Thread by @RhysLindmark

1/ Great videos on how the data industrial complex enables puppeteers to manipulate us.

- @michalkosinski at @googletalks "The End of Privacy."
- @carolecadwalla @profcarroll #TheGreatHack on Netflix
- @tristanharris at US Senate

2/ Starting with @michalkosinski's talk from last Monday.

As most of us know, computers can predict a wide variety of things from a relatively small amount of data. Some examples:

3/ Big 5 (or OCEAN) personality scores are scientifically backed (unlike say Myers-Briggs), so there are tons of correlations that we already know. e.g. Openness --> Liberal.

This graph shows how AIs predict OCEAN with FB likes. At around ~100, they predict it as well as family.

4/ Note: Understanding this two-hop jump (AI predicts OCEAN, therefore predicts X) is a crucial map for understanding how AI "knows" us.

Instead of needing to question—can AI predict X about us? You can instead assume that AI can predict my OCEAN personality, then predict X.

5/ We can combine the above with @tristanharris' metaphor in his talk: AI's create representations of humans—digital voodoo dolls.

In the easiest viz, we are seen as 5-dimensional voodoo dolls (based on OCEAN) that the digital puppeteer can use to manipulate as they wish.

6/ In addition to FB likes, there are many other predictors of OCEAN. For example, these words predict openness.

7/ Based on faces (introverted on right, extroverted on left), AI can predict OCEAN.

8/ And of course, you can always do the 2nd order mapping (not just OCEAN). Here, the AI predicts political views given faces:

9/ But remember that the data thus far is just from one category (likes, faces, words).

In reality, puppeteers combine our full digital footprint (500MB+ of data/day in 2012) to get a much more accurate correlation on OCEAN (or X).

10/ When Mark Zuckerberg went to Washington to discuss this post-2016, he seemed surprised that advertisers could determine personality from FB data. But in fact, FB (@deaneckles + Nowak) had patented this technique in 2012.

11/ @michalkosinski concludes by asking:

Does the end of privacy actually matter? Why should we care if everyone has access to a digital voodoo doll representation of our OCEAN personality?

12/ We should care. Sometimes privacy is a matter of life and death. As an example, homosexuality is illegal in these countries, and punishable by death in ~10.

13/ The voodoo doll representation can determine homosexuality with 80% accuracy given 1 face, and 90% accuracy given 5.

Giving "voodoo doll access" to a surveillance authoritarian state with anti-homosexual laws could mean death.

14/ Given the inevitability of this tech, @michalkosinski concludes:

"We need to have an adult discussion on how to make sure that a post-privacy world (in which a motivated 3rd party can invade anyone’s privacy) is still a habitable and safe place to life."

15/ Finally, he asks privileged folks to:

"Actively deprive yourself of privacy. This helps move the world to one where transparency isn't punished, which is crucial for those where transparency is a matter of life and death.

Fight bigotry because we lost the war on privacy."

16/ This is similar to Harvey Milk's arguments at the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement.

This arg (transparency for the privileged) is a counterargument against both:
- Crypto folks who try to stay as private as possible
- Technocratic elites who retract from these platforms

17/ Next up, I *highly* recommend watching @carolecadwalla @profcarroll's #TheGreatHack.

Really great overview of the Cambridge Analytica story (and the personalities behind it).

netflix.com/title/80117542

18/ I won't go into as much detail here (just watch the thing!), but some notes:

I love the term "digital kleptocracy" and think it captures the idea of institutions exploiting data as an immensely valuable asset, like oil. (See @antoniogm's pushback: wired.com/story/no-data-…)

19/ I like the phrase "injecting ideas into the bloodstream of the internet". Not sure a better term here. Memetic substrate? Thoughtstream?

The incredible thing about CA is that it was able to do this injection w/o any branding (just memes).

It did so in all these countries:

20/ Meta note: The film itself uses social media data (and data viz) in a brilliant way. In addition to following the "livestream" of many years of investigations, we also see it livetweeted (with tweets visualized onscreen like the image here).

21/ Cambridge Analytica (obviously) used OCEAN as their primary voodoo doll representation. See the CEO below giving a presentation on it.

22/ For more on all of this, see @carolecadwalla's recent TED talk

23/ Finally, we have @tristanharris's talk for the US senate on "Optimizing for Engagement: Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology on Internet Platforms."

24/ tbh, I've highlighted the most important piece already—the voodoo doll metaphor (and I need to go to bed 😀😴 ). Some other nuggets:

- Using the Truman Show analogy
- Software is Eating the World, without taking responsibility for it.
- Pushing for a fiduciary relationship

25/That's all for now! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Bedtime.

cc'ing my fav folks (read: experts) to follow in privacy, transparency, AI.

@Ethan_Heilman @random_walker @matthew_d_green @noUpside @aantonop @zittrain @trentmc0 @FrankPasquale @katecrawford @zephoria @jovialjoy @chels_bar @ruchowdh