Number of Posts: 42
Posts 1 - 10
How silicon valley is erasing your individuality
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 10.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, threat
Summary | Google and other major tech companies are trying to increase their monopoly and reach every area of our lives. It seems that those companies can now do anything; they are all competing to become the best personal assistants. Thanks to artificial intelligence softwares, they want to be constantly by our sides and never leave us. Major tech companies believe we are all "social" beings. Therefore, they try to create "social" platforms where we can all collaborate. They think that by bringing us together, they will make a better world. When it comes to individuality and free will, tech companies know what they're doing. They have algorithms that tell us/suggest what to buy, what to read, or what to do. The dominance and monopoly of big tech companies can be dangerous; it can lead to conformism and privacy issues.
Image Description | N/A
For this company, online surveillance leads to profit in Washington’s suburbs
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 10.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | Babel Street is a startup that uses online surveillance; they try to get private information from online platforms in order to catch cybercriminals. For instance, police departments might use the service provided by the company in their investigations and scan posts online. Experts try to track dangerous criminals while analyzing posts in more than 200 languages, including the emoji language. Emoji has actually been a challenge for analysts. Another challenge the company faces is to make sure sure it doesn't violate people's privacy.
Image Description | Photograph of a man standing in a news room in front of several TVs, and two other people.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | Facebook’s head of global policy management recently agreed to remove anything that violates the Vietnamese law from the social network. Governments around the world (even in the US) are increasingly trying to keep control of what's happening online. As a result, governments and big tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon don't always agree with each other. On the one hand, big tech companies want to have more control and power, and on the other hand, nations want to gain more control over people's online behvior. Facebook's desire to expand everywhere (e.g. in China) is one of the reasons for today's struggle between tech companies and nations. Facebook also faced some issues in Europe and Africa.
Image Description | Photograph of people using computers in a computer room, map of Facebook's users, two women laughing in front of a board displaying social media icons, Mark Zuckerberg and other people running in China, Mark Zuckerberg, his wife and daughters, glass building, people in front of a thumb-up sign, woman, crowd (some of them are using their phones), and people on their computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, Facebook, female(s), male(s), smartphone, social media
To Survive in Tough Times, Restaurants Turn to Data-Mining
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, research/study
Summary | Restaurants are facing tough times as people seem to visit restaurants less ofter rises. Now analytic firms have come up with software designs that collect data about customers and waiting staff to find inefficiencies and smooth them out. This way all waiters would recognize guests by name and know their order and payment preferences. It could revolutionize customer service in the hospitality industry.
Image Description | People looking at a chart.
Image Tags | chart, female(s), male(s)
The Rise and Fall of Yik Yak, the Anonymous Messaging App
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, law, privacy, social media, threat, youth
Summary | The anonymous messaging app Yik Yak became very popular in colleges and schools because it lets people broadcast anonymously to other users near them. The activity on the app has however started to become thretening with college students and children bullying each other and people making bomb threats that have led to multiple evacuations. A feminist group from University of Mary Washington have filed complaint to the University to block Yik Yak on campus because it has been used to harrass and threaten members.
Image Description | An illustration with a face and a smartphone and an image of the creators of Yik Yak.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone
He Tweeted About Chinese Government Corruption. Twitter Suspended His Account.
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 26.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, privacy, Twitter
Summary | A Chinese billionaire has publically denuciated Chinese government officials on Twitter by posting images of documents that evidence corruption. His account was suspended by Twitter for a few hours because the shared documents contained personal information which Twitter usually flags.
Image Description | Portrait of Guo Wengui.
Image Tags | male(s)
Facebook has a plan to let you type with your brain
Newspaper | USA Today
Date | 19.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | brain, Facebook, privacy, word/writing
Summary | Facebook is working on a new technology that would let users type a hundred words per second with their thoughts only. If they could find a way to tap into brain signals it would be a huge leap for augmented reality. Many users are however already worried that Facebook is intruding in their privacy and are anxious about Facebook taping into their brains.
Image Description | A woman standing in front of the Facebook logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo
Facebook lets streams of depravity flow freely
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 19.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, fake news, law, pornography, privacy, threat
Summary | Facebook is facing many criticisms about its poor enforcement of basic standards of content on the platform. Multiple violent live streams have been uploaded to Facebook in the past in it always took Facebook too long to take them down. Their algorithm to weed out pornography has backfired when they censored a historic photograph of a napalm victim from the Vietnam War because it registered as child pornography. After much denial, Facebook are finally taking steps against fake news spreading on their platform. All this may be called censorship but without moderation there can be no free speech because bullies dominate the discourse.
Image Description | N/A
The 'empowered consumer' doesn't get much say
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 16.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | The perceived multiplication of choices in consumer culture, for example when buying a plane ticket (optional luggage fees, insurance fees, prioritized boarding fees, etc.), just looks like an advantage for the consumer on the surface. In the end, we end up paying more and giving away our data. The data will in turn be used to milk consumers even further by knowing to which advertisements they are particularly susceptible.
Image Description | Airport check-in area.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
Taking Baby Steps Toward Software That Reasons Like Humans
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, brain, research/study
Summary | Computers are being programmed to mimick thought processes of the human brain. This technology is called "deep neuronal net". It enables softwares to interpret the content of images like for instance whether the tennis player in the image is wearing a hat. Many research teams are workin on this technology world-wide and it will likely be used for computerized customer support in the future.
Image Description | Portrait of a "deep neuronal net" researcher.
Image Tags | male(s)
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