A long time ago, I was thinking about using 23andme. Without a doubt I made the right decision not to do so. I really feel for those who did.
Category: culture-and-politics
The enshittification of the online dating world
I just watched the McLuhan Lecture 2024 with Cory Doctorow and Frederike Kaltheuner, after we talked about it on the upcoming Feb 2024 Techgrumps podcast.
Also been thinking about dating, as I edit my book. Its clear to me my thoughts of the dating industry’s endemic corruption is still valid but if I apply enshittification it fits perfectly and is very descriptive of the problem.
New platforms offer useful products and services at a loss, as a way to gain new users.
Its clear the social dating apps changed everything for many people. People can’t even imagine signing up to a site without the app now.
Once users are locked in, the platform then offers access to the userbase to suppliers at a loss, and once suppliers are locked-in, the platform shifts surpluses to shareholders.
Indeed, you can see this in the type of adverts you see in and outside the apps. Interestingly don’t forget they are collecting even more date everytime its used or to be fair is learning more about your use of the phone if you gave it the permissions its requested.
Once the platform is fundamentally focused on the shareholders, and the users and vendors are locked in, the platform no longer has any incentive to maintain quality.
Bingo, so many people tell me how Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, etc, etc… quality has gone down.
We all know its not going to get any better… Welcome to enshittification
Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Feb 2024)
We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed with questions like will Gaia X survive? What will happen to Firefox? Will our coffee to go habits end us all?
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“
You are seeing aspects of this with even rolling stone magazine covering the decentralised and federated web, fully private internet search may happen sooner than expected and Mozilla’s clever demonstration called platform tilt.
The dark dark hole which is pig butchering
Ian thinks: You may have heard of “Pig Butchering” in relation to romance/crypto scams. In this pretty dark episode of Darknet diaries which deals with violence, scams and death. You realised how deep and dark the scams go.
AI ethics and bias is popping up everywhere
Ian thinks: I have noticed a general exhaustion/ignorance to the problem of bias in AI. This short video from Channel 4 is a timely reminder of how it manifests and for us all to take some responsibility.
Post office scandal, the computer says No
Ian thinks: The post office scandal is simply awful all over. People have lost the faith of their communities, family and even lost their lives. All due to a not fit for purpose computer system (Fujitsu’s Horizon). What makes things worst is all the people who sided with the computer system over the huge evidence of the post office masters/mistresses. Also interesting it took a TV show to push the whole scandal into the public conscious.
AI hype distraction?
Ian thinks: I liked this for many reasons but the distraction technique used by many people who con others is somewhat clear to see across a lot of the AI stories I see. I did wonder if I was the only one?
Surveillance capitalism and open standards don’t mix?
Ian thinks: The podcast industry is feeling the pinch due to advertisers wanting to know more about the listener. Spotify’s has always offered a closed platform and rejected RSS for this reason. However, Apple will start supporting the open Podcast namespace around transcripts.
Why privacy matters
Ian thinks: I recently shared this video with a few people who have started drinking the cool-aid about privacy is over. Its something of a timely reminder at the top of the year, of the importance of privacy for everyone.
The hype machine
Ian thinks: I recently read the hype machine by Sinan Aral. I expected most of the points but I did find the influence on society points, stronger than I imagined. The depth of the arguments are worthy of reading and of course acting on.
The AI hardware devices got interesting
Ian thinks: There is renew interest in new/alternative user interfaces and although AI is all the rage, our smartphones are fighting back (as the video shows). When I think about this all, I can’t help but wonder about the infrastructure. Leaning on Human Data Interaction guidelines, many of them mask the data from the human.
The word of 2023, Enshittification
Ian thinks: Congrats to Cory on a word which sums up so much about the current internet business model but also doing something about it. I remember Cory being quite critical of surveillance capitalism and emphasising the problem of monopolies, lack of agency and interoperability.
Worth noting Cory’s sequel to Red Team Blues, the Bezzle is available.
Find the archive here
Chocolate and child slavery, a bit of awareness
I watched a video about Chocolate and child slavery.
It was quite a watch and as the title indicates, there was a lot of thoughts about not just the big chocolate companies but the whole industry and the reliance on child slave labour. I posted about it on the Fediverse because I felt it was well worth watching with a warning
The same night I had taste of Hasnaâ Qori Inti, Peru, Dark 75% chocolate from Cocoarunners and was surprised to experience a small addition of the cocoa fruits on a postcard in the chocolate.
Just a coincidence but a interesting one….
The only thing which will change the big problem of child slavery in the chocolate industry is awareness.
Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Jan 2024)
We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed with potential planned obsolescence of trains by the maker, the promise of Matter a bit of let down for now and the first but not last devastation of a country due to climate collapse.
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
You are seeing aspects of this with Meta’s threads testing fediverse interoperability, roof tops being taken seriously as a source for renewable power and planned obsolescence on public transport.
Beeper interoperability exposes Apple’s closed ecosystem
Its easily overlooked by most Apple users but there is a bigger story raised by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Cory Doctorow. Apple’s reply must have the EU stretching for their law books? Here is the latest update on everything.
Parents sharing data without knowledge
Ian thinks: This short video from one of the Netherlands public broadcasters, highlights the big problem parents and new children have when it comes to social media and the internet. The punch line weighs heavy in minds afterwards.
Surveillance in the ebooks you are reading?
Ian thinks: Although this is mainly focused on the American market, its concerning and a sign of the commercialisation of everything possible. I naively thought the well established laws around libraries would apply but obviously not. Maybe they should!
University monetising their students now up to 11
Ian thinks: Following on from the previous link, reading the experience of students again in the states is simply terrifying from a privacy point of view. Like schools, a number of companies have come in at such a low price to collect as much data as possible in return for little. I don’t even think some of the universities are fully aware of the bigger problem? The case for University is eroding away every day, sadly.
Do we digitally own anything at all?
Ian thinks: There has been a number of news stories about the hostile problem of online streaming and subscription of digital goods. I found Wendy’s related post honest and realistic.
The driving licence line up
Ian thinks: The Omni-Surveillance society wants more data, and all those driving licences are a rich store of data. Will this bill go through? I’m unsure but honestly I’m conscious of how far you can get with “think about the children”.
What the platforms do so badly, local community
Ian thinks: In this TEDx talk, Shani outlines what she did for her local area to encourage people to build a community. Its a wonderful talk and points to just enough internet rather than centring it. Just wonderful.
Proton’s CEO grilled for 2 hours and comes out fresh as a daisy
Ian thinks: Andy Yen, answers question for 2 hours and some of them are cutting and tricky. I know its a long time for most people but you really get a sense of Proton’s future and their part in the public service internet. Well worth turning on and mainly listening to.
Match group will own love now and into the future?
Ian thinks: Most people care less about online dating and don’t see the connection with the public service internet. However this video demonstrates the almost complete monopoly of the Match group, buying new platforms as they pop their heads up. This is critical with a pandemic of loneliness across the developed world.
Just one more… final victory for free, libre and open source
Ian thinks: Podcasting is going through a rough time with advertising recently. FLOSS weekly is another one ending. However its a great final episode and all 761 episodes makes a great archive documenting the many projects and achievements from the FLOSS community over the last 17 years.
Find the archive here
Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Dec 2023)
We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed with the soap opera of Open AI, ai bias feeding ai bias and being anonymous getting more difficult.
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
You are seeing aspects of this with the Apple not advertising with X, Pebble/T2 restarts as a mastodon instance,
Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity is not a blockchain
Ian thinks: Tim Bray is a well known figure in the older tech circles. His review/blog looking at C2PA is revealing, honest and just what I’ll be sending people interested in content provenance and trust.
Privacy costs? But should it?
Ian thinks: Signal revealed how much it costs to run Signal and its quite an open opener. Relying on donations and grants I am amazed and recently donated, but I do question if privacy should cost, as its so fundamental to being human.
Climate change requires a new financing model.
Ian thinks: Mariana lays out a clear argument why solving the climate crisis is even further off than it should be.due to the way business and markets work. Strong warning but who is listening?
Flipboard’s fediverse podcast is a must listen
Ian thinks: Ok I’m bias, as a upcoming guest on the dotsocial podcast series but if you are confused or even a expert about the emerging space of the fediverse and activitypub. This is the podcast series for you.
How ActivityPub, WordPress and Decentralised social networks work together
Ian thinks: WordPress is huge on the internet and when Automattic announced ActivityPub support, it was exciting. In this podcast Matthias, explains how it all happened in a informative straight forward way for anyone to follow. I would recommend it to anyone interested in what the Fediverse means for the public service internet.
Self service tills in the middle of a battle?
Ian thinks: There has been so much news, discussion and debate about self service tills. Its part of a much bigger question about how much automation society will accept vs how much businesses balance between profit and loss. Not just in profits but also publicity, trust and so much more.
Mozilla Explains: Is Your Dating App Racist?
Ian thinks: There is a lot in this short video but the research is solid in the face of a industry which avoids sharing critical data with researchers.
Dating is so full of data and Elon wants a piece?
Ian thinks: This was not widely reported on but the online dating market is huge, full of personal & sensitive data and growing all the time. Facebook tried but while people may brush it off. Is it bluster? Who knows but its important to think about the bigger picture as online dating is the dominate way people meet across the world.
The era of easy money is gone?
Ian thinks: I first came across this book from the talk at the Thinking Digital conference. Its a good read/listen with lots more detail than expected and strong advice for the future of this space. I can’t help but feel if it was released now, I’d love to hear the final take on Sam Bankman-Fried, who was recently sent to prison.
Find the archive here
Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Sept 2023)
We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed the unthinkable awful end of apps, the breach of UK voters data and zoom’s new business model.
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
You are seeing aspects of this with Meta threads supporting Mastodon’s verification. the whitehouse cracking down on data brokers and ABC in Australia closing down almost all of its twitter account.
Colbalt the hidden side of the energy revolution
Ian thinks: This documentary by German broadcaster DW is a real eye opener of the real inequality happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its effect across any potential energy revolution.
The really deep problems of Venture Capital
Ian thinks: This interview outlines not just the well known problems of taking capital from a VC but how deeply broken the whole ecosystem is. Nothing better said that the market place won’t solve everything, it may make it worst?
No one gets fired for buying Microsoft?
Ian thinks: Local first but when will companies and the C suite care enough to take it seriously? You might have thought the serious damage of ransomware and malware might be a factor for the future to mitigate such damage?
AI right down the middle
Ian thinks: Although I was sceptical of the talk, there were some good points made about the problem of markets. I especially the responsibilities, coordination and the public/society interest.
A race to the bottom where everyone loses
Ian thinks: I hadn’t heard the term Moloch but Liv makes it clear what the term is and give great examples of Moloch. Although Liv and Tristan brush over the thought this is the market and capitalism in effect.
The world is a mess lets fix it?
Ian thinks: Defcon 31 has showed there is a number of incredible revelations on hacking voting machine to the Cult of dead cow’s open-source, privacy peer-to-peer networked framework.
When are we going to finally listen to the minorities who know?
Ian thinks: This fine group of black women have been ringing the bell about the real problems of AI for such a long time. They refuse to be silenced and as we are starting to understand they were absolutely right.
The awful truth about facial recognition and black people
Ian thinks: Simple as this, facial recognition can’t tell black people apart. So why the heck are we still deploying it? Its a question I just can’t wrap my head around, If you don’t trust business insider read the actual paper here.
Reality asks whats in the public interest?
Ian thinks: This film ended up in a lot of small cinemas but the true story of Reality NSA whistle blower is portrayed exactly how the FBI recording captured. Its quite compelling and raises questions about the public interest and what happened next.
Find the archive here
The problem is ultra-processed food?
I have on my long list of audiobooks to read and one of them is Chris van Tulleken’s
I assume there is a lot of debate about what counts as ultra-processed food and the result on the body. But I wanted to add 2 points ahead of reading the book..
A while ago I had a NHS dietitian and I was very shocked about the advice I was being told. Everything was about calories and counting them. Even when I rejected the advice, I was strongly asked if I actually want to lose weight? Although I had already established the dietitian had many clients and many of them came back regularly.
In short I was being told to eat packaged meals as it made counting calories easy, ignore most exercise as it doesn’t help weight lost and finally sleep doesn’t have that much effect (which I pretty much had a argument about). It completely blew my mind and in the end I just gave up and sustainably lost weight ahead of my crazy busy few months.
I’m one of those people who usually cooks my own food and like food which is pretty raw. For example my stirfrys don’t include sauces just the raw ingredients. But I am guilty of having sugar free and fat free things .
This is why I found the whole ultra processed notion very interesting and could explain so much, although there sounds like a lot more research is needed (especially around the gut biome)
In the Zoe interview, I was sadden/upset by the solution to avoid ultra processed food. Simply money, to pay for just processed or lightly processed food. This can’t be the only way!
Anyway, sure once I actually read/listen to the book, I will have much more to say and write. Till then, have a watch and let me know what you think?
Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Aug 2023)
We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed thinking about the eyeball scanning worldcoin, Tesla’s secret range suppression team and dare I even mention @x.
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
You are seeing aspects of this with the BBC joining the fediverse, all those Firefox tips in one video. and EU plans to force replaceable batteries in smartphones.
UK’s online safety bill breaks encryption
Ian thinks: Its clear the UK government like most governments around the world have a difficult problem with end to end encryption. In my own experience anything which weakens encryption means there is no encryption. Anything which weaken encryption is an open door with a door mat and bright lights saying try here and welcome.
AI everywhere, bias everywhere
Ian thinks: This is a disturbing piece about shop owners using facial recognition to protect their stock in the UK. Face-watch is a worrying trend especially knowing how much AI systems are desperate for more training data.
PublicSpaces 2023: The collective of videos
Ian thinks: All the Publicspaces videos are now on peertube and linked on this page. If you only watch one video, I highly recommend the keynotes from Ruha Benjamin, Levien Nordeman and Eli Parser
Race, class, fame and harm: our current social media
Ian thinks: I didn’t see this live in Mozilla House Amsterdam but had a really good talk with Symeon who convinced me to finally read his amazing book.
Is it time to give up on the global internet?
Ian thinks: I hate to say it but this piece has some really good points and its hard to argue against them. The vision of a global internet has been torn apart by many companies, governments and pure greed.
The Eliza effect is big business
Ian thinks: With all the talk about AI, you can’t help but stumble into the chatbot space. Although its easy to laugh, we already know there is a demand to connect with people and there is a ton of companies willing to supply them with better versions of clippy. But do spare a deep thought of all the data being shared and sold too.
A old form of colonialism in effect?
Ian thinks: It was through the tech won’t save us podcast I came across the paper on Open AI’s whisper and indigenous languages. This isn’t just a cautionary tale, its actually as close to the playbook of colonialism. Glad the author and the community are call it out.
Had enough of Captcha’s?
Ian thinks: Although a emerging technology, privacy pass could bring an end to those captcha’s which are annoying, don’t stop a lot of malicious activity, are basically free labour which is used to sell to others. Could this client-side privacy pass protocol which uses un-linkable cryptographic tokens finally put an end to them for good?
Posting without consent is immoral?
Ian thinks: This is a question which has existed for a long time. Even mentioning a persons name can have dire consequences. Two things which were not mention is the interconnected nature of this all.and the EU laws around the right to be forgotten.
RIP Free Kevin
Ian thinks: When i heard Kevin Mitnick died aged 59, I thought back to all the things I had learned through his books, experiences and the free Kevin movement. Well worth re-reading his books and this piece in the register. Rest in piece Kevin.
Find the archive here
Eurostar’s shrinking ambitions
I read a piece from the Guardian while in Amsterdam for a couple of conferences.
I honestly felt crushed by this, enjoying the pleasure of the Dutch while Brexit has clearly had an effect on so much.
While growing up I was blown away about the channel tunnel and being able to take a train to mainland Europe. But so much chimed in the guardian piece. For example I really wanted to take the train from Manchester to Amsterdam and although it would have taken a lot longer (well actually under 7 hours compared to Easyjet cancelling my flight and me having to order another one last minute, maybe not) but the cost on the UK side was a issue.
Trains to London from Manchester can be expensive and slower than you would imagine. On top of this if you get a lot of cancellations. HS2 will/could help but the biggest barrier is the border control due to Brexit. Hopping on and off is a complete fantasy now.
Dare I say the UK (Britons who want to rejoin EU at highest levels) has truly kicked the dream of frictionless travel into Europe I had when I was young into the gutter then set it on fire to burn.