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surveillance capitalism - good or whack


dingformung

surveillance capitalism  

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  1. 1. is it any good



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The cycle of harm perpetuated by Facebook’s scale-at-any-cost business model is plain to see. Scale and engagement are valuable to Facebook because they’re valuable to advertisers. These incentives lead to design choices such as reaction buttons that encourage users to engage easily and often, which in turn encourage users to share ideas that will provoke a strong response. Every time you click a reaction button on Facebook, an algorithm records it, and sharpens its portrait of who you are. The hyper-targeting of users, made possible by reams of their personal data, creates the perfect environment for manipulation—by advertisers, by political campaigns, by emissaries of disinformation, and of course by Facebook itself, which ultimately controls what you see and what you don’t see on the site. Facebook has enlisted a corps of approximately 15,000 moderators, people paid to watch unspeakable things—murder, gang rape, and other depictions of graphic violence that wind up on the platform. Even as Facebook has insisted that it is a value-neutral vessel for the material its users choose to publish, moderation is a lever the company has tried to pull again and again. But there aren’t enough moderators speaking enough languages, working enough hours, to stop the biblical flood of shit that Facebook unleashes on the world, because 10 times out of 10, the algorithm is faster and more powerful than a person. At megascale, this algorithmically warped personalized informational environment is extraordinarily difficult to moderate in a meaningful way, and extraordinarily dangerous as a result.


Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine (The Atlantic)

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Started thinking about a project that's been sitting on the back burner for ages and had a paranoia itch that I had to scratch.

It's nice to get educated when I'm just looking for samples.

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copying this here since it belongs here

another issue with using technology to orchestrate a revolution is that the US government has backdoors into all Intel and AMD processors made after the year 2006

https://libreboot.org/faq.html

Intel Management Engine (ME)

Introduced in June 2006 in Intel’s 965 Express Chipset Family of (Graphics and) Memory Controller Hubs, or (G)MCHs, and the ICH8 I/O Controller Family, the Intel Management Engine (ME) is a separate computing environment physically located in the (G)MCH chip. In Q3 2009, the first generation of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Nehalem) CPUs and the 5 Series Chipset family of Platform Controller Hubs, or PCHs, brought a more tightly integrated ME (now at version 6.0) inside the PCH chip, which itself replaced the ICH. Thus, the ME is present on all Intel desktop, mobile (laptop), and server systems since mid 2006.

The ME consists of an ARC processor core (replaced with other processor cores in later generations of the ME), code and data caches, a timer, and a secure internal bus to which additional devices are connected, including a cryptography engine, internal ROM and RAM, memory controllers, and a direct memory access (DMA) engine to access the host operating system’s memory as well as to reserve a region of protected external memory to supplement the ME’s limited internal RAM. The ME also has network access with its own MAC address through an Intel Gigabit Ethernet Controller. Its boot program, stored on the internal ROM, loads a firmware “manifest” from the PC’s SPI flash chip. This manifest is signed with a strong cryptographic key, which differs between versions of the ME firmware. If the manifest isn’t signed by a specific Intel key, the boot ROM won’t load and execute the firmware and the ME processor core will be halted.

The ME firmware is compressed and consists of modules that are listed in the manifest along with secure cryptographic hashes of their contents. One module is the operating system kernel, which is based on a proprietary real-time operating system (RTOS) kernel called “ThreadX”. The developer, Express Logic, sells licenses and source code for ThreadX. Customers such as Intel are forbidden from disclosing or sublicensing the ThreadX source code. Another module is the Dynamic Application Loader (DAL), which consists of a Java virtual machine and set of preinstalled Java classes for cryptography, secure storage, etc. The DAL module can load and execute additional ME modules from the PC’s HDD or SSD. The ME firmware also includes a number of native application modules within its flash memory space, including Intel Active Management Technology (AMT), an implementation of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), Intel Boot Guard, and audio and video DRM systems.

The Active Management Technology (AMT) application, part of the Intel “vPro” brand, is a Web server and application code that enables remote users to power on, power off, view information about, and otherwise manage the PC. It can be used remotely even while the PC is powered off (via Wake-on-Lan). Traffic is encrypted using SSL/TLS libraries, but recall that all of the major SSL/TLS implementations have had highly publicized vulnerabilities. The AMT application itself has known vulnerabilities, which have been exploited to develop rootkits and keyloggers and covertly gain encrypted access to the management features of a PC. Remember that the ME has full access to the PC’s RAM. This means that an attacker exploiting any of these vulnerabilities may gain access to everything on the PC as it runs: all open files, all running applications, all keys pressed, and more.

Intel Boot Guard is an ME application introduced in Q2 2013 with ME firmware version 9.0 on 4th Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Haswell) CPUs. It allows a PC OEM to generate an asymmetric cryptographic keypair, install the public key in the CPU, and prevent the CPU from executing boot firmware that isn’t signed with their private key. This means that coreboot and libreboot are impossible to port to such PCs, without the OEM’s private signing key. Note that systems assembled from separately purchased mainboard and CPU parts are unaffected, since the vendor of the mainboard (on which the boot firmware is stored) can’t possibly affect the public key stored on the CPU.

ME firmware versions 4.0 and later (Intel 4 Series and later chipsets) include an ME application for audio and video DRM called “Protected Audio Video Path” (PAVP). The ME receives from the host operating system an encrypted media stream and encrypted key, decrypts the key, and sends the encrypted media decrypted key to the GPU, which then decrypts the media. PAVP is also used by another ME application to draw an authentication PIN pad directly onto the screen. In this usage, the PAVP application directly controls the graphics that appear on the PC’s screen in a way that the host OS cannot detect. ME firmware version 7.0 on PCHs with 2nd Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Sandy Bridge) CPUs replaces PAVP with a similar DRM application called “Intel Insider”. Like the AMT application, these DRM applications, which in themselves are defective by design, demonstrate the omnipotent capabilities of the ME: this hardware and its proprietary firmware can access and control everything that is in RAM and even everything that is shown on the screen.

The Intel Management Engine with its proprietary firmware has complete access to and control over the PC: it can power on or shut down the PC, read all open files, examine all running applications, track all keys pressed and mouse movements, and even capture or display images on the screen. And it has a network interface that is demonstrably insecure, which can allow an attacker on the network to inject rootkits that completely compromise the PC and can report to the attacker all activities performed on the PC. It is a threat to freedom, security, and privacy that can’t be ignored.

Before version 6.0 (that is, on systems from 2008/2009 and earlier), the ME can be disabled by setting a couple of values in the SPI flash memory. The ME firmware can then be removed entirely from the flash memory space. libreboot does this on the Intel 4 Series systems that it supports, such as the Libreboot X200 and Libreboot T400. ME firmware versions 6.0 and later, which are found on all systems with an Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPU and a PCH, include “ME Ignition” firmware that performs some hardware initialization and power management. If the ME’s boot ROM does not find in the SPI flash memory an ME firmware manifest with a valid Intel signature, the whole PC will shut down after 30 minutes.

Due to the signature verification, developing free replacement firmware for the ME is basically impossible. The only entity capable of replacing the ME firmware is Intel. As previously stated, the ME firmware includes proprietary code licensed from third parties, so Intel couldn’t release the source code even if they wanted to. And even if they developed completely new ME firmware without third-party proprietary code and released its source code, the ME’s boot ROM would reject any modified firmware that isn’t signed by Intel. Thus, the ME firmware is both hopelessly proprietary and “tivoized”.

In summary, the Intel Management Engine and its applications are a backdoor with total access to and control over the rest of the PC. The ME is a threat to freedom, security, and privacy, and the libreboot project strongly recommends avoiding it entirely. Since recent versions of it can’t be removed, this means avoiding all recent generations of Intel hardware.

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Anti vaxxers and holocaust deniers complaining about facebook blocking em.

You gotta see it to believe it.

These arent just any moderate opinions without consequences.

Maesles? Polio anyone? a little WW2 genocide with that?

Get real.

(do desactivate your facebook account tho people, life is better without it)

Edited by fxbip
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  • 4 weeks later...
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The machine they built is hungry. As far back as 2016, Facebook’s engineers could brag that their creation ‘ingests trillions of data points every day’ and produces ‘more than 6 million predictions per second’. Undoubtedly Facebook’s prediction engines are even more potent now, making relentless conjectures about your brand loyalties, your cravings, the arc of your desires. The company’s core market is what the social psychologist Shoshana Zuboff describes as ‘prediction products’: guesses about the future, assembled from ever-deeper forays into our lives and minds, and sold on to someone who wants to manipulate that future.

The problem with prediction (Aeon)

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In 1997, Mr. Goldhaber helped popularize the term “attention economy” with an essay in Wired magazine predicting that the internet would upend the advertising industry and create a “star system” in which “whoever you are, however you express yourself, you can now have a crack at the global audience.” He outlined the demands of living in an attention economy, describing an ennui that didn’t yet exist but now feels familiar to anyone who makes a living online. “The Net also ups the ante, increasing the relentless pressure to get some fraction of this limited resource,” he wrote. “At the same time, it generates ever greater demands on each of us to pay what scarce attention we can to others.”

I Talked to the Cassandra of the Internet Age (NYT)

The internet rewired our brains. He predicted it would.

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We’re in this very funny paradoxical moment in history, which is full of moments of dynamic hysteria, yet everything always remains the same. We get this wave of hysteria – angry people click more! – and those clicks feed the systems and nothing changes. It’s a rational machine model. The idea of artificial intelligence is a very limited, machine-like idea. What we’re ignoring is all those other aspects of human beings, which we don’t really acknowledge because they’re so inbuilt in us and have been for millions of years.

Adam Curtis: Social media is a scam (Idler)

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  • 1 month later...

tbh i'm kinda warming up to the idea of america going full-china & putting the clamps to social media companies before they gain any more power. i don't want to live in the Reddit nation & trade dogecoins for my weekly ration of grasshopper pie, that shit would suck

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13 hours ago, prdctvsm said:

“Let’s slap a band-aid on the problem rather than make efforts to address the root causes like wealth inequality, systemic racism, lack of investment in education, lack of universal healthcare etc.”

Seriously, are the algorithms these companies use to keep users engaged really “promoting” a particular agenda? All the data harvesting and so on yes, that shit needs to be regulated, but blaming what happened on the tech companies is like blaming your three-year old for burning down your house when you built your house out of gas-soaked rags and dry timber. 

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5 hours ago, chenGOD said:

Seriously, are the algorithms these companies use to keep users engaged really “promoting” a particular agenda? All the data harvesting and so on yes, that shit needs to be regulated, but blaming what happened on the tech companies is like blaming your three-year old for burning down your house when you built your house out of gas-soaked rags and dry timber. 

The algorithms make sure people are drawn into and kept inside some fake reality. Regardless of some agenda. People are spoon-fed disinformation like it's crack. You can improve all those "root causes", but that won't change the fact huge numbers of people spend their time in some walled garden of disinformation. And generally distrust anything outside it.

As far as I'm concerned, it's fair to add this to the list of root causes. Even if it's also fair to argue the politicians themselves fuel these disinformation gardens. The algorithms make sure to keep the people inside though.

Perhaps the argument is similar to arguing the industry is partly to blame for the obesity pandemic by pushing food with lots of sugar. There's a lot more going on to explain this pandemic, but that doesn't mean the industry isn't part of the root cause, imo.

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That's not promoting an agenda, that's promoting a business model. If you are more left-leaning, you will get a shit ton of democracy now and jacobin style recommends in your feeds.

If people had a better educational base that included critical thinking, the obvious lies and disinformation would be much harder to peddle by people writing them.

I'm not saying the tech companies are blameless mind you, and I think the twitter approach by attaching disclaimers is a good start to more transparency. My point was more that the US federal government doesn't want address those root causes because they are a lot more difficult to address.

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27 minutes ago, chenGOD said:

If people had a better educational base that included critical thinking, the obvious lies and disinformation would be much harder to peddle by people writing them.

I simply disagree. Even educated people are drawn to these fringes nowadays. Like physicians promoting hydrochloroquine as a treatment for COVID, or distrusting vaccins. People can be made to believe obvious lies regardless of education. People don't just rationalise themselves out of misinformation. Also look at religion.

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32 minutes ago, chenGOD said:

My point was more that the US federal government doesn't want address those root causes because they are a lot more difficult to address.

And they are even more difficult to address as long as a huge part of the electorate distrust the government. There's a feedback loop. What the government want is a reflection of what the people want. You can't solve those root causes if there's no stable and well founded political platform to build policies on.

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14 minutes ago, Satans Little Helper said:

what the people want

Majority of Americans want universal health care: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/29/increasing-share-of-americans-favor-a-single-government-program-to-provide-health-care-coverage/

You'd have a hard time finding any voter who doesn't want better education for their kids, but even non-parents support more federal funding for education. https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/poll-majority-public-wants-greater-federal-support-education. 

https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-raising-funding-public-schools.html

 

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39 minutes ago, Satans Little Helper said:

Even educated people are drawn to these fringes nowadays. Like physicians promoting hydrochloroquine as a treatment for COVID, or distrusting vaccins. People can be made to believe obvious lies regardless of education. People don't just rationalise themselves out of misinformation.

There will always be fringes, but if you can provide a majority with a strong enough educational foundation so that they don't fall prey to misinformation in the first place or are better able to identify reliable sources, you can mitigate the effect of the fringes.

Those physicians promoting hydrochloroquine as a treatment also received either significant pushback, or in some cases were arrested: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KwvTjtut7G8J:https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/942941+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-b-e

 

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1 hour ago, Satans Little Helper said:

I simply disagree. Even educated people are drawn to these fringes nowadays. Like physicians promoting hydrochloroquine as a treatment for COVID, or distrusting vaccins. People can be made to believe obvious lies regardless of education.

imo this has a lot to do with the fact that thinking logically is actually harder than it looks, as no one is immune to cognitive biases or making mistakes, not even brilliant minds. totally agree with chen that people would be less vulnerable to disinformation if they had better critical thinking skills

the problem lies in the fact that critical thinking isn't taught in schools imo (i guess it's taught to a certain extent in scientific cursus but that's about it). for my part i discovered a whole community of french-speaking youtubers who focus on teaching critical thinking skills, don't know if the equivalent exists in the anglosphere 

 

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2 hours ago, chenGOD said:

And a majority of the people simply don't trust the people on the other side of the isle. When things get political, all reason flies out of the window. There's nothing new in people voting against their best interests, right? 

I might be growing cynical, but I simply stopped believing in the power of education nowadays. Reasonable people are quick to follow unreasonable things. Have we lost the ability to think logically, like brian says? Perhaps. But I've seen a lot of people using logic ending up at complete fringes of thinking.

As far as I'm concerned, it might be more about a lack of wisdom, as opposed to logic. And this lack of wisdom comes from the lack of variation in the experiences people have. They simply lack all the experience of dealing with all kinds of perspectives, because they spend too much time in digital space as opposed to the real world. Dealing with people in the real world is completely different than talking to some online picture. And worse, the digital space is being divided into separated corners of group-think. It enhances radicalised ideas. The algorithms push people towards the fringes. Be it up or down, or left or right. I don't believe people can reason themselves out of this, without actually having experienced the variety in the first place.

I'm not saying you're wrong, or anything. It's just that I'm a bit more sceptical we can dig ourselves out of the current hole without addressing the influence of social media.

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forgot to add that intelligence isn't equally distributed among human beings. some people are just dumber than others, and having a certain level of education won't prevent them from being dumb. in a way, the internet simply exposes who's dumb and who's not lol

i, for example, am part of the rather dumb crowd, i'm well aware of that. it's ok though cause i have a huge penis

 

 

Edited by brian trageskin
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