Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 54
Posts 41 - 50

Google's future is useful, creepy and everywhere: nine things learned at I/O

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google, privacy, threat
Summary | Google presented their new technology and their main focus is artificial intelligence. Google's Assistant is now proactively listening and making suggestion (for instance to leave the house early because of traffic) without users having to activate it by saying "OK Google". It will also be available accross devices. Google are attempting to replace Siri on Apple devices. Google's Assistant is much better developed in being able to understand colloquial commands. They are also working on connecting their Assistant with the camera, so that one could hold up the phone to a restaurant and get reviews about that restaurant pulled up. This has huge potential for making the lives of visually impaired people easier.
Image Description | Reuters and Getty images of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and the Google Assistant home speaker.
Image Tags | female(s), Google, male(s), YouTube

Controversial rights group teaches young Muslims how spies monitor social media

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 29.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | privacy, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A dubious organization is teaching young muslims in the UK how authorities can spy on their digital communications. Government authorities are eager to intercept instant messaging communication to be able to avoid terrorist attacks but companies such as WhatsApp and Telegram are making their services encrypted and refuse to aid the government in their surveillance endeavors.
Image Description | Image of a screen close-up showing the WhatsApp and Facebook icon, portraits of dead terrorist attackers (once with a balaclava), and a Getty image of the GCHQ director (UK intelligence organization?).
Image Tags | Facebook, logo, male(s), WhatsApp

Girl With No Job Shares Her Instagram Tricks And Dishes On Social Media Fame

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 17.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Instagram, privacy
Summary | An Instagram famous person called "Girl With No Job" has several million followers on Instagram. She is considered very funny because she posts a lot of memes. She thinks that the visual culture of humor has changed on Instagram which she can tell from the amount of likes different kinds of content on her account get. She also shares a lot of her private life on Instagram, for instance her engagement and the whole wedding planning (where she is partnering with a company called The Knot).
Image Description | Memes.
Image Tags | meme

None of Us Are Safe From Getting ‘Owned’

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 28.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, social media, Twitter, word/writing
Summary | Much communication on social media and especially Twitter revolves around criticizing. One frequently used term is 'owning' - one can 'own' a hater or troll when exposing some compromising information about them or something that they did not realize. The word hails from hacker culture of the early internet days when 'owning' meant to hack into someone else's virtual space and snoop around.
Image Description | Illustration of a lock made out of an ethernet cable.

Facebook says police can’t use its data for ‘surveillance’

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 13.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politics, privacy
Summary | Though Facebook's biggest source of revenue is advertising, they do cooperate with police investigators on a case-to-case basis. The government however has the option to subject Facebook users to mass surveillance in case of a disaster. "Disaster" is not defined so this gray are enables the government to misuse privacy agreements with Facebook at any given moment.
Image Description | Hand holding magnifying glass against a wall of Facebook logos.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo

Wie lebt es sich mit Asisstentin? Alexa im Selbsttest

(How is life with an assistant? Testing Alexa)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 20.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy
Summary | Amazon's new chatbot assistant is spreading in contemporary households. Though the privacy is questionable when one has Alexa in their house, she is likeable. Alexa has cute answers to unexpected questions like "Are we friends?", "Am I cool?", and "Do you love, Alexa?". After using Alexa for a while the author begins to find movies about people falling in love with AI robots plausible...
Image Description | Bookshelf with Alexa on it.

Das ist an Messenger-Verschwörungstheorien dran

(This is the deal with messenger conspiracy theories)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 5.11.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, Snapchat, texting, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A list of popular messengers is analyzed in terms of how well they protect their users' privacy. The safest one is Signal and many others have end-to-end encryption, for instance WhatsApp. They still collect the metadata though (interlocutors, time of interaction, location). Some even save the content that is sent around - most shockingly Snapchat which is popular becuase it supposedly leaves no trace. Some messengers supposedly have ties with national security ministries, like Telegram in Russia and Viber in Israel. Apple recently refused to work with the FBI in giving away a customer's personal information.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone screen with messengers and a video about messengers.
Image Tags | hand(s), logo, smartphone, WhatsApp

Die CIA an meinem Tisch

(The CIA at my table)

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Newspaper | Frankfurter Allgemeine
Date | 9.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, threat
Summary | Amazon's new Echo device - a voice command artificial intelligence client is the perfect surveillance device when you think about it. It is equipped with sophisticated microphones that can decipher voice commands from any direction even if the TV is on. It turns on once its artificial intelligence persona Alexa is called and turns off after the order is finished. Digital corporations are increasingly developing encryption for all digital transactions because otherwise users become very vulnerable to attacks from hackers and the government.
Image Description | Amazon Echo standing on a table.

Die Innenstadt soll bald online gehen

(The inner city will go online soon)

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Newspaper | Gross-Gerauer Echo
Date | 16.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | privacy
Summary | The town of Rüsselheim wants to provide their inhabitants with wifi access in all public spaces in the inner city. The service will not be entirely free - local businesses will be able to give away internet vouchers to their customers or users will be able to access the wifi by allowing that their movements in the inner city be tracked.
Image Description | N/A

Experten verraten: Diese Apps müssen dringend auf Ihr Smartphone

(Experts reveal: these apps need to be on your smartphone)

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Newspaper | Focus Online
Date | 5.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | privacy, smartphone, WhatsApp
Summary | It is difficult to avoid WhatsApp because virtually everyone is using it. The app profits from allowing you to reach everyone. There have however been privacy issues in the past. Safer options are the free app Signal (even recommended by Edward Snowden) or Threema. Other must-have apps are sophisticated password organizing apps, clean-up apps that optimize one's storage as well as good web browsers.
Image Description | Image of a boy holding a smartphone while laying on a sofa.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

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