April 13, 2018--Post-Privacy

More than usual people are concerned about privacy. This the result of the news that Facebook did not prevent the sharing of very personal information about 87 million of us. In fact, they sold it to Cambridge Analytica, which, in turn may or may not have used that data in shady ways to support Donald Trump's run for the presidency.

What did people addicted to Facebook (me included) think they were doing with all the data about our intimate selves we so casually handed over to them? 

Facebook makes billions every month but doesn't charge users to use their "platform." What was Facebook's business model that yielded so much money? If we had paused for a minute to think about how Instagram's and Google's and Snapchat's and YouTube's and Twitter's business models make a fortune but do not charge users we would have realized they made their money by selling us out to marketers and political consultants. 

So all the outrage directed toward Facebook sounds a little self-serving and inauthentic. My bet is that hardly anyone will as a result stop using Facebook or the others.

And, it seems to me, that very few people care profoundly about this. I want my Facebook; I don't want to pay to use it; and I don't care very much, perhaps not at all, about losing my privacy.

After all, don't the social network platforms depend upon us eagerly wanting to surrender our privacy? Aren't they ultimately narcissistic-enabling vehicles for us to let it all, or much of it, hang out for "friends" and friends of friends and friends of friends' friends? Isn't the dream of much of this to have one's postings widely shared, go viral? How else can that happen unless we put it all out there to be passed around?

Years ago I had early glimpses of how people were moving to sacrifice privacy for the sake of convenience and expediency. Though at the time I really didn't get it.

About two decades ago I was online at Citibank (not on-line) waiting to deposit a check. This in the day before there were ATMs. Ahead of me were two women who were talking at full volume. One was worried about her daughter, "I'm afraid she's becoming addicted to cocaine," she said loud enough for everyone on line to hear. "I don't know what to do with her. I can't afford to pay for a recovery program. I suppose I just have to hope for the best."  

Her friend put an arm around her and, changing the subject, began to talk, equally audibly, about her boyfriend, "He punched me the other day. We were having an argument and he got violent. Slapped my face hard enough that I think he loosened a couple of my molars." She opened her mouth wide and showed her friend the two teeth. Her friend leaned closer to examine her teeth.

Thankfully, they soon got to the head of the line and were summoned by one of the tellers. The memory is still vivid for me.

A few years later, walking home on Broadway, there was a young woman who appeared to be talking to herself in a very loud voice. Another crazy person, I thought. So young to be talking to herself, I thought. But as I moved quickly to pass her, I realized she was speaking to someone on her cell phone, talking into the wire attached to the phone on which there was a small microphone. Again, without needing to strain to pay attention I could hear every word she said. They were talking about meeting that evening at a local restaurant. All very benign, but evidence that the culture was shifting. I realized we would soon have no need for the phone booths with accordion doors that were still common on urban streets.

Some time after that I was in Washington for a meeting with Alaska Senator Ted ("Uncle Ted") Stevens. He was the chair of the all-powerful Appropriations Committee and I was, I confess, seeking his support for a $20.0 million earmark for a promising public school reform project that, to lubricate the process of seeking his help, we were more than willing to bring to his state.

He was about to be term-limited out of the chairmanship so the timing was urgent. 

We spoke about the project (which he later arranged to be funded) and then he told me that as a consolation for losing the Appropriations chair, he was to become the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. He wasn't, to tell the truth, happy about this. It was a much less powerful position.

"One thing I'm concerned about," he said, "is the responsibility for protecting internet security. Really, privacy. And to be honest with you, I'm 82 years old, and don't know anything about the internet or, for the matter, computers."

"So, what are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'll tell you what I already did," he said, smiling, "I asked my youngest staffers to do a little looking around and see what they could learn about me on the internet. You know, when and where I was born, where I live, who I'm married to. Things of that sort. I told them to get back to me in a week or so and they said no problem."

"I think I know where this is going," I said.

"Well, later in the day, the same day, they appeared in my doorway holding stacks and stakes of paper. 'What's all that?' I asked them. They told me it was what they had already come up with on the internet. You wouldn't believe what they found in just a few hours."

"I would," I whispered. He was on a roll and I didn't want to interrupt him.

"You know I have six kids. Well, not only did they find out everything about Cathy-Ann and me but also about them. Where they were born, how old they are, where they went to school, what they studied, and what they did after college. Also, where they live, and if they owned a house how much they paid for it. They even knew about their student loans and any mortgages on their properties."

He shrugged his shoulders, "And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's enough to say that everything's out there to be found by anyone who knows how to do that. And my staffers told me how easy that is. From what they explained to me I understood why it only took a couple of hours to gather all that information."

"This is terrible," I said, "And so as the about-to-be chair of the Commerce Committee what are you thinking about doing?"

He stared off into space, "Probably nothing."

"Nothing?" I was incredulous. Remember, it was years ago. For most of us knowing about the power of the internet was rather new.

"It's too late," he said, "No one in Congress cares anything about this. They think it's good for business. No one gives a rat's ass about privacy. As I said, it's all over."

This was 2005 and from an 82-year-old senator from Alaska who never turned on a computer. He was still able to see the future.

"It's over. It's all over," he said as I thanked him and turned to leave.

Senater (Uncle Ted) Stevens

November 28, 2017--The Highways of North Korea

Recently there were two dramatic attempts to escape from North Korea. One was caught on videotape as the defector raced south along a highway that led to South Korea and freedom.

On the tape we see him chased by North Korea border guards who fired 45 shots at him. Five struck home. Amazingly he was not killed, but rather was rescued by five South Korean soldiers who risked their lives to pull him to safety.

He is apparently resting comfortably in a hospital in the South, watching in fascination a steady stream of CSI reruns.

Doctors treating him reported that like the other escapee, his digestive system was full of parasitical worms. Some as long at 11 or 12 inches! They said this is evidence of how malnourished North Koreans are. They may have nukes and missiles but the regime does not have the resources or inclination to feed or treat its citizens.

The tape went viral. I asked Rona if she had seen it. She hadn't so we found it on YouTube. There it was in real time and slow-motion.

"Amazing," Rona said. "What a brutal situation." 

She leaned closer to the computer screen to get a better look at the escape. "Did you see that highway?"

"Highway?"

"The road he raced down."

"I didn't notice it."

"Take another look." We played the tape again.

"I think I see what you mean."

"How perfect the road surface is."

"I see that now," I said.

"Not a crack in it, no potholes, no bumps, no deterioration."

"Even the left-turn graphic on the surface looks as if it was just painted."

"When you think about the roads in Maine and New York City," Rona said, "it makes me angry that ours and our bridges are collapsing while those in about the poorest country in the world are in perfect shape."

"So when it comes to infrastructure who lives in a Third World country?"

Rona not answering was the answer.

June 26, 2017--Jack: Love the Shove

I will return tomorrow to the reprieve of a few of my Midcoast stories because today I can't resist passing along a report about my latest conversation with Jack--

Love the Shove

"I know you're going crazy trying to figure out why Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls." Jack was in the Bristol Diner, sounding full of himself.

I confessed that was true, that I was going a little crazy, but said, "You call a 36 percent approval rating in the polls doing well? To me that sounds like trouble."

"The latest one has him at 40 percent. This after firing Comey and the naming of a special counsel."

"Which poll is that?"

"The Harvard-Harris."

"Like the Rasmussen," I said, "this one is a Republican-oriented poll. But, you're right--40 percent, 36 percent, however you slice and dice it, I would think he'd be in the low 30s. So I'm still trying to figure out why he's doing as well as he seems to be. In the polls, I mean."

"That's why I stopped by--to help you out."

"I'm listening."

"Do you like Jeanne Moose on CNN? She does those funky, offbeat stories."

"It's Jeanne Moos, and to tell you the truth she's not my cup of tea. She's a little too full of herself for my taste."

"Did you see the one she did last week with that pollster Frank Luntz?"

"I missed it."

"Maybe I can find it on my smart phone. YouTube probably has it." He began to fiddle with his phone, "Luntz  has this group of 20 Republicans he uses as a focus group to gather opinions about politics and other things. This time, among other issues, he asked his people what they thought about Trump shoving past the prime minister of Montenegro during the NATO summit in Brussels. You probably saw videos of that. How Trump literally pushed him aside. All the media people and the diplomatic types, of course, presented this as an example of Trump's boorish behavior and his bullying. I'm sure you viewed it that way too."

"Indeed, I did," I said, "It was outrageous."

"Well, take a look at the reactions of the Luntz people. It will tell you everything you need to know." He slid the phone across the table. "When you're ready, just click on this."

He showed me what to do, knowing I have no idea how to use a smart phone.

Luntz told Moos he was surprised by the group's reaction. He expected them to be divided in their responses. But they have a meter that they use to project on the screen the aggregate of the focus group's opinions, favorable or unfavorable, and when the group was shown the video of Trump pushing himself to the front of the line, their collective reaction literally went off the chart.

One woman said, "We love it! We're America! We weren't rude. We're dominant!"

Noting this was a NATO meeting and since we pay a disproportionate amount of the cost of NATO, one man said, "It's our party. We paid for this party. After eight years, he's made America great again."

Animated, another woman said, "He was just going to the front of the line where he belongs." The rest of them murmured their agreement.

Jack said, "So there you have it. Trump is making his people feel good about themselves."

"By his boorish behavior?"

"Now you're getting the point. People like you are repelled by his behavior, thinking it's inappropriate for a president."

"Indeed we do. Indeed I do. Worse than inappropriate."

"But it's this very kind of behavior that excites his people. It makes them feel, well, great again."

"Sad to say." I took a deep breath.

"You're repulsed, they're energized. They see him to be authentic. They see you to be tangled up in political correctness. He sums up for them how they feel about the elites. He says things to and about them that they have always felt but didn't have the audacity or self confidence to express. In other words, he represents them. Warts and all. Especially the warts part."

"What a country. How can it be that 40 percent of Americans think he's doing a good job."

I wasn't asking Jack, but muttering to myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt7_BSI3faY

June 18, 2013--Big Data

In Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier write--

Internet companies have been particularly swamped [by data]. 

Google processes more than 24 petabytes of data per day, a volume that is thousands of times the quantity of all printed materials in the U.S. Library of Congress. Facebook, a company that didn't exist a decade ago, gets more than 10 million new photos uploaded every hour. Facebook members click a "like" button or leave a comment nearly three billion times per day, creating a digital trail that the company can mine to learn about users' preferences. Meanwhile, the 800 million monthly users of Google's You Tube service upload over an hour of video every second. The number of messages on Twitter grows around 200 percent a year and by 2012 had exceeded 400 million tweets a day.

Think about it.