extension on scenario: smart device

In the scenario our group built up a visual of future where population is uniformed while with resource abundance. We designed our quadrant with population uniformity and resource abundance and visualize he benefits and threads of those constrains. We conducted in the future everyone will be totally bounded and connected to the social network, being pressured to post your information, which people are being forced to be “united” with others as well as enjoying the instant connection and access of information.

As an extension of the future we predicted, I am interested on the development of personal device. “The mobile phone is an embodiment of culture as well as a communicator to the self and an extension to the body which conveys identity.”( Elderfield, 2007) The personal device act as the terminals for everyone in communicating with others, receiving information and shooting photos for daily life. With a rapid development of app interface we seems can access everything we want with the device, while the information stored in device also stands out our own identity, as nowadays we connect to the world mainly by own device. The technology are developing to make digital connections and performance more closer to reality.

There is a trend that this personal device have combining with daily life style and being more user friendly designed by making them wearable. Like the apple watch, which have a smart interface on the clock surface, allows users to use computer technology to manage information and connect with others with less distraction like pulling out a phone from the pocket. Marc Newson, when asked about the reason for Apple making a watch, said “The wrist has always been, for hundreds of years, one of the best places on the body to put an object,” and it should be the future.( Miller, 2015).

These products shows the devices are made to be small but fit onto the daily fashion.

The devices are also have a trend of being connivence, which the complexity of control is reduced as well as the performance have been advanced to bring new hyper-reality to people.

nowadays we experienced many smart devices are controlled with a touch or interactive screen. Their design are made for simple finger command and are universal to every cultures and ages.

Microsoft recently introduced their hololens technology, which applies the use of hologram creating a virtual reality image on a glass and shows visuals and data “fitting into” real spaces. Users can be able to “see” a virtual object in the space through the glass. Decried by Jurica Dujmovic,  “HoloLens will impact multiple markets, ranging from home entertainment to mobile devices; virtually everything with a screen will likely take a cue from the technology within HoloLens. Your fridge will interface with it, showing you a see-through view of groceries, along with a visual representation of the expiration dates, and the option to “check mark” individual items and add them to your shopping list. That is, without opening the fridge.” The smart devices with this application will have the ability to combine your daily life with convenience.

from these improvements on smart device we can predict that social connection will be more interactive with the technologies and create new forms of connection. The real face-to-face connection maybe replaced with the hologram technology as well.

Reference

Dujmovic, Jurica . 2015.

Microsoft’s HoloLens actually could be a game changer.marketwatch.com. Accessed 28 October 2015.http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsofts-hololens-actually-could-be-a-game-changer-2015-02-03

Elderfield, A.C. 2007, Connecting people: Mobile phone use in social, intimate and identity relations, Cardiff University (United Kingdom).

Miller ,Chance .2015.

Jony Ive & Marc Newson discuss the design, usability, & materials of Apple Watch。Accessed 28 October 2015. (http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/24/jony-ive-apple-watch-interview/)

By Mart Yeung

the Interview with Mina Bassilious

In todays world the use of digital social network and media rise rapidly in which it becomes the essential activities everyone participate into. The way of people value and interact social network media sometimes changes how society behaves and thus change the future.

As for the primary research for this change I interviewed Mina Bassilious, a product design student from UTS. He has a strong opinion on the social media and how it changes his life, in which reflecting the opinions of the majority in his age. The university student as well as the designer position makes hime more sensible on the changes social network brought him in design area and personal life. Through out the interview, I understand more on how others in my peer being benefit from the development of digital social network, as well as understanding how others consider for the future.

1. What do you think the social technology brought to the world?

1. I think that social technology has decreased the effort required to maintain human relationships. It increased the amount of relationships that someone can easily maintain.

2. What does social network mean to you? Like does it change you in personality or life style?

2. Social networks changed my life style a lot. At first some networks such as YouTube and Flickr allowed me to consume content that was important to me. They broadened my understanding of topics that were my hobbies. Now I use more platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram to to share my work with the others.

3. On what aspect will you think a society is being improved?

3. I think that society is improved with social technology as anyone in the world with an internet connection is able to build a relationship another person based on similar interests. Our relationships are no longer restricted by our geographical location.

4. In terms on relationships of cultures, countries or societies, how will you comment the current development?

4. Currently, I think that different cultures are relating to eachother at an increasing rate. Globalisation has resulted in multiple cultures co-existing more than ever before. When someone migrates to another country they bring with them what they hold dear about their place of origin. This is often maintained in their new home. When this happens on a large scale many small cultures become present in a single country. In terms of the future I think this will continue to happen at an even faster pace with people becoming more accustomed to sharing in eachother’s culture.

5. What do you think yourself as a role in the social network?

5. I think my role is to contribute to any social network with a community of Industrial Designers. To share work and feedback to build positive outcomes.

6.in the future what will you expect in technology and human relationship?

6. I think it is clear that technology will have an increasingly large role in human relationships in the future. As we now have social networks to maintain many relationships, I think we build a desire to maintain more and more – therefore making technology even more important as it is the tool that will enable us to do it.

7.do you think you rely on social network as your daily life?

7. I rely on social networks daily as a source of information, a source of friendship and as a an outlet to share.

by Mart Yeung

Extending Scenario Design

My fellow group members and I composed our visualisation based on a scenario of resource abundance and population uniformity. Technological and informational resources are most likely to be abundant in our future scenario based on big data trends discussed in the previous blog post. Most notably supported by Dr Jacqueline Lorber Kasunic’s lecture (Dr Kasunic, J. 2015).

This increase in technology and information leads to a more uniform population as these resources are democratised. Our ‘STEEP’ analysis revealed the ways in which this scenario would be manifested in different areas of life. For the extension of our scenario we selected the ‘social’ and ‘technological’ areas to inform our speculative object. 

Sketches of our speculative object iteration and final design .

In their journal of ‘End User Computing’ Hodkinson and Gammack write about: ‘Virtual reality, involvement and the consumer interface’ (Gammack & Hodkinson 2003). They discuss the trends of consumers in regards to purchasing and the increasing presence of technology in a transaction. Most notably, there is an increase in how important online purchasing environments have become. The suggestion is that virtual reality will be more present in online transactions. It will facilitate the simulation of the desired product. A stronger relationship will therefore be built between consumers and businesses. This idea is explored by one of the groups in Kate’s tutorial previously found at this link: https://gorffennol.wordpress.com/. In their presentation I was able to see their speculative object. It projected the possibility for consumers to experience products in virtual reality before they bought them. As opposed to the human-business relationship, our group explored the human-human relationship. Our object forces people to share their information with others using virtual reality.

In his journal titled ‘The Futurist’ Briggs writes about the importance that virtual reality will have in fields that it is not currently used (Briggs 1996). He writes about the practicality that virtual reality will provide humanity – not just entertainment value. Based on this point of view, we can deduce that the perception of virtual reality in society is likely to change. As this was written in 1996 we can observe that he was correct in his extrapolation as is evident in the utility being built by Microsoft.

The ‘Hololens’ is a product introduced to developers by Microsoft that facilitates virtual reality. The CEO of Microsoft recently claimed in regards to the company that ‘We help people get stuff done (Business Insider 2014). In the marketing material for the Hololens this idea is clear as all applications are in regards to productivity (Microsoft 2015). Shortly before his premature death, one of the software designers for the Hololens said “it wasn’t perfect but it was going to be one day” (Business Insider 2015).

The link between society and technology is evident in this interview with Vanity Fair (Vanity Fair 2015). The CEO of FaceBook, Mark Zuckerberg speaks about the decision to purchase virtual reality company Oculus – represented in the interview by Michael Abrash. The goal of FaceBook is to connect people around the world to eachother. Virtual reality is the next computing platform by which we will be able to do this according to Zuckerberg. Hence our object is taking into consideration how this platform will be manifested in the future.

(Vanity Fair 2015)

By: Mina Bassilious

References:

1. Dr Kasunic, J. 2015, ‘Lecture: Data, data, everywhere!’, UTS Online Subject 85202, PowerPoint presentation, UTS, Sydney, viewed 24 August 2015, <https://online.uts.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?content_id=_1207469_1&displayName=Lecture+Recordings&course_id=_26782_1&navItem=content&href=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fblti%2FlaunchPlacement%3Fblti_placement_id%3D_24_1%26content_id%3D_1207469_1%26course_id%3D_26782_1>.
2. Gammack, J. & Hodkinson, C. 2003, ‘Virtual reality, involvement and the consumer interface’, Journal of End User Computing, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 78-96.
3. Briggs, J.C. 1996, ‘The promise of virtual reality’, The Futurist, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 13.
4. Business Insider 2014, Microsoft’s CEO Just Sent Out A Giant Manifesto To Employees About The Future Of The Company, Australia, viewed 30 October 2015, <http://www.businessinsider.com.au/microsofts-ceo-email-2014-7>.
5. Microsoft 2015, Get the Development Edition, viewed 30 October 2015, <http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us>.
6. Business Insider 2015, A designer for Microsoft’s futuristic Hololens project was killed in a hit-and-run, Australia, viewed 30 October 2015, <http://www.businessinsider.com.au/mike-ey-microsoft-hololens-designer-and-engineer-dies-in-hit-and-run-2015-3>.
7. Vanity Fair 2015, Mark Zuckerberg and Oculus’s Michael Abrash on Why Virtual Reality Is the Next Big Thing – FULL, viewed 30 October 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQaCv52DSnY>.

EXTENDING SCENARIO DESIGN: Scenario + “The Mask”

In this post, I am going to talk more about the scenario that my group formed. It was focusing on resource abundant and uniformity as its quadrant. We imagine that in the future, world will be so much different. We are generating unimaginable amounts of data through our daily activities. This data comes from a wide variety of sources: E-mail records, Web browsing behavior, instant messaging, etc. With the technology development, people will invent a new way to be more uniform and to get easily connected with each other by sharing information and thought through technology. They can share their thoughts and abundance of information by this wearable device and it will store all that information to set a standard for people. People will be defined by how uniformed they are so that they need the standard to set how connected people with each other so that they act and think the same way. According to Tiffany Shlain, “Big Data allows us to see patterns we have never seen before. It will let us see the ‘real-time’ cause and effect of our actions.” (Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech 2012) This could lead to a society in the future where people will display a more-conscious behavior when using the Internet.

From our scenarios that we developed, we came up with this objects that provokes and challenges human-technology relations. There are some extended researches and some possible designs to assist people in 2050. We got inspired from google glass too, which is a type of technology with an optical head-moused display. It displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format. Wearers could communicate with the Internet via voice commands. As you can see from the specifications, Google Glass was out to public on May 15, 2014 for $ 1,500 USD. From the Google Glass, we realized that there are some parts that could be improved and inspired us to do our own design. Focusing on our scenarios, we decided to invented “The Mask”. It will allow people to connect to each other instantly and present their own information as an identity to everyone. They will also have a global social community that will allow them to have their information displayed in the mask so that we can see what people think about and what kind of information is out there. As what Livingstone and Helpser said that they found participants in their test to use internet and online social media for self-representation. They even feel frustrated when they cannot go online” (Livingstone and Helpser 2007). These prove that even form current research, most young people tend to be attached to their online social media a lot. That is why we predict in our scenario that making your presence online will be the most important thing in the world.

We are living in this era when big data are so crucial. People will do anything they can do so that they can get your information, for example the government and companies that are trying to create something that fulfill our needs so that they need our data as much as they can get. We are living in this world with abundance of data, people are showing everything about them online. Personal data privacy is not something taboo anymore

By: Jessica Avelina Horo

Reference List:

Edwards, J. 2014, The Critics Are Wrong: Google Glass Is Going To Be Huge, And Most People Have No Idea Why, Business Insider, viewed 14 October 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-glass-enterprise-business-and-security-uses-2014-6

Livingstone S and Helsper E (2007) Gradations in digital inclusion: Children, young people and the digital divide. New Media and Society 9: 671–96

Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 2012, The Future of Big Data, viewed 6 September 2015, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/07/20/the-future-of-big-data-2/&gt;

Extending Scenario Design: Wearable computing

The scenario that my group formed for our assignment is based on a resource abundant and uniform world. The assumption that my group made is that when there is an abundance in physical and data resources, new technological inventions could develop which can contribute to greater uniformity in a population.

Throughout this assignment, my group drew inspirations from current technological trends such as the Apple Watch and the Google Glass. These are types of wearable technologies that are still unfamiliar to us as Grossman & Vella (2014) states that it lives on your body and is always with us which is not the primary purpose of computers. We predict that these technological trends has the potential to create uniformity. ‘Wearables will make your physical self visible to the virtual world in the form of information, an indelible digital body-print’ (Grossman & Vella 2014). This means people will no longer be viewed as having unique identities based on their physical or personal characteristics as they will simply be viewed as a set of data points.

To explore our scenario further, I decided to do more research on wearable technologies that are even more intrusive. Due to the rich and diverse resources that we have today, many companies have started to develop innovative high-tech products such as a “swallowable computer”. The Proteus Digital Health, for instance, has developed a pill that can monitor health-related data in real time such as blood flow and body temperature (Arteinsky 2013). The pill can also transmit the information to a small disposable body patch or the patient’s computing device via Bluetooth which can then be shared to their doctor (Thierer 2015, p.27). These tiny devices are not yet mainstream but when they do become widely accepted in the future, people can reduce their risks of certain health issues and thus become more comparable to those who live a healthy life.

(Arteinsky 2013)

Alternatively, the idea of microchips embedded on humans has become widespread and has introduced many possibilities. For instance, people can unlock their homes or cars, gain access to buildings or pay for products simply through the swipe of a hand. A company in Sweden has already implanted chips on the hands of employees so that they can easily open doors and use the photocopier without the need to enter a passcode or scan a pass card (BBC News 2015). It is highly likely that microchips will be embedded in everyone’s hands not just on employees as it is predicted that they will become mandatory in the near future. This will create a more homogenous society in which everyone will follow a similar routine of swiping their hands to perform their daily activities.

Thierer (2015, p.4) indicates that ‘Wearable technologies are among the fastest-growing segment of IoT and promise to have widespread societal influences in the coming years’. This has posed many questions about the potential of embedded computing within the global design and business community. How will wearable technology integrate into our daily lives? Will it bring people closer together or will it just be another hindrance?

By: Patricia Roxas

References:

Arteinsky 2013, “Swallowable Computer”: the new technology’s trend, viewed 29 October 2015, <http://www.newxgroup.com/2013/06/swallowable-computers-new-trend-of.html>.

BBC News 2015, Office puts chips under staff’s skin, viewed October 29 2015, <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31042477>.

Grossman, L. & Vella, M. 2014, ‘How Apple is invading our bodies’, TIME magazine, September 10, viewed 28 October 2015, <http://time.com/3318655/apple-watch-2/>.

Thierer, A. 2014, ‘The internet of things and wearable technology: addressing privacy and security concerns without derailing innovation, Richmond Journal of Law & Technology, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 1-93.

PRIMARY RESEARCH: Interview with Steffi Angela

As digital technologies have become more and more developed these days in our lives. I’m quite concerned with how social technologies intertwined with our social lives. I got the opportunity to have an interview regarding her view on technology in the future with Steffi Angela. She is in her second year in her PhD research in the University of New South Wales specializing in food science and technology. The interview went quite smooth though we don’t have much time for the interview so that she limits the questions. I was lucky enough to let her to be interviewed as she is very busy with her researches. From this interview, I got to know different view of technology in the future from a more reliable resource and it was nice to see how she reflects on the impact of social technology in our social life. There was this thing that quite opened my mind was that when she mentioned how human will still find joy of creating or doing something with their hands and interacting with other people. So instead of robots dominating the world, human will still find its humanities. Well, let’s just hope technology could always improving the world’s ease of life and not doing the opposite way.

1. How do you see future from now?

The future is the result of the decisions we make today. So I think the future in general, is highly dependent on us today. I believe that the future is not something that is entirely unpredictable, though some things that may happen are just beyond our control as humans.

2. What new technology can you see humans using regularly?

Definitely portable technology, though it is not really new. We are constantly moving around places and we want to have all the devices that we have at home to be with us all the time. For example, our smartphones are getting more integrated to allow us to call, browse, watch, read, listen to music, etcetera, with just one small item. The current smartphone is definitely growing to something smarter. As for new technology, I would say it might be something like detection system? For example, a device to analyse components in food, or maybe the hygiene of the food?

3. In 40-50 years, technology will be so much more developed. What do you think the world will be like? Do you think everyday life will change dramatically?

There has to be a time when we have most of the things conveniently replaced by robots or new technologies, that we have a lot more time to spend socializing with people. I just hope that we won’t spend even more time repairing faulty systems in the technology.

I don’t think our daily activities will change dramatically, as us humans in general like to do something with our hands, and not just sitting idle. We may have fancy robots helping us to do daily chores, but most people will still find joy of creating or doing something with their hands and also interacting with other people, not with robots.

4. Do you think the development of social technology could harm or enhance our social life? In what way?

It really depends on how we educate the people, especially the more vulnerable younger generation. Social technology should enhance the way we socialize, bringing people all over the world closer than ever. Positive vibes can spread as quickly as negative vibes through social media, and it’s up to the users’ discretion really. There might be people out there who thirst for the world’s acknowledgement, so many of their decisions could be dictated by the number of likes they get from facebook, Instagram etc. The social technology should not define us as a person, and we need to get this message out to everyone.

5. What are you most excited for in regards to social technologies? Why?

Hmm, I would say that communicating with other people all over the world has been made so easy and cheap. I’m just wondering how much further they can develop the present social technology. Hmm, that will be interesting to see..

By: Jessica Avelina Horo

Social Identity—are we being closer to each other or the other end?

In the world of social media leads the connection of people we gain many benefits from the instant communication. We al notice the rise of social network such as Facebook, Twitter, social media act as a medium to allow population view each other’s behavior and conclude a “mode”, an identity of activities. For how the social technologies bring, is it brings different people from different place together and communicate. But what does this bring on changing human behavior and culture, and what is their benefit and danger?

From the movie “her” showing in the previous screening, we can find some clues of how social technology will be like in future. It discussed about how technology has start to replace human interaction, where people just need “warm words” and entertainment that can be provided from ai. In between the movie there is a feature I am concerning of: the ai is bringing different people to meet and interact . The ai seems to generate and analyzed people’s behavior in the way of brining “alike” people together. In the end everyone are performing the same behavior of “enjoying the warmth, care and connection brought by technology”.

This feature makes me think of social identity. I believe this issue link to my last big data discussion as from the big data and metadata issue we can see how social technologies can collect and analyze our potential favor, style, information, and then they provide those analysis as a definition of “popularity” or “identity” of the culture. the potential is that population with widely using similar social technology as the main social network will see the analysis as the “norm”, the “truth”, the “situation of everyone”, the “mainstream”. therefor the definition of mainstream is essential on overriding diversity in social media when higher percentage of population apply only one of few social technology medium. The social technology currently seems to make our identities fade out and combine into their”rules”——wether your friends or the “internet public” likes it, the way people communicate and interact with each other. It is about when the society is bound to people so deeply, which “social media has caused us to shift away from expressing our self-identities and toward constructing facades based on the answers to these questions, “How will others look at me?” and “How can I ensure that others view me positively?” The goal for many now in their use of social media becomes how they can curry acceptance, popularity, status, and, by extension, self-esteem through their profiles and postings.”((Technology: Is Technology Stealing Our (Self) Identities?)

So the question is, in the world of everyone is connected with social network are we become more benefit, free or happy, referring to the movie “her”? Does the social technology change our behavior of following peoples comments rather than stand out and express real feelings? Are we still creating distance between people? These questions seems yet to be answered in the future.

By Mart Yeung

Primary Research: Interview with a Technical Support Engineer

The person that I chose to interview about technology and the future was my 23 year old brother. My brother is knowledgable in the field of technology as he recently graduated with a Bachelor of IT and and is currently working as a technical support engineer for a company. The majority of the interview with my brother revolved around his role as a technical support engineer and follow up questions about the future of technology. I thought it would be interesting to interview someone who is passionate and quite optimistic about technology especially since nowadays people have dystopian views of technology. Throughout the interview, he reiterates the fact that technology will become a bigger part of our lives. Therefore, he hopes for a future where people will learn to adapt to new technology rather than letting it overrun their lives.

P: First of all, what is it about technology that you find fascinating which made you choose the course: Information Technology?
C: Actually I enjoy learning how technology integrates into the lives of people, how it influences them and helps them with their daily activities, how it creates a platform for new people to explore and share their ideas and collaborate with other people across geographic boundaries.

P: So you work as a technical support engineer…Could you tell me more about that?
C: Yes, It’s my first role and first full time job. I believe this is the best starting platform for me as I can continue developing and applying my technological skills as well as working on my communication skills. Not only do I get to play around with the technology and trouble shoot, I also get to practice communicating effectively to different kinds of people whether they’re technical or non technical.

P: What kind of role/importance do you think your job has for the future and technology?
C: The importance of my role is to help educate people to adapt to the fast paced growing technology. As days goes by, technology becomes a bigger part of our lives and my role is to educate people on how to use technology, how to integrate it into their lives and how to find a balance with using technology.

P: I’m interested to know what is the most common computer-related problem you have solved? Why do you think this is so?
C: What I’ve found so far, the most common one is basically how to- how to use the system or achieve what they want to do with the software. The most common is how to use the system because different kinds of people take time to learn about technology. Some people learn faster while some learn slow.

P: What is it like to work in the technology industry?
C: It’s fun. It’s fast paced and I’m always learning.

P: You’ve mentioned the rapid pace of technology quite a few times, what frightens you the most about this?
C: I suppose what frightens me the most is people losing connection to one another. As I mentioned, technology becomes a bigger part of people’s everyday lives. As an example, social media has become a big impact on the way people communicate. Without technology, people would talk face to face, read facial expressions and body language but now there’s a wall between people.

P: What about your role becoming automated in the future?
C: I believe there will be more automated systems but I don’t think it will replace the traditional human being as a support agent. I don’t think it will completely replace that because people communicate in different ways and they require people to talk to rather than machines.

P: To what extent have technological advancements impacted on the lives of human beings? Will we ever revert back to lo-fi technology?
C: They have helped people communicate from different parts of the world. For instance, Globalisation, everyones influenced by all cultures through the Internet and people are not isolated in their own country. I don’t think we’ll ever revert back to lo-fi technology. There will always be lo-fi technology but people have become so dependent on fast speed and short cuts of technology. I think it will be a difficult transition to go back.

P: Finally, What is your vision of the future in 2050 and what kind of new technologies do you hope to see that will improve rather than overrun our lives?
C: Flying cars, a lot more wireless technology, smaller machines. Oh improve our lives.. that’s a hard one. I suppose more efficient electricity and energy so more solar panels.

By: Patricia Roxas

BIG DATA

Ever wonder if someone actually know what you did in the internet, what did you talk on the phone and with whom? That information is usually called as metadata, according to the Attorney-General’s Department, metadata are created when online tasks are undertaken and other forms of electronic communication are made. That means, metadata is not only what you type or say on the phone, but the footprint that you’ve left behind (Massola and Grubb 2014). For example, when you called your mom this morning, metadata includes the number you called, the location you made the phone call and also the duration. Metadata is the numerous data sets of transactional information about where, when and for how long you use digital communications.

What many people don’t know is that Australian law-enforcement agencies are able to access our metadata without a warrant. As stated by Massola and Grubb again that agencies that can access, and have accessed, the metadata as defined by the Attorney-General’s Department include federal, state and territory police, Medicare, Bankstown Council in NSW, Worksafe Victoria, the RSPCA, the Tax Office, Australia Post, domestic spy agency ASIO, ASIC and many others when conducting criminal and financial investigations. This fact, although it is something official which involves government as the opposed side, is hard to believe. I never even realize that our data is that accessible to certain agencies.

My question is, will there be any potential to misuse our data? We know that police can use our data to solves crime like for example to use mobile phone data to know the suspect’s or victim’s location. Let’s take a look at our neighborhood country, North Korea. If you haven’t known yet, it is one of the world’s most censored countries. The government is monopolized by a single authority or entity, named Kim Jong-un, who took over leadership of the state from his late father in December 2011. The government also limit the use of internet in their country, only elites and selected university student could access the internet. As the BBC reports, radio and television sets in North Korea are given to households and pre-tuned to government stations and radios must be checked by and registered with the police. People in North Korea, who would be logging on at the internet café wouldn’t find a computer with Windows or even Maverick OS running on. North Korea built its own custom-built operating system, Red Star, with a pre-installed readme file explaining how important it is that the operating system correlates with the country’s value (Lee 2012). They even have this ‘Intranet’- north Korea’s version of Internet, but even this network has been highly censored to ensure that only “acceptable” information can be accessed through the network.

Computers in North Korea run Red Star, a customised operating system

(Lee 2012)

All these violations of the freedoms of thought, expression, religion are only to ensure that the government have their power remained strong or maybe stronger. Where should we go when the government that should protects us is starting to abandon our rights? Who could stop the development of technology when it starting to seize our freedom and privacy? We should be thankful that in our own country, we don’t experience those kind of censorships from the government. However, they still collecting our metadatas and they have certain censorship too with what kind of data we can access. It’s just that the censorship we experience doesn’t reach to that extent level and we probably just don’t realize it.

By: Jessica Avelina Horo

Reference List:

Grub and Massola 2014, What is ‘metadata’ and should you worry if yours is stored by law?, Sydney Morning Herald, viewed on 13 October 2015, <http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/what-is-metadata-and-should-you-worry-if-yours-is-stored-by-law-20140806-100zae.html>

Hern, A. 2014, Phone call metadata does betray sensitive details about your life – study, The Guardian, viewed on 11 October 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/13/phone-call-metadata-does-betray-sensitive-details-about-your-life-study>

Lee, D. 2012, North Korea: On the net in world’s most secretive nation, BBC News, viewed on 11 October 2015, <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20445632>

Nolan, D. 2014, What is Metadata and Should I Worry about Mandatory Data Retention, The Guardian, viewed on 13 October 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/06/explainer-what-is-metadata-should-i-worry-about-mandatory-data-retention>

Sedaghat, N. 2014, North Korea exposed: Censorship in the world’s most secretive state, Canadian Journalist For Free Expression, viewed on 12 October 2015, <https://cjfe.org/resources/features/north-korea-exposed-censorship-world’s-most-secretive-state>

Image Reference:

Lee, D. 2012, North Korea: On the net in world’s most secretive nation, BBC News, viewed on 11 October 2015, <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20445632>

Privacy in the age of Big Data

Just as we are currently living in the Anthropocene, we are also now living in the age of Big Data. This means unimaginable amounts of data about us are constantly being collected from a wide variety of sources such as surveys, computers, mobile phones, scanning machines and sensors.

In the Week 4 lecture, Dr. Kasunic (2015) stated the common misinterpretation of big data is that it is objective, machine generated and free from any subjectivity. Although, big data can ‘also reveal highly personal and sensitive information about us, such as about our preferences, behaviours, friends and whether we have a disease or not’ (O’Keefe 2015). Many of us don’t understand how much a company actually knows about us which can actually turn to be quite creepy. For example, in 2002 Target analysed the data obtained from their customer’s browsing and purchasing habits which enabled them to identify customers who were pregnant and consequently send them discount coupons for nursery products (ABC 2014). In fact, Target was also able to forecast their delivery date with an accuracy rating of 83 per cent (ABC 2014). Moreover, the bigger issue here is that a majority of people may not even be aware that companies like the NSA and other online data brokers are making millions of money by sharing these data with advertisers and marketers without our consent. Rather than being treated as humans who deserve privacy and dignity, Rob Livingstone states that “We have become the product… We are being productised and sold to anyone” (Porter 2014).

The task of reclaiming privacy in the age of big data becomes even more difficult as Porter (2014) suggests that personal information is continuously being collected without effective limitations imposed on its use and security. Hence, many data researchers and analysts, like Michael Fraser have recommended the creation of property rights so that individuals will have more control over who can access their personal information. In the ABC Interview, he explains how individuals should be able to give their consent before their data is used and also ‘charge a fee for people to make a profit from the use of their data’ (Fraser & Wallen 2014). Adam Thierer also indicates in an interview that new interconnected devices with sensors will be part of our lives therefore, both people and developers need to be taught about good data practices and proper and improper uses of these technologies (PBS NewsHour 2014). Below is the interview with privacy experts, Adam Thierer and Jules Polonetsky as they discuss more about the future of privacy.

(PBS NewsHour 2014)

Personally, I am concerned about the issue of privacy because as much as possible, I like to keep my personal data to myself. For instance, I’ve always had the habit of switching my browser to private mode so that the web browser doesn’t store my personal data especially my passwords and people don’t snoop on it. Although, after doing some research, I have only noticed now that private browsing doesn’t make much of a difference. While it does remove your browsing history on your local computer, ‘your Internet service provider, employer, or the sites themselves can still track what pages you visit’ (Mozilla 2015).

(Magnet Forensics 2013)

By: Patricia Roxas

References: 

ABC 2014, Pregnant? Big data is watching you, viewed 11 October 2015, <http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/04/15/3985934.htm>.

Fraser, M. & Wallen, C. 2014, Social Media, Data and Property Rights, audio podcast, Future Tense Radio National, ABC Radio, Sydney, 16 March, viewed 21 August 2015, < http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/social-media-data-and-property-rights/5312518>.

Kasunic, J. 2015, ‘Lecture: ‘Data, data, everywhere!’, UTS Online Subject 85202, PowerPoint presentation, UTS, Sydney, viewed 21 August 2015, <https://uts.echo360.net/ess/echo/presentation/2fb19dcc-065d-4d2e-a6b4-7e3469e1610c?ec=true>.

Mozilla 2015, Private Browsing- Use Firefox without saving history, viewed 12 October 2015, <https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history>.

Magnet Forensics 2013, Private Browsing, viewed 15 October 2015, <https://www.magnetforensics.com/computer-forensics/forensic-implications-of-a-person-using-firefoxs-private-browsing/&gt;.

O’Keefe, C. 2015, ‘Big Data is useful, but we need to protect your privacy too’, weblog, The Conversation, viewed 11 October 2015, <http://theconversation.com/big-data-is-useful-but-we-need-to-protect-your-privacy-too-40971>.

PBS NewsHour 2014, What’s the future of privacy in a big data world?, videorecording, Youtube, viewed 12 October 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8q3XjoPzdo>.

Porter, C. 2014, ‘Big data and privacy: every click you make’, The Guardian, viewed 11 October 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/20/little-privacy-in-the-age-of-big-data>.