Third Saturday Seminar 2017-2018
Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom
Session 6
“In Your FACEBOOK”
“If it’s free on the Internet, you are the product, being sold”
Don’t (be) Panic(ked)
Saturday, 24 March 2018 9:30AM to 12:00 NOON (4th Saturday))
Room B-102, (the usual place), Lone Star College – Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000
This is the Sixth Session of the Third Saturday Seminar for the 2017-18 Academic Year.
Perhaps we are witnessing the first primordial awakening of an oppressed people that has been lulled into a false sense of security that the internet was their friend. Many of us who still listen to the news were shocked to find out how our very own digital devices and all that nice free software we thought were there to improve our quality of life would be weaponized and used against us. Who thought they could be used to mislead us and our friends, neighbors and fellow citizens filling them with mis-information and fake news on which to make their decisions. (We have actually brought up signs of this in our presentation since March of 2016 but of course we now we know for sure.)
The Take-Away: Learn to be critical, skeptical, and not so unintentionally generous with our personal data. We must continue to live with this new “Wild West” world of big data. But, we must establish new norms and standards that will not strip us of our humanity to satisfy the needs of Big Politics and Big Marketing, Etc.
For those who like to read ahead, I suggest the following link to get started:
What’s On Your Mind, Facebook User?
Except from the site follows: Please go to the site and watch the two videos (13 min and 20 Min.) and if you like, listen to the audio discussion from this morning’s show (47 min) among the experts listed at the bottom of the page.
After Donald Trump proved so many prognosticators wrong and won the election in 2016, the news was littered with explanations for how the campaign won over voters in key states. One suggestion that Trump’s clever use of data had a lot to do with his victory. The campaign had used a firm called Cambridge Analytica, which had ties to conservative investor Robert Mercer and strategist Steve Bannon, to identify and reach potential supporters.
It was a strategy that combined computer science and psychology. In early 2017, The New York Times called this kind of data harvesting “an emerging science that many believe could reshape American politics and commerce.”
Big data companies already know your age, income, favorite cereal and when you last voted. But the company that can perfect psychological targeting could offer far more potent tools: the ability to manipulate behavior by understanding how someone thinks and what he or she fears.
A voter deemed neurotic might be shown a gun-rights commercial featuring burglars breaking into a home, rather than a defense of the Second Amendment; political ads warning of the dangers posed by the Islamic State could be targeted directly at voters prone to anxiety, rather than wasted on those identified as optimistic.
Now, one of the minds behind Cambridge Analytica has gone on the record to say the company was more than a way to influence elections. As he describes it, Cambridge Analytica was essentially built to be the most powerful weapon in a culture war.
The following two links are cited in Rachel Maddow: Media giants massive culpability in election hi-jack
US tech giants oddly unhelpful on Russia
Rachel Maddow, Oct.09.2017
Elizabeth Dwoskin, Silicon Valley correspondent for the Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about the slow pace of discovery of Russian ad buying and other online manipulations as U.S. tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, and Google have seemed reluctant to give up information.Oct.09.2017
Facebook “embeds,” Russia and the Trump campaign’s secret weapon
Brad Parscale, digital director for Trump’s campaign, was a critical factor in the president’s election. Now questions surround how he did it. Video 15 min
Correspondent Lesley Stahl 2017 Oct 08
His name is Brad Parscale. While Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, and Kellyanne Conway are marquee names you’re familiar with, Parscale was in the back room — operating as the campaign’s secret weapon.
He was hired to run the digital team, but over time came to oversee advertising, data collection and much of the fund-raising. As digital director, he’s being drawn into the investigation of whether the campaign colluded with the Russians in the election. It’s a charge he denies. He says he was focused on competing with the Clinton campaign’s huge advantage in money and TV ads. What he decided to do was turn to social media, most importantly to Facebook.
“I understood early that Facebook was how Donald Trump was going to win. Twitter is how he talked to the people. Facebook was going to be how he won.”
Note: Brad Parscale has been named Campaign Manager for Trump’s 2020 Campaign – so you can expect Weaponized Social Media in the future.
Here’s a table of what information is contained in your Facebook account
According to FB documentation it takes 90 days and requires quite a few steps to delete information from you account (they don’t make it easy to leave, not surprising).
You might check out: www.Facebook.com/policy (I wouldn’t expect any relief)
Big Data use in elections was not originated by the Republicans!
Democrats amass a huge voter database (2012 election)
The Obama campaign amassed a vast database about voters, which gave it a technological edge over the Romney effort. The database includes voter history and political donations, supported by large amounts of publicly available consumer data. It was augmented by data collected through its mobile apps, which include permissions that allow it to collect information such as friend lists and interactions.
If you are a Facebook user and you are reluctant to give it up, Charlie Lindahl, offers this article as credible (in his humble opinion) on the topic of how to tighten up your Facebook account (limit amount of data available to outside parties).
How to use Facebook while giving it the minimum amount of personal data
Excerpt:So now is as good a time as ever to remind you that — beyond deleting your Facebook account for good — there are some precautions you can take to protect your privacy and make use of Facebook as a utility without compromising your personal data. No single user can prevent a company like Cambridge Analytica from lying to the public and lying to Facebook about where its data came from and how it’s using it. But you can make sure that a significant chunk of your data is never out there in the first place. Here’s where to start: ….
As usual, our world is still in “interesting times” We will start the session with Current Events (Distractions) (As an experiment I have captured more text in the following articles than usual, to provide the reader with more context than usual at a glance. However, don’t let this dissuade you from clicking on the parent source, to get even more context)
Think about this: How much wrong do we have to watch until we decide, that we have seen enough, and, decide something must be done
President Donald J. Trump will have been in office for 428 days by Saturday. There are 227 days to the next mid-term Congressional General election, 6 Nov 2018. The Run Off Elections are 22 May 2018 in 59 days.
- In response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent, the United Kingdom expels 23 Russian diplomats.
- Vladimir Putin “wins” election. Donald Trump congratulates Putin over advice of advisers (What motivates our president to do this.)
- British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking dies at the age of 76.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_serial_bombings
- Public utility commissions need to implement minimum cybersecurity standards for utilities to ensure electricity accessibility is not compromised by threats. While this will take some time, utilities must secure their resources against cyber threats in the interim. There are many products available in the private sector to do so.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/constancedouris/2018/01/16/as-cyber-threats-to-the-electric-grid-rise-utilities-regulators-seek-solutions/#3cba97d8343e
And whatever comes up … You can always get a quick Current Events briefing here
Bring your insights and your concerns to Third Saturday Seminar on Saturday and we will share.
LSC-Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive, Conroe, TX 77384
ALL- Montgomery Links:
Academy for Lifelong Learning: LSC-Montgomery
Registration
Download a registration form and submit it to ALL:
· In person: LSC-Montgomery (3200 College Park Dr., Conroe, TX 77384), Continuing Education/ALL Office Building E (Room 205)
· Phone: 936.273.7446
Course Description: Third Saturday Seminars – Fall 2017- 3 Sessions
To refer to an ancient Chinese saying, “our world is in interesting times” and individual citizens are assaulted with a blinding array of propaganda from every conceivable source. The Third Saturday Seminar is about demystification of what is going on around us. Time will also be spent on current events.
Meets 9/16, 10/21, and 11/18 in B-102.
14972 Sa 9/16-11/18 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. B 102 Gibby
Schedule for other ALL Courses
Downloadable Course book PDF
Montgomery Courses start on page 36.
You can attend ALL courses on all the other campuses by registering for global membership ($55).
ALL Website: http://www.lonestar.edu/all-montgomery.htm
Registration Form
“Some part of our being knows this (the universe) is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us; We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Carl Sagan