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posted by Dopefish on Saturday February 15 2014, @08:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-nsa-is-watching-you dept.

sgleysti writes: "In an article titled, "Is the Internet good or bad? Yes.", Zeynep Tufekci explores the true powers of internet surveillance for corporations and governments, using the Gezi Park protests in Turkey as a foil. He explains how the well-known scenarios of 1984 and the Panopticon fail to imagine a powerful and salient use of Big Data in modern democratic societies: the ability to persuade individuals through personally-tailored messages that no-one else hears. He considers how this is far more subtle and compelling than traditional mass media and explores the irony that the internet which has enabled grass-roots protests worldwide also grants powerful entities a new means of influencing large segments of the population."

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  • (Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 15 2014, @11:49AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 15 2014, @11:49AM (#149)
    Computers are good and all, but stories like this just bring the message home: it's not OK to let tech rule your every waking moment, it's like selling your soul to beta.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by sgleysti on Saturday February 15 2014, @03:08PM

      by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 15 2014, @03:08PM (#154)

      "it's like selling your soul to beta."

      Somehow, that seems worse.

    • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Cactus on Saturday February 15 2014, @07:52PM

      by Cactus (32) on Saturday February 15 2014, @07:52PM (#169) Journal
      Jus' commenting, testing, poking around.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Covalent on Sunday February 16 2014, @03:48AM

    by Covalent (43) on Sunday February 16 2014, @03:48AM (#195) Journal
    We are the dead. Even more frightening than a government who can vaporize people is a government that can convince the people to render themselves inert. Dictators get ousted by disgruntled citizens. But if everyone is made "happy"... the prople have nothing to protest. This, to me, is the scariest thing about big data. In a society of educated and concerned people it's not a problem. But in our society placation of enough people grants power to the placators.
    --
    You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by AudioGuy on Sunday February 16 2014, @05:09AM

      by AudioGuy (24) on Sunday February 16 2014, @05:09AM (#205) Journal

      Years ago, during the 1960's and 1970's there were all these reports of the FBI taking down big mafia players, uprooting corrupt mafia influenced officials, etc. After a while, it just stopped. Did organized crime end? Did not seem likely. I wondered what happened.

      Now I know.

      The Mafia won. They have complete control of government. And pretty much worldwide.

    • (Score: 1) by sgleysti on Sunday February 16 2014, @03:29PM

      by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 16 2014, @03:29PM (#269)

      It seems like this is something you have thought about for quite a while, and it is exactly the author's point. Did you read the article?

      I take it from your sig "You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into." that you're a fan of the enlightenment, correct me if I'm wrong.

      • (Score: 1) by Covalent on Sunday February 16 2014, @08:03PM

        by Covalent (43) on Sunday February 16 2014, @08:03PM (#294) Journal

        I forgot I'm supposed to do that now...:)

        In all seriousness I did not read the article, but it is something I've thought about for a long time. I'm a high school teacher and as such I get to see the future zombies of America every day. It's a constant struggle to remain sane among a sea of people whose primary goal is to do as little as possible, particularly if that doing involves thinking.

        As for the sig, somebody on /. posted it and I thought it was rather appropriate...so I stole it.

        --
        You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
        • (Score: 1) by sgleysti on Sunday February 16 2014, @10:20PM

          by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 16 2014, @10:20PM (#320)

          I really appreciate the life of the mind. I'm currently in grad school doing research, and it's a blast.

          But I have always hated class. In thinking about what is wrong with it, there are a couple of important things that come to mind:

          1. It is not self-directed. You are not learning something because you care about it or like it, you are learning about it because some curriculum committee forces the teachers to teach it.

          2. The reward structure does not encourage going above and beyond, and there is no support for doing so. You can't get more than 100%, no matter how hard you try or how much you do, and you are only rewarded for doing the assigned work or studying to the test. You can only lose points for failing to learn what the curriculum dictates.

          3. Learning is abstracted from relevant experience. If I have a project, like my research, I am motivated to learn whatever I have to learn in order to make it work, and I have a context and an application for this learning. It is often hard to tell what I can accomplish with something that I learn in class, and even when the topic is practically useful, often the application is not something that I care about.

          Compounding #3 is the fact that, in high school at least, there are not other options. You're stuck; you have to go and attend the classes. Even undergrad is becoming this way to some extent, although there are a lot more choices, which helps.

          Lest this seem too negative, I love my research. I just got some great results out of it, I've learned a new field to be able to even do it in the first place, and I'm going to submit to a journal once I write it up. It's exciting to advance the state of humanity's knowledge. But, if it wasn't for my parents pushing me to do it, I would have quit school long ago, because I still hate it.

          You probably are just observing the wrong people in the wrong context.

          • (Score: 1) by Covalent on Monday February 17 2014, @02:17AM

            by Covalent (43) on Monday February 17 2014, @02:17AM (#373) Journal

            You have an excellent point. Part of what makes my career so challenging is that students are forced to be there. Students who want to learn are easy to teach...those who do not want to learn are practically impossible to teach.

            On the other hand, though, what do you do with so many people who have no interest in learning anything at all? I have solutions for learning disabilities, struggles with particular subjects, you name it. But I have yet to find the cure for apathy.

            --
            You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
  • (Score: 1) by dmc on Monday February 17 2014, @08:04AM

    by dmc (188) on Monday February 17 2014, @08:04AM (#493)

    "He explains how the well-known scenarios of 1984 and the Panopticon fail to imagine a powerful and salient use of Big Data in modern democratic societies: the ability to persuade individuals through personally-tailored messages that no-one else hears."

    The darkest side of 'targeted advertising' is 'targeted harassment'. I'm convinced the practice is already widespread, and if the NSA aren't the primary ones responsible, they are the primary ones who know about it and allow it to happen and are therefore guilty as accessories-after-the-fact. I hear so much bullshit about how the privacy leaking aspects of e.g. amazon advertising tied into ubuntu, and google advertising tied into firefox are 'no big deal, you are just paranoid'. I'm fracking sick of it. The obvious way to limit your exposure to targeted harassment is to get targeted advertising out of your daily internet experience. Unfortunately there is some serious money that wants to make god damned sure that never happens for the masses. ( my cathartic self-published outlet is called 'Surveillance Spiral', available for free pdf download from lulu.com/cx1 or cloudsession.com/dawg )

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @08:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @08:38AM (#503)

    The companies want everyone's data to individualize their advertising. The governments want everyone's data to individualize their propaganda.