 12, mostly due to iOS losses (as part of an overall drop in iOS). However, when it comes to quality, the social network reigns supreme. It is ranked second in the average of quality metrics across all of the different indices. Facebook’s retention score, (which looks at the percentage of users who still use an app over a period of time after installing it), is 16% higher than Google’s, mostly the result of a growing divide in Android and among non-gaming apps. The social network continues to dominate the remarketing index, while Google has significantly grown its share of app remarketing conversions by 65% in the second half of 2020.”
So overall, Google and Facebook seem to be neck and neck. As for Apple, its performance at the end of last year was affected by its upcoming AppTrackingTransparency framework. The framework, which regulates how mobile apps collect user data, will be enforced later this year. Between the increased attention to privacy and a pandemic-related rise in demand, the cost per install on iOS jumped by 30% (compared to Android’s increase of just 10%). Apple saw a 20% drop in non-organic installs on iOS compared to the first six months in 2020. Wasn’t there a game called Google? No, I am thinking of Monopoly.
Cynthia Murrell, April 21, 2021
Search Tips: Ideal for the Thumbtyper in a Hurry
April 21, 2021
Finding information is “easy.” Some systems display information before you search for it. A mobile with the time and temperature displayed are examples. Maybe you want to locate a source for flowering Chinese cabbage? Plug the phrase into Bing, Google, Qwant, and Yandex? Bingo super relevant, timely results. Works every time.
If you want to locate information germane to a topic like loss of coolant accident or octonitrocubane, you may need to use a different approach. To get some tips on locating high value, useful information navigate to “Internet Search Tips.” The write up beats the drum for the Internet Archive. That’s okay.
Useful but probably not suitable for those who are into “good enough” results, a category which includes some YouTube stars, most MBAs, and sadly some of the more recent graduates of information science programs.
Stephen E Arnold, April 21, 2021
Where the Harpies Roost: A Familiar Spot?
April 21, 2021
Insults, lies, and even doxing. We learn of a group of mean-spirited people who seem to have way too much time on their hands in the piece, “How Gossip Forum Tattle Life Became the Most Toxic Place on the Internet” at the UK’s NewStatesman. Perhaps risking her own tranquility, reporter Sarah Manavis writes about those who go to Tattle Life to gossip about thousands of public figures. That term is used loosely here—some of the “influencers” they target have fewer than 10,000 subscribers. For whatever reason, Tattle Life members are motivated to uncover and discuss personal details about these figures and their family members, including young children. They condemn their targets for the smallest of details from weight gain to missing a lampshade in their bedroom. Manavis writes:
“Tattle Life describes itself as a platform for ‘commentary and critiques of people that choose to monetize their personal life as a business and release it into the public domain’, framing itself as a space where users can hold the rich and famous to account. The site’s Wiki, which includes basic biographical information about high-profile influencers, also catalogues each individual’s perceived ‘wrongdoing’ – from rumors about unethical business practices to the number of times they’re suspected of breaking lockdown rules during the pandemic. … And although there may only be a few thousand different dedicated threads, the volume of comments shows the true breadth of the site: in the subsection of ‘Instagrammers’, which includes 2,000 threads, the number of total comments surpasses one million. This is staggering when you consider the site is less than three years old.”
If these rumormongers cannot find any details to prattle on about they will simply make them up, going into great detail about fictional past relationships, jobs, and more. Even worse, several targets have been doxed, putting them and their families in harm’s way. Many of the subjects of this abuse, understandably, find it takes a toll on their mental health. Several have been driven offline altogether. There have been efforts to have the site taken down, like this Change.org petition, but the British parliament has declined to interfere. If this site’s attacks do not count as objectionable content, what does?
Cynthia Murrell, April 21, 2021
Daily Mail, Google, Class, Power, and Incentives
April 20, 2021
The estimable Daily Mail is a newspaper. The owner of the Daily Mail is the Daily Mail and General Trust plc. The big dog at the outfit is The Fourth Viscount Rothermere. Titles are important in England. Crickets the game. “Plumby tones” was crafted to describe the accents some Americans long to have. Dim lights, dark rooms, and hushed tones are also important.
Now the Viscount’s minions are demonstrating that none of their scion are likely to be tagged “googley.” According to the equally estimable Wall Street Journal, the “Daily Mail Owner Files Antitrust Suit Against Google, Citing Royals Coverage.” Gentle reader, you will have to pay Mr. Murdoch to read this interesting story which is completely unbiased and presents the idea that the Google is abusing the Viscount’s ad sales unit.
The core of the story is that Google suppresses Daily Mail content because the Daily Mail is not selling enough Google ads. More popups are needed! The reason is not that those stories are not Savile Row grade stories. The cause of this discrimination of the caste-centric Google and the caste-centric Viscount is quotas.
From my vantage point in Harrod’s Creek, the antics of two outfits, obsessed with power and getting their way, are jousting over advertising consumed by those not in the rosy glow of the upper crusts.
The irony of the Google caste system (represented by Pichai Sundararajan) and the Fourth Viscount Rothermere is delicious. Didn’t India once view Britain as a glowing source of guidance?
I have no doubt that this dust up is about money, but it is also about power. Google has power right now. The Viscount remembers the power it once had. America! The colonies.
How will this unfold? No chirping merry in this dispute.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2021
YouTube Manipulation: The Corrosive Effect of Search Engine Optimization
April 20, 2021
Do you want to get a glimpse of how “relevant” content ends up in your search results? Navigate to “Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods.” Here’s a quote to note:
Mr. Robertson recently boasted in a text that in one day a video
targeting Mr. Jones, the conspiracy theorist he once worked with, had
been viewed over 250,000 times.
The article explains how a person who comes across as an evil individual generated traffic. The information provides a road map to undermine relevance and make a mockery of Google’s vaunted black box for determining relevance.
Let’s call this manipulation of a flawed method for determining relevance what it is:
SEO or search engine optimization.
Take a look at a search results list from your most recent query? What’s relevant? What’s accurate? What’s manipulating you via injections of digital bias?
Years ago professional publishers produced indexes and abstracts of content human measured against specific editorial criteria. Those “standards” and “methods” are long gone.
What’s taken the place of knowledge work? Thumbtypers in the SEO game.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2021
What Happens when an AI Debates Politics?
April 20, 2021
IBM machine-learning researcher Noam Slonim spent years developing a version of IBM’s Watson that he hoped could win a formal debate. The New Yorker describes his journey and the results in, “The Limits of Political Debate.” We learn of the scientist’s inspiration following Watson’s Jeopardy win and his request that the AI be given Scarlett Johansson’s voice (and why it was not). Writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells also tells us:
“The young machine learned by scanning the electronic library of LexisNexis Academic, composed of news stories and academic journal articles—a vast account of the details of human experience. One engine searched for claims, another for evidence, and two more engines characterized and sorted everything that the first two turned up. If Slonim’s team could get the design right, then, in the short amount of time that debaters are given to prepare, the machine could organize a mountain of empirical information. It could win on evidence.”
Ah, but evidence is just one part. Upon consulting with a debate champion, Slonim learned more about the very human art of argument. Wallace-Wells continues:
“Slonim realized that there were a limited number of ‘types of argumentation,’ and these were patterns that the machine would need to learn. How many? Dan Lahav, a computer scientist on the team who had also been a champion debater, estimated that there were between fifty and seventy types of argumentation that could be applied to just about every possible debate question. For I.B.M., that wasn’t so many. Slonim described the second phase of Project Debater’s education, which was somewhat handmade: Slonim’s experts wrote their own modular arguments, relying in part on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and other texts. They were trying to train the machine to reason like a human.”
Did they succeed? That is (ahem) debatable. The system was put to the test against experienced debater Harish Natarajan in front of a human audience. See the article for the details, but in the end the human won—sort of. The audience sided with him, but the more Slonim listened to the debate the more he realized the AI had made the better case by far. Natarajan, in short, was better at manipulating his listeners.
Since this experience, Slonim has turned to using Project Debater’s algorithms to analyze arguments being made in the virtual public square. Perhaps, Wallace-Wells speculates, his efforts will grow into an “argument checker” tool much like the grammar checkers that are now common. Would this make for political debates that are more empirical and rational than the polarized arguments that now dominate the news? That would be a welcome change.
Cynthia Murrell, April 20, 2021
Has Google Smart Software Become the Sad Clown for AI?
April 20, 2021
“Is Google’s AI Research about to Implode?” raises an interesting question. The answer depends on whom one asks. For the high profile ethical AI Googlers who are now Xooglers (former Google employees), the answer is probably along the lines of “About. Okay, boomer, it has imploded.” Ask a Googler who still has a job at the GOOG and received a bonus for his or her work in smart software and the answer is probably more like, “Dude, we are AI.” With matters Googley, I am not sure where the truth exists.
The write up states:
in making certain “corrections” to large datasets, for example removing references to sex, the voices of LGBTQ people will be given less prominence. The lack of transparency and accountability in the data makes these models useless for anything other than generating amusing Guardian articles (my words, not the authors). But they have substantial negative consequences: in producing reams of factually incorrect texts and requiring computing resources that can have a major environmental impact.
Ah, ha, the roots of bias.
Google has not made enough progress is making its models neutral. Thus, human fiddling is required. And where there are humans fiddling, there are discordant notes.
The write up concludes with this statement:
What concerns me is that when Google’s own researchers start to produce novel ideas then the company perceives these as a threat. So much of a threat that they fire their most innovative researcher and shut down the groups that are doing truly novel work.
Right now, I think the Google wants to squelch talk about algorithmic “issues.” Smart software appears to be related maximizing efficiency. The idea is that efficiency yields lower costs. Lower costs provide more cash to incentivize employees to find ways to improve, for example, ad auction efficiency. Ethics are not an emergent phenomenon of this type of system. The result is algorithmic road kill, a major PR problem, a glimpse of the inner Google, and writers who are skeptical about the world’s largest online ad vendor’s use of “smart” technology.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2021
DarkCyber for April 20, 2021, Now Available
April 20, 2021
The DarkCyber video news program for April 20, 2021, is now available on Beyond Search or at this link. The program covers cyber crime, lesser known online services, and related technologies. DarkCyber appears twice each month and contains no sponsored content or advertising.
This week’s program includes five stories:
- Policeware marketing, unchanged since 1980, is given the investigative news treatment. Interesting but not news and not unusual
- Caller ID spoofing solutions for programmers and general mobile phone users
- The sounds of silence: How large companies are explaining security lapses
- Cisco Systems explains who cares about privacy
- Russia’s most advanced drone looks like a 40 year old US aircraft, just with artificial intelligence.
The DarkCyber video news program is produced by Stephen E Arnold, publisher of Beyond Search and author of CyberOSINT: Next Generation Information Access. The stories are selected and written by the team which assembled The Dark Web Notebook: A Guide for Law Enforcement.
Kenny Toth, April 20, 2021
Oracle Matches One Amazon AWS Capability: Bringing Order to Chaos
April 19, 2021
In 2018, I started noticing more Amazon AWS support for ServiceNow. ServiceNow is a company which uses cloud technology to help its customers manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. Amazon revealed in 2018 “How to install and configure the AWS Service Management Connector for ServiceNow,” the procedure which some AWS customers had mastered before the blog post gave its stamp of approval.
“Oracle Integrates ServiceNow into its Cloud Infrastructure” makes it clear that the much loved database vendor is doing what AWS did in 2018. The article reports:
Oracle has announced the integration of ServiceNow into its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The integration means enterprise customers have the ability to access and manage OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) resources via their existing ServiceNow service portal and the ITOM (ServiceNow IT Operations Management) Visibility application, which will give them a single dashboard to manage their public cloud resources from Oracle and other cloud providers.
Legacy Oracle customers like government agencies are likely to find the integration helpful. At one time, the likes of Amazon itself and Google might have been over the moon. Both of these cloud giants jettisoned Oracle technology and have moved in other directions.
A ServiceNow VP spins the Oracle move this way:
“With this integration, ServiceNow and Oracle are making it seamless for enterprises to unlock productivity for distributed teams to deliver products and services faster, access powerful business insights and create great experiences for employees, wherever they may be,” says ServiceNow’s vice president & general manager of Operations Management & Data Foundations, Jeff Hausman. Joint customers leveraging the Now Platform and OCI will get the best of both worlds, a seamless experience that maximizes the value of cloud investments and the ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence for proactive operations.”
Many buzzwords like seamless, unlock productivity, business insights, experiences which are “great”, value, proactive, and of course artificial intelligence.
The winner may be ServiceNow. For Oracle, I am not sure yet. Maybe on deck to enter the cross cloud de-chaosizing work now going on in many organizations.
Stephen E Arnold, April 19, 2021
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