Tag: privacy

Latest Read: Your Face Belongs to Us

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date April 6, 2024

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It by Kashmir Hill.

Kashmir holds a masters degrees in journalism from New York University. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post. Kashmir is a technology reporter at The New York Times after having worked at Gizmodo Media Group, Fusion, Forbes Magazine, and Above the Law.

Perhaps of the most shocking books in fact that I have read in some time. Kashmir is documenting how a small AI company provided facial recognition to law enforcement, billionaires, and businesses. Yet, it should be no surprise this has eroded privacy as we know it.

Kashmir introduces readers to this chilling story as a skeptic. A tip regarding a mysterious app called Clearview AI held a claim it could with 99% accuracy identify anyone based upon a single photograph of their face. The app indeed provided a person’s online name, social media profiles, friends, family members, and their home address. This was just for starters and in the wrong hands, would be a very powerful surveillance tool.

Clearview AI was a start up run by Australian computer engineer Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, a former Rudy Giuliani advisor. The company was funded by conservative provocateur Charles C. Johnson and billionaire Donald Trump backer Peter Thiel. In contrast, Google and Facebook chose that this type of tool was too dangerous to release. However, via private investors, Clerview AI would be pitched to thousands of law enforcement agencies around the world.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, privacy, surveillance

Education Reading

Latest Read: Profit over Privacy

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 24, 2024

Profit over Privacy: How Surveillance Advertising Conquered the Internet by Matthew Crain.

Matthew holds a PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is an assistant professor of media and communication at Miami University of Ohio and previously taught at Queens College, City University of New York.

The contemporary internet’s de facto business model is one of Surveillance has been the new black. While browser cookies follow us around the web, Web beacons can track and harvest every Google search, every webpage visited, In fact, on a growing number of global websites, beacons know where you click. Yes indeed they know everything about you and are monetizing all of your online activities every day.

In Profit over Privacy, Matthew is delivering a solid historical beginning to the billion dollar surveillance advertising business.

In fact, Facebook posted revenues over $319 billion in 2021 alone. Surprised learning this is below their 2020 revenue? The loss of our privacy is via Facebook, Google, and Amazon. They certainly resell our online activity to data brokers.

Matthew is tracing this surveillance advertising back to the Clinton administration. This includes the launch of the country’s Nation Information Infrastructure and how the long established Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) designed a safe approach which did acknowledge the coming online profiling of citizens. The FTC also looked to consumer empowerment. But in America, politics ran amok.

Tags cybersecurity, Matthew Crain, privacy, Profit over Privacy, surveillance, Surveillance Advertising

Education Reading

Latest Read: Digital Earth

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date January 31, 2024

Digital Earth: Cyber Threats, Privacy and Ethics in an Age of Paranoia by Sarah Katz. She is currently a Cybersecurity Technical Writer at Microsoft.

Sarah holds Master of Arts, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Operations from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a PhD in Cyberpsychology from Capitol Technology University. Sarah has been published in Cyber Defense Magazine, Dark Reading, Infosecurity Magazine, and ISACA Journal.

On the surface this book may appear not to be for organizational leaders, it actually belongs in the hands of your organization’s CIO, Finance, Legal, Risk Management and of course CISO. However this is for your leadership. Sarah has written a well researched book addressing key cybersecurity threats. This should be review by any organization’s entire technology division. In fact, this extends well beyond any organization’s IT Division or dedicated team. You’ll see why.

This is a perfect read for anyone studying or holding an interesting in cybersecurity career fields. Sarah provides in depth research from well established cybersecurity firms, Homeland Security, and research institutions both in private and public sectors.

Tags Cyber Threats, Digital Earth, pandemic, Phishing, privacy, Sarah Katz

Artificial Intelligence Education Reading

Latest Read: Data for All

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date January 13, 2024

Data for All by John K. Thompson. Today John is Global Head of AI at Ernst & Young. He was an executive partner at Gartner, and he was responsible for the advanced analytics business unit of the Dell Software Group. He holds an MBA from DePaul University.

In fact, John has very extensive data advisory experience including: Curriculum Advisory Board Member, AI Bootcamp Host with The Mark Cuban Foundation, Advisory Board Member Masters & Undergraduate Programs in Business Analytics at The University of Texas at Austin, Advisory Board Member Masters in Data Science Program Oklahoma State University, Executive Advisory Board: AI, Data Science & Computer Science at Oakland University, Nittany AI Challenge: AI for Good at Penn State University, and Advisory Board Member Dearborn AI Research (DAIR) Center at The University of Michigan.

So, data brokers are firms who buy and sell your data. In fact, you do not receive a single penny for all of your online activity. Data Brokers somehow are the owners of your online activity and certainly profit from your web browsing, e-commerce transactions and app activity including notifications. Remember Facebook posted $116 Billion in revenue for 2023.

John is outlining how your data is harvested and ultimately how you are exploited. He is providing a valuable resource to empower users to learn how their parties monetize your data. Many readers may simply be unaware that all your online actions create permanent records of your activity.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, Data Broker, Data for All, John K. Thompson, privacy

Artificial Intelligence Education Reading

Latest Read: How to Stay Smart in a Smart World

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date December 9, 2023

How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms by Gerd Gigerenzer.

Gerd holds a master of arts and a doctor of philosophy in psychology from the University of Munich. He received the postdoctoral degree of habilitation in 1982. Today Gerd is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy in Berlin.

He is former Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia. Gerd is a Fellow of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Sciences.

So, Gerd is providing a very compelling case for humans to stay in charge of our current world of algorithms. He is addressing with deep insights the fallacy of current state AI. He does certainly acknowledge the impactful use of AI yet provides an honest view that markets are shaped by companies promising AI as the holy savior of their organization’s marketplace.

In fact, the first part of his book “The Human Affair with AI” really provides a wake up call to all the hype driven by those companies and markets who stand to gain the most.

Tags algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Gerd Gigerenzer, How to Stay Smart in a Smart World, privacy