The Blog Experiment | Technology Nonsense and Internet Tripe

Justin Hendrix is CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press. Views expressed here are his own. NYPD press announcement in Times Square, April 11, 2023. Source Speaking at a press conference in Times Square alongside New York City Police Department (NYPD) officials, Mayor Eric Adams helped unveil three new devices in the NYPD’s arsenal, including a K5 Autonomous Security Robot; the “Digidog,” a robot designed to enter dangerous situations; and StarChase, a gun used to shoot a projectile containing a GPS tracking device at fleeing vehicles.  “The three we are mentioning today is only the beginning,” said Adams, a retired police captain who won office in 2021 in part on promises to reduce crime. He said the City was “scanning the globe” for new law enforcement technologies. “This is the beginning of a series of rollouts we are going to do to show how public safety has transformed itself.”  “I’m a computer geek,” Adams said. “I believe that technology is here. We cannot be afraid of it.”  Indeed, Adams has shown a high degree of enthusiasm for a variety of surveillance and law enforcement technologies since assuming office:  Last year, Adams attended a demonstration of drones equipped with thermal cameras, night vision and sensors, and reportedly directed his Chief Technology Officer (and former NYPD CIO) Matthew Fraser to begin talks with the manufacturers. Adams has explored a “dramatic expansion” of the City’s use of facial recognition technology, including using it to identify individuals on social media. “If you’re on Facebook,…New York City’s Techno-Authoritarian Mayor Unveils New Police Robots

The sentencing for Daniel Perry for the murder of Garrett Foster has been politicized to a stupid level. One of the byproducts of that is the smearing of Garrett Foster by a swath of right wing media. As Radley Balko writes, “[…] I think it was ill-advised for Foster to bring his rifle to the protest that night. But of the two gun owners in this story, one acted rationally, safely, and with restraint and respect for the lives and safety of those around him. The other shot and killed a man he himself has since acknowledged posed no threat to him. Yet right-wingers — allegedly Second Amendment supporters — are smearing the responsible gun owner and valorizing the reckless one.” Please take the time to read the full article. The smearing of Garrett FosterBy: Radley Balko, April 11 2023, radleybalko.substack.com The post The Attacks On Garrett Foster appeared first on Mason Pelt.The Attacks On Garrett Foster

Substak notes launched today garnering a lot of media attention. As with every new social network that gets a lot of press people are hyped about how it’s the greatest thing ever. I’ve watched people do this going back to Google Plus. Social networks are not primarily enjoyable places to spend time dude to technical achievement. Twitter became my home on the web, my notes app, and a way to meet people. Twitter’s power was mostly network effect, and cumulative history. On Twitter is a tool where I could interact with bonified celebrities, befriend a pseudonymous lawyer who became a Pokemon Go buddy, have my work read by people I respect, and dunk on the so called worlds richest man. The technical requirements of that tool are impressive, but less so than the size and quality of the userbase it interconnected. Hype, brings a flash of users. That’s why Google Plus, and Post both felt super magical in the first days. A lot of people actively trying the new thing make it fun. What I’m noticing right now is that all the people who all caps REALLY LOVE NOTES have outsized influence relative to the platform. If you had 16k followers on Twitter you were a small-medium fish in a very large pond. On Substack Notes 16k subscribers makes you a very large fish in a very small pond that is for the moment very active. I remember on Twitter when the most followed users were all geeky tech podcasts….Substak Notes Day 1

I’ve written that I don’t support a TikTok ban. Banning TikTok on grounds of national security and individual privacy, is ridiculous until the U.S. has some sort of general privacy protection enshrined into law. But I, not virtually anyone else have examined the individual cybersecurity risks to a TikTok ban. Robert Olson, a security researcher writing for The Conversation looks at the implications of a TikTok ban on individual’s cybersecurity. Between users trying to access TikTok after a ban, and the general infeasibility of a ban Olson makes a good case that banning TikTok will weaken individual’s cybersecurity. Banning TikTok could weaken personal cybersecurityBy: Robert Olson, April 11, 2023, theconversation.com The post Security Risk To Banning TikTok appeared first on Mason Pelt.Security Risk To Banning TikTok

The goal of so-called woke companies is to make money. Outrage or praise are just attention units, and the companies are amoral. I just published about why I think Bud Light’s association with Dylan Mulvaney, and the conservative backlash is effective marketing. Mulvaney has 10 million followers on TikTok, 1.8 million on Instagram. Honestly that’s not much in terms of influencer status. With no Twitter, and a non active YouTube with under 10k subs Mulvaney is a lower mid level influencer. But the situation garnered several hundred million impressions for Bud Light. I just counted 61 mainstream articles mentioning this situation in the last 48 hours. I’m too lazy to calculate out the rack rates for buying that much advertising, but conservatively $322,000 worth of earned media, in the last 48 hours, and that is not the period of peek popularity for the topic. Writing for Rolling Stone Miles Klee examines a long list of companies from Keurig to The NFL that “got woke” but also got the bag. Companies That Get ‘Woke’ Aren’t Going Broke — They’re More Profitable Than EverBy: Miles Klee, April 8, 2023, rollingstone.com From the article, “So, how is Keurig doing now? The parent company, Keurig Green Mountain, acquired Dr Pepper Snapple Group in a $18.7-billion deal in 2018, forming Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. — the third-largest beverage company in North America. This behemoth’s annual gross profits have swelled ever since, reaching $7.3 billion in 2022, a nearly 5 percent increase from the previous year. Turns out a handful…Woke Companies Aren’t Going Broke

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that new medical codes for COVID-19 vaccination status are used to track users. The agency confirmed the use of the codes to track people in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by The Epoch Times. The new International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes, which were introduced in April 2022, are aimed at tracking people who are partially vaccinated and those who are not vaccinated. The CDC, which introduced the codes, says it does not track people but that health care systems do track people. View the released documents here. “The ICD codes were implemented in April 2022, however the CDC does not have any data on the codes and does not track this information,” the agency wrote in an email. It added that the codes’ purpose is “to enable healthcare providers to track within their practices.” When the codes were first proposed in 2021, CDC medical officer Dr. David Berglund said: “There has been interest expressed in being able to track people who are not immunized or who are only partially immunized.” Healthcare providers supported the proposal and even made submissions on how the codes would be used. In a joint letter to the CDC, senior vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Danielle Lloyd, and senior vice president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, said that the codes “will help health insurance providers identify emollees [sic] who may benefit from outreach and further education about…Freedom of information request reveals more about the CDC tracking the unvaccinated

Telesign, the company that’s had a big role in two-factor identification (2FA) is now looking to move to developing accurate global digital identity solutions using “AI.” Telesign CEO Joe Burton revealed that he believes it can be powered by what a report refers to as “fuzzy AI” – at the intersection of “AI” and statistical analysis. Speaking for TechRepublic, Burton appears to suggest that this is meant to carve up a more sizable market share for Telesign, which, despite its 2FA claim to fame, makes incomparably less money from that tech than the likes of OpenID, LastPass, etc. Now, Telesign is turning to “AI” as a way to make itself competitive, primarily via the Communications Platform-as-a-Service, which has been in the works for four years now. And the key to this is to get rid of passports and use people’s phone numbers for both ID verification, and data modeling, as well as “customized communications.” When referencing “AI,” Burton, like so many before him, is actually speaking about machine learning (ML), and has among other things told the publication about the ways Telesign wants to use it to analyze locations and network activity of billions of unique phone numbers. He provided some concrete numbers: 5 billion numbers in 195 countries going through the data company’s system each month, and this is visible to Telesign “on behalf” of 3,000 businesses. “We are looking at 2,200 different attributes on your phone usage patterns, and are using all of that to train a machine-learning…Two-factor pioneer looks toward using AI to identify individuals

https://video.reclaimthenet.org/platform/FBI-Terms-extrem-99825383532.mp4   If you use the terms “red-pilled,” “based,” “looksmaxxing,” and even names like “Chad” and “Stacey,” you may just be a violent extremist. At least, that’s according to the FBI. It turns out, the FBI has a secret list of flagged terms that it uses internally to possibly indicate an individual’s involvement in “violent extremism,” This was revealed in documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. It’s not just specific phrases that the FBI is watching out for, but also certain words like “cel,” which is short for “incel” or “involuntary celibate.” According to the FBI, this online community of men believes that they can’t attract women, and as a result, they’re involuntarily celibate. The FBI’s glossary of words also indicates “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism” and a list of “key terms” about “involuntary celibate violent extremism.” The Oversight Project has tweeted about the FBI’s documents, expressing concern about how the FBI equates protected online speech to violence. According to the FBI, using common online terms like “based” or “redpilled” are signs of “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism.” Here are some highlights of the common internet terms the FBI thinks could be a sign of extremism. “Red pilled” is an idea taken from the popular Matrix movies refers to someone taking a path of truth. But, according to the FBI, it could indicate someone who has racist, or fascist beliefs. The FBI thinks the term “Chad” is a “Race-specific term used to describe an idealized version…If you use the terms “red-pilled,” “based,” and “Chad,” you could be an extremist, the FBI says

Anika Collier Navaroli is currently a Practitioner Fellow at Stanford University. She previously worked in senior content policy positions inside Trusty & Safety departments at Twitter and Twitch and within research think tanks and advocacy non-profit organizations. This piece is cross-published at Just Security. Over the past few weeks, major social media companies including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube reinstated former President Donald Trump’s social media accounts and privileges. Now, in the aftermath of his indictment in Manhattan’s Criminal Court and likely future indictment elsewhere, their decisions will be put to the test.  After his day in court, Trump was back at Mar-a-Lago, where he addressed the media and streamed his remarks on Facebook Live. He used his platform to lay out a list of grievances against his perceived political opponents, including doubling down on unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and framing his legal troubles as “political persecution” designed to “interfere with the upcoming 2024 election.” As a whistleblower from inside one of those major social media companies, I can say with conviction that the path we are on is dangerous. I know first hand. As I testified to Congress, while an employee at Twitter I spent months warning the company’s leadership that the coded language Trump and his followers were using was going to lead to violence on Jan. 6, 2021. I am also the person who argued to Twitter executives that they would have more blood on their hands if they did not follow my team’s recommendation…Trump’s Reinstatement on Social Media Platforms and Coded Forms of Incitement

I really respect and enjoy Louis Rossmann’s perspective about this sort of thing, but for those who want an article here’s a special report from Reuters. The class action lawsuit alleges that Tesla employees are secretly sharing intimate customer images taken by the cars’ cameras. Reportedly most of the footage recorded by Tesla is relatively harmless, however some video captured nudity, and other bits of personal life recorded after the owner’s turned off the car. The post Tesla Class Action Lawsuit Over Creepy Surveillance appeared first on Mason Pelt.Tesla Class Action Lawsuit Over Creepy Surveillance