Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as both a boon and a threat. It uses our personal data to influence our lives without us realising it. It is used by social media to draw our attention to things we are interested in buying, and by our tablets and computers to predict what we want to type …
Continue reading The “Dark Arts” of Artificial Intelligence
A couple years ago, something strange happened. A friend and I were sitting at a bar, iPhones in pockets, discussing our recent trips in Japan and how we’d like to go back. The very next day, we both received pop-up ads on Facebook about cheap return flights to Tokyo. It seemed like just a spooky …
Continue reading Your Phone Is Listening and it’s Not Paranoia
Independent German investigators Markus Fiedler and Dirk Pohlmann have told Sputnik Deutschland about some of the mysterious Wikipedia editors they say are responsible for 'safeguarding' mainstream viewpoints on the world's largest and most influential free online encyclopedia. With Germans' trust in the mass media on the decline, more and more people are turning to the internet for their news …
Continue reading Like Foxes Guarding the Henhouse: How Public Opinion is Manipulated on Wikipedia
Our eyes are hardening; we can barely see our phones anymore. We must learn to look at the wider world. The eyes are unwell. Their childhood suppleness is lost. The lenses, as we log hours on this earth, thicken, stiffen, even calcify. The eyes are no longer windows on souls. They’re closer to teeth. To …
Continue reading What Are Screens Doing to Our Eyes—and Our Ability to See?
In the reviews that rolled out recently for Google's new Clips smart camera, there were the rote things that you'd expect in all tech reviews: what was good, what was bad, and, inevitably, whether or not you should buy it. There was, however, a key idea conspicuously absent: whether or not the product should exist …
Continue reading The Disturbing Acceptance of Google’s New ‘Smart’ Camera
Ubiquitous IT giant Google has silently inked a partnership with the Department of Defense to militarize artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, reinvigorating fears of a Terminator-style apocalyptic scenario. Google has been secretly working with the Pentagon in order to help its 1,100-strong fleet of drones to detect images, faces, and behavioral patterns, and plans …
Continue reading All-Seeing Eye: Google Working with Pentagon on Using AI for Drone Improvement
Cell phone towers dot the landscape every so many hundred or thousand feet in most places, especially along interstate highways and on higher or hill-top locations. Because there is such a demand for cell phone service—more cell phones now than the total global population—more and more technology means of providing service have to be implemented. …
Onavo Protect, the VPN client from the data-security app maker acquired by Facebook back in 2013, has now popped up in the Facebook iOS app itself, under the banner “Protect” in the navigation menu. Clicking through on “Protect” will redirect Facebook users to the “Onavo Protect – VPN Security” app’s listing on the App Store. …
Continue reading Do Not, I Repeat, Do Not Download Onavo, Facebook’s Vampiric VPN Service
Since 2010, Facebook allows you to download an archive file of all your interactions with the network. It’s a 5-click easy process that your grandmother can do (more details below). Inside the .zip, lies an ‘index.html’ page that acts as a portal to your personal data. Visually, it looks like an ad-free stripped down version of …
