Category: Education

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Latest Read: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff rocked Silicon Valley and beyond. Shoshana is Professor Emerita at Harvard Business School and a former Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

Shoshana has delivered a critically important book not to be missed. This is a “once in a decade book” that digs deep into digital surveillance by Google and Facebook.

So, before you ask about recent US Senate votes to continue warrantless access to your internet search and browser history, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are harvesting just about all of your personal data.

So, the term ‘surveillance capitalism’ is new for many who only recently see this term added to our societal lexicon. The ability for Google and Facebook to simply take your data, mash it up, and sell it (without your knowledge) may indeed surprise many. But the depth of their reach Shoshana reveals may shock you.

You may not yet realize how Google and Facebook have already tuned their artificial intelligence platforms to data mining you even deeper than you may realize. Actually, think you with nothing to hide? Think again.

Google and Facebook lead in data harvesting

There is a common understanding that ‘free’ is just that. A ‘free’ email account and ‘free’ social media platforms? Nothing short of a lie. And the misdirection that ‘you become the product’ is no longer accurate. Shoshana refocuses this misdirection to convey Google and Facebook have so much of your private data, they now simply harvest your daily input toward their behavioral capitalism.

For Google this data mining includes all products and services including the acquired Nest thermostat. This is not new by the way. The LA Times reported back in May 2008 a plan by Charter to track customer web habits. These messages remind me of 2009’s The Future of the Internet by Jonathan Zittrain.

How Google Maps harvested your personal data

Today the question is not how, but rather how much you use and rely upon Google Maps. When Google’s StreetView cars drove past your house (and mine) taking photographs — their cars had surveillance tools that downloaded your home’s WiFi payload data.

Wait, what? Oh yes, they did.
As a result, Attorneys General from 38 states sued Google. 12 other countries, mainly from Europe also sued.

So, just how sensitive was the data collected by Maps? Technical experts in Canada, France, and the Netherlands discovered that StreetView’s data harvesting included:

names
telephone numbers
credit card information
passwords (Yes Google harvested your passwords)
e-mails (full text)
chat transcripts
dating site data
pornography site data
browsing behavior
medical data
location data

In addition, Shoshana reveals how Google, forced to concede that it had intercepted and stored “payload data” the personal information grabbed from unencrypted Wi-Fi transmissions. In some instances your entire email message, URLs and passwords were harvested.

John Hanke, Vice President for Google Maps previously directed Keyhole, a CIA-satellite mapping company. After Google purchased Keyhole, Hanke directed the upgrade of Google Earth. The full 25 page legal filing for your reading pleasure: In the Matter of Google, Inc.: Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, File No.: EB-10-IH-4055, NAL/Acct. No.: 201232080020, FRNs: 0010119691, 0014720239, Federal Communications Commission, April 13, 2012, 12–13.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Wait

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy has been a wonderful read. With American culture based on “immediate everything” is there any reason to pause? Yes in fact Frank illustrates why delay means a lot to us. Are we as aware of the decision making errors we make in rapid response?

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy

A return of serve in professional tennis is all about rapid response. With end-lines 78 feet apart a tennis player has almost 500 milliseconds to respond. Has this rapid response been ingrained into our culture? Probably, and we need to change this.

The opening two chapters of Wait address how we regard making decisions on rapid response. Frank provides valuable insights that rapid response actually robs us of wise decision making. There is a lot we can learn from the opportunity of delay. Wait refers at many points the impact of Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, the ground breaking research with Amos Tversky.

Kahneman won the noble prize in economics for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. Wait builds upon the impact of delays in decision-making.

Chapter three: “High-Frequency Trading, Fast and Slow” is the story of UNX Inc, a trading firm in California. The ability of Wall Street to trade stocks between 8 to 14 milliseconds is fascinating. Yet Frank reveals the opportunity by UNX to save a lot of money by actually slowing down their trading. Sounds odd but proves to be true. Again the insights to Thinking Fast and Slow are remarkable. High frequency trading was the subject of Michael Lewis’ amazing book Flash Boys.

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Globalization Network

Zoom out (wider)

Zoom video conferencing has no role on a college campus. The pandemic, as noted previously pushed many colleges to deploy a video conferencing solution under a less than workable timeframe.

Fair to suggest no risk assessment was completed. Some colleges hold a campus-wide license agreement while smaller schools have more limited host deployments.

Colleges need only review their mission and organizational goals to confirm a change from Zoom is needed. Many colleges have adopted strong mission and vision language to promote student learning and inclusiveness.

Truly accepting your College’s mission, vision and language is essential to understanding why Zoom violates their lives. Many do not seem to care or understand the true security and privacy vulnerabilities.

My initial post just scratched the surface. The cool factor juicing up your background image may in fact be more important than security and privacy of students.

Yea, its a videoconferencing app and during a pandemic — how bad can it be?

Enter hate groups

In addition to the racist Zoombombing at California State University Long Beach in late March, hate groups have begun hacking Zoom meetings.

As widely reported Jewish groups, teachers and families are being Zoombombed by white supremacists. The Verge reported White supremacists are targeting Jewish groups on Zoom

University of Colorado Bolder:
An online biology lecture was hijacked and anti-semitic messages were displayed. One professor is Jewish. A news article by Colorado public radio addressed this source: a student enrolled in the class posted the lecture’s Zoom ID number to reddit, an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Hate groups then entered the Zoom meeting.

University of Washington:
Students, instructors face threats and hateful speech as Zoom meetings get ‘bombed’

Binghampton University:
Racist interruptions affect Zoom classes at BU

Arizona State University and The University of Southern California:
‘Zoombombing’ Attacks Disrupt Classes Online Zoom classes were disrupted by individuals spewing racist, misogynistic or vulgar content.

University of Texas:
Virtual meeting of black UT students interrupted with racist slurs, students say

Just imagine a racist zoombombing during your next online class, campus event, Dean’s meeting, or public art performance. And the damage to your College brand becomes front and center in a social media world.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Grit

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. I have been looking forward to reading this book. Angela’s story on researching Grit begins by studying West Point’s Beast Barracks. That would be the best location to convey grit for all of us.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Her research of the national spelling bee does, in fact hold similarities to Beast. The lesson of learning your passion is indeed the key defining how you persevere over time. Swimming is a topic addressed throughout the book.

Angela’s story of Rowdy Gaines‘ love of athletics helped drive his skill in the pool. Examples of Grit lessons from swim coaches to Mark Spitz continue to inspire swimmers. When your teammates arrive by 4:00am every morning — you understand perseverance.

The idea of describing Grit versus Flow hit me (for some reason) as two approaches to playing a golf course. More than a few years ago I repeatedly played a course that hosted an annual PGA tournament.

Many weekday evenings spent at the range prepared me for a weekly test. Playing from the championship tees simulated the tournament yardage. The ‘grit’ was time at the range during the week. More often this was Monday, Wednesday and Friday while looking forward to teeing off that same Sunday.

However one Sunday I found myself changing my approach to ‘just play’ the course. Foregoing all the details approaching each shot, and moving to ‘just playing’ by feel. Angela describes this change as Flow. Many wasted efforts to perfect my swing for each shot was eliminated by simply ‘feeling’ the iron shot to be played. This turned out to be a much more relaxing round of golf. There are moments in the book that Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rules applies to flow and the amount of time to enhance your passion.

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Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Execution

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Bossidy served as Chairman and CEO of Honeywell and held executive roles at General Electric for over 30 years. Ram Charam spent 35 years working with executives at GE, Bank of America, DuPont, Novartis, EMC, 3M, and Verizon among others.

Chapter two reveals many strong points about company failures due to a lack of leadership. From Xerox, EDS, and Lucent. So many glaring mistakes top executives.

The lack of key knowledge regarding P&L or supply chain can kill. Yet those promoted into senior roles resulted in quarterly sales slumps. Bossidy shares firings began after two slumping sales quarters.

Looking back one can wonder how did they actually hold a job so valued yet be so inaccurate in leadership. Bossidy and Charan provide the insights needed.

Hiring during a pandemic? Execution can provide valuable insights to efficient execution by Baxter and Duke Energy. Bossidy took personal time to ensure executive and senior management hiring was a success. His spent time calling candidate references.

Execution also reveals HR should be honest in rethinking hiring timelines. This must include support by senior management in order to stay afloat or thrive.

To be fair, Bossidy also rewrote the executive’s rules on promoting long time managers. A company open to honest, critical analysis proved a key indicator when search was moving external.

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