Posts Categorized: Civil Liberties

A Three-Digit Score Could Dictate Your Place in Society

Posted by & filed under China, Civil Liberties, data analytics, Electronic Surveillance, Emerging Technologies, Ethical Issues.

In 2015 Ant Financial was one of eight tech companies granted approval from the People’s Bank of China to develop their own private credit scoring platforms. Zhima Credit appeared in the Alipay app shortly after that. The service tracks your behavior on the app to arrive at a score between 350 and 950, and offers… Read more »

Will tech firms challenge China’s ‘open’ internet?

Posted by & filed under Censorship, China, Civil Liberties, FaceBook.

China has been smart and ruthless in its control of the internet within its borders. It blocks some foreign sites altogether and it censors – heavily – what Chinese are allowed to see.  Nonetheless the big idea at this gathering is openness.  There wasn’t much openness about the “great firewall” that keeps out Twitter, Facebook, Google and… Read more »

Russian troll sites kept online by American companies

Posted by & filed under Civil Liberties, Ethical Issues.

The use of American companies to push Russian propaganda goes beyond social media sites like Facebook. Russians also used American internet services to keep their websites up and hide their true owners, according to internet records and two executives at internet routing companies interviewed by CNN. Source: CNN Technology News Date: October 26th, 2017 Link: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/25/media/itl-green-floid-cloudflare-russian-sites/index.html Discussion 1)… Read more »

Inside Cuba’s D.I.Y. Internet Revolution

Posted by & filed under Civil Liberties, Cuba, Ethical Issues, IT and Politics.

Source: Wired Magazine Date: October 10th. 2017 Link: https://www.wired.com/2017/07/inside-cubas-diy-internet-revolution/ Discussion 1) “Every week, more than a terabyte of data is packaged into external hard drives known as el paquete semanal (“the weekly package”). It is the internet distilled down to its purest, most consumable, and least interactive form: its content. This collection of video, song, photo, and text files from the… Read more »

Google’s Search Changes May Not Level Playing Field

Posted by & filed under Civil Liberties, Ethical Issues, Google, IT and Politics, IT and the law.

GOOGLE WILL ALLOW rivals to bid on coveted advertising spots that it previously reserved for itself at the top of product search results in Europe, but there are widespread doubts that the move will create meaningful competition. Source: Wired Magazine Date: September 28th, 2017 Link: https://www.wired.com/story/googles-search-changes-wont-really-level-playing-field/ Discussion 1) “Google’s plan to auction space at the top of search results… Read more »

Using your face to buy your lunch

Posted by & filed under China, Civil Liberties, Emerging Technologies, Ethical Issues.

Chinese technology giant Alibaba has unveiled the first facial recognition system to pay for shopping – at a fast food restaurant. Amidst concerns about data privacy it insists none of the information it uses is retained. Source: BBC Technology News Date: September 7th, 2017 Link to video (1 minute 38 sec run time after 15 second ad in… Read more »

Using your face to buy your lunch

Posted by & filed under China, Civil Liberties, Emerging Technologies, Ethical Issues.

Chinese technology giant Alibaba has unveiled the first facial recognition system to pay for shopping – at a fast food restaurant. Amidst concerns about data privacy it insists none of the information it uses is retained. Source: BBC Technology News Date: September 7th, 2017 Link to video (1 minute 38 sec run time after 15 second ad in… Read more »

Wake up! Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook are running our lives

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Apple, Civil Liberties, Ethical Issues, FaceBook, Google.

Google Home wakes you up in the morning and later, Google recommends a lunch spot – it even gives you live information on how busy it is. It is partly responsible for your cab home, as Google is an investor in Uber. You checked in with friends on Facebook on that morning commute (you might have also used… Read more »