Here's a podcast on New Books Network where I talk about (surprise surprise) my new book, 'Visions of a Digital Nation', and why Margaret Thatcher's 1984 #privatisation of British Telecom was a pivotal moment for both #neoliberalism and #digitalisation.
'We think we are studying the world - but in reality we are merely making evident the limits of our own thinking, which are embodied in our logbook and measuring instruments. The truth is always stranger, more lively and more expansive than we can compute.' #DeZinVanHetBoek#TheEssenceOfTheBook
My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.
Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.
There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.
So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?
If history had taken another path, bar codes would look dramatically different today. Pictured: Here’s some of the options that were being considered, and the bull’s-eye was a favorite ⬇️
"Notably, we demonstrated through AlphaGeometry a neuro-symbolic approach for theorem proving by means of large-scale exploration from scratch, sidestepping the need for human-annotated proof examples and human-curated problem statements."
Today in Labor History January 19, 1812: Luddites torched Oatlands Mill in Yorkshire, England. In order to avoid losing their jobs to machines, Luddites destroyed equipment in protest. Their movement was named for Ned Ludd, a fictional weaver who supposedly smashed knitting frames after being whipped by his boss. Luddite rebellions continued from 1811-1816, until the military quashed their uprising.
Chant no more your old rhymes about bold Robin Hood
His feats I but little admire
I will sing the Achievements of General Ludd
Now the Hero of Nottinghamshire.
The sentiment for this poem comes from the fact that Robin Hood was a paternalistic hero, a displaced aristocrat who stole from his class brethren and gave to the poor; whereas Ned Ludd represented the autonomy and self-sufficiency of the working class.
"Websites made with Google Business Profiles are basic websites powered by the information on your Business Profile. In March 2024, websites made with Google Business Profiles will be turned off and customers visiting your site will be redirected to your Business Profile instead. The redirect will work until June 10, 2024."
Whoopsies! "Free speech absolutist" "accidentally" suspends the accounts of journalists who are critical of him, and people whose political views he disagrees with.
He seems to have quite the habit of firing or banning people he disagrees with, doesn't he?
Via Gizmodo:
"X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, purged an unknown number of prominent accounts over the last 24 hours with little to no explanation, and then restored the accounts minutes after this article was published.
"The list includes popular accounts belonging to journalists, writers, and podcasters. Among them are Ken Klippenstein of the Intercept, writer and podcaster Rob Rousseau, Texas Observer correspondent Steven Monacelli, the account for TrueAnon, a left-wing politics and news podcast, and a number of others.
"One thing the accounts have in common is recent criticisms of the Israeli government.
...
"Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist” has previously said no one should be banned from X unless they break the law.
"Update, 1:12 p.m.: Shortly after this article was published, Musk responded to a question about the issue from far-right influencer Jackson Hinkle. Musk promised to investigate, and the accounts went back up soon after. Musk later blamed the “mistake” on X’s spam algorithms. The Hamas account is still suspended."
TITLE: Polite Example Letter to a Health-Related Website Endangering Your Privacy
THIS is the letter I wish more people would send to health-related websites and merchants when they observe a privacy problem!
fullscript.com is a service that dispenses non-pharma products to patients (like medical grade supplements) based upon doctor's orders. You have to be referred by a physician to get a patient account. They even have a way of integrating with EHR systems.
They need to get security right.
To: Fullscript Support <[email protected]>
Dear Fullscript Team:
I have always appreciated being able to order from your excellent website.
Your service strives to supply patients with supplements and medicines ordered by doctors. As such, what is ordered can give insight into medical conditions that patients may have.
You may or may not be covered by HIPAA regulations, but I'm sure you will agree that ethically and as a matter of good business practice, Fullscript would want to maintain medical privacy of patients given that medical practices trust you.
This is why I'm concerned with the HIGH level of 3rd party tracking going on throughout your product catalogue. On your login page, the Firefox web browser displays a "gate" icon to let me know that information (I believe my email address) is being shared with Facebook. This is also the case with your order checkout page (see attached screenshot showing Facebook "gate" icon, as well as Privacy Badger and Ghostery plug-in icons in upper right-hand corner blocking multiple outbound data connections).
Privacy Badger is a web browser plugin that detects and warns of or stops (depending upon severity) outbound information from my web browser to 3rd party URLs. Directly below is Privacy Badger's report from your checkout page:
~~~~
Privacy Badger (privacybadger.org) is a browser extension that automatically learns to block invisible trackers. Privacy Badger is made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that fights for your rights online.
Privacy Badger blocked 23 potential trackers on us.fullscript.com:
insight.adsrvr.org
js.adsrvr.org
bat.bing.com
static.cloudflareinsights.com
script.crazyegg.com
12179857.fls.doubleclick.net
12322157.fls.doubleclick.net
googleads.g.doubleclick.net
connect.facebook.net
www.google-analytics.com
analytics.google.com
www.google.com
www.googletagmanager.com
fonts.gstatic.com
ad.ipredictive.com
trc.lhmos.com
snap.licdn.com
o927579.ingest.sentry.io
js.stripe.com
m.stripe.network
m.stripe.com
q.stripe.com
r.stripe.com
~~~
Please note that I was able to successfully checkout WITH Privacy Badger blocking protections on, so most of this outbound information was NOT necessary to the operation of your website.
There are several advertising networks and 3rd party data brokers receiving some kind of information.
I am aware that a limited amount of data sharing can be necessary to the operation of a website (sometimes). I am also aware that this all is not malicious -- web development and marketing does not usually talk to the legal department before deploying tools useful to gathering site usage statistics (Crazy Egg and Google Analytics). However, these conversations need to happen.
As for "de-identified" or "anonymized" data -- data brokers collect information across several websites, and so are able to reconstruct patient identities even if you don't transmit what would obviously be PHI (protected health information). As an example, if Google sees the same cookie or pixel tracking across multiple websites and just one of them sends a name, then Google knows my name. If Facebook is sent my email address (as looks to be the case), and I happen to have a Facebook account under that same email address, then Facebook knows who I am -- and can potentially link my purchases with my profile.
The sorts of computing device data that you are collecting and forwarding here may well qualify as PHI. Please see:
Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates
<https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-online-tracking/index.html>
This HHS and OCR guidance includes many 3rd party tracking technologies.
What I would really like to see happen is:
a) A thorough look at what information your website is sending out to what 3rd parties, along with an understanding of how data brokers can combine information tidbits from multiple websites to build profiles.
b) Use of alternative marketing analysis tools that help your business. For example, there are alternatives to Google Analytics that do not share all that data with Google and still give your marketing team the data they need.
c) An examination if you are sharing information about what products patients are clicking on and/or purchasing with 3rd parties. This would be especially problematic. (Crazy Egg tracks client progress through a website, but I'm unclear if they keep the information or just leave it with you.)
d) Use of alternative code libraries that are in-house. For example, web developers frequently utilize fonts.gstatic.com, but you could likely get fonts and other code sets elsewhere or store them in-house.
I appreciate you taking time to read this and working on the privacy concerns of your patients and affiliated medical practices.
Thanks.
~~~~~~
#AI #CollaborativeHumanAISystems #HumanAwareAI #artificialintelligence #psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy #EHR #medicalnotes #progressnotes @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @socialwork @[email protected] #mentalhealth #technology #psychiatry #healthcare #patientportal #HIPAA #dataprotection #infosec @[email protected] #doctors #hospitals #BAA #businessassociateagreement #coveredentities #privacy #HHS #OCR #fullscript
A quick follow-up to this. I eventually got a polite blow-off letter from them about how they strive to value customer privacy or some such. Very little I can do. Have to decide if a complaint to US government about possible HIPAA violations is worth it.
"Less appreciated, however, are the deep historical roots of this convergence process, and in particular of the spread of modern industry to the global periphery. This book fills this gap by providing a systematic, comparative, historical account of the spread of modern manufacturing beyond its traditional heartland, to Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, or what we call the poor periphery."
"Less appreciated, however, are the deep historical roots of this convergence process, and in particular of the spread of modern industry to the global periphery. This book fills this gap by providing a systematic, comparative, historical account of the spread of modern manufacturing beyond its traditional heartland, to Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, or what we call the poor periphery."
"Less appreciated, however, are the deep historical roots of this convergence process, and in particular of the spread of modern industry to the global periphery. This book fills this gap by providing a systematic, comparative, historical account of the spread of modern manufacturing beyond its traditional heartland, to Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, or what we call the poor periphery."