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Good Monday Morning


It’s August 28th. Spotlight is off next week for Labor Day. Enjoy your long weekend plans.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,254 words — about 4 1/2 minutes to read.

 3 Stories to Know

1. Test Scores Shared: Gizmodo reports that the College Board testing service shares SAT scores and GPAs with Facebook and TikTok via advertising tracking pixels. The College Board later confirmed the practice but denied sharing personally identifiable information, a common digital advertising practice.

2.Hackers Selling Info: Personal information is available for sale according to 404 Media which reported that hackers are using Telegram to sell credit header files for $15 per person. The data, sourced from credit bureaus, is advertised in criminal chat rooms for illicit activities including swatting and violence.

3. EU Targets Tech: The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes new regulations on the 19 biggest tech companies with over 45 million monthly users in the EU. The DSA mandates the removal of posts containing illegal goods and bans targeted advertising based on sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs. Noncompliance risks fines of up to 6% of global revenue.

Clarifying facial recognition: Last week, we reported on six nonwhite people wrongfully arrested solely due to facial recognition. At least two were jailed for up to one week. While the technology can and should initiate investigations, it shouldn’t be the sole basis for arrest as it was in those cases.

Spotlight on Politics Online: What’s Changing

 

Legal, technological, and social shifts have significantly changed the online political landscape since 2020.

1. Tech Trying to Protect Against Disinformation

Recent lawsuits have put tech giants Google and YouTube, both subsidiaries of Alphabet Inc., under scrutiny. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., filed a lawsuit against YouTube, accusing the platform of censoring his content that questions the safety of vaccines. Research has identified Kennedy as one of the nation’s top sources of vaccine disinformation.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee (RNC) sued Google, alleging that the search engine’s email system was suppressing conservative voices. A judge recently dismissed the RNC’s claims, stating that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations of bias. 

2. AI and Political Bias

Allegations of political bias in AI technologies like ChatGPT have sparked considerable debate A recent study by Mandiant, a U.S. cyber firm owned by Google, reveals that AI is increasingly being used in online influence campaigns.

The study found that while AI can amplify messages and target audiences more effectively, its impact on changing public opinion is limited. These findings raise reasonable questions about the technology’s impartiality and ethical use. The involvement of Alphabet-owned entities in platform control, legal defenses, and research studies underscores the expansive influence of major tech players in shaping this discourse.

3. The Importance of Academia

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has been vocal in opposing a bill toughening social media speech requirements in that country by claiming it poses a threat to religious freedom. However, that organization has been implicated in a misinformation campaign targeting the Labor Party by posting false narratives to influence public opinion. This incident underscores the global challenges of combating digital misinformation and the need for effective countermeasures.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Joan Donovan, a leading expert on media manipulation and disinformation, was recently forced to leave her role at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. Her departure came after administrative decisions ended her Technology and Social Change project. Donovan’s work has been a cornerstone in the study of online misinformation and has influenced both policy and platform moderation.

Her forced exit from Harvard raises questions about the future of academic research in this critical area, emphasizing the need for scholarly engagement to combat misinformation effectively. 

4. Meta Wants Fewer Political Posts

Meta’s Threads platform is taking steps to foster a friendlier online environment. By downgrading news and politics in its feed, the platform aims to create a space where users can connect and engage without the constant influx of divisive content.

This aligns with recent Pew Research findings that reveal Americans’ differing views on the impact of social media on U.S. democracy. The research underscores our deep ideological divide and highlights the evolving landscape of online discourse. There will be continuing changes as next year’s presidential election cycle gathers steam, and we’ll share that news as it happens.

Practical AI

Quotable: “AI builders are using Hugging Face all day, every day … Maybe in five years, you’re going to have like 100 million AI builders. And if all of them use Hugging Face all day, every day, we’ll obviously be in a good position.”

—Clement Delangue, Hugging Face CEO, whose company raised $235 million last week at a $4.5 billion valuation.

AI Books Flood Amazon: People are posting books for sale on Amazon that have been authored by generative AI. Biggest issues: they’re often inaccurate, cannibalize sales of human-written works, and can even falsely be identified as being written by well-known authors.

Tool of the Week: Hugging Face’s AutoTrain helps you train an AI model to learn a task. If you’re dabbling in machine learning, this no-code tool is a fine starting point.

Did That Really Happen — Dodger Stadium & Ted Cruz’s Shark

Flooding in Southern California led to many inaccurate claims. One viral photograph showed what appeared to be a flooded Dodger Stadium. A spokesperson said that the photo was an unfortunate optical illusion and that some areas of the stadium had pooled water of “maybe one inch.”

Another viral photo, an 18-year-old image of a shark superimposed on a highway, was retweeted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Despite being told the photo was a hoax, Cruz refused to delete it and wrote, “In LA, you never know …” before expressing a hope that people stayed safe.

Following Up — Revenge (Fake) Porn 

We wrote last week about a Houston jury awarding more than $1 billion in damages to a woman who was the victim of explicit photos of her being released without her permission. 

Now there are details about a program that easily allows non-technical users to easily substitute faces into extreme porn images–using photos non-consensually scraped from online sources. Access to the very NSFW site is only $4 per month and the site’s owners claim a half-million users. (404 Media article – extreme language)

Protip — Gmail Templates

Gmail templates are one of my favorite time-savers. This ZD Net feature shows you how to set up your own.

Screening Room — Apple Helping Fit Animal Prosthetics 

Science Fiction World — Our Mars Lander Filmed Our Mars Helicopter
 

That would be Perseverance filming Ingenuity’s 54th flight on Mars for National Aviation Day. You can see the flight too–it lasts under one minute, which doesn’t sound impressive until you realize IT’S ON ANOTHER PLANET.

Coffee Break —  The Never-Ending Password Change

You won’t get as far as you think you might in Neal Agarwal’s latest interactive, the Password Game.  There are allegedly 35 steps. One day I hope to make it past the teens.

Sign of the Times

What to Know About Chinese Tech Companies – Spotlight #466
Articles

Good Monday Morning


It’s July 17. Despite annual attendance approaching 150,000 people, expect little news when Comic-Con begins in San Diego on Thursday. With actors and writers on strike, studios including Marvel, Lucasfilm, Sony, Netflix, and Universal have reduced their presence or canceled events.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,338 words — about 5 minutes to read.

3 Stories to Know

1. Uber Eats purged 8,000 ghost kitchen listings beginning in March after the number of listings had doubled in only one year. The company’s new rules require that a ghost kitchen menu differs at least 60% from the restaurant’s regular menu. Ghost kitchen brands operated by famous restaurants include Pasqually’s (Chuck E. Cheese), Conviction Chicken (TGI Fridays), and Thrilled Cheese (IHOP).

2.Twitter stopped receiving privacy auditing services from Ernst & Young because of outstanding invoices totaling more than $500,000. As Twitter filed a complaint last week asking a judge to block the FTC from monitoring its data security, Elon Musk and Republican allies on the House Judiciary Committee misrepresented the FTC’s involvement. Twitter signed a consent decree in 2011 to have a third party monitor its data privacy after being accused of deceiving consumers and putting their data at risk.

3. Health data for as many as 11 million Americans is available for sale on the dark web. HCA announced the hack on July 10 and originally reported no clinical health data was included. Industry website Data Breaches later obtained examples of breached data that included a lung cancer assessment.

Spotlight on Chinese Tech Companies

Apptopia top Android Apps w/e July 15. 4 of them are made in China.

It is difficult to keep up with all the news about Chinese tech companies. The hacking of U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, announced last week, has escalated the situation.

Here’s our look at what’s happening and companies you might want to rethink.

Hacking

Chinese exports have been tempered by the U.S., and the Commerce Department has repeatedly threatened Beijing over its involvement with Russia’s tech industry. Raimondo became a prime target of a Chinese hacking attack that officials say began in May and lasted for weeks. The attacks also targeted high level officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It is not the first time U.S. government emails have been compromised. Russian hackers successfully breached multiple agencies in 2015.

E-Commerce: Temu & Shein

Temu and Shein are two of the biggest e-commerce success stories ever, but based on Wired’s analysis of Temu’s costs, the company loses an average of $30 per order and hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This does not include $14 million spent on Super Bowl advertising last January. A company source told Wired that the company is targeting annual spending of $1,500 per household. That is possible because of a legal loophole that allows Temu to ship orders under $800 duty-free to the U.S.

Temu and Shein both exploit that loophole, according to a June House Select Committee report, but the committee focused on allegations that captive Uyghur Muslims were being forced to work for the companies. According to the Australian press, Shein’s clothing contains toxic chemicals and contributes to microplastic pollution.

Engagement & Attention — TikTok, Cap Cut, Lemon8

When Congress and other nontechnical organizations criticize Chinese tech companies involved in social media, they often miss the mark. Due to its superior algorithm, TikTok has been able to reach previously unknown engagement levels compared to Meta and Western social media companies.

In reality, TikTok is a broadcasting platform with social media features. Consider it more like a TV network with a like button. In the real world, TikTok isn’t capable of hacking a phone or spying on your content choices any more than American companies. It is the ability to create and distribute compelling influence operations that poses the real threat. Last year, FBI director Christopher Wray warned against the app for those very reasons, but Luddite-like lawmakers and state officials have ignored staff recommendations and instead raised unrealistic security concerns.

High Tech — Hikvision, Huawei, ZTE

A video surveillance company called Hikvision is often sanctioned by Western governments and has been involved in a number of controversies, including poor security, involvement in Chinese genocide efforts, and espionage. Most recently, Russia invaded Ukraine with support from Hikvision. Just last week, industry trade group IPVM announced that child pornography was being sold online by hackers who exploited the security holes in the company’s products and also used the company’s connectivity features to sell child abuse images on Hikvision’s own networks.

Meanwhile Huawei and ZTE are phone tech firms that have been effectively banned in the U.S., Japan, and Australia, but still remain a popular low cost option in other countries. Both companies have assisted the Chinese government efforts in holding Uyghurs in internment camps. In addition to industrial spying, the companies engaged in espionage efforts in Iran and North Korea.

Next: Chinese tech companies have lost nearly $1 trillion in market capitalization in two years. A good deal of the loss comes from internal Chinese government and financial pressure on those companies that may soon be lifted.

Practical AI

Quotable: “I don’t feel that this kind of technology is yet at a place where I would want it in my family’s health care journey … but it takes the places in health care where AI can be beneficial and expands them by 10-fold.”

— Google Senior Research Director Greg Corrado to the Wall Street Journal about the company’s new medical AI product that reportedly has a diagnosis rate similar to human doctors.

Noteworthy: The FTC has opened an investigation into ChatGPT maker OpenAI to determine the amount of consumer harm from privacy and accuracy concerns.

Tool of the Week: Ask Your PDF summarizes PDFs and other file types and lets you question the chatbot about the data. There are a few extra steps because ChatGPT doesn’t directly accept uploaded documents, but it’s a nice indicator of where we’re going.

 Waiting in the Wings

  • How algorithms are automatically denying medical claims
  • Amazon’s data about you expands beyond shopping

Put your email address in the form at this link and you’ll get a free copy of Spotlight each Monday morning to start your week in the know.

If you’re already a free subscriber, would you please forward this to a friend who could use a little Spotlight in their Monday mornings? It would really help us out.

Trends, Spends & TikTok

Did That Really Happen? — Yes, Rep. Burchett Claimed UFO Coverup

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) appeared on a Fox News segment last week and accused the U.S. government of a decades long cover-up regarding UFOs. Snopes has details and a video of the wacky interview.

 Following Up — IRS Considers Tax Filing Business

Following abuses by major tax preparation companies that led to their ouster from the IRS’ free tax filing portal, the agency announced that it was entering a limited pilot to develop its own software. The IRS originally created a free tax filing portal to avoid directly competing with products from companies like H & Block and TurboTax.

Protip — Printing Directly from Android Phones

Stop emailing files to yourself. Digital Trends shows you how to print directly from your phone. There’s also a 2021 link there for iPhones if you need those directions.

Screening Room —  Progressive’s Dr. Rick

The always funny Progressive pitchman helps new homeowners navigate social media.

Science Fiction World —  Drones, Big Drones

Companies are racing to build new drone equipment that functions like a low-flying satellite above commercial jets while not landing for weeks. Don’t mistake these for your personal use drones. These have wingspans stretching 80 feet or more.

Coffee Break — Take the Font Finder

This really smart interactive feature lets you test your reading speed against different fonts and choose the one that works best for you. I’ve already changed the font in my word processor. 

Sign of The Times

Get a free copy of Spotlight emailed to you each Monday
Articles

Good Monday Morning


It’s July 10. Amazon Prime Days are tomorrow and Wednesday. The FTC has sued Amazon for what it calls deceptive behavior in coaxing people to sign up for Prime and when they try to cancel. Check out Protip below to learn how you can spot dark patterns.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,034 words–about 4 minutes to read.

3 Stories to Know

1. The Canadian government is battling Meta and Google. The Online News Act of Canada takes effect at the end of this year and mandates that digital platforms pay news organizations for the content they use. Meta and Google both oppose the law and have threatened to block Canadians from accessing news content. A similar bill was passed in Australia in 2021. After originally blocking news content, the companies eventually paid millions of dollars in order to comply.

2. New FTC rules aim to crack down on businesses selling and manipulating online reviews. As many as 40% of online reviews are fake, according to advocacy groups. New rules create tens of thousands of dollars in penalties each time a consumer seesa fake review. In the absence of adequate fraud prevention, critics say platform providers, such as Amazon and Yelp, should be held accountable by the FTC. Others worry that the new rules will stifle free speech. 

3. You’re almost certainly eligible to receive money from Google and Facebook from class-action lawsuit payouts. Sometimes they’re nothing to sneeze at. Our family received $120 from Yahoo! earlier this year, although the Google and Facebook payouts are expected to be much lower.  

To file for Google if you used the search engine between 2006 and 2013, start here to get a “Class Member ID” and then file here by July 31.

To file for Facebook/Meta if you used that network between 2007 and 2022, file here by August 25.

Spotlight on Threads

Image by MidJourney 5.2, prompted by George Bounacos

Threads, the new social media network, launched last week and became the most successful app launch in history. By Sunday, Threads boasted nearly 100 million accounts and had left Twitter owner Elon Musk ranting on his network that, “Zuck is a cuck.” Musk had previously threatened to sue Meta over similarities between Twitter and Threads.

Threads offers little that is inherently new. For now, it’s tied to Instagram and Threads users can follow their Instagram followers on the new app by clicking a button. The software functions as if Twitter and Instagram were merged. Messages are limited to 500 characters and can include links, images, or emoji. The Instagram integration makes it easy to share content between the two apps.

Some features are unavailable or different from Twitter. There’s no edit button or trending topics. You also can’t change your feed to only show the accounts you follow. You can’t send private messages either. And surprisingly, there is no advertising yet. There’s also one caveat.

Executives say that because Threads was built on top of Instagram instead of as a stand-alone service, canceling your Threads account will also cancel your Instagram account. 

Using Twitter as a public square, journalists and politicians gather and sometimes create news on the popular social network that shot to viral fame in 2006. Twitter lost some relevance in recent years, a slide that Musk’s purchase accelerated. Musk has implemented new account limits and restrictions while continuing to post bragging, capricious content.

Meanwhile, government agencies, large consumer brands, and everyone in between is trying to understand how to effectively use and report on Threads. Consider it an online gold rush where you can hang out with tens of millions of like-minded people.

Practical AI

Quotable: “Don’t ask an LLM to review your source code and find a particular bug” – an internal Adobe email covered by Business Insider that tells employees they  can’t use personal email accounts or corporate credit cards when signing up for AI tools.

Noteworthy: Video game platform Steam is “quietly removing” titles that include content produced by generative AI over copyright liability concerns.

Tool of the Week:Microsoft is offering a free certificate program on LinkedIn Learning about Generative AI. There are undoubtedly plenty of such programs, but this one is offered by the company that invested $10 billion in ChatGPT creator Open AI.

 Waiting in the Wings

  • How algorithms are automatically denying medical claims
  • Amazon’s data about you expands beyond shopping

Put your email address in the form at this link and you’ll get a free copy of Spotlight each Monday morning to start your week in the know.

If you’re already a free subscriber, would you please forward this to a friend who could use a little Spotlight in their Monday mornings? It would really help us out.

Trends, Spends & TikTok

Did That Really Happen? — Oregon Has More Voters Than Residents

The latest election lies have social media users falsely claiming that there are more registered voters in Oregon than residents. The Associated Press debunks that here.

Following Up —  Lawyers Encouraged to Seek Forgiveness

Remember the lawyers who used ChatGPT for research and included the program’s made-up case citations in a brief? A Manhattan judge has fined them and ordered the pair to send his opinion to all the judges erroneously named. 

Protip — How Dark Patterns Change Your Behavior Online

Let this be the article if you only ever read one thing we’ve linked to or covered. The Pudding is home to some of the best data visualization projects online, and this particular piece shows point-by-point how dark patterns work. With serendipitous timing, one of the 16 examples in the project is Amazon, the company sued recently by the FTC for deceiving consumers using dark patterns. 

Screening Room —  Bud Light

The embattled beer maker takes on summer party mishaps in this fun 60 second spot.

Science Fiction World —  Replacing Undersea Cables 

Those massive undersea data cables that allow global connectivity may one day be replaced by lasers. A team of scientists in Zurich has successfully tested similar data speeds using lasers between their facility and a target more than 30 miles away. 

Coffee Break — Real or Not Quiz

Try your hand at distinguishing whether these marketing images are photographs or AI-generated images.

Sign of the Times

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