Archive for the ‘tinfoil hat’ tag
What does the internet know about you and who is it telling?
Malware is in the eye of the beholder
Computer scientists predict that a new generation of malware will mine social networks for people’s private patterns of behaviour
It’s not hard top find frightening examples of malware which steals personal information, sometimes for the purpose of making it public and at other times for profit. Details such as names, addresses and emails are hugely valuable for companies wanting to market their wares.
But there is another class of information associated with networks that is potentially much more valuable: the pattern of links between individuals and their behaviour in the network–how often they email or call each other, how information spreads between them and so on.
Why is this more valuable? An email address associated with an individual who is at the hub of a vibrant social network is clearly more valuable to a marketing company than an email address at the edge of the network. Patterns of contact can also reveal how people are linked, whether in a relationship for example, whether they are students or executives or whether they prefer celebrity gossip to tech news.
This information would allow a determined attacker to build a remarkably detailed picture of the lifestyle of any individual, a picture that would be far more useful than the basic demographic information that marketeers use today which consists of little more than sex, age and social grouping.
We’ll almost certainly have to deal with this one sooner or later. source
It’s not just the malware, it’s also your future employer:
However, the pre-crime concept is coming very soon to the world of Human Resources (HR) and employee management.
A Santa Barbara, Calif., startup called Social Intelligence data-mines the social networks to help companies decide if they really want to hire you.
While background checks, which mainly look for a criminal record, and even credit checks have become more common, Social Intelligence is the first company that I’m aware of that systematically trolls social networks for evidence of bad character.
Using automation software that slogs through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs, and “thousands of other sources,” the company develops a report on the “real you” — not the carefully crafted you in your resume. The service is called Social Intelligence Hiring. The company promises a 48-hour turn-around. source
New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration
How long before the government can read your mind?
Maybe soon, perhaps never, but recent advances have brought mind reading closer to reality.
An fMRI is a machine that takes pictures inside your body, like the familiar CAT scanner but in much greater detail. While you are in the machine scans your brain and can see which areas of your brain are getting more blood flow.
Had you sat in the machine while you looked at images or thought specific thoughts, a computer attached to the fMRI could learn which parts of your brain get active when you look at a specific photo or think a specific thought. Then the next time you entered the machine and thought those same thoughts it could recognize the pattern.
All our brains are different, not unlike our finger prints and so don’t all behave exactly the same. But they are a like enough that in time, with lots and lots of data, researchers might some day have a general mind map.
Perhaps your defense could be that you store murder weapons in a different part of your brain than the average person and so therefore are not guilty as charged. It’s too soon to know, but perhaps not as far away as we’d like.
News Stories;
fMRI Brain Scan Debate Neurology Research in Interrogations, Courtroom, Office
Scary or Sensational, A machine that can look into the mind
Can brain scans read our minds?
IBM to build global brain
In an effort to help those in power make split second decisions IBM is building a brain to help put together disparate pieces of information to aid in those decisions.
In an unprecedented undertaking, IBM Research and five leading universities are partnering to create computing systems that are expected to simulate and emulate the brain’s abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition while rivaling its low power consumption and compact size.
The digital data explosion shows no signs of slowing down — according to analyst firm IDC, the amount of digital data is growing at a mind-boggling 60 percent each year, giving businesses access to incredible new streams of information. But without the ability to monitor, analyze and react to this information in real-time, the majority of its value may be lost. Until the data is captured and analyzed, decisions or actions may be delayed. Cognitive computing offers the promise of systems that can integrate and analyze vast amounts of data from many sources in the blink of an eye, allowing businesses or individuals to make rapid decisions in time to have a significant impact. . . IBM seeks to build the computer of the future based on insights from the brain
More information:
Dharmendra Modha home page
IBM seeks to build the computer of the future based on insights from the brain (pdf)
Systems of neuromorphic adaptive plastic scalable electronics ( SyNAPSE )
Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics
Cognitive Computing Project Aims to Reverse Engineer the Mind
