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Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

villagevoice.com

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Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#51

Post by aub3bhat »

kbenson wrote: post #39

As he spoke, the screens shifted and a new message appeared: "If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended." Okay, that's kind of creepy. [Google] actually went so far last year as to shit-can its own "Don't be evil" admonition to its employees in favor of "Obey the law" No, they didn't[1]. Alphabet has a slightly more formal code of conduct[2], and it's not simply "Obey the law", it's "f…

"If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended."

How is it creepy? Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways. This might even be something that city officials explicitly required.

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#52

Post by EGreg »

kbenson wrote: post #39

As he spoke, the screens shifted and a new message appeared: "If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended." Okay, that's kind of creepy. [Google] actually went so far last year as to shit-can its own "Don't be evil" admonition to its employees in favor of "Obey the law" No, they didn't[1]. Alphabet has a slightly more formal code of conduct[2], and it's not simply "Obey the law", it's "f…

"If you see something, say something" (spanish "Si ves algo, di algo") is NYC's campaign in the aftermath of terrorism, and has been going on for over a decade. Its origins are not creepy and at this point most of the city's population is used to it. You can see it especially on any MTA properties such as subways, where they worry unattended luggage may contain a bomb, so they ask people to report such.

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#53

Post by curiouscats »

smacktoward wrote: post #41
speps wrote: post #2

The irony: "This website (villagevoice.com) wants to know your location"...

It would only be comparable if they didn't bother asking.

I don't think this has anything to do with the website asking instead of just collecting. The "wants to know" is based on browser settings to not just share your location without approval.

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#55

Post by hueving »

morgante wrote: post #42
walterbell wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's business model is based on selling user-generated data to advertisers, unlike telcos who sell network data to you . See Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff's video on Surveillance Capitalism, https://vimeo.com/110222526 NYC has the leverage to negotiate better financial terms for capturing the value of city residents data. The money generated from harvesting city resident behavior can then be invested into cit…

> Google's business model is based on selling user-generated data to advertisers, unlike telcos who sell network data to you. Really? Where? I have worked on some large marketing projects. We'd love to be able to buy user data from Google. This facile argument is really getting old. When you get a free newspaper, does that mean you're getting "sold?"

Google generates most of its revenue from selling targeted ads to advertisers. A targeted ad is selling data about users.

Just because you aren't looking directly at the data doesn't mean you are getting information as a result of it.

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#56

Post by 4ndr3vv »

ultramancool wrote: post #36
danjc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that normally having your mac address is a unique way to identify you. Unless I've misunderstood you, you seem to be saying that because it's possible to spoof your mac you shouldn't worry about it being collected?

How about an actual solution? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.p... It's pretty much set-and-forget, randomized per-AP macs and random changes while scanning.

Changing your mac address wont protect you from being identified - browser fingerprints are just as effective https://panopticlick.eff.org/

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#58

Post by __david__ »

detaro wrote: post #24
tekacs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, although that's hardly common and completely impossible on many embedded devices - devices which are only becoming more common.

don't iPhones do that by default? Not sure if it is common in Android-land by now, my old-ish phone required a custom ROM for that.

Sort of [1]. It also sounds like it's just for scanning networks. If you ever actually connect it still uses your real MAC.

[1] An older article about the feature that may be out of date: http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/26/more-details-on-how-ios-8s-mac...

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#59

Post by throwanem »

aub3bhat wrote: post #51
kbenson wrote: post #39

As he spoke, the screens shifted and a new message appeared: "If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended." Okay, that's kind of creepy. [Google] actually went so far last year as to shit-can its own "Don't be evil" admonition to its employees in favor of "Obey the law" No, they didn't[1]. Alphabet has a slightly more formal code of conduct[2], and it's not simply "Obey the law", it's "f…

"If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended." How is it creepy? Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways. This might even be something that city officials explicitly required.

The slogan and program are a Department of Homeland Security thing, so you see it in a lot more places than just NYC. My guess is it's a string attached to some sort of DHS funding.

Re: Transforming NYC's Payphones into a 'Personalized Propaganda Engine'

#60

Post by op00to »

I'd love to see a thoughtful article on what it took to get these kiosks installed, or what awesome tech is inside, or what the traffic looks like, or what lessons we can learn. How is tin foil hat-ism making the world better for those who are most benefiting from being able to access these kiosks?
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