Facebook Ends Relations With Washington Firm that Attempted to Discredit its Critics

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/technology/facebook-definers-soros.html

Facebook announced on Thursday that it has cut ties with the Washington based consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs, that Facebook had hired to deliberately discredit its critics. Facebook did so after a New York Times article on Wednesday that revealed Facebook shady connection with the firm. Definers Public Affairs attempted to discredit activist protesters who were critical of Facebook by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also attempted to deflect criticism of Facebook by point to rivals like Google. An insider said that the top executives of Facebook including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of Definers Public Affairs' s connection to the social network. Facebook released a statement stating it had not hidden its connections to Definers Public Affairs, and defended that it had not spread any false information. Nevertheless, Facebook did not cite any reason for terminating its ties with Definers Public Affairs.

"I have never used a computer." - Japanese Cyber-Security Minister

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46222026
               
                   

                   The Japanese Cyber-Security minister shocked the Japanese public and the world by revealing that he had never used a computer since he was 25 years old when he became independent and started managing people according to Kyodo News Agency. He made the admission during a meeting with the committee of lawmakers when an opposition lawmaker queried about his computer literacy. A follow-up question regarding the use of USB flash drives at the country's nuclear power plants caused further frustration among lawmakers. The 68-year-old was appointed to the position last month. He will be overseeing the cyber-defense preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games that will be held in Tokyo.  The disclosure had some people respond with astonishment and some people on the internet saying at least Yoshitaka Sakurada would be truly hard to hack. I can only draw two conclusions from this; either he is a total genius or a complete lunatic.

5G and its Impact on Technological Changes and Global Economy

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2018/10/29/5g-technology-set-to-fuel-technological-change-and-transform-global-economy/#3ec764222f51

According to a report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch – the financial services giant – 5G and artificial intelligence are one of “the most influential themes that should shape our world over the next five years”. The other four themes listed in the report are the rise of electric vehicles, demographics, climate change, and privacy and cyber threats.  The report states that autonomous vehicles will generate more data than the entire population does today and one smart city will generate more data than all those vehicles combined. But only 5G has the capability to support such substantial data needs. Currently the world has over 7 billion IoT devices and this number will rise significantly to 21.5 billion in 2025, the report states. Through the devices, the world will become more connected with the help of 5G. We shall wait and see whether the world will be transforming at its fastest rate in human history over the next five years as the bank states.

Saving Indigenous Languages in Australia Using Technology

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-10-30/australia-is-using-technology-to-preserve-indigenous-languages

Before Europeans arrived in Australia, there were more than one million inhabitants who called the landmass home, and they spoke up to an estimated 700 languages. Only about 100 indigenous languages are alive today. Researchers from the University of Queensland and the ARC Center of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language have come up with a technology to preserve these languages that are in danger of disappearing.

The Indigenous Language Opie, a two-foot-tall wooden figure shaped like a robot, carries two tablets to help children learn the indigenous languages of their ancestors. One tablet has eyes that tail the children’s activities, and the other contains memory games using recorded stories in aboriginal languages and pronunciation guides. Although the technology itself will not be able to preserve the languages, it will support instructors teaching children. The robot-like device is accessible to children starting from age 2.  Opie will not only assist in saving the languages but also the cultural identities of the indigenous groups.

Tim Cook Warns of "Data-Industrial Complex"

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18017842/tim-cook-data-privacy-laws-us-speech-brussels

         At a privacy conference in Brussels on the 24th of October, Tim cook warned of "data-industrial complex" calling for comprehensive US privacy laws like EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). He said that modern technology has created a 'data-industrial complex' in which private and everyday information is weaponized against users with military sufficiency and that it is harming not just individuals but societies. Cook stated, "Platforms and algorithms that promised to improve our lives can actually magnify our worst human tendencies. Rogue actors and even governments have taken advantage of user trust to deepen division, incite violence, and even undermine our shared sense of what is true and what is false. This crisis is real. It is not imagined, or exaggerated, or crazy." Although he was not specifically naming names, it is clear that he was referencing to recent events from Facebook like Cambridge Analytica and how user data was used to sway elections in the U.S and the U.K. 

Cathay Pacific Reveals Over 9.4 Million Passengers Had their Data Stolen

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019958/cathay-pacific-airline-data-breach

                     Cathay Pacific, a major airline based out of Hong Kong reveals that up to 9.4 million passengers had their data stolen in March. The company says passport information including identity card numbers, names, dates of birth, and postal addresses may have been stolen. Some credit numbers have been accessed, the company says. But Cathay Pacific took over six months to reveal the information. The company could run into major troubles in Europe as Europe now has General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules that dictate that companies inform customers and law enforcement within three days of finding out a breach. Also, the fact that it took the company six months to inform the customers raises ethical questions regarding the company's performance. How could the customers rely on and to have faith in such a corporation?  And the company does not mention how many credit cards with CVV have been accessed. This is a horrific case.

https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2018/

            The article reveals a list of ten technologies the Technology Review staff believe are the breakthroughs in 2018.  I have listed three that are most interesting to me below.

1.  3D – Metal Printing: 3 – D printing has been around for decades but most affordable printing has been done using plastics.  Now 3D – metal printing has become practical and has the potential to replace other manufacturing methods.
2.  Artificial Embryos – Using only stem cells with no eggs and sperm, embryologists at the University of Cambridge have grown mouse embryos. Although they could not have grown into mice, the article says we could soon see mammals born without an egg.
3.  Sensing City -  Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs is working on a project named Quayside in Toronto’s industrial waterfront. The project’s goal is to make decisions about design, technology, and policy based on information received from myriads of sensors that obtain data about air quality, noise levels, people’s activities, and everything else. Sidewalk Labs has said they will open access to the software and systems for others who can then build services on top of them.

  

DeepFake Technology

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/opinion/deep-fake-technology-democracy.html

The New York Times opinion writer discusses the issue of digital manipulation. The Youtube video the writer has shared shows a young Carrie Fisher responding “Hope” to one of her fellow resisters’ question: “What is it they have brought us?” at the end of ‘Rogue’, the latest Star Wars film. The sad truth is Carrie Fisher did not participate in the making of the film. And if she did, she would have been way older. Another doctored video shows the former President Obama saying “President Trump is a complete and total dipshit.” This digital manipulation is known as deepfake technology. It sure is fun to see Harrson Ford’s face in ‘Solo’ when it is done for entertainment purposes. But altering a political leader’s speeches could have devastating effects. The higher the position of the politician, the more damage could be done. In this digital age, one can make one’s opponents and adversaries saying or doing things they actually never did or would.  

Technological Advances and Ethical Dilemma

https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/06/28/who-should-get-to-decide-whats-ethical-as-technology-advances/

The article discusses what options we as humans have to safeguard ourselves against unethical usage of technology and who gets to make decisions regarding it. There are many unanswered ethical questions regarding artificial intelligence, virtual reality, medical breakthrough, and many others. Many for-profit companies and academic institutions come up with new technologies every now and then that have the influence to impact the lives of many around the world. The question is how do we prevent these technologies from interfering with our moral and ethical standards. We could rely on scientists but their research can easily take several months if not years. Inventors and entrepreneurs cannot be totally trusted either as there are profiteers who are willing to sacrifice anything for their self-benefits. We normally expect government regulators to pass laws to keep things in check but regulators are often not experts in the field. Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony regarding user data protection by Facebook proved this. Forming neutral external organizations whose responsibilities are to specialize in tech ethnics, and oversee tech companies, and make ethical decisions for the general public sounds tempting but who is going to appoint who? The author comes up with three suggestions to solve the ethical issues regarding technology:

1.       Understanding the consequences of the technologies we are already using

2.       Making information known to the public so that the public will make educated decisions based on what they know

3.       Requiring companies to dedicate their resources to make sure they better understand the consequences of their technologies

Technology helping people with diabilities

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2018/09/10/technology-improves-people-disabilities-firms-respond-moral-legal-demands/835232002/

The article discusses how new tech products are making life easier for people with disabilities.  The article mentions a Douglas Wakefield, a 76 years old blind person who is learning to write apps for the iPhone. He uses Microsoft’s Seeing AI app in his iPhone to distinguish one grocery from another. He can watch Netflix with audio descriptions together with his wife who is also blind. Some of his most useful tech devices include Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod which he can tell to switch on household lights by voice. Inclusion of these features encouraged by tech companies’ desire to inclusiveness and their need to follow legal and market requirements. The article mentions that companies need to adhere to state and federal laws such as the 1990 Americans Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act “which requires the federal government to make electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities.”

Cognition Crisis

            https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322768.php

Technology indeed can have negative physical and emotional impacts on your life. For example, I uninstalled social media apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from my phone because they were interfering with my daily life. They are addictive and time consuming. The article mentions that spending just a few minutes on Instagram could actually make you less productive and the small light reflecting form your TV could prevent you from falling asleep.  The negative mental impacts technology can have on you include but not limited to depression, anxiety, attention deficit, impact on productivity, relationships, compassion, and empathy. According to Gazzaley, the author of The Distracted Mind, humans forage for information like animals do for food. As such, avoiding technology altogether would not be a solution. I agree with Gazzaley that we must seek ways to make the best use of technology while refraining from using it excessively. Gazzaley suggests three solutions – the first is to control ourselves, the second to make tech companies accountable and third create technology that severs the well being of humans. 

Unethical Persuasion Techniques

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/8/17664580/persuasive-technology-psychology

This article in Vox contains an interview with a psychologist about technology companies using deliberate persuasive techniques to make children get addicted to technology. The article refers to Common Sense Media which states that children today have ten times more screen time than they did in 2011 and spend six hours and forty minutes on average using technology. I, myself, have noticed my young teenage cousins using their phones more than we did ten years ago. Whereas we spent playing and wrestling on the ground for hours, they do so on their technology tools today thanks to unethical persuasion techniques used by tech corporations for their own business interests. These companies hire mental health experts, psychologists and other behavioral scientists to create products that are addictive. We need not go further but look around ourselves to find out whether they are being successful or not. The forced addiction, as I would like to call it, is certainly an alarming issue affecting the lives of millions of people, both young and old, worldwide.

Apple's Ethical Issues

https://www.smartcompany.com.au/industries/information-technology/a-hostage-situation-why-apple-wont-address-its-unethical-supply-chain/

The article explains the working conditions of factory workers hired by Apple’s contractors in Asia where human rights, labor standards and environmental safety issues are prevalent. Apple has been accused by critics of the basis on which it operates: “an arm’s-length morality that imposes responsibility on others.” This encourages the suppliers in turn to shift their burdens on low-wage workers in unsafe working environments. Apple being one of the very richest and most profitable companies in the world, it is appropriate for the authors to claim that Apple should be held accountable for the ‘sweatshops’ under its suppliers. The authors make a great point by mentioning that Apple’s boards only focus on returning cash to shareholders who never supported the development of the company in the first place. I believe not just technology giants like Apple but also other major corporations in the developed world should be monitored closely for their moral and ethical standpoints in regards to working conditions of factory workers in the under developed world.

Optics - less Camera

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-camera-technology-doesn-t-have-a-lens-at-all-and-it-s-amazing

I have never imagined a camera without lens. And this article at The University of Utah says each window in a home could be turned into a security camera in the future. That sounds quite exciting but also would have consequences of its own regarding privacy. Imaging having to use a room with glass windows in your friend’ house to change clothes, if you are not fine with public nudity. Or it could just be a small 2 x 2-inch glass attached somewhere on the wall or the ceiling. This is not necessarily a new technology as there have been similar inventions before of cameras with no lens as I have found out. In the experiment, the camera sensor is attached to the side of and pointed into a Plexiglas window while a LED light board is placed in front of the pane at a 90-degree angle from the front of the sensor. After the camera sensor receives the image, an algorithm created to decode images detect the image using digital information.  

STEM Worker Shortage Crisis in the U.S

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-08-23/americans-think-they-have-a-shortage-of-stem-workers

The article is about STEM worker shortage in the U.S. It is quite astonishing to learn of the figures. According to the research the article is citing, the manufacturing sector will need about 3.5 million workers by 2025 but only 1.5 million of those positions will be filled leaving a huge gap. The research was done by Emerson – a technology and engineering company in Missouri. Also, respondents to the research do not think that there are enough resources in the U.S for STEM students.  Despite the first computer programmer being a woman, women today account for less than 24 percent of the technology employees in the U.S according to a technology nonprofit founder quoted in the article. This likely is the case in the rest of the world. As the article suggests, the huge demand in the STEM field opens an opportunity for more women and minorities to be included in the future.

Tech Addiction

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/tech/tech-addiction-more-problem-people-realize-ncna810246

Most people tend to agree that technology has brought positive changes to our world but with its own side effects – tech addiction being one of those side effects. I used to be so addicted to Facebook that I had to set up two different passwords to open the app on my cell phone. The addiction deterred me from having real conversations with my friends and people close to me. It certainly crippled my communication and social skills. Fortunately for me, it did not lead to depression – a result numerous studies have found to come from our addiction to social media – but I did become lonely overtime.

The author describes the situation correctly when she says, “the problem lies not with our desire to connect, but with our form of connection.” Getting rid of technology from our lives certainly would not be a viable option and technology has brought numerous benefits to humanity in science, health and many sectors. Personally, I am still receiving most information about current affairs in domestic and international politics, new technologies and other topics of interest from my Facebook app. Only this time, I have learnt to control how I use the social media. If we as humans want to advance successfully, we must be in full control of the resources available at our hands and not the other way around.

Cyber Security

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/22/17770876/alex-stamos-former-facebook-chief-security-officer-2018-election-security-too-late

                     In an age when everything has come to be digitized,government bureaucratic  processes  have increasingly been becoming targets of hackers whose intentions maybe unethical or otherwise. The problems surrounding online voting and misinformation campaigns in the 2016 general elections showed how inefficient the U.S governmental institutions were in dealing with cyber security. For a democracy to function properly, those responsible – mainly governments – must make sure that people’s desires and demands be heard and channeled correctly to those who represent them. According to this article, Alex Stamos – former security chief of Facebook – argues that the U.S government has failed again to protect the upcoming 2018 midterm elections just like they did with the 2016 general elections. I agree with Stamos that both federal and state governments should have cyber security organizations as commercial corporations would not be as effective as government institutions in dealing with national and state level issues. The U.S being the most powerful and influential country on the planet, what happens in the U.S could impact the rest of the world. As such, it should be more careful and diligent than any other country in solving its online voting issues arising today.