Favoriting Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from July 3, 2023 Favoriting

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Favoriting July 3, 2023: Surveillance roundup

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Topics to discuss this evening:

Surveillance spreading

Barred From Grocery Stores by Facial Recognition (NYT, June 28, 2023): “British merchants are increasingly using the technology to combat shoplifting, raising questions about its spread as artificial intelligence rapidly improves it.”

“. . . In October, a woman buying milk in a supermarket in Bristol, England, was confronted by an employee and ordered to leave. She was told that Facewatch had flagged her as a barred shoplifter. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld because of privacy concerns and whose story was corroborated by materials provided by her lawyer and Facewatch, said there must have been a mistake. When she contacted Facewatch a few days later, the company apologized, saying it was a case of mistaken identity.”

Turns out the woman was on a watch list due to a prior incident that she doesn’t remember: “neither Facewatch nor the store where the incident occurred contacted her to let her know that she was on the watchlist and to ask what had happened. . . . She said she may have walked out after not realizing that her debit card payment failed to go through at a self-checkout kiosk.”

Corporate surveillance decisionmaking = spying on people, then barring people from service, without knowledge or consent or ability to appeal.

A victory against facial recognition

• Artists Boycotting Venues That Use Face-Scanning Technology (Rolling Stone, June 22, 2023): Over 100 artists - including Rage Against the Machine, Wheatus, Jill Sobule, Anti-Flag, Speedy Ortiz, Deerhoof and Boots Riley - have signed a pledge to boycott venues that use facial recognition. (Find the pledge at amazondoesntrock.com, which reports a victory: “After facing enormous pressure from artists, human rights groups, and fans, iconic music venue Red Rocks Amphitheater has ditched Amazon palm scanning as a ‘ticketless’ entry option”).

Voice surveillance opens up new scams

How I Broke Into a Bank Account With an AI-Generated Voice (by Joseph Cox, Vice, Feb 23, 2023): “I couldn’t believe it — it had worked. I had used an AI-powered replica of a voice to break into a bank account. After that, I had access to the account information, including balances and a list of recent transactions and transfers.”

The Rise of AI phone scams (Insider, June 28, 2023): "someone had called his house phone from a foreign number. When Eddie’s grandfather picked up, it sounded like Eddie on the phone. This “Eddie” said he had been in a car accident and needed money immediately. Fortunately for Eddie’s family, his father was immediately suspicious of the call. . . . [turns out] it hadn’t been Eddie on the phone. In truth, his family had been the target of a terrifying new scam: The fraudsters used an artificial rendering of Eddie’s voice to try and bilk his loved ones out of cash."

• To protect ourselves from these schemes, now we have to adopt a secret “code word” with family members to identify the call as legitimate. (Or better, just call the family member back when they call you asking for money.)

They're collecting data everywhere

Surveilling the Gamers: Privacy Impacts of the Video Game Industry (Entertainment Computing, Jan 2023): “With many million users across all age groups and income levels, video games have become the world’s leading entertainment industry. Behind the fun experience they provide, it goes largely unnoticed that modern game devices pose a serious threat to consumer privacy. To illustrate the industry’s potential for illegitimate surveillance and user profiling, this paper offers a classification of data types commonly gathered by video games. Drawing from patents and literature of diverse disciplines, we also discuss how patterns and correlations in collected gameplay data may leak additional information in ways not easily understood or anticipated by the user. This includes inferences about a user’s biometric identity, age and gender, emotions, skills, interests, consumption habits, and personality traits. Based on these findings, we argue that video games need to be brought into the focus of privacy research and discourse.”

Joan is Awful, the new season opener from Black Mirror, shows what could happen to all the surveillance data the companies are getting on you.

Microsoft wants to move Windows fully to the cloud (The Verge, June 27, 2023): “Moving ‘Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud’ is identified as a long-term opportunity in Microsoft’s ‘Modern Life’ consumer space, including using ‘the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full roaming of people’s digital experience.’”

Our economy is built on surveillance

• On the news that Apple just hit $3 trillion, a reminder from Wall Street on Parade (July 3, 2023): “Headlines are sprouting up at various news outlets, touting that the S&P 500 is in a new bull market. But, in fact, almost all of the gains in the S&P 500 Index year-to-date have come from just seven stocks: Apple (ticker AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, ticker META), Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), and Tesla (TSLA).”

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Artist Track Comments Images Approx. start time
  Surveillance roundup: you're being watched in grocery stores, in video games, and everywhere else
Tomaš Dvořák  Game Boy Tune   Favoriting  
Favoriting
 
  Mark's comments    
Favoriting
 
Mighty Micro  Replaced by a Micro Chip   Favoriting (thanks to Evan Funk Davies)    0:52:28 (MP3 | Pop-up)


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Listener comments!

Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:00pm
ultradamno:

Mark! Techtonoperatives!

So, I don't check in on the weekends as much...did the site manage to keep from launching a massive DDoS attack on itself the whole time? Good job, woof moo!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:00pm
David (in London):

Evening Mark and all Technoids.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:01pm
Bas NL:

Hello Mark! Hello's all!
Avatar 6:01pm
gone with the wind:

Hey David (in London:)
Avatar 6:03pm
gone with the wind:

↳ ultradamno @6:00
Hey ultadamno :) and everyone! dunno about the massive DDoS attack !
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:04pm
ultradamno:

Hiya GWTW!
  6:04pm
hoeg:

hi Mark, Always love your show :D
hi techtwitchers all
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:04pm
chris in the redwoods:

hey, Mark and surveilled ones!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:04pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Hi, Mark and surveille ants! 🐜🐜🐜
  6:08pm
Sam:

Apparently France is trying to pass a law allowing massive AI driven surveillance at the 2024 Olympics.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:10pm
chresti:

Hi Mark and techtonicians!
  6:10pm
Sam:

I was in Whole Foods and I realized there were more cameras than in a casino. Every 6 feet there was one hanging down. So I started systematically giving the finger to every single one.
  6:10pm
Glistener MW:

I highly recommended Peter Lynch’s still-relevant 2000 documentary “Cyberman” - about Steve Mann and the future of digital surveillance
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:12pm
JohnEBGood:

Who cares? This is 2023
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:13pm
-жеи:

Vicki’s got some stories about the cameras in London. Hi everybody
  6:13pm
Sam:

It’s not just surveillance creep, it’s creep creep!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:14pm
chris in the redwoods:

↳ JohnEBGood @6:12
you're in the right place! i think that question will be answered soon.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:14pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

If you order your groceries delivered and the person gathering your order shoplifts, will the store hold you responsible?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:14pm
chris in the redwoods:

↳ -жеи @6:13
hi, Ken!
  6:15pm
Westwoodbestwood:

my kids go to school in a town where a guy named James O'Keefe -- who claims he runs a media conglomerate -- said he's going to send kids into class with hidden cameras. and one of the board members applauded it. unreal.
  6:15pm
Glistener MW:

evening, Ken! And KenFHP and all
  6:17pm
yippie:

I went to a virtual reality of sakamoto at the shed called kagami
  6:17pm
Glistener MW:

The 4-player Gameboy game “FaceBall 2000” was pretty good. I think that’s the only positive-example.
  6:18pm
melinda:

Hi friends
  6:19pm
Sam:

What if she refused to leave? The cops would have no legal standing to arrest her based on that half assed evidence.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
chresti:

Humans?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
Spikey BXL:

no face-tious remarks, please
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
-жеи:

↳ Westwoodbestwood @6:15
Okeefe was just fired by American Veritas, which he founded so he’s gotta keep himself busy now. Sounds like he found a winner
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
ultradamno:

By the way, Gyfcat has come up here before, I see it's being shut down (after Snap evidently bought it for parts and have let it sit disfunctional for awhile)
  6:22pm
yippie:

my friend is a model in an old BBC article about how to put on make-up to fool face recognition cameras. I wonder if those tactics still work on the new model cameras
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:23pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

↳ Glistener MW @6:15
Hi, nice to see you here.
  6:24pm
bridgetteanddaisy:

In fairness to the venue, artists and activists great job sticking it to Amazon!
  6:24pm
mr 6:

Rage against the Machine have become exactly what they preach against.Concert tickets are not affordable and the last tour you needed a Vaxx card and a mask.Whether you agree or not on the Vaxx it’s opposite of their so called Ideology
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:25pm
ultradamno:

I think some show here should play all Crime as Crime Day to commemorate Prime Day
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
-жеи:

That was a great “negativity disclaimer,” Mark!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:29pm
Blobs:

Still holding onto my hope that Mark will one day acknowledge the link between the (horribly corrupted & broken) financial incentives that surveillance tech purveyors benefit from, and that Bitcoin is the common people’s only opportunity to maintain financial (and thus personal) sovereignty against impending CBDC’s - and with them, an inescapable digital panopticon. Not “crypto”, Mark. Bitcoin. Hope you will reconsider!
  6:32pm
Sam:

With today’s currency volatility, the only truly safe investment is swampland in Florida. And I just happen to have some for sale.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:32pm
Webhamster Henry:

I've been trying to voice clone the Diarrhea Lady with no success.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:32pm
Blobs:

What will happen when these types of stories further encroach on our financial privacy and directly affect our ability to spend money? Game over. No one will have the will to fight back.
  6:34pm
yippie:

didn't Tom Waits once sue Frito lays over stealing his voice for a Cheetos commercial
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:34pm
chresti:

My voice changes throughout the day, how can voice ID possibly work?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:35pm
ultradamno:

I hadn't seen that, usually if they want a celebrity voice in an ad they don't explicitly name, they just use an imitator
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:36pm
ultradamno:

But, he did and won www.mentalfloss.com...
  6:38pm
Sam:

If they could hack into the bank’s computer to steal your voiceprint couldn’t they just steal your money?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
ultradamno:

Wait's one time co-star John Lurie deals with a phone scammer at the end of the most recent episode of his show Painting With John last Friday
  6:41pm
Sam:

Don’t send any more gift cards to Eddie!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:42pm
ultradamno:

Don't spread it around....I see what you did there
  6:42pm
Rolando:

Australia has set up an organisation to deal with this kind of stuff now, I was reading just this week about a whole lot of families that have been scammed out of tons of money, we talking hundreds of thousands of dollars and these are ordinary people who have saved up a bit of money and we’re hoping to do stuff with it
  6:44pm
wind:

Thank you Mark! That’s good info.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
Webhamster Henry:

That Grandpa-I'm-In Trouble thing is a tried and true email scam.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:46pm
ultradamno:

I've been getting the old "I'm a professional hacker in control of your system send me money even though you have control of your system RIGHT NOW" emails
  6:46pm
yippie:

I hope a pinball machine never spies on me
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:47pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

"My phone got destroyed in the accident. A good Samaritan let me use his phone."
  6:48pm
wind:

I saw it.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:48pm
Mr. Corey LLC:

Excellent round up show today, Mark.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:48pm
DjLorraine:

Check and done
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
ultradamno:

It would send diagnostics on your tendency to tilt to the Bally database

I said it before, but I thought Joan Is Awful was a mediocre retread of themes they've handled on the series better previously
Avatar 6:49pm
gone with the wind:

↳ yippie @6:46
Lol :)
  6:49pm
Rolando:

I had someone trie this on us by texting and when I asked questions the got themselves into a dizzy spin, it almost pulled my wife in to the scam, but I looked at the tax and I said this doesn’t sound like my daughter to me.

And obviously it wasn’t my daughter but it certainly does pull on your heartstrings and that’s how they catch the old folks.

A sign of wealth and success will be not having a phone and not being on social media and not being able to be deep into this kind of jam.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:50pm
chris in the redwoods:

i think the answer is zero years.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:51pm
Rich in Washington:

Robot dog with flamethrower brings to mind the Patton Oswalt quote:
“Science. All about coulda instead of shoulda”
  6:51pm
yippie:

I just hope the robot dogs don't start digging up bones and moving them around
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
Dano59:

Last spring I discovered that Wrigley Field no longer did paper tickets - only tix on smart phones. Hardly egalitarian for baseball. And since then almost every concert I've attended has been e-tickets only.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
chris in the redwoods:

↳ Rich in Washington @6:51
science is just a means of asking questions, Rich. its how one uses the potential answers that is scary AF.
Avatar 6:52pm
gone with the wind:

Bloody hell Mark!!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:52pm
ultradamno:

I think the most likely thing to come true from that episode is Netflix will launch a food sub-channel called Streamberry
  6:53pm
Eugene R.:

So Microsoft is trying to "re-invent" the mainframe-terminal model of computing? How 1960s of them!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
chris in the redwoods:

and those profits are from layoffs, too, at least in large part, i'd wager.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:55pm
Dano59:

↳ ultradamno @6:35
Cheetos did use a Waits imitator but the lawsuit prevailed for 'image and likeness' reasons.
I recall a lot of radio ads in the 70s and 80s that imitated pop songs/singers like Christine McVie
  6:55pm
yippie:

I don't feel as guilty investing in crypto as I do investing in real companies, because so many of these companies are really terrible for the world
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
chris in the redwoods:

thanks(?!), Mark. :)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
chresti:

Become invisible
Avatar 6:56pm
gone with the wind:

Have a great trip!
  6:56pm
Androu B.:

Hello Mark, жеи, and Technocrits & Technocrats!

My two cents on the subject of AI voice imprint surveillance:

Whenever possible, I use the keypad on my phone to select whatever options I want when inerfacing with my bank's automated answering service. (You have that option, too, folks! Exercise it more often if you have issues and concerns about how your bank uses your own personal ID info.) Of course, the hard part is when it gets to the part where it starts asking you,'How may I help you today? You can say 'I would like to ___________' or just say 'go back'."
Which I suppose is what having an AI voice generator comes in handy for.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
Bas NL:

Thanks Mark! Have a great trip!
  6:56pm
Microsoft:

Where are you going Mark?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
The Butterman:

Mark, don’t get coal rolled!
Avatar 6:56pm
herb.nyc:

Thx for the updates! Very sobering. Enjoy yr vacation, Mark!!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
ultradamno:

Keep your damn pipe bomb fireworks away from house, you damn kids!
  6:56pm
hoeg:

given the choice i'll take surveillance with wheels pls :D
  6:56pm
melinda:

Thanx Mark
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Mark Hurst:

Thanks, everyone! Looking forward to reading the comments.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
chresti:

↳ Microsoft @6:56
Thanks Mark!
haha microsoft
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
ultradamno:

↳ ultradamno @6:56
*my house, that is....anyone else's is fair game
  6:57pm
Ochre Ogre:

Thanks Mark!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Dano59:

The real news for me today was that Wheatus is still around
  6:58pm
Sam:

Replaced by a station manager
  6:58pm
Rolando:

Enjoy your trip and break, we all hope you have a relaxing time.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

Thanks, Mark. See if the park service is putting cameras on trees and chipmunks.
  6:59pm
Sam:

This is what all music will sound like in The Future
  6:59pm
Ochre Ogre:

Watch out for watcher$!
Avatar 7:00pm
Troy:

↳ Microsoft @6:56
Ha!
  7:00pm
Sam:

↳ Ken From Hyde Park @6:59
I have seen semi-hidden cameras at a few county parks and nature preserves. Up on a tree in a box.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 7:00pm
Blobs:

Enjoyed the show, Mark. Thoroughly terrifying! Enjoy your time off
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