“Billion Dollar Bully” Yelp Keeps Pressure On Businesses

Despite bad publicity and lawsuits, Yelp continues to tank ratings in order to punish those who won’t advertise.

By Art Keller | February 5, 2020 | Advertising, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Food, Law | Advertising, Billion Dollar Bully, Bullying, Communications Decency Act, Conflict of Interest, David Balto, Davide Cerretini, Dining, Documentaries, Eric Goldman, Extortion, Food, FTC, Harvard Business Review, Kaylie Milliken, Levitt v. Yelp, Marketing, Ratings, Restaurants, Reviews, Section 230, Vince Sollitto, Yelp, Yelp Exposed

Podcast #33: Clare Garvie on Facial Recognition

Facial recognition expert Clare Garvie explains how police are using (and abusing) this dangerous technology.

By Art Keller | July 3, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Law, Podcasts, Policing, Privacy, Security | 14th Amendment, Abuse, Biometric Surveillance, Carpenter v. US, Civil Liberties, Congress, Cross-Examination, Driver's Licenses, Due Process, Equal Protection, Exculpatory Evidence, Facial Recognition, Fair Trial, False Identification, False Imprisonment, FBI, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Free Speech, Justice, Law Enforcement, Photo Databases, Police, Privacy

What Facebook Knows

We’ve long known Facebook is selling our data to advertisers in a vague sense; now we can see what they’re hoarding and who’s buying.

By Art Keller | August 21, 2018 | Advertising, Economics, Ethics, Media, Privacy | Advertisers, Advertising, Alec Sears, Brad Bauer, Browser Fingerprint, Browser Sniffing, Cambridge Analytica, Compass, Credit Agencies, Dan Nainan, Data, Data Brokers, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Facebook, Jessica Scherlag, Logan Abbott, Pete Zaborsky, Privacy Badger, Social Media, Spear-Phishing, surveillance

Q&A with David Sax, Author of The Revenge of Analog

Our own Art Keller chats with author David Sax about the themes in his book The Revenge of Analog.

By Art Keller | July 25, 2018 | Culture, Journalism, Media, Psychology, Publishing, Society, Well-Being | Advertising, Analog, Board Games, Books, Cameras, CDs, Choice, David Sax, Digital Technology, eBooks, Education, Embodiment, Film, Food Service, Gaming Culture, iPads, Magazines, Newspapers, Physicality, Presence, Print Media, Records, Smartphones, Social Disconnection, Tangible, The Paradox of Choice, Third Space, vinyl, Virtual Reality

He Started #DeleteFacebook… Nine Years Ago

Nine years ago, three artists created a controversial site to make a statement about Facebook’s practices. The company sued and accused them of scraping data. Oh, the irony.

By Art Keller | April 11, 2018 | Culture, Ethics, Law, Media, Privacy | Advertising, Apps, Art, Bits of Freedom, Cambridge Analytica, Chris Wylie, Congress, Danja Vasiliev, Dark Patterns, Data Scraping, Data-Mining, Deleting Accounts, Developers, Digital Art, Edward Snowden, EFF, Facebook, Fraud, Gordan Savicic, Manipulation, Mark Zuckerberg, Moddr, Privacy, Privacy Zuckering, Social Commentary, Social Media, Tobias Leingruber, Twitter, Walter Langelaar, Web Suicide Machine

New AI Paper Warns of Malicious Intent

A new report on AI examines what might happen when bad actors deliberately misuse the technology. Despite its importance, politicians may not be paying attention.

By Art Keller | April 4, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Government, Law, Prediction, Security | AI, Artificial Intelligence, Assassination, Autonomous Systems, Cambridge, Center for the Study of Existential Risk, Cyberwarfare, Danger, EFF, Ethics, Future of Humanity Institute, Hacking, IEEE, Impersonation, Insider Threat, Intelligence, Malware, Nicolas Economou, Oxford, Phishing, Politics, Research, Sabotage, Scott Amyx, Totalitarianism

Podcast #17: Cal Newport on Deep Work

For a computer scientist, Georgetown professor and author Cal Newport is hard to reach via email. But it’s part of his philosophy that focused concentration–so elusive in our overstimulated world–is the key to a better and more rewarding work and personal life.

By Art Keller | March 14, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Cognition, Employment, Ethics, Podcasts, Society | Accessibility, AI, American Girls, Attention, Automation, Boredom, Business, Clarity, Communication, Computer Science, Concentration, Deep Work, Depression, Economy, Effort, Email, Exercise, Extrovert, Flow, Georgetown, Impulse, Impulse Control, Introvert, Jerry Seinfeld, Jobs, Laptops, Learning, Meaning, Multitasking, Open Office Plans, Opportunity Cost, Outsourcing, Overstimulation, Practice, Productivity, Quick Checks, Quiet, Robots, Shallow Work, smart phones, Training

For Yelp, Extortion Has a Starring Role

Yelp uses the power of its rating system to bully small businesses into buying their expensive advertising; if they decline, so do their ratings.

By Art Keller | August 23, 2017 | Advertising, Culture, Economics, Ethics, Food, Law | Advertising, Alia Meddeb, Better Business Bureau, Billion Dollar Bully, Bullying, Dining, Documentaries, Extortion, Food, FTC, Google Reviews, Janie Gilarde, Kaylie Milliken, Marketing, Morocco, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, North African Cuisine, Ratings, Restaurants, Reviews, Rod Brant, Tunisia, Yelp

Speeding Towards a Potential AI Jobocalypse, Government is on Autopilot

A White House paper on AI betrays a stunning naivte about potential economic fallout, but few in government are interested in even acknowledging the issue.

By Art Keller | June 21, 2017 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Economics, Employment, Government, Politics | AI, Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Autonomous Vehicles, Bill Gates, Capitalism, Class Warfare, Conflict, Elon Musk, Employment, Germany, High-Tech, Inequality, Job Losses, Labor, Lifelong Learning, Manufacturing, Obama, Office of Science and Technology Policy, OSTP, Retraining, Robots, Social Safety Net, Stephen Hawking, Trump, Unemployment, White House

US Intelligence Stockpiles Cybersecurity Flaws, Leaving Everyone Vulnerable

US intelligence agencies are still hoarding “zero-day” cybersecurity vulnerabilities, making everyone less safe online while creating a market for unethical hackers.

By Art Keller | May 3, 2017 | Defense, Security | CIA, Cisco, Cybersecurity, Department of Commerce, Edward Snowden, FBI, Gamma Group, Hacking, Hardware, Julian Assange, Microsoft, National Cyber Security Alliance, NSA, Phishing, ReVuln, Security Flaw, Shadow Brokers, Small Business, Software, Vault 7, VEP, Vulnerability, Vulnerability Equity Process, Vupen, Wikileaks, Zero-day

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