These platforms allow people to access them supposedly for free, but instead of charging them a fee they require people to give up their personal data. This is then analysed to aggregate people into groups, and to make predictions about their interests and characteristics – primarily so they can use these insights to generate advertising revenue. The report found that the scale of harvesting and monetising of personal data by these platforms is incompatible with people’s right to privacy.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/we-called-out-facebook-and-google-but-need-them
Even though the main calls in the report are to governments and how they must regulate the industry, it behoves us all to look at the roles we play.
At Amnesty, we are just as dependent on these platforms as big corporations, political parties, and local businesses in order to reach, engage and grow our audiences. The pervasive power of these platforms is exactly why Amnesty has brought out a report on them.
What are our options?
Tag: data
Edward Snowden: How to make facts
On Saturday, I just had enough time to post a link to the interview Joe Rogan did with Edward Snowden:
http://fun.freezine.org/activity/p/20376/
This is a deep link to a segment where Snowden was explaining how important evidence is in establishing facts (i.e., in journalism, in courts, etc.). I myself contrasted this with the way science works (the scientific method cannot prove anything, scientific theories are simply descriptions of phenomena that have not yet been refuted by testing hypotheses). IMHO it would be nice if more people took the skeptical attitude inherent in the scientific approach.
Other People’s Alexa
We were able to navigate around a complete stranger’s private life without his knowledge, and the immoral, almost voyeuristic nature of what we were doing got our hair standing on end. The alarms, Spotify commands, and public transport inquiries included in the data revealed a lot about the victims’ personal habits, their jobs, and their taste in music. Using these files, it was fairly easy to identify the person involved and his female companion. Weather queries, first names, and even someone’s last name enabled us to quickly zero in on his circle of friends. Public data from Facebook and Twitter rounded out the picture.
https://gizmodo.com/the-amazon-alexa-eavesdropping-nightmare-came-true-1831231490
How to Determine if Nutritional Information is Trustworthy
cooking, food, health, keto, ketogenic, nutrition
In a world inundated with food blogs, and vlogs, and celebrities trying to sell us things, it can be overwhelming to try to find any real science about what we should be eating. And as a man known for his efficiency, I’m going to cut right to the chase. No one knows. Seriously, science is only just beginning to get an understanding of the relationship between our bodies and food. But there are some things that are known with more certainty than others, and it is possible for the average person to evaluate data without needing a medical degree.
The scary thing is, you can’t even trust supposedly reliable sources, for example, Monash University who devised the low FODMAP diet definitely know their stuff when it comes to FODMAPs, but seem to have very antiquated ideas about nutrition overall. Their FODMAP diet app pushes the idea of eating a “balanced…
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