Google and Global Surveillance
August 14, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Android Users Could Detect Earthquakes Soon As Google Is Planning to Turn Them into Seismometers.” The write up describes a global system to note perturbations in the earth’s crust. Yep, earthquake warning on a global scale. The write up states:
the internet giant plans on using the built-in accelerators of Android devices to turn them into a network of makeshift seismometers, and while they won’t be able to predict these quakes, the long-term goal is that Android users affected by a tremor will receive push notifications as soon as it happens. Based on the report, Android users would have to opt-into the new system for it to work. Additionally, the phone would have to be plugged in and motionless to detect a nearby quake and send an alert to the user.
Useful data for the Google? That’s a good question. If one assumes the data are valid, what can these seismic data reveal? Ads for products needed in the aftermath of a natural disaster? Hints about investment opportunities? Fine grained surveillance of mobile phone users’ behavior when disaster strikes?
What use cases are possible? What about the location of a mobile device in an area in which looting is occurring? Any others come to mind?
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2020
Celebrity Net Worth: Misunderstanding the Google?
August 12, 2020
Navigate to this link to view the PDF of testimony from the founder of Celebrity Net Worth. Don’t you love it when Google hides urls? Try to find the document whose title appears in the next paragraph. Give up. It makes life so much easier for bad actors and people wondering “Where did that document come from?” and “Who puts this document online?” Helpful as ever. DarkCyber loves Google. Who needs to know provenance type information? Losers that’s who!
But I digress. Click here and read “Written Statement for the Record by Brian Warner for a hearing before The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law titled Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 2: Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” July 16, 2019.
The write up makes clear that Celebrity Net Worth misunderstood Google. Mr. Warner and others involved with Celebrity Net Worth believed one of the founders of Google who said in an S-1 document filed with the SEC in 2004:
“We want you to come to Google and quickly find what you want. Then we’re happy to send you to the other sites. In fact, that’s the point. The portal strategy tries to own all of the information … Most portals show their own content above content elsewhere on the web. We feel that’s a conflict of interest, analogous to taking money for search results … We want to get you out of Google and to the right place as fast as possible. It’s a very different model.” — Larry Page, co-founder of Google
The write up documents how Google scraped content from Celebrity Net Worth and displayed it on search results pages. Usage of Celebrity Net Worth dropped “20 percent.” By 2016, Celebrity Net Worth was no longer at the top of a search for celebrity net worth. Traffic dropped another “50 percent.” By 2019, traffic to Celebrity Net Worth was 80 percent lower than in 2014.
The write up includes these data:
In June 2019, search engine analyst Rand Fishkin put together a report about Google using data from web analytics firm Jumpshot . The data show that today an estimated 48.96% of all Google searches end with the searcher NOT clicking through to a website. The same report estimates that 7% of all search clicks go to a paid ad result and 12% go to properties owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. Moreover, those stats do not even show the full extent of the problem because the data largely relied upon desktop devices and could not track searches that took users to a Google-owned app like the YouTube or Google Maps.
These data are highly suggestive. However, Google has to generate revenue, and it — like many other information finding services — does what’s best for itself. This self-interest is explained in terms of “user experience,” not in terms of making money, increasing information control, and ensuring that clicks benefit Google.
The misunderstanding is that individuals with good idea assumed that Mother Google wanted to be supportive, be friends, and do what some people would assume to be appropriate.
How’s that working out? That’s why DarkCyber loves Google. Just take the information provided and don’t think. Cuba Libre does not exist if it is not on a Google Map. The Auto Channel car reviews don’t exist if not in the Google search results. And Foundem? Who the heck runs that site? DarkCyber absolutely loves Google but sometimes one must embrace a Swiss Cow?
Stephen E Arnold, August 12, 2020
Facebook and Google Get the Scoop in Australia
August 6, 2020
I read “Forcing Tech Giants to the Table.” The write up explains how the pay Australian publishers scheme will function. The article quoted Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg making the framework crystal clear:
We want Google and Facebook to continue to provide these services to the Australian community, which are so much loved and used by Australians. But we want it to be on our terms.
Those high school science club managers are not likely to find the phrase “on our terms” what is required to sit at the physicists’ and mathematicians’ table in the cafeteria.
The services required to deliver cash are summarized this way:
The range of Facebook services subject to arbitration includes Facebook News Feed, Instagram and the Facebook News Tab. The Google services are Google Search, Google News and Google Discover.
That defeats the whole purpose of the “free” services Google provides. On the other hand, if Google does pay for news in an above board manner, maybe the online ad giant can run sponsored messages, really tasteful ads, and present news in a logical order determined by black box algorithmic magic?
The write up adds:
A breach of the code by Facebook or Google could have a few potential outcomes. The first is an infringement notice which has a penalty of $A133,200 for each breach. If the ACCC takes one of the tech giants to court, the maximum penalty is the higher of $A10million, 10% of the digital platform’s turnover in Australia in the past 12 months, or three times the benefit obtained by the tech giant as a result of the breach (if this can be calculated).
Net net: The science club crowd is likely to pout and be forced to fork out real money to legal eagles. These advisers will say, “This Australian thing will not fly.”
In the meantime, Facebook and Google will keep on doing stuff like selling ads, buying market share, and innovating to solve problems like death.
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2020
Google: Buying Before Getting Regulated?
August 5, 2020
DarkCyber noted that Google is borrowing $10 billion. Yep, the Google. You can get some info in this article. The Google may be lined up to buy ADT, a home security outfit, and other acquisitions are likely to be in the works. Will the money be used to improve search and retrieval, invest in staff to reignite innovation, or wordsmithing.
DarkCyber noted that the online ad giant has spawned a new buzzword: Quantum AI. DarkCyber is not exactly sure what “quantum” means. DarkCyber is not exactly sure what “AI” or artificial intelligence means. That’s irrelevant.
According to “Google Scientist Hartmut Neven Coined the Term Quantum AI. This Year, He Achieved His Biggest Breakthrough Yet”:
The quantum project has posed new challenges, such as how to cool a processor to near absolute-zero temperatures using liquid helium. But Neven has always thrived on the edge. He was among the first to connect the AI revolution currently in full swing and quantum advances yet to come. “I’m guilty of having popularized the terms quantum machine learning and quantum AI,” he says. “Now there are whole sections of departments at universities that do quantum machine learning.”
Yep, Google’s ability to craft jargon and generate clicks has nosed ahead of relevance and organic innovation.
Amazon and Facebook are likely to be looking in their rearview mirrors to make sure Google’s headlights are still receding. Yep, Google is slowing down to gather up companies before the regulators put sleeping police on the information highway’s acquisition collectors.
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2020
Fordham University Professor Makes Startling Assertion about FAANG
August 5, 2020
In an online publication called Chron.com, a startling assertion was made. “The Legal Fight Against Big Tech Is Like the Fight Against Organized Crime” states:
There are more than a few similarities between the organized crime and these four companies. Like the Mafia, the threats that Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google pose to American democracy flow from the power they have over key services (from email to social media to music and film), the way they use dominance in one area to achieve dominance in others and their ability to use fear to stop challenges to their control.
The author points out:
Like the Mafia, they are a resilient, surveillance-based shadow government. So citizens are dual subjects – of the country, and of the flawed online markets created by these companies. Like the mob, big tech has friends in very high places. Likewise, big tech is an oligarchy with several bosses, who compete in some territories but generally divide power among themselves, without consulting elected officials. Obviously, I am not saying Facebook and Google murder and kneecap their opponents, or burn down businesses that refuse to play by their rules; I am not equating tech companies with the mob.
DarkCyber is not sure if this lawyerly statement will assuage the Big Four. Who will step forward and suggest that these firms are the Gang of Four reincarnated in bro cloths in Silicon Valley type endeavors?
Interesting: Mob, threats, surveillance, and money. Sounds like a tasty mob polenta.
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2020
Google Intern: Be Alone and Be Pushy. Charming Advice from a Digital Ms Manners
August 4, 2020
Working for the GOOG does not involve being “there.” Nor does working from the GOOG require getting paid anything or very much. What else does a Google intern have to do to be an apprentice?
“To Be a Google Intern in 2020” explains the Google’s blog that writing about being an intern is part of the deal. Thus, the explanation of working from home, over communicating, running a personal PR program, and demonstrating “initiative” are Google-certified ingredients.
The article explains how different Google interns experience interning. Among the highlights are:
- Friendliness. “Everyone is super friendly.”
- Video chat. “Sometimes a three minute video chat can be ore useful than… email.”
- Knowing “you.” According to an MBA intern, “Google really wants to get to know the full you.”
Are interns better than full time equivalents? Maybe. Since Alphabet Google has come in last in the financial horse race among Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, interns may be the next big cost reduction thing at the online ad company. An intern at the Google can earn the equivalent of $80,000 per year, according to Business Insider.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2020
Do Not Gamble. Own the Casino. The Google Way?
August 3, 2020
I read “Google’s Top Search Result?” What a surprise? No, not the fact that Google present Google-centric results at the top of mobile search results. The surprise is that until July 28, 2020, no one knew that Google’s magical algorithmic, math-is-objective, super duper relevance scooper got more Google goodies than any other “content producer.” Amazing.
In the good old days of big desktop anchor computers and monitors, there was screen real estate. Google filled the screen with objective results and, of course, some advertisements.
That was then; this is now. Mobile screens are mostly squint-generators. In order to be seen and generate clicks, the Google has to work overtime.
The challenges include:
- Traffic, eyeballs, and individuals who will go ga-ga over that which is Googley.
- Sizzle that will burn the greedy fingertips of competitors who want to be placed front and center.
- Useful information for consumers. Yep, what Google displays eliminates the need to think. Advertisers who want to be listed on a Google Map. Something can be worked out.
A number of organizations have groused about Google’s magical algorithmic, math-is-objective, super duper relevance scooper.
What’s fascinating is that it has taken two decades for some people to understand the wisdom embedded in the observation, “Own the casino.”
Pretty good advice and someone at the GOOG took it.
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2020
Search and Predicting Behavior
August 3, 2020
DarkCyber is interested in predictive analytics. Bayesian and other “statistical methods” are a go-to technique, and they find their way into many of the smart software systems. Developers rarely explain that systems share many features and functions. Marketers, usually kept in the dark like mushrooms, are free to formulate an interesting assertion or two.
I read “Google Searches During Pandemic Hint at Future Increase in Suicide,” and I was not sure about the methodology. Nevertheless, the write up provides some insight into what can be wiggled from Google search data.
Specifically Columbia University experts have concluded that financial distress is “strongly linked to suicide.”
Okay.
I learned:
The researchers used an algorithm to analyze Google trends data from March 3, 2019, to April 18, 2020, and identify proportional changes over time in searches for 18 terms related to suicide and known suicide risk factors.
What algorithm?
The method is described this way:
The proportion of queries related to depression was slightly higher than the pre-pandemic period, and moderately higher for panic attack.
Perhaps the researchers looked at the number of searches and noted the increase? So comparing raw numbers? Tenure tracks and grants await! Because that leap between search and future behavior…
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2020
Funding Open Source: Saddle Up, Don Quixotes
July 30, 2020
I read “A New Funding Model for Open Source Software.” The main idea is that the current approach to financial “support” of open source software is broken. I agree, particularly if one looks at the problem from the developer or developers in the “community.”
The fix, according to the write up, is “sponsor pools.” Here are the details:
Every month, you donate some amount into a “wallet”. Your funds are then distributed to the projects in your “sponsor pool”. Your sponsor pool is just the set of open-source projects you want to support. Adding new projects to your pool should require one click — as easy as starring the repo on GitHub. That’s it. It’s hardly ingenious, which is why it’s surprising that no major player in OSS has implemented it for facilitating open source donations.
The comments to the post at this link are interesting and raise a number of points, both pro and con.
I noticed that none of the comments pointed out that open source has become the hunting ground for certain large technology companies. Github is owned by Microsoft; Amazon is ferrying open source code into its proprietary AWS walled garden; Google is “contributing to the community” and then using the community as a recruiting supply line. Other techniques are in play as well.
Also, open source is more attractive to large established companies. These firms have the staff and financial resources to make chunks of open source play nicely together. The goal is to eliminate dependence on proprietary solutions, restrictive license agreements, and those necessary maintenance and engineering services deals. Smaller outfits often find Microsoft a convenient way to solve a database problem. Why? It’s available and semi-reliable. Keep in mind that Microsoft bought Github for control and revenue opportunities.
Finally, a number of the comments suggest, “Let Github do it.” Yeah, I really think Microsoft has open source software love as a business motivation. But that’s just my view.
My view is that open source, like other nifty things associated with the “old days” of the Internet may be facing some challenges and not just from Rona.
Stephen E Arnold, July 30, 2020
Google: Human Data Generators
July 29, 2020
DarkCyber spotted this interesting article, which may or may not be true. But it is fascinating. The story is “Google Working on Smart Tattoos That Turn Skin into Living Touchpad.” The write up states:
Google is working on smart tattoos that, when applied to skin, will transform the human body into a living touchpad via embedded sensors. Part of Google Research, the wearable project is called “SkinMarks” that uses rub-on tattoos. The project is an effort to create the next generation of wearable technology devices…
DarkCyber believes that the research project makes it clear that Google is indeed intent collecting personal data. Where will the tattoo be applied? Forehead in Central America street gang fashion?
Russian prisoner style with appropriate Google iconography?
A tasteful tramp stamp approach?
The possibilities are plentiful if the report is accurate.
Stephen E Arnold, July 29, 2020
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