Tag: privacy

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

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Latest Read: Customer Data and Privacy

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date November 7, 2023

Customer Data and Pri vacy: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review. HBR is providing a good series of article addressing how your data is collected and the impact upon your privacy.

Customer Data and Privacy: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review by Harvard Business Review, Timothy Morey, Andrew Burt, Christine Moorman, Thomas C. Redman

For some, this may be rather jarring. Nevertheless, how did Facebook generate $116 Billion in revenue in 2022? Accordingly the sale of ads on Facebook is…. you. Yes, in fact you are what Facebook is selling.

It would also be fair to understand the role of Machine Learning coupled with Data Science that created this revenue stream. Facebook is collecting every ‘Like’ you make, every photo uploaded is scanned with facial recognition and every article posted is data mined.

Add this all up and Facebook is literally sitting on overwhelmingly vast amounts of user data. To their credit, Facebook has become the champion of mining profits from all the data they have about you.

Yet are these companies also building trust with you? They know everything about you, and when combined with ‘free’ apps, the tracking continues. We are aware of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Yet for everyone not living in California, there is a real lack of regulation. This allows companies to remain in control of you.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, Customer Data and Privacy, facebook, Harvard Business Review, privacy

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Latest Read: Crypto

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date May 20, 2023

Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government—Saving Privacy in the Digital Age by Steven Levy. He is the former chief technology correspondent for Newsweek. Today he is an editor at Wired, and author of eight books. Crypto, won the Frankfurt E-book Award for the best non-fiction book of 2001.

If you’ve ever made an e-commerce purchase with your credit card, then you have used cryptography.

Steven guides the reader into learning about the history of cryptography. This book begins with Whitfield Diffi e. He authored initial developments of cryptographic key s. He was then joined by Martin Hellman in 1976.

From this point, Steven reveals how Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman, teaching at MIT also furthered cryptography research. Their development led to the formation of their company, RSA.

The National Security Agency (NSA) certainly interpreted these cryptography developments as a threat and began working to thwart their developments.

Tags Clipper Chip, Crypto, Cryptography, culture, privacy, Steven Levy

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Latest Read: An Ugly Truth

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date November 17, 2021

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang. Sheera is a prize-winning technology reporter based in San Francisco. Cecilia covers technology and regulation.

This story of Facebook’s corruption and lack of a moral compass cannot not be any more clearer than this book. In addition, this is a story of greed, control, egos of company leaders. At first glance you may think this is simply not possible.

In contrast, the authors are tapping into current and former employees. All paint a rather horrific picture of Facebooks’ single focus: profits.

Above all, documents and interviews reveal how company wide lack of action weakened American democracy. Furthermore, ignoring the genocide of Rohingya peoples across Myanmar paints a rather shocking picture of Facebook as a company.

A key point certainly overlooked is how Facebook ‘arrived’ at the beginning of the internet’s gilded age. Therefore, no rules applied, just profits whatever the cost. Profit is certainly the only focus for Mark Zuckerberg. On the other hand, attempting to derail his profit focus results with aggressive and sometimes illegal tactics.

Chapter 7: Company over Country

An acknowledgment by Facebook’s security team that Russian spies hacked user accounts of GOP politicians certainly was not a surprise. Yet, the Russians hacked accounts of children from those GOP candidates. This also was certainly very shocking. Accordingly, all this activity was culminating in an internal report to company leadership:

Hence, Facebook did nothing. No notice to American intelligence services. Ultimately Facebook engineers held a rather unique eye on all user interactions.

Tags An Ugly Truth, Cecilia Kang, facebook, privacy, Sheera Frenkel, surveillance

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Latest Read: Data and Goliath

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date November 12, 2021

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier. He is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, AccessNow, and the Tor Project.

Bruce is moreover, writing a book about surveillance. He is addressing the who and why, how it works, and the business models. This is certainly a complicated issue. Most importantly, your privacy is very important.

Above all, we live in a surveillance state today. Bruce is sharing enormous amounts of resources revealing how vast amounts our personal data are harvested. In addition, Facebook is the greatest abuser, with Google’s Gmail not far behind.

One of the important lessons is that much of this has become voluntary. We want free services (email, cloud storage) or cheap hardware mobile phones and big, smart TVs, so we actually permit corporate surveillance within our living rooms.

In addition, this reminds me of lessons from The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. Companies promise cheaper services and convenience to justify their surveillance technology, while local, state and federal governments make a promise of protection and physical security.

Apps are tracking us all day long

We certainly all understand by now that cellular carriers track everywhere you travel. Facebook records your location each time you open their app on your phone. In addition, Google Maps and their Waze traffic app records your GPS data, and even your credit card purchases.

Tags Bruce Schneier, Data and Goliath, facebook, privacy, surveillance