Share on Social Media:

HOW DISASTER RELIEF EVOLVES

In just twelve years, our tools for coping with natural disaster have improved dramatically. Compare what was available in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with what we have now.

Image result for hurricane harvey images

Why does information technology matter?

Snapchat, new and unfamiliar to most of us in 2005, has seen heavy use for live storm updates since Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Thousands of Texans have used the app to report power outages and post updates about their immediate surroundings. Some users call on it to inform relatives that they’re safe. Snapchat’s Map section highlights areas of heaviest use, continually updating data about areas needing emergency relief.

Snap said that its usage skyrocketed over the weekend, with nearly 300,000 posts on its Harvey Our Stories page.

Facebook has also been essential to the relief effort. With Facebook Live, users mark themselves “safe” or post video pleas for aid.

How does FEMA use social media?

Official agencies also rely on social media for more effective response. FEMA, for example, hires temporary staff to scan the internet for relevant information. These “social listeners” aggregate Facebook, Snapchat, and other social media posts. With this data, FEMA hones its relief efforts. The agency then sends crews to observe affected areas. From their reports, FEMA directs “the right information to the right people”.

Information technology also helps in directing the aid to where it’s needed. Without modern tools, effective logistics can be nearly impossible. In an emergency, it is largely based on sheer guesswork. After Hurricane Katrina, some relief agencies had thousands of tarps and blankets piled up in one place- far from where they were needed. With updated real-time information, this mistake could have been prevented.

With the social media tools available now, relief agencies can disperse supplies much more efficiently. Aid goes where it’s needed. As the situation evolves, so does the data tracking it.  Aid workers can adjust continually to changing circumstance.

What has changed since 2005?

Twelve years ago, FEMA waited for assessments before providing aid. That doesn’t work well, though, and FEMA knows it. Its current policy is to act quickly. It moves as much supply and personnel as possible, as quickly as possible. If it has more than it needs, it can scale back.

Without dramatic advances in information technology since 2005, this more nimble FEMA would never have emerged.

 

(For timely information, you need a strong internet connection. Talk to us. We can help.)

 

Share on Social Media:

FACEBOOK: A THREAT TO YOUR PRIVACY?

Image result for black mirror images

Can you trust social media? Is your privacy always safe in the hands of Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram?

Most of us don’t give much thought to how social media are handling our personal data. Perhaps we should.

The network effects of digital communication enable extremely rapid growth for firms that get in early, and over time they can dominate their market segments. Within a few years, they can acquire monopolies or near-monopolies. Once such near-monopoly is Facebook. Because of its massive user base- numbering in the billions- it gets close attention from advertisers. It crowds out other media- especially print.

This, in itself, could create serious problems for you. But what if Facebook becomes the dominant means of authenticating personal identity? You may soon be unable to handle the ordinary business of life without an account.

“The Zuckerberg Mafia finally hit me where it hurts.”

Consider the case of Jason Ditzian, who operates the website The Bold Italic. He was recently kicked out of a San Francisco ride-sharing service, City CarShare, after Getaround bought it. Getround had founded its platform on Facebook, and authenticated membership through it. Lacking an account, Ditzian could no longer use City CarShare. As he put it, “The Zuckerberg Mafia finally hit me where it  hurts.”

Getaround’s user agreement states: “We may permit third-party advertising networks to collect information about your use of our service over time…” It goes on to state that this could include location information. Getaround, then, would know where you’ve been- and when you’ve been there. Could this be a threat to your well-being?

What are you telling the world about yourself?

Most people post huge amounts of personal data on social media. Your Facebook posts may reveal:

  • Where you live
  • Who your friends or lovers are
  • Where you travel
  • What pets you have
  • Where you work
  • What you read
  • Your musical tastes
  • Your political or religious commitments and opinions

This can provide a nearly complete profile of your personality, background, and interests. What happens if this information falls into the wrong hands?

Could governments get your data?

 So far, your social media posts are used mainly to benefit advertisers. This may not be a serious problem for you. But what if governments or hostile political activists get their hands on the data? Consider China, for example. It has begun assigning “citizen scores” for applicants for housing or jobs. Its scores are derived largely from information on social media.

Could something similar happen here? Could the state use your data to ruin your life? Could it guess your location at any given moment, based on your Facebook posts?

The personal information Facebook can collect now is already a severe threat to privacy. At least you can opt out of participating, though.

What if that option is taken from you? If enough businesses and social groups require social media proof of I D, you may have to give in. Your survival may require it. You would have to leave yourself vulnerable to those who would use your personal data against you.

(For the best broadband connection, talk to us. We can help. To get the most out of your broadband connection, read our blog. Comment and share for your friends.)

The enclosed images are from Black Mirror, a Netflix series. It is said to be a contemporary version of The Twilight Zone.  

Share on Social Media:

CONNECTED DEVICES & PRIVACY

Image result for cat dog conspiracy

Can you keep a secret? No, you can’t, at least not for long. With ever more of your electronic devices, appliances, utility meters, fitness trackers, and home security systems connected to the internet, it’s nearly certain that at least one of them will rat on you sooner or later.

Could Your Devices Be Subpoenaed?

Allison Berman, writing for Singularity Hub, warned that the connected devices in your home could be subpoenaed as witnesses against you. She cited a 2015 murder case, for which police asked Amazon to turn over cloud-based data sent by an Alexa-enabled Echo device in the home of James Andrew Bates, in whose hot tub detectives had found the body of his colleague, Victor Collins. On the night of the murder, the device had been used for streaming music. The Echo device, equipped with seven mikes, listens constantly for the ‘wake word’ that will activate it, making it receptive to commands. Just before and after sensing the wake word, Echo begins recording sound and transmitting it to Amazon’s cloud.

Police believe the Echo device may have recorded audio germane to their investigation.

In the near future, police may solve crimes by interrogating refrigerators, thermostats, TV sets, stereos, phones, tablets, and security systems. With multiple electronic witnesses, they can obtain fairly accurate and comprehensive pictures of the crimes, as they seek to do by interviewing multiple witnesses to an auto accident.

Privacy laws regarding connected devices are very weak. Because the information is stored in the cloud, the owner or user of the devices doesn’t own the data they transmit. It’s not protected to the same degree that documents in his house are.

Could Your Connected Devices Be Hacked?

Of course, any connected device can be hacked. If Alexa is hacked, could a hostile party listen to everything you say in your home? And if you have twenty connected devices in your home, a hacker might obtain eerily accurate and complete information about what you do all day. Could he use it to blackmail you? What could a stalker do if he knows where you’ll be, when, and for what reason?

Hackers could also hijack your devices to spread false information about you. Patrick Frey, who blogs as ‘Patterico’, suffered a ’SWATting’ attack in 2011 after a hacker ‘spoofed’ his cellphone number to place a midnight 911 call. Pretending to be Frey, the caller said he had shot his wife.

Sheriff’s deputies pounded on Frey’s door and rang his doorbell. When he opened the door, they pointed their guns at him and told him to put his hands up. The deputies handcuffed Frey and placed him in a squad car. Then they awakened his wife, led her downstairs, and frisked her. After ascertaining that the children were safe, the police finally left.

The incident could easily have cost Frey his life. Cops are likely to be nervous in confronting a man they believe to be armed and to have just committed a murder.

Can You Trust Browsers and Social Media?

Loss of privacy need not require either hacking or law enforcement inquiry. Certain browsers, such as Google, and social media, such as Facebook, offer overly complicated terms of service– as long as 30,000 words. Few, if any, users read them. The rules are nearly inscrutable for a reason. They’re meant to protect providers from liability, not to protect your privacy.

Since you don’t pay for Google and Facebook services, you are their product. They earn their money through sale of advertising, so they want as much data about you as possible. Their advertisers demand it.

Two years ago, Facebook faced a media firestorm after the discovery that it had been manipulating the emotional states of thousands of users. Facebook had learned that the emotional impact of the images it showed users would affect the character of their posts. With this information, it could reinforce advertising messages.

You reveal far more through social media than you’d guess. MIT’s ‘Gaydar’ project confirmed that one could reliably infer that a particular subject was gay, based solely on his social media posts, even if he had never admitted it openly, and even if he was trying strenuously to keep it hidden. Another MIT project, called ‘Psychopath’, tracked social media posts to determine presence or absence of schizophrenia.

Can You Trust Your Smart TV Set?

On Monday, February 6, Vizio settled a lawsuit over claims that it had violated consumer privacy. The plaintiffs had alleged that Vizio’s connected ‘smart’ TV sets had been tracking ‘second by second’ data about customer viewing habits. To this, Vizio had allegedly added specific demographic information: age, sex, marital status, size of household, income, home ownership, and household value. The company is alleged to have sold this information to third parties. The third parties would use it to enable targeted advertising.

LG and Samsung have also been accused of collecting viewer data through their connected TV sets.

What Can You Do?

What can you do to protect yourself? Update your passwords often. Encrypt what you can. Always stay aware of when your connected devices are switched on.

It may help to assume that everything you do will become public- and live accordingly.

(For the most reliable connection, talk to us. We can help.)

Share on Social Media:

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN OVERTURNED

Image result for people closing curtains

We all want privacy. We have a right to it, don’t we? We want to forget our more embarrassing moments, and we want others to forget them, too.

Unfortunately, the internet’s memory is eternal. Every Facebook post we write, and every tweet we send, can come back to haunt us. Our friends, colleagues, and casual acquaintances have their own digital records of our lapses in judgement; and their audio, video, and text records can wreck our reputations. Follies we forgot about years ago can still thwart our job searches and romantic prospects.

It may be wise for us to manage our lives as if every moment outside of our homes is in the public record. After all, there is a very strong chance that it is.

But if we fail, what then? Are we doomed to relive our worst moments for the rest of our lives?

Some governments have decided to enforce digital privacy by statute. The European Union, among other entities, has embraced a ‘right to be forgotten’ rule. Under its terms, Google and other browsers will have to make certain information ‘unsearchable’ at the subject’s request. One’s embarrassing past will simply disappear from the internet. Nobody will ever find it again.

With the EU’s support, almost every expert expected other governments to adopt similar laws.

It’s not so certain now that this will be the case.

Search engines have challenged the ‘right to be forgotten’ in court. This morning, they scored one of their first major legal victories in the matter. Brazil’s highest court ruled that such laws place too heavy a burden on search engines, forcing them to become censors.

If other courts, in other states, follow suit, the ‘right to be forgotten’ may become unenforceable. The internet is international, and information can’t be confined within national boundaries.

We probably can’t rely on digital censors to protect our reputations. We may just have to assume that everything we do will become public- and act accordingly. And be careful with selfies.

(To get the internet service that works best for you, talk to us. We can help.)

Share on Social Media:

BLADE RUNNER: IS THIS YOUR FUTURE?

Image result for blade runner

In Blade Runner, a 1982 science fiction movie, large corporations control nearly everything. The individual is almost powerless. It’s virtually impossible to hold anyone accountable for anything important, because decision makers are faceless and remote. Bureaucracy pervades every facet of life.

Some people argue that the hellish vision in Blade Runner is our future. Gigantic corporations will consolidate their control over our economic life.

Such predictions may seem to be credible. Certain corporate giants, such as Facebook and Google, threaten to acquire near monopolies in their markets- and in control of information. Microsoft, Apple, General Electric, and Exxon are still among the world’s largest firms. If present trends continue, can you keep your independence? Is a Blade Runner type of dystopia inevitable?

In the past, size was a decisive market advantage. Giant corporations owned infrastructure, industrial machines, and factories. They owned distribution networks. They could produce much more than smaller businesses could. Their expenses were spread over a larger number of units. It was much easier to organize production within one firm than among many. In the Machine Age, massive size made sense.

Is this true today? Will it be true in our future?

It might not be. In the Information Age, the advantage of size is not as great as before. Some of the means of production, previously out of reach for individuals and small businesses, are much more accessible. Anyone with the necessary skills can write a new app. With only a computer and a web connection, he can make and sell his products from home.

Bringing new industrial products to market is no longer the exclusive domain of corporate giants. With about $20,000, you could buy a router, a CNC machine, and a 3D printer, and they’d be almost as accurate as the ones owned by industrial giants. If you can’t afford your own machines, you can rent time on someone else’s. You could even rent a factory instead of building your own. This can be true of large scale production, not just product development. Some computer chip designers have been renting capacity in chip foundries owned by others.

The Blade Runner may not have been prophecy. For every centralizing economic trend, there is a decentralizing trend, so we are not doomed to a miserable future of domination by giant corporations. In the future, we may have greater control over our lives.

We will say more about this in another post.

(To take control of your economic future, you need a reliable internet connection. If you don’t have one, talk to us. We can help.)

Share on Social Media:

TRAINING YOUR COMPUTER- LIKE A DOG

To most of us, computer coding is an inscrutable art. Code writers are the high priests of the Information Age, a technical elite whose work is so far beyond our understanding it seems to be magic. They even speak a different language.

This may be changing. With recent advances in artificial intelligence, your next computer might not need written software or OS code. Instead, you can look forward to training the machine- like a dog.

Conventional programming is writing of detailed, step-by-step instructions. Any errors or omissions in the code will affect the computer’s functions– and errors cannot be corrected without rewriting the code. Operating system developers, most notably Microsoft, often have to issue downloadable “patches” to repair defective code. Some systems, such as Windows 8, are so bloated and error-prone that they are beyond salvage, and have to be withdrawn from the market. The coding protocol is unforgiving. “Garbage in; garbage out”, is an industry watchword for a reason. The computer cannot learn, and cannot correct its mistakes. It can do only what the code has taught it to do.

With machine learning, your computer won’t be coded with a comprehensive set of instructions. It will be trained, and you very likely will have a big hand in training it. As Edward Monaghan wrote for Wired, “If you want to teach a neural network to recognize a cat, you don’t tell it to look for whiskers, ears, fur, and eyes. You simply show it thousands… of photos of cats, and eventually it works things out. If it keeps misclassifying foxes as cats, you don’t rewrite the code. You just keep coaching it.”

Machine learning has been with us, in concept, for several decades. It has become practical only recently, though, with revolutionary advances in the development of neural networks, systems modeled on the complex array of neurons in the brain. Machine learning already shapes much of our online activity. Skype Translator translates speech into different languages in real time. The collision-avoidance systems in self-driving cars are neural networks. So is the facial identification feature in Google Photos. Facebook’s algorithm for adjusting user news feeds is a neural network. Even Google’s world-dominating search engine, long a monument to the power of the human coder, has begun to depend heavily on machine learning. In February, Google signaled its commitment to it by replacing the veteran chief of its search engine with John Giannandrea, one of the world’s leading experts in neural networks and artificial intelligence.

Giannandrea hit the ground running. He has devoted Herculean effort to training Google’s engineers in machine learning. “By building these learning systems”, he said last fall, “we don’t have to write these rules anymore.”

Our increased reliance on neural networks will bring radical changes in the role and status of the programmer. The code writer understood precisely how the computer functioned, since he wrote every line of its instructions. It could do nothing he hadn’t told it to do. With machine learning, though, he’s not entirely sure how it performs its assigned tasks. His relationship with it is no longer that of a god exercising absolute rule over his creation; it’s more like the relationship between parent and child, or a dog owner and his dog. Such relationships always entail a certain amount of mystery.

Your computer’s training will not end with your purchase of it. You will teach it what functions you want, how you want them carried out, even the quirks in your personality. It will get continually ‘smarter’ as it adapts to your feedback. You will be training your computer for its entire operating life.

Danny Hillis, writing for The Journal of Design and Science, said, “Instead of being masters of our creations, we have learned to bargain with them, cajoling and guiding them in the general direction of our goals. We have built our own jungle- and it has a life of its own.”

(Training your computer will require a reliable internet connection. Is yours adequate? If it isn’t, talk to us. We can help.)

Share on Social Media:

SOCIAL MEDIA AND PRIVACY

If you spend much time online, your privacy is unsafe unless you take steps to protect it. What may be even more dismaying is that the rules governing online privacy are inconsistent. They inhibit only a few of the worst potential violators, leaving others free to vacuum up as much of your personal data as their technologies allow.

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission unwittingly underscored this inconsistency. Tom Wheeler, the FCC Chairman, announced a proposal for imposing strict new privacy rules on internet service providers.  From the consumer’s point of view, the proposal was a huge step forward, as ISPs would have to protect personal information, report breaches, and obtain consumer consent for personal data collection. Consumers would have to ‘opt in’ to allow collection of personal information. The new regulations would make it more difficult to use consumer data for targeted advertising.

Unfortunately, the new rules would exempt Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other browsers and social media. The American Civil Liberties Union expressed disappointment with the proposed new rules, and other consumer groups gave them only qualified endorsement. Some ISPs panned the proposal. AT&T, for example, called it discriminatory. The telecom giant objected that broadband providers would be held to stricter standards than other online companies.

Since the FCC won’t do much to protect you, you have to protect yourself when using social media. Consider using an ad blocker. Carefully review the privacy policy of any social website you visit.

You need to be vigilant to guard your privacy on any social medium. Some websites change privacy settings frequently, without notifying users. Facebook is especially notorious for this.

If you find that your privacy settings have been changed without your consent, change them back. Then send a complaint to the site administrators. This will not guarantee that the site’s policies will change, but it may help. If enough users complain, administrators may finally pay attention.

Above all else, remain alert. The best safeguard for your privacy is your own common sense.

(For the internet service that meets your needs, talk to us.)