|Monday, October 21, 2019

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Technology

Which technology companies are facilitating government surveillance?

Spying on citizens with artificial intelligence is not something that is done exclusively in China. A new report shows that at least 75 countries are actively using AI tools such as facial recognition for illegally surveilling their citizens. But that’s not the worst. There are countries that illegally monitor their citizens at the request of other governments. There are States that want to steal the property of their citizens, ...Read full article...

The Facebook Dossier: Accept our Conditions or Else

A new report gathers Facebook’s threats to its competition. If they did not accept their conditions, Facebook would copy their services and make it impossible for them to compete. This type of behavior does not come as a surprise. Facebook is a company that does not act cleanly, neither with its customers nor its competitors. In recent years, scandals, appearances of its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, investigations and ...Read full article...

Your smartphone generates a brutal volume of data that makes surveillance possible

Today, everyone is on the list, no matter how innocent. Systems of mass surveillance strive to record all people, in all places, at all times. The question is no longer “Am I on the list?,” it is “What’s my rank on the list?” – Edward Snowden It is not the message you send, but to whom you send it, from where and with whom you are at that ...Read full article...

Digital Life: Nothing to hide, nothing to fear? It is not so simple

By openly exposing yourself you are also exposing others around you. You have endless things to hide and endless things to fear, and the fact that you don’t go around publishing your passwords or distributing copies of your house keys is proof of that. That doesn’t convince you? There’s still more. Privacy matters because the lack of it gives others power over you. From this point of view, the ...Read full article...

5G makes users victims of hackers, spies, corporate and government control

Technology companies announce the advent of the “next big thing” that will change everything. With its arrival, they promise that new doors to worlds of augmented and virtual reality will finally open. But we must bear in mind the other side of 5G: in a hyperconnected planet, the chances of us being hacked, spied on and controlled by companies and governments will multiply. The enthusiasm for the advent of ...Read full article...

Big Tech censorship or government moderation?

For the most part, it is evident that expression should not be moderated, cured and certainly not censored, but both the great communication monopoly holders and the governments coincide in wanting to “edit” what their users say on internet platforms. The fact that some private companies have control over what happens on social networks is not good at all. But can government intervene? Should government intervene to level the ...Read full article...

Apple suspends spying: Hold the Cheers

Until now, none of the three major tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple have been transparent in explaining to users who listens to their conversations. For many privacy advocates, the day these companies are subdued in their attempts to learn everything about their users, could be around the corner. For starters, Apple says it has suspended the program for listening to user conversations which operates via Siri. The Cupertino ...Read full article...

There is no anonymity or privacy on the web

The Internet is full of personal information that many times we happily deliver to the big internet technology companies. There are also many data that, in principle, have been anonymized – which have been stripped of any detail that allows us to identify ourselves – and which we have given our consent to be public. We refer, for example, to medical information used for research purposes or census information. ...Read full article...

13,000 apps spy on you without permission

The case of FaceApp, the application that uses artificial intelligence to age a face, has put the spotlight on a common trend to which more users are paying attention. When FaceApp is installed, it warns that all user data will be used and even transferred to third parties, so by agreeing to its terms and conditions, users lose control of their privacy. Unfortunately, few users pay attention to the ...Read full article...

When blame is misdirected, everyone becomes the victim

Weapons of mass murder are blamed for the crimes committed by a few with the intention to disarm us all. In the same way, digital platforms are blamed for homophobia, racism and anti-feminism to censor us all. It is true, the Internet is not reality, but it is also true that it is cyber reality. Social networks are today’s public squares. Facebook and Twitter are platforms for dialogue, exchange of ...Read full article...

Will technology be humanity’s ruin?

As presented in many Hollywood movies the technological race will also create a group of “drop-offs” that will be the growing field of new terrorism. The emergence of new technologies without the anticipation of their effects on work, privacy or political and social relations generates technophobia, a fear of technologies that will be the trigger for a new wave of terrorism in the next two decades. At least, that ...Read full article...

Trump Administration puts the magnifying glass on Big Tech

Last Monday the alarms went off on Wall Street. Google, Amazon and Facebook fell sharply on the stock market after it was divulged that US authorities are closing in on possible monopolistic practices by those companies and Apple. The US House of Representatives announced that it was opening an investigation into this matter. According to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the US Department of Justice is ...Read full article...

1984-style Totalitarian control is already in your home

The dystopia imagined by George Orwell in his book 1984 is the most recurrent example when we want to explain what a dictatorial society we live in right now. The novel, which was not meant to be a manual for current governments and technology companies, but that has become just that, describes a State that is governed by Big Brother through a series of mechanisms and devices that, far ...Read full article...

Internet interaction: Compulsive, competitive and anxious

The obsession with metrics on the Internet, by the number of our followers who say I like it, leads us to compulsive, competitive and anxious behavior, and pushes us to create more and more content pursuing an opaque idea of social success. To combat this crazy desire to like companies are now offering software that hides all the data in social networks, with the intention of curbing the apparent ...Read full article...

This is the virtual world where your identity lives

The virtual world is painted as an invisible environment that we do not see or touch, but which in reality is very palpable. The Cloud, or The Clouds, seem to be empty spaces located somewhere we do not know or understand where they are, but it is closer than we think. The Cloud is not a cushy place. Moreover, it is not even in heaven. It is anchored in ...Read full article...