Running Naked through the Internet category archive

Artificial “Intelligence” seems to be the hot new toy on the inner webs. A lot of persons are jumping in and playing with them just because they can, without considering the implications of running nekkid through the internet.

At Above the Law, Ayesha Haq, who specializes in legal issues regarding privacy and the internet, is not sanguine about the implications of ChatGPT and similar–er–tools as regards users’ personal information. I commend her piece to your attention; here’s a tiny bit of it:

So the user assumes the risk when using the chatbot, giving ChatGPT an easy escape. Here are a few ways ChatGPT could violate standard privacy regulations:

1. It does not state a legal basis for processing the personal information it receives.
2. Users are not given a mechanism to exercise their “right to be forgotten” or “right to amend” personal information.
3. Personal information is stored indefinitely with no insight on how that data is secured and protected.
4. ChatGPT gathers information from unknown sources on the internet. If a user has any digital footprint, chances are ChatGPT knows a great deal about that user depending on what is available on the internet. This knowledge may be false, and the user has no recourse to correct, amend, or even delete the false information.

Big Brother is here, but he’s not who persons expected him to be.

The EFF looks at the roundly debunked movie, 2000 Mules, and points out that, in addition to its outright lies and–er–dubious conclusions, the film highlights the invasive nature of our private enterprise surveillance society. Here’s a bit from the EFF’s article; follow the link for much more.

Putting aside the logical flaws of TTV’s (True the Vote, the organization behind the movie–ed.) voter fraud claims, the very fact that they were able to buy this much personal location data on hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, over a span of many months leading to election day, is appalling. But this is the data broker business model working as intended: by vacuuming up geolocation data from thousands of smartphone apps, data brokers package and sell huge quantities of highly revealing location data to anyone willing to buy it. And TTV is hardly the only customer: the U.S. military, federal agencies, and federal law enforcement are all customers to geolocation data brokers. Recently, one data broker was even found selling the location data of people seeking reproductive healthcare, which soon could provide states with draconian anti-abortion legislation new digital evidence to identify and prosecute people who seek or provide abortion.

And the irony! Even as persons were fretting about the “surveillance state,” those same persons failed to notice that private enterprise was assembling a corporate surveillance monster beyond anything George Orwell ever imagined. Heck, they turned a blind eye to it even as they happily agreed to those unread internet “terms of service” agreements that made it possible.

This is a must-listen if you use the internet (Oh! You’re here already!). If you can’t listen to it now, bookmark it and come back, or watch it at Chron.com.

Via Chron.com, which has more.

Aside:

I normally configure my browsers to “delete all cookies” on exit and, if the setting is available, “reject third party cookies. And I won’t use Google Chrome on a bet.

And, on those rare times I visit the Zuckerborg, I do so only in a private window.

The question is, “Can you keep it secret?”

Frances Coleman points out that, at least as regards “social” media, your privacy is indeed in jeopardy.