Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryData Privacy

mouse-cursor-clicking-captcha-im-not-robot-checkbox-stockpack-adobe-stock
Mouse Cursor Clicking CAPTCHA
Type
post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
November 22, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Philosophy of Mind, Social Media
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CAPTCHA: How Fooling Machines Is Different From Fooling Humans

Automated censorship is intended to protect against a tidal wave of spam but it could certainly have other uses…
Eric Holloway
November 22, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Philosophy of Mind, Social Media

Readers of Mind Matters News have likely heard of the iconic Turing test. Computer pioneer Alan Turing famously invented a test to determine whether a program could pass as a human. The gist is, if a program can fool human testers into believing it is a human, then the program is intelligent. Not everyone is convinced. Thing is, it doesn’t take much to fool us humans! Take Eliza , a program of only a few hundred lines, written in the 60s, which fooled many people into believing it was a real human therapist. But what if we flip the Turing test on its head? Instead of a test where a program tries to pass as human, we use a test Read More ›

Apple iPhone 8 with Twitter Logotype on a Screen
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 20, 2022
Categorized
Censorship, Data Privacy, Social Media
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Why Do Twitter Jobs Matter More Than Data Privacy?

The Musk ‘n Twitter show won’t leave town any time soon and it obscures a much bigger, deeper issue
Denyse O'Leary
November 20, 2022
3
Censorship, Data Privacy, Social Media

Elon Musk sure knows how to create a drama. First, a brief update because you probably had better things to do this weekend: Doom I! “1,200 Twitter Employees Resign, Company Closes All Offices” (Rolling Stone, November 18, 2022) Get this: “Twitter offices have been closed down and employees are resigning in droves, leading to growing fears that the service could shut down at any time.” (ScreenRant, November 18, 2022) “While it’s unlikely that Twitter will shut down entirely, departing employees are warning of service outages, glitches and safety risks. (NPR November 18, 2022) Worth noting: Musk has reinstated satire site Babylon Bee and Project Veritas, and, after conducting a poll, has also reinstated former U.S. president Donald Trump (who currently Read More ›

private-browsing-on-blue-computer-keyboard-internet-security-stockpack-adobe-stock
Private browsing on blue computer keyboard, internet security
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post
Author
News
Date
October 24, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Law, Surveillance
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About Google’s Incognito Mode — Techies Think You’ve Been Had

A recent lawsuit revealed that users may think Google is not watching them but programmers know that it is
News
October 24, 2022
5
Data Privacy, Law, Surveillance

When Incognito mode (“If you don’t want Google Chrome to remember your activity, you can browse the web privately in Incognito mode”) was challenged in court, programmers made some interesting admissions. While 56.3 percent of respondents surveyed in 2018 thought that Incognito “prevents Google from seeing their search history,” the reality is, according to techies, “Seriously, we all know private browsing modes don’t hide us from anything other than our spouse.” This is now blowing up: Google faces a potential privacy case as a class of millions of users filed to sue it for billions of dollars over Chrome’s Incognito mode lack of genuine privacy protections. While user ignorance is never a great argument in front of a judge, court Read More ›

Peter Thiel with George Gilder at COSM 2021
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post
Author
News
Date
September 21, 2022
Categorized
Cryptocurrency, Data Privacy, Economics
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Peter Thiel Will Be Luncheon Keynoter at COSM, November 9

Billionaire venture capitalist Thiel made waves earlier this year, calling Warren Buffett and other investment gurus a “finance gerontocracy”
News
September 21, 2022
4
Cryptocurrency, Data Privacy, Economics

Some iconic tech venture capitalists go with the flow — and then there’s Peter Thiel: In an age when some computer scientists prophesy that AI will soon rise up and destroy mankind, he says no, that’s not happening; the big story is the End of Privacy. He also sees Big Tech innovation as slowing down, in the sense that most Wow!! new developments are successfully hyped riffs on earlier ones. He goes so far as to say that, contrary to expert views, cryptocurrency is not just a flash in the pan. At Bitcoin 2022, he blasted “Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink as ‘finance gerontocracy.’” That is, they are over the hill though not yet under it. So Thiel is Read More ›

network-connected-across-planet-earth-view-from-space-concept-of-smart-wireless-communication-technology-some-elements-of-this-image-furnished-by-nasa-stockpack-adobe-stock
Network connected across planet Earth , view from space. Concept of smart wireless communication technology . Some elements of this image furnished by NASA
Type
post
Author
News
Date
September 14, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Global Technology, Programming
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Google Cloud’s Ankur Jain To Speak at COSM 2022

One of his key initiatives is bringing internet connectivity to less well-served parts of the globe.
News
September 14, 2022
4
Data Privacy, Global Technology, Programming

Ankur Jain, VP Engineering for Google Cloud for Telecom, Distributed Cloud, and Immersive Stream, will be speaking at COSM 2022, November 9–11 in Bellevue, Washington. Go here to get the Early Adopter rate before September 15 (tomorrow). At work, he has focused on cross-Google programs like cloud computing, mobile communications, 5G, and privacy issues. One of his key initiatives is bringing internet connectivity to less well-served parts of the globe. He noted in 2017, “As people increasingly access the Internet through their mobile devices, mobile operators are now designing their next-generation networks based on many of the same principles that we’ve adopted to power our own networking infrastructure.” In his current position, he leads Google Cloud’s Telco, Distributed Cloud Edge, Read More ›

police-tactical-team-gathered-round-a-house-stockpack-adobe-stock
Police tactical team gathered round a house
Type
post
Author
News
Date
September 1, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy
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Swatting Goes Into Politics — as Congresswoman Greene Discovered

Swatting — calling the police and pretending that a violent incident is taking place at a given address — can kill the victim
News
September 1, 2022
5
Artificial Intelligence, Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy

This has been a summer to remember for U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia). She was “swatted” twice. The first false report that brought the police to her home was Wednesday, August 23: According to the first Rome PD report, five officers responded to a call on Wednesday during the initial attempted swatting. The caller claimed that a man had been “shot five times in a bathtub” at Greene’s home, and there was a woman and possibly children still in potential danger. On the way to Greene’s house, police realized who the homeowner was, but “due to the nature of the call,” police “formed up” at a nearby intersection and made a “tactical approach.” Rome PD provided Ars with no Read More ›

automotive-engineer-use-virtual-reality-headset-for-virtual-electric-car-3d-model-design-analysis-and-improvement-3d-graphics-visualization-shows-fully-developed-vehicle-prototype-analysed-optimized-stockpack-adobe-stock
Automotive Engineer Use Virtual Reality Headset for Virtual Electric Car 3D Model Design Analysis and Improvement. 3D Graphics Visualization Shows Fully Developed Vehicle Prototype Analysed Optimized
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post
Author
News
Date
August 4, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy, Virtual Reality
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Why Don’t Some Tech Moguls Like Web3, the New Internet?

Web3 is a decentralized, less controlled version of the internet, as George Gilder predicted in Life After Google
News
August 4, 2022
10
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy, Virtual Reality

In this week’s podcast, “Web3: The next generation of the internet” (August 4, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviews graduate student Adam Goad and Dr. Austin Egbert, both in computer engineering at Baylor University, on the coming decentralization of the internet. With developments like the ones they discuss looming, Big Tech may be seeing a waistline trim. This is the Part I of the first of the three discussions. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Mind-Matters-198-Adam-Goad-Austin-Egbert.mp3 A partial transcript and Additional Resources follow. Dr. Marks began by discussing all the services he gets from Google, confessing that he has not needed to go to a library in over two decades. But… Robert J. Marks: Now, is Google just being nice in giving me Read More ›

business-finance-savings-money-wages-payroll-or-accounting-concept-calendar-with-pink-marker-circle-in-word-payday-for-remind-stockpack-adobe-stock
Business, finance, savings money, wages, payroll or accounting concept : Calendar with pink marker circle in word payday for remind
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post
Author
News
Date
July 29, 2022
Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Economics, Surveillance
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Can Your Social Media Posts Sink Your Credit Rating? Maybe…

With AI tools, your posts or the time of day you apply for a loan might matter. Is that fair to you? Did you even know?
News
July 29, 2022
5
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Economics, Surveillance

University of Georgia law prof Lindsay Sain Jones and Virginia Tech law prof Janine Hiller offer what should be startling news: What does your SAT score mean for your ability to pay off a car loan? What does your Facebook feed say about your chances of landing a mortgage? And, what does your propensity for snacking on road trips mean for your credit score? The answers: More than you think. Traditional credit scoring is based on a person’s demonstrated ability to take on debt and pay it off. But with the dawn of larger data pools and access to more sophisticated modeling programs, lenders and credit agencies are taking more nonfinancial factors into rating creditworthiness, particularly those without an extensive Read More ›

search-stockpack-adobe-stock
Search.
Type
post
Author
News
Date
July 26, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance
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Life Beyond Google Search: Try the Other Search Engines

Recently, DuckDuckGo was found to be tracking users sometimes, due to a deal with Microsoft. No matter, there are many search engines now…
News
July 26, 2022
4
Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance

Search engine DuckDuckGo — famous for not tracking users — lost some favor recently, after its CEO had to admit that it does sometimes track users: Security researcher Zack Edwards this week revealed that DuckDuckGo’s mobile browsers allow some Microsoft sites to bypass its block on trackers. While the browser blocks Facebook and Google trackers, DuckDuckGo makes an exception for some of Microsoft’s. Edwards found that the browsers allow allows data to be sent to Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Bing domains DuckDuckGo said the exemption was due to a search agreement with Microsoft. Thomas Macaulay, “DuckDuckGo faces widespread backlash over tracking deal with Microsoft” at The NextWebMay 26, 2022 DuckDuckGo’s CEO Gabriel Weinberg pointed out to disappointed users that the company Read More ›

double-exposure-of-business-woman-and-big-data-concept-digital-neural-networkintroduction-of-artificial-intelligence-cyberspace-of-futurescience-and-innovation-of-technologycity-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Double exposure of business woman and Big Data concept. Digital neural network.Introduction of artificial intelligence. Cyberspace of future.Science and innovation of technology.city background.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 21, 2022
Categorized
Censorship, Data Privacy, Politics, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy
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Google’s Most Ambitious Project to Date: Reshaping Your Thinking

Controlling so much communication — and fired up by ideology — it’s in a better position for that than many suppose
News
July 21, 2022
7
Censorship, Data Privacy, Politics, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy

In a column yesterday at Spiked, urban studies specialist Joel Kotkin, author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class (2020), provided depressing evidence that the power of Big Tech is beginning to genuinely resemble the power medieval lords had over their serfs. It’s not just an office joke any more. Google, he recounts, was part of an anti-authoritarian high tech culture when it went public in 2004. Its search engine technology, and others, were seen as empowering the little guy. In 2018, for unclear reasons, Google dropped the famous “Don’t be evil” slogan. Since then, in Kotkin’s view, it is “increasingly becoming a force not for good, but for, well, evil.” He musters an impressive Read More ›

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3D Rendering of binary tunnel with led leading light. Concept for data mining, big data visualization, machine learning, data discovery technology, customer product analysis.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 14, 2022
Categorized
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy
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Deep Web? Dark Web? What’s Dangerous? What’s to Know?

The Deep Web hosts information like bank statements and health records so a search on your name won't turn them up
News
July 14, 2022
4
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy

The terms deep and dark sound glamorous and forbidding, maybe criminal. Both terms just mean that we can’t reach a site on that portion of the web via a conventional search engine. The Surface Web, the part that we can reach via a conventional search engine like Google, DuckDuckGo, or Brave, is estimated roughly to be 0.03% of the internet (Britannica). The Deep Web contains email accounts, bank statements, health records, and other services that can only be accessed by passwords. It’s the main reason that our private business can’t be accessed just by searching on our names. Both the Surface Web and the Deep Web are growing as more people go online. Now, about the Dark Web: By comparison, Read More ›

hacking-and-malware-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Hacking and malware concept
Type
post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 13, 2022
Categorized
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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Largest Data Grab Ever Stole Shanghai’s Mass State Surveillance

The police, dutiful in monitoring everyone, flunked data security. Now it’s all for sale on the Dark Web
Heather Zeiger
July 13, 2022
8
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy, Surveillance

Beijing wants to create a centralized database with personal information on everyone living in China. To do that, the government saves massive amounts of data acquired through surveillance technologies such facial and voice recognition and cell phone monitoring. In a previous article, we saw that the Chinese government’s surveillance network is much more extensive than once thought. However, while the Chinese government has prioritized collecting massive amounts of data, it has not prioritized protecting it. Thus, a hacker has acquired police data files on 1 billion Chinese residents (approximately 23 terabytes of data) from the Shanghai National Police database. The files include name, national ID number, cell phone number, birthdate, birthplace, ethnicity, education level, marital status, and delivery records. They Read More ›

Tiananmen Square surveillance
Surveillance cameras at Tiananmen square in Beijing, China
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 1, 2022
Categorized
China, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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China Is Quite Serious About Total Surveillance of Every Citizen

Local governments are buying enough surveillance equipment to constantly watch 1.6 billion people, documents show
Heather Zeiger
July 1, 2022
8
China, Data Privacy, Surveillance

The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously… There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment… It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinised. – George Orwell, 1984 The New York Times in partnership with ChinaFile has come out with a new report on the extent of China’s surveillance state. It is nothing short of an attempt to achieve total surveillance of its 1.4 billion people: Read More ›

digital face construction
Computing, cyberspace and programming background
Type
post
Author
News
Date
June 30, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Crime, Data Privacy, Law
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Are We Losing the Battle With Online Fraud via Deepfakes?

Now, the FBI warns, faked up “tech employees” are applying for remote work jobs with sensitive corporate data
News
June 30, 2022
6
Artificial Intelligence, Crime, Data Privacy, Law

From Gizmodo this week we learn that the FBI has received a number of complaints about people using “stolen information and deepfaked video and voice to apply to remote tech jobs”: According to the FBI’s announcement, more companies have been reporting people applying to jobs using video, images, or recordings that are manipulated to look and sound like somebody else. These fakers are also using personal identifiable information from other people—stolen identities—to apply to jobs at IT, programming, database, and software firms. The report noted that many of these open positions had access to sensitive customer or employee data, as well as financial and proprietary company info, implying the imposters could have a desire to steal sensitive information as well Read More ›

photo-captured-during-office-hours-of-a-company-in-brazil-stockpack-unsplash
Photo captured during office hours of a company in Brazil.
Type
post
Author
News
Date
June 30, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Law, Medicine and Health
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A Third of Top US Hospitals Have Sent Patient Data to Facebook

The hospitals do not seem anxious to discuss the matter and it is not clear what Facebook did with the information
News
June 30, 2022
7
Data Privacy, Law, Medicine and Health

The Markup, a non-profit newsroom, published information earlier this month that should concern U.S. hospital patients: A tracking tool installed on many hospitals’ websites has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information—including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor’s appointments—and sending it to Facebook. The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them we found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending Facebook a packet of data whenever a person clicked a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment. The data is connected to an IP address—an identifier that’s like a computer’s mailing address and can generally be linked to a specific individual or household—creating an intimate receipt of the appointment request for Facebook… Read More ›

close-up-man-hand-type-on-keyboard-laptop-to-use-search-engine-optimization-seo-tools-for-finding-customer-or-promote-and-advertise-about-content-online-for-marketing-technology-and-business-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
close up man hand type on keyboard laptop to use search engine optimization (SEO) tools for finding customer or promote and advertise about content online for marketing technology and business concept
Type
post
Author
News
Date
June 27, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Economics, Social Media
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The Brave Search Engine Survives. So Does Privacy Still Matter?

Despite Google’s overwhelming dominance, Brave clocked 2.5 billion searches since this time last year
News
June 27, 2022
4
Data Privacy, Economics, Social Media

Last year, we wrote about the Brave search engine, headed up by Mozilla pioneer Brendan Eich. Brave Search offered the first true alternative to Google since Bing by introducing a third English language index and protecting user privacy. A nice idea, many have thought, but who really cares? So what if Big Tech makes largely unaccountable billions from marketing our information, as long as the social media services it provides remain free? So perhaps surprisingly, Brave is hanging on. Tech maven Jacob Carpenter noted recently at Fortune that, while Google owns 92.5% of the search market business according to StatCounter, that number hasn’t changed much over a decade. And Brave is reporting 2.5 billion searches from its current search engine’s Read More ›

new-strong-password-and-weak-ones-near-keyboard-stockpack-adobe-stock
New strong password and weak ones near keyboard.
Type
post
Author
News
Date
June 21, 2022
Categorized
Computer Security, Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy
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Forget Your Password? Apple Wants To End Them for Good But…

Do you want to give Apple your face- and fingerprints, maybe other “biometrics” down the road…?
News
June 21, 2022
5
Computer Security, Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy

We’ve all heard the tales of woe about people whose password was “password” or “123456” or “BertJones”. Currently, Big Tech, tired of the flak and the fallout, is trying to end passwords. Here’s Apple’s approach: When Apple’s latest software updates for iPhones, iPads and Macs arrive this fall, they will include a way for users to log into various online accounts without entering passwords or relying on password managers to save and fill in credentials. The technology generates unique passkeys for each app or browser-based service in the place of characters. Those passkeys, a new type of identity authentication, prompt a scan of your face or fingerprints to log you in… Passkeys, like those from Apple, are made up of Read More ›

engineers-meeting-in-robotic-research-laboratory-engineers-scientists-and-developers-gathered-around-illuminated-conference-table-talking-using-tablet-and-analysing-design-of-industrial-robot-arm-stockpack-adobe-stock
Engineers Meeting in Robotic Research Laboratory: Engineers, Scientists and Developers Gathered Around Illuminated Conference Table, Talking, Using Tablet and Analysing Design of Industrial Robot Arm
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 23, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Ethics
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At Salon, Funk and Smith Take On “Stealth AI Research”

All we know for sure about the claims about Google AI’s LaMDA showing human-like understanding is that, since 2020, three researchers who expressed doubt/concerns were fired
News
May 23, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Ethics

Yesterday at Salon, Jeffrey Funk and Gary N. Smith took a critical look at “stealth research” in artificial intelligence. Stealth research? They explain, A lot of stealth research today involves artificial intelligence (AI), which Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, has compared to mankind’s harnessing of fire and electricity — a comparison that itself attests to overhyped atmosphere that surrounds AI research. For many companies, press releases are more important than peer review. Blaise Agüera y Arcas, the head of Google’s AI group in Seattle, recently reported that LaMDA, Google’s state-of-the-art large language model (LLM), generated this text, which is remarkably similar to human conversation: Blaise: How do you know if a thing loves you back? LaMDA: There isn’t an easy answer Read More ›

smart-technologies-in-your-smartphone-collection-and-analysis-of-big-data-stockpack-adobe-stock
Smart technologies in your smartphone, collection and analysis of big data
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 13, 2022
Categorized
Business and Finance, Computer Security, Data Privacy
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Is Your Data About Yourself Too Complex for You to Manage?

That’s the argument human data collectors (HDCs) make for why they should be allowed to collect and own your data
News
May 13, 2022
9
Business and Finance, Computer Security, Data Privacy

Veteran software developer David A. Kruger offered some thoughts on computer security recently at Expensivity and we appreciate the opportunity to republish them here as a series. On Tuesday, we looked at how the current system punishes small businesses for data breaches that they could not have prevented. Today, we look at the claim that human data collectors should own your data because it is too complex for you to manage. The Easy Button The most common objection to data ownership is that self-management of owned data is overly complex. That view is based on the complexity of so-called “privacy controls” offered by big tech HDCs, controls which have every appearance of being deliberately obtuse. As a software developer and Read More ›

bottom-view-close-up-of-four-white-surveillance-cameras-stockpack-adobe-stock
Bottom view close-up of four white surveillance cameras
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 9, 2022
Categorized
Data Privacy, Surveillance
Tagged
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People Don’t Need a “Reason” to Want Privacy

We naturally don’t want either government or Big Tech following us around
News
May 9, 2022
3
Data Privacy, Surveillance

In 2014, award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald presented a compelling case for privacy at a TED Conference, dismantling the idea that “only people who are doing something wrong have a reason to hide.” Why did Greenwald feel that message was important? Two years earlier, in 2012, American intelligence contractor Edward Snowmen reached out to Greenwald, offering top secret National Security Agencvy (NSA) documents that its secret mass surveillance network. In 2013, Greenwald’s stories at The Guardian sparked an international conversation on national security versus privacy. The opening sentence of his first article reads, “The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret order Read More ›