Autonomy: Some Search History
April 6, 2021
I want to offer a happy quack to The Register, an online information service, for links to Autonomy documents. The slow moving legal carnival train is nearing its destination. “Everything You Need to Know about the HPE v Mike Lynch High Court Case” provides a useful summary of the trial. In addition, the article includes links to a number of fascinating documents. These provide some helpful insights into the challenges vendors of enterprise search and content processing systems face. Furthermore, the documents make clear that enterprise software can be a business challenge. The sales cycle is difficult. Installing and optimizing the software are challenges. Plus keeping the customer’s expectations for a solution in line with the realities of the solution often require the intellectual skills of big time wizards. Why are these documents relevant in 2021?
First, some vendors of search and content processing systems ignore the realities exposed in these documents.
Second, today’s customers are fooled by buzzwords and well crafted demonstrations. The actual system may be “different.”
Third, the users of today’s systems are likely to find themselves struggling to locate and make sense of information they know is available in the organization.
But marketing and complex interactions among software and service vendors and their partners are fascinating. Are similar practices in play today?
That’s an interesting question to consider.
Stephen E Arnold, April 6, 2021
Google Maps Ads Voice-Activated Feature to Find a Friend
April 6, 2021
Google is adding another voice-activated feature, this time to Google Maps. Autoevolution reports, a bit sensationally, “Google Maps Users Can Now Become Little Stalkers with Just a Voice Command.” I would not go that far—a contact must have previously given permission for a user to locate them with the app for this to work. Still, the development can serve as a reminder to consider who one has given this permission to in the past and, perhaps, rescind it. Writer Bogdan Popa tells us:
“A quick question for Google Assistant is all you need to find out the location of one of your contacts, of course, as long as they’ve previously shared such information for you. Google now displays a short tip on Android devices where this feature has been enabled, suggesting that you can ask Google Assistant to tell you where someone currently is. ‘Where is [name of the contact]?’ is the question that you can use for this feature, so in theory, you may not even have to touch your phone to be aware of someone’s location in real time.”
Popa tells us the feature is now rolling out gradually, probably via a server-side synchronization rather than an app update. Though to some it may seem creepy to locate someone via voice command, it is really just an upgrade to a feature that was already part of Google Maps. But seriously, readers may want to review who they have given location permissions to in the past. Because Google is going to remind them. Yeah, that part might be a little creepy.
Is it possible stalkers might find the function useful? Probably not.
If you cannot access Google Maps, get your “administrator” to unblock this free Google feature. Helpful extra step, right?
Cynthia Murrell, April 06, 2021
Google: Fighting the Fake News Fight. Err. Where Is YouTube in This Altercation?
April 6, 2021
I read a short item with the snappy title “Google to Contribute $29 Million to New EU Fund to Fight Fake News.” The hook is a big number for a mom-and-pop, online ad outfit, $29 million.
Where is the money going? The write up says:
The European Media and Information Fund, launched by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute last week, aims to enlist researchers, fact-checkers, not-for-profits and other public interest-oriented bodies to help in the fight against fake news….The fund has a duration of five years. The European Digital Media Observatory, which is a European Commission project set up last year and whose members include fact checkers and academic researchers, will evaluate and select the projects.
Will YouTube become a focal point? My thought is that YouTube is not news, certainly not news in the sense of the Facebook- or Twitter-type of service. Should YouTube become a focal point? That’s a different question. What about informational ads which surf on a timely topic? Are those advertisements news? Obviously an advertisement cannot be news generated by an objective entity like Forbes Magazine. Wait. Hold that statement. Forbes, the capitalist’s tool, does run pay-to-play essays.
Without a definition of news, how can one determine what’s accurate, what’s fake, and what’s just business? Perhaps that is why the mom-and-pop online ad service is contributing a PR worthy sum to an European effort.
Is there any correlation to the EU’s legal probe of Google?
That’s a hard question just like, “Is YouTube a deliverer of fake news?”
Stephen E Arnold, April 6, 2021
Google: Cookies Not Enough! More More More!
April 6, 2021
Cookies are a necessary Internet evil. They are annoying, but they power Internet commerce at the expense of user privacy. And users demand more privacy, tech giants are already designing technology and the Internet for a post-cookie world. Google, says One Zero via Medium, wants to control everything a user does on the Internet: “Google’s ‘Privacy-First Web’ Is Really A Google-First Web.”
Google promised that third-party cookies would disappear by 2022. The company also promises not to support ad technology that tracks user information across the Web. Google is not doing this to be kind, instead Google wants to be a become a better contender in private Internet browsing. Apple and Mozilla, companies that do not rely on targeted advertising revenue, already protect users from cookies with their Internet browsers.
Google’s business strategy is to use its status as the world’s most popular search engine and provider of many free Internet services to its advantage. That means Google has access to loads of first-party data aka the stuff that advertisers want to create targeted ads.
Google is also working on alternate tracking frameworks, but some tech experts see it as a bad idea. These alternate tracking frameworks would delete the old cookie problems and replace them with a brand new set of problems.
It appears cookies will become obsolete by the middle of the 2020s, but how does that translate into money and user privacy?
“Merits aside, it’s clear that Google is positioning itself for a more privacy-conscious future in ways that seek to preserve its dominance — likely at the expense of a slew of smaller rivals. There is a whole value chain built around third-party cookies and individual user tracking, and a lot of that value is likely to go poof…. The big picture here is that a handful of giants — in this case, Apple and Google — are powerful enough to essentially dictate the terms of the modern internet to everyone else. That they’re now moving toward models that are (arguably) better for consumer privacy is welcome. The problem is that they’re also quite obviously remolding the playing field in their own interests.”
Users will effectively have better privacy protections, but their information will be in the hands of a few powerful companies. Is that good? Is that bad? History shows it is better for there to be competition to ensure stability in a mixed capitalist economy.
Whitney Grace, April 6, 2021
DarkCyber for April 6, 2021, Now Available
April 6, 2021
DarkCyber is a twice-a-month video news program about the Dark Web, cyber crime, and lesser known Internet services. You can view the program at this link.
This program covers five stories:
- Banjo, founded by a controversial figure, has been given an overhaul. There’s new management and a new name. The challenge? Turn the off tune Banjo into a sweet revenue song.
- The Dark Web is not a hot bed of innovation. In fact, it’s stagnant, and law enforcement has figured out its technology and is pursuing persons of interest. A “new” Dark Web-like datasphere is now emerging. Robust encrypted messaging apps allow bad actors to make deals, pay for goods and services, and locate fellow travelers more easily and quickly than ever before.
- User tracking is a generator of high value information. Some believe that user tracking is benign or nothing about which to worry. That’s not exactly the situation when third-party and primary data are gathered, cross-correlated, and analyzed. Finding an insider who can be compromised has never been easier.
- New cyber crime reports are flowing in the aftermath of the Solarwinds’ and Microsoft Exchange Server fiascos. What’s interesting that two of these reports reveal information which provides useful insight into what the bad actors did to compromise thousands of systems.
- The final story reports about the world’s first drone which makes it possible for law enforcement and intelligence operatives to conduct a video conference with a bad actor near the drone. The innovative device can also smash through tempered glass to gather information about persons of interest.
DarkCyber is produced by Stephen E Arnold. The program is a production of Beyond Search and Arnold Information Technology. Mr. Arnold is the author of CyberOSINT and The Dark Web Notebook. He will be lecturing at the 2021 National Cyber Crime Conference.
Kenny Toth, April 6, 2021
An Amazon Easter Egg: Ethical Waste Inside a Plastic Shell
April 5, 2021
I read a “real news” story called “Amazon Apologizes for Lying about Pee — And Attempts to Shift the Blame.” The main point of the article is that a large, essentially unregulated company creates working conditions which deny employees the right to deal with bodily functions. You can plug in the words which would get an ordinary person banned by smart software designed to protect one’s sensibilities.
The write up, however, focuses on Amazon’s mendacious behavior. Is it a surprise that a giant corporation distorts information so that it can continue to behave in a way that would make the author of Nicomachean Ethics slug down hemlock before finishing research for his revered tome? [Note: I included the MIT version because MIT is so darned ethical in its willingness to accept Jeffrey Epstein’s blandishments and cash.] “Gimme that cup of poison. There’s no hope,” he might have said.
The write up states:
Amazon only apologizes for not being “accurate” enough, too — not for actually creating and contributing to situations where workers [censored] in bottles. In fact, Amazon goes so far as to suggest the whole pee bottle thing is simply a regrettable status quo, pointing out a handful of times when other companies’ delivery drivers were also caught peeing in bottles, as well as embedding a handful of random comments on Twitter that happen to support Amazon’s views. You can almost hear Jeff Bezos saying “Why aren’t these people blaming UPS and FedEx? Let’s get more people thinking about them instead.”
There are several issues within this Amazon Easter egg; for example:
- The ethical posture of exploitation. The US makes a big deal about China’s alleged exploitation of ethnic groups, yet seems okay with the Amazon and other US entities’ behavior. Interesting or hypocrisy?
- The failure of regulation. Is Amazon the exception or the norm? The answer is that Amazon like other big tech outfits is the norm. I want to suggest that the norm applies to sugar cane workers in Brazil as well as to street vendors in Zagreb. Look behind the day-to-day misery and there is a Boss type, probably with an MBA. Governments have failed to protect workers. In fact large companies are the government just as Boss types are the forces which matter in many countries. No elections, lobbyists, or education needed.
- Slow response to abuse. Many large tech companies have been chugging along for more than 20 years. Suddenly people care? What’s this say about journalists, union organizers, and non government organizations allegedly “into” fair and equal treatment?
Dropping the Amazon Easter egg on a Friday of a holiday weekend produces what?
Here’s my answer: Visible evidence that the Easter egg is made of the same indestructible plastic in which many Amazon products are packaged. Those eggs are unbreakable, and the behaviors are going to continue.
My suggestion? Stock up on large mouth plastic bottles or start innovating with modifying a Rocket Man beverage pack so it can be used as a Porta Potties using an indwelling urinary catheter instead of an outdwelling beer nozzle. Less hassle and an opportunity to become an entrepreneur selling the “innovation” on Etsy.
Stephen E Arnold, April 5, 2021
Volv for Brief, Unbiased News
April 5, 2021
We learn about an app that pares the news down to as little information as possible from Insider’s write-up, “Volv Bills Itself as ‘TikTok for News.’ The Snap-Backed App Makes News Stories You Can Read in 9 Seconds.” Who needs in-depth analysis, anyway? Co-founders Shannon Almeida and Priyanka Vazirani wished to create a source of unbiased news; I suppose eliminating any attempts to provide context is one way to do that. Writer Grace Dean tells us:
“It creates news stories, averaging at around 70 words, which users can read in less than nine seconds. The stories are listed in-app in a swipe format that’s easy on the eye. This is crucial to make the app attractive to its millennial target market, Vazirani said. People in their teens and 20s often check their phones before they even get out of bed, logging into various apps to view the latest newsfeed updates. On Volv, users can scroll through and see all the major news stories at a glance. The app combines breaking news with pop culture stories, such as explaining memes that are going viral. A prime example would be Bernie Sanders’ mittens at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. In this way, the app can show people the top political and financial stories and covert non-news readers, while also offsetting heavy stories with lighter reads. This approach is paying off. Volv publishes around 50 stories a day and its articles have been read nearly 8 million times so far. Its founders said it has a high retention rate, too.”
Almeida and Vazirani, who had no tech experience before this project, are delighted at its success—they certainly seem to be on to something. We’re told the pair received some good advice from successful entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who shared his thoughts on appealing to millennials and marketing their product to stand out from other news sites. Though Volv currently employs fewer than 10 workers, it is looking to expand to provide more diverse content. Launched last year, the company is based in New York City.
Cynthia Murrell, April 5, 2021
Reengineering Bias: What an Interesting Idea
April 5, 2021
If this is true, AI may be in trouble now. VentureBeat reports, “Researchers Find that Debiasing Doesn’t Eliminate Racism from Hate Speech Detection Models.” It is known that AI systems meant to detect toxic language themselves have a problem with bias. Specifically, they tend to flag text by Black users more often than text by white users. Oh, the irony. The AI gets hung up on language markers often found in vernaculars like African-American English (AAE). See the article for a few examples. Researchers at the Allen Institute tried several techniques to reteach existing systems to be more even handed. Reporter Kyle Wiggers writes:
“In the course of their work, the researchers looked at one debiasing method designed to tackle ‘predefined biases’ (e.g., lexical and dialectal). They also explored a process that filters ‘easy’ training examples with correlations that might mislead a hate speech detection model. According to the researchers, both approaches face challenges in mitigating biases from a model trained on a biased dataset for toxic language detection. In their experiments, while filtering reduced bias in the data, models trained on filtered datasets still picked up lexical and dialectal biases. Even ‘debiased’ models disproportionately flagged text in certain snippets as toxic. Perhaps more discouragingly, mitigating dialectal bias didn’t appear to change a model’s propensity to label text by Black authors as more toxic than white authors. In the interest of thoroughness, the researchers embarked on a proof-of-concept study involving relabeling examples of supposedly toxic text whose translations from AAE to ‘white-aligned English’ were deemed nontoxic. They used OpenAI’s GPT-3 to perform the translations and create a synthetic dataset — a dataset, they say, that resulted in a model less prone to dialectal and racial biases.”
The researchers acknowledge that re-writing Black users’ posts to sound more white is not a viable solution. The real fix would be to expose AI systems to a wider variety of dialects in the original training phase, but will developers take the trouble? Like many people, once hate-speech detection bots become prejudiced it is nigh impossible to train them out of it.
Cynthia Murrell, April 5, 2021
Google Ad King Assembles Ad Free Search Engine
April 5, 2021
The heart of Google’s revenue is targeted ads. Despite the tech giant’s code of conduct, the company became a profit-driven corporate beast. Sridhar Ramaswamy was once Google’s advertising king, but he became disillusioned with the corporate beast. His biggest qualms were how Google’s obsessions with growth affected everything in the company, including user privacy and search quality.
Maybe Ramaswamy was inspired by DuckDuckGo when he decided to build a new search engine without ads and data tracking. Forbes details Ramaswamy’s career move in the article, “After Building Google’s Advertising Business, This Founder Is Creating An Ad-Free Alternative.”
His new search engine is called Neeva and his fellow Google cofounder Vivek Raghunathan invested in the new search startup. Instead of relying on ad revenue, Ramaswamy wants Neeva to be subscription based. His plan is for users to pay $5-10 a month to see non-sponsored search results.
Privacy is a major concern for users and the current Internet of things is hardly secure. Neeva comes at a time when users are demanding better regulations and better technology securing their information. There could also be a growing demand for unpolluted search results. Larry Page and Sergey Brin even wrote in their famous Stanford research paper that search engines driven by ad revenue will not ultimately meet consumers’ needs, because they will be biased by advertisements.
Neeva already has many investors, but tech experts doubt it will do much damage to Google:
“Search engine experts doubt Neeva will be able to do much damage to Google, at least in the short term. Some say Google’s gravitational pull is too strong for users to leave. Arun Kumar, CTO at Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. a New York-based advertising holding company, says while Neeva might ‘find a few takers, but you’re not going to shake the kingdom.’”
Money is the driving force behind Google and user’s needs. Why pay for something when it is free in other places-biased or not?
Whitney Grace, April 5, 2021
Blockchain and Reality
April 2, 2021
Sure, I wrote a chapter in Transforming Scholarly Publishing With Blockchain Technologies and AI, but my focus was everyone’s favorite online bookstore: The Bezos bulldozer aka Amazon. I read “Enterprise Blockchain Doesn’t Work Because It’s About the Real World.” The essay was interesting even though there was zero consideration of Amazon’s technological presence in the techno-space.
I did spot an interesting statement in the essay:
The price of accuracy is unreality. The Bitcoin blockchain is accurate only because what it “records” isn’t real: bitcoin holdings are shadows cast by the blockchain itself. Enterprise blockchains reach beyond these shadows into the real world – but in doing so they abandon the surety that is the technology’s distinctive promise.
The statement is worth thinking about the “value” of some NFTs.
Stephen E Arnold, April 2, 2021
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