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wchr

@wchr@mastodon.social

Public-interest researcher https://crackedlabs.org | Tech and society. Tracking, surveillance, consumer data, platform power, algorithmic decisions, datafication of work.

https://wolfie.crackedlabs.org/en

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wchr, to random
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Twitter/X ad by the 'European Union Agency for Asylum' shown to me yesterday.

Why does the EU pay the far-right billionaire for placing such ads?

/cc @fantafanta, @DannyMekic, @roofjoke

(don't know which targeting criteria they used)

wchr, to random
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Excellent and very comprehensive 137-page report on how consumer data brokers trade personal information on everyone by the Australian competition and consumer protection regulator ACCC, in part informed by my work with reset.tech Australia and the revelations about Microsoft's data broker subsidiary Xandr published by @themarkup, @netzpolitik_feed and me in 2023:
https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Digital-platform-services-inquiry-March-2024-interim-report.pdf

image/png

wchr, to random
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"I congratulated myself by instantly dropping the experiment and buying maternity pants; ads for baby carriers popped up on my Instagram within minutes"

Thoughtful and well-researched piece by the @NewYorker's Jia Tolentino on pregnancy and parenting in the age of digital tracking, from surveillance advertising to state surveillance of pregnant women to parenting technology such as baby monitors and 'family safety' apps:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-hidden-pregnancy-experiment

wchr, to random
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

"Up until about a decade ago, there was a loose but obvious alliance between technology focused lefties who wanted free access to cultural resources and tech companies like Google"

I'm affected.

@henryfarrell, via @jhardinges]
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-political-economy-of-ai

wchr, to random
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Uber patent on a driver dispatch system based on driver profiles that include age, height, weight, gender, eye color, hair color, country of origin, family background, 'work ethic', 'affiliation' with 'scandalous' groups, 'propensity' towards 'irresponsible behavior' etc:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170011324A1/en

Incredibly intrusive. As a dispatch system decides about each single trip assignment, it directly affects working conditions and wages.

Yes, it's a 'only' a patent but.

[via https://twitter.com/jamesfarrar]

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

I wonder can you also file a patent for more effective burglary?

Generally, 'optimization factors' for the dispatch system can include "user preferences, driver ratings history, reputation data, complaint history, punctuality history" and the "probability that the requesting user will give the driver a 5-star rating", according to the patent

Here's another intrusive Uber patent on a "trip anomaly detection system":
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10301867B2/

wchr, to random
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"From the Californian Ideology to Tech Fascism"

I guess this essay is waiting to be written.

wchr, to random
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"A data broker is offering sensitive passport data of thousands of people for sale – and publishing some of it openly online. Our investigation leads to an airline as a possible source. Data protection authorities are alarmed"

"netzpolitik.org was able to identify several people on the list. They live in Bavaria or Lower Saxony and confirm that their data and ID numbers are genuine. Some were shocked to learn their data was public"

Passport numbers for sale in the EU: https://netzpolitik.org/2024/european-data-broker-sensitive-passport-data-of-germans-published-online/

wchr, to random
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

Off my usual topics, does anyone here have any experience with the Kinesis Freestyle 2 split keyboard?

Bonus q: does a split keyboard help with neck pain?

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

@jeichhor Danke! Ich nutze immerhin ein ziemliches Standard-10-Fingersystem, denk das wird bei mir kein großes Problem...

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

@errorquark Thanks!

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

@bhaggart Thanks!

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

@zenora Thanks! Was indeed also already thinking about my pinky-finger-shift/ctrl-key usage ;)

wchr, to random
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

.@josephcox is a fantastic investigative journalist, whose work often has a lot of impact, and he wrote a book on how the FBI secretly ran a tech startup, an app for secure communications, to wiretap the world.

You should preorder it now:
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/
https://mastodon.social/@josephcox@infosec.exchange/112201770364550382

wchr, to random
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

Near Intelligence, a data broker that sold mobile location data from digital marketing to US defense firms, left an analysis online revealing the home/work locations of 200 persons who visited Epstein island.

Disturbing on many levels. It's disturbing that a data broker can secretly collect location data about billions of people. It's disturbing that marketing data is sold to the US military. And it's disturbing that they put data about potential victims just on the web.
https://www.wired.com/story/jeffrey-epstein-island-visitors-data-broker-leak/

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

...an investigation by @dell and @dmehro

The pervasive surveillance machine that has been developed for digital advertising now enables other uses completely unrelated to marketing, including government mass surveillance.

This must end.

wchr, to random
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

Lesenswerter Bericht von
@adfichter darüber, wie durch die Echtzeit-Versteigerungen in der Onlinewerbung laufend digitale Profile über die ganze Bevölkerung bei Datenhandelsfirmen, Geheimdiensten und Kriminellen landen; und über die Rolle von Google, Adtech-Industrie, Medienverlagen, Cookie-Bannern und Regulierungsversagen:
https://dnip.ch/2024/03/26/der-taegliche-data-breach/

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

"Journalist:innen des niederländischen Radiosenders BNR haben dank dem Erwerb eines Datensatzes beim Berliner Datenhändler Datarade.ai Personen identifizieren können, die Zugang zu Militärdepots mit Nuklearwaffen in den Niederlanden hatten"

"Für Cyberkriminelle und Geheimdienste aus aller Welt ist es ein Leichtes, bei allen diesen DSPs oder auch Data Brokern direkt einzukaufen"

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

"der tägliche Datenhandel ... ist nicht nur a) ein einträgliches Geschäft für die Verlage, sondern hat b) Konsequenzen für jede Leserin. Ihre Daten werden kreuz und quer verteilt. Dies liegt vor allem an der Natur des Programmatic Advertising"

"Die politischen Entscheidungsträger:innen wagen sich nicht an das heisse Eisen ran; ein Verbot von invasiver, datengetriebener, überwachungsintensiverer Online-Werbung ... zu mächtig sind die Medienverlage"

protonprivacy, to random
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"Data is the new oil" has become a cliche, but the surveillance economy is no trivial topic.

For this edition of the , we're sharing a comprehensive study into big data by Wolfie Christl and Sarah Spiekermann.

The book is "Networks of Control," you can find it here: https://www.facultas.at/verlag/rws/networks_of_control

For a quick introduction to Christl's work, check out his seminar on the consequences of the commercial use of consumer data: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2vP2j8Wao

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

Thanks for sharing!

Btw. 'Networks of Control' is also available as PDF download:
https://crackedlabs.org/en/networksofcontrol

I also recommend the follow-up report from 2017:
https://crackedlabs.org/en/corporate-surveillance

...and the recently published report on 'pervasive identity surveillance for marketing purposes':
https://crackedlabs.org/en/identity-surveillance

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

@neurovagrant (Tracking-)free download here ;)

https://crackedlabs.org/en/networksofcontrol

wchr, to random
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This is the Intel 8032/8051 computer I physically built in school when I was 18 in 1995, the keyboard/display board self-etched, the OS handcoded in assembly language, oh my. We then played around with sensors and actuators via the RS232 interface.

Just so you know, and because I just stumbled upon it 🤖

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

My graduate project was based on the board and the OS, the development of a system that aimed to rectify distorted aerial photos (because lenses and earth) by putting them to a device similar to a reverse plotter controlled by the 8051 computer, which then sent the data to some software coded in Turbo Pascal on a standard PC.

The system was called a 'mono comparator', which was back then seen as a part of 'computational photogrammetry' and 'analytical aerial triangulation' etc.

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

…which is all a bit funny because it was basically a project about geo-spatial intelligence, kind of related to my current work ;)

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

While I'm at it, back then I also built this actual plotter including step motors etc, in the school's turning and milling workshop.

And tbh while I still love soldering, I always hated almost any other metal/mechanical work :)

video/mp4

wchr,
@wchr@mastodon.social avatar

(in Austria we have vocational colleges where 14-19y olds are trained as technicians. I attended a school for electronics/telco engineering covering everything from Ohm's law to CRT TV to radio and control tech to industrial computing to IP networks.

Effective technical training but also toxic, competitive, very male and it lacked almost anything that should be part of educating 14-19y olds. It still made me who I am today, both because of the knowledge and because of what was a complete fail)

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