Number of Posts: 12
Posts 1 - 10
Diese drei Anwendungen sind besser als Whatsapp
(These three apps are better than WhatsApp)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 5.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | law, privacy, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | Brazil has just blocked WhatsApp in their country for 72 hours in order to for WhatsApp to share chats with their police in ciminal cases. It is unlikely that something like this will happen in Germany but it is good to know about some alternatives just in case... Especially since WhatsApp is not very trustworthy about user privacy. Threema is a Swiss app that alllows for user anonymity, Slack is a really good app to use with colleagues because files can be saved within group chats, and Telegram deletes inactive chats after a while so that there are no traces.
Image Description | Woman using a smartphone with headphones on the street.
Image Tags | female(s), headphones, smartphone
Niedlichkeit hat ihren Preis
(Cuteness has its price)
Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 20.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, selfie, threat
Summary | A new popular app in China called Meitu lets users edit their selfies. The process includes a beautification filter which enlarges the eyes and adds glitter and a rosy hue to the selfie. The app however suspiciously asks for permission to a lot of user data which does not seem to be necessary for an image editing app. The app likely collects all this data about their users so that they can sell their information to advertizers who want to target specific groups. All free apps have a hidden price.
Image Description | Selfie with the Meitu beautification filter.
Image Tags | female(s), selfie
Es postet, also bin ich
(It posts so I am)
Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 19.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | brain, emojis, language threat, selfie, social media
Summary | In his new book called "Facebook generation", Roberto Simanowski positions himself between the cultural pessimists and the digital euphorics. He does fear for our language competence and tied to it our memory. We tend to posts selfies and emojis rather than put our feelings into words. We tend to post a link to a song, a video, or an article rather than paraphrase that information make our point in an original sentence. This leads to the degeneration of our language ability and that inability to process information in our own words prevents the creation of memories. Instead we leave a huge digital data trail online.
Image Description | Woman's hands holding a smartphone while using a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), hand(s), smartphone
Facebook-App soll das Gedankenlesen lernen
(Facebook app is supposed to learn mindreading)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 20.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | brain, Facebook, privacy, translation
Summary | Facebook is working on new technology to enable mind reading. This would enable users to type just by thinking and moreover possibly type in a foreign language they don't even speak. All this would be possible if we had sensors that could read brain waves and interpret them correctly. The developers at Facebook emphasize that only those thoughts would be read which are willingly shared by the user.
Image Description | Thinkstock image of two cyborgs.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
So bildet man sich im Job effektiv weiter
(This is how you educate yourself further in your job)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 27.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | digitized education, privacy
Summary | It is imperative for everyone who wants to stay updated in their field to keep educating themselves. Traditinally, this education happened in company seminars but there are increasingly more online courses on offer. MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) are a modern alternative where teachers and students never meet in person but interact entirely digitally. A course design in between the two is called "blended learning" where students first self-educate online and meet up in a seminar later on. Hot topics in further education of professionals are all things connected to technology and especially topics around privacy.
Image Description | A Getty image of a woman studying on the floor with notes, a laptop, a tablet, and a snack.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), tablet
Auf die Bombe folgten die Explosionen
(The bomb was followed by explosions)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 10.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politics, privacy
Summary | Recently the news story about a company called Cambridge Analytica made waves: they claimed to have extracted an accurate psychological profile of all adult US citizens based on their Facebook likes. The company uses those profiles to target very specific audiences with political advertising. Such rigorous profiling based on data that was not willingly given for the purposes of such analysis would be illegal in Europe.
Image Description | Bloomberg image of a woman with glasses (only eyes portion of face visible), the glasses reflecting a screen showing the Facebook logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo
Ignoranz ist Stärke
(Ignorance is strength)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 3.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | fake news, politics, privacy, smartphone, social media, threat
Summary | Kellyanne Conways term "alternative facts" remind of Orwell's fictional language Newspeak which also changes meanings by renaming. Many facts of contemporary life (especially under the Trump administration) remind of dystopian novels "1984" by G. Orwell and "Brave New World" by A. Huxley. We all carry smartphones with us at all times with which we can send information but which also receive and document information about us like our location, who else is in that location, our communications, purchases, and so on. Privacy has become impossible in the digital age.
Image Description | Images and videos of the film "1984" and George Orwell as well as the news clip where Kellyanne Conway mentions "alternative facts".
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), TV
Diese Technik soll uns den Alltag erleichtern
(This technology should make our daily lives easier)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, research/study, smartphone, translation
Summary | Computer are becoming more and more intertwined in our daily lives. Some smartphones can already translate real-time conversations with imitating the speakers voice thanks to advances in voice recognition. Image recognition has also advanced substantially to being able to "read" moods, age, and attractiveness of the photographed individuals. Research is being done for smartphones and other devices to monitor body odor, sweat (to allet to dehydration), or tear liquid (for diabetics).
Image Description | Various simple visualizations of smartphones/devices interacting with people (depicted by emojis), body parts, et cetera.
Image Tags | chart, emojis, female(s), smartphone
IQ ist nicht alles
(IQ is not everything)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 1.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, brain
Summary | Intelligence and expecially at the level of the gifted individuals can only blossom when it is nurtured, i.e. when learning is encouraged. For this, concentration is required and in this day and age the distractions of digital devices can hinder the development of one's intellectual potential. Multi-tasking as such is a myth. one might wonder whether artificial intelligence will lead to the demise of human intelligence.
Image Description | An EP image of Orson Welles (film director), a Getty image of Anne-Sophie Mutter (violinist), and an EPA image of Stephen Hawking (physicist).
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
Schweizer Firmen setzen auf Bots
(Swiss firms put their money on bots)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 27.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, privacy
Summary | Many companies in Switzerland are testing out chatbots to replace their telephone customer service. Many company chatbots can be contacted via the Facebook messenger. They are quite useful because they can organize tasks according to content and delegate them to the appropriate departments or help the customers themselves. Experts demand full transparency about what happens to customer data created in chatbot uses.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman's torso holding a smartphone, some chatbot chat screenshots and graphs.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone, text
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