AGGRESSIVE APPS: PROGRAMERS AS CYBERBULLIES

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Cyberbullying, ethics, information technology, social networks

(image culled from kernhigh.org )

You seldom find a programmer who is unappreciative of the fame that the cyber age has bestowed on him/her. The new-age “super heroes”, as some would claim, are having their fair share of world dominance at the moment. Maybe it’s because of our indispensable skill set, or maybe it’s because we have earned ourselves the most publicized revolution in history – considering the fact that the discovery of Bacteria used to be more popular than the constant re-invention of the smart phone – but one thing is certain, programmers love the lime-light…(and like the celebs)maybe too much!

Research shows that cyberbullying is on the rise. It is my opinion that its definition should be broadened to include a new type of cyberbullying which now exists in the form of aggressive apps, and this time the bullying is being perpetrated by those who should defend the universe – programmers. The world is daily bombarded with downloadable apps, most of which are not scrutinized by a standards organization or an ethics panel of some sort; any programmer can launch an app of any kind onto the internet platform for mass consumption without thorough vetting of the features and functionalities of the application or proper investigation of the motivation and mindset of the developer(s). The case in point is, an unchecked system will crumble on itself soon enough.

It’s easy to attribute reason for articles like this to the “black hats”, but how much do we know of the activities of the so-called “white and grey hats”? Recently, applications have been given enhanced functionalities that were previously attributed to the notorious “invasive tactics” of hacking. In a bid to garner more “hits” from unsuspecting users (thereby increasing income), applications that were formerly “safe and reasonable” have turned aggressive, further stripping the user of cyber surfing freedom. A typical example of this aggression is evident in several apps; the “right key” of the mouse or touchpad is assigned a “single-click” action for conventional “double-click” events. So a blog reader, for example, who intends to open up a URL in a different tab would end up loading this new page with a   single click of the right-key. This simple act, which may not seem like much initially, robbed the reader of the options in the pop-up menu, and a potential choice. Eventually, the “bounce-rate” of that blog is increased and interest wanes – a potential customer/client/partner is lost!

The ever increasing “compulsory” ads on YouTube that must be viewed before proceeding to ones video of choice; the touch event-listeners on the Blackberry (BBM) messenger that swap the notification you intended to view with an ad; the super-aggressive bubble of the Facebook messenger which submerges any other app you may be interested in as soon as it pops-up; the “compulsory” ads associated with yahoo videos which warn you against attempting to skip with the threat to serve you more (“click here to see more”); the endless request by commercially optimized sites to install cookies (sometimes blaming it on the browser); are examples of aggression from programmers which constantly frustrate users.

The definition of cyberbullying clearly highlights intimidation and threat via electronic communication (which is what is obtainable in quite a number of the popular apps available worldwide) as standout features. These omen is played down apparently because of the great demand for the services that these applications offer. Granted…there is need for optimization and commercialization via information retrieval and advert distribution, but programmatically intimidating the client to achieve ones targets is a blow below the belt for the helpless users who find themselves lured further into the beckoning arms of uncontrolled programmers through the mouth watery functionalities of our genius inventions.

As developers, we must remember that the user is the goose that lays our golden eggs, not vice versa. It is important to note that people usually gravitate to a place of greater peace – where choice isn’t a luxury but a fundamental right. An application that is more subtle in its approach would eventually generate greater traffic.

AVOID iFRAUDSTERS: Do it yourself

The internet is buzzing with all sorts of appealing social networks, groups, associations – the good and bad kind – and the ability to know the difference is the patch that will keep your boat afloat. Ignorant surfers are lunch for hackers. However safe one may feel behind the firewall of an updated antivirus, there is something the software can’t do for you just yet – it can’t reason for you.

(image culled from dqweek)

It is still the responsibility of internet surfers to apply reasoning when dealing on a platform as precarious as the World Wide Web. The antivirus may stop a spyware but won’t stand a chance against anything that appeals to the surfer’s emotions. The hackers know this and seem to have switched their game plan – applying a bit of emotional intelligence (in a diabolical way) to get the internet surfers to “willingly” submit personal details into their databases.

Disguise is a veteran strategy of internet fraudsters (iFraudsters). Take Nigeria for instance, the issue with cable television providers and their avalanche of disgruntled customers can very easily become a hack tool. It probably takes fifteen (15) minutes to create an online petition against cable T.V providers and a minute to send it into the information whirlwind that the internet has become. Such a sensitive issue can easily garner millions of “signatures” in a short while, each signee requested to grant access to a clandestine web app in a bid to get friends to participate in signing this “noble” petition. Sounds like you? Yes, we have fallen for a few of these.

Now let’s backup a bit…. You probably received this petition via email, so initially nothing was known about you except a few randomly selected letters and a special character, but after appealing to your emotions you linked your Facebook (or Google+, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to this petition and subsequently granted the proponent(s) of the campaign access to your friends and family. So, in a day, the hacker has access to data of millions of individuals (including their relationships, an invaluable extra) by getting them to latch-on to an online petition. Now the data mining commences. Normally, this data of signees should be safe with the website that hosts petitions, as they are supervised by ethics committees, but then hackers can setup a similar website in a few hours. So, how does one know the petition is genuine even though the cause is legit?

A “whois” search (on www.whois.com for example)– used by tech wonks to verify source of online content – can reveal the group, company or individual behind such a petition in a few seconds…including valuable details like location, contact email and sometimes a phone number. In the case the search pulls up a company name, a second whois search of that company’s website will provide more details; drill till you reach a specific source of the content. Although the specific details of the website owner can be hidden via paying an extra charge to the webhost, most iFraudsters don’t do this – greed makes one careless.

A second scenario, with grave impact, is “email spoofing” of customers of various financial institutions. You get an email indicating “a database upgrade” by your bank, with a request to fill out a form; cheesy right? This seemingly obvious scam, properly branded with beautiful clones of your banks logos and emblems, has wrecked more havoc in the banking sector than advanced SQL injections. In this case, cross-checking the email sender’s details would reveal it is fraudulent. A subsequent who-is check can further verify the authenticity of such emails.

In a nutshell, you can add an extra layer of security to your online activities by applying these “very basic” cautionary measures. Do it yourself … look before you leap!

Do take note that a “true” tech savvy person lives with paranoia, because it’s better to be prepared than to be sorry.

GOOGLE SHOULD BE WARY AS FACEBOOK INNOVATES YET AGAIN!

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information technology, social networks

The two most powerful sites according to popular rankings, and also two of the richest earners in the history of business, Google and Facebook are not your regular 1-and-2 or 5-and-6, actually they are more like cats and dogs. Google tops in-terms of search traffic whereas Facebook tops in-terms of unique visits.

(image culled from pubsoft.com )

Technology wonks run countless permutations to compare these hugely successful firms, and most often than not Google turns up at the top of the rankings…perhaps not for long. A common comparison is the page load time (PLT) of each site; Google has a faster PLT than Facebook. The reason for this is, Google is a search engine which returns text results by default (unless alternative search options are applied); speed has always been Google’s priority as it limits the sites bounce rate. Facebook on the other hand loads all forms of media (video, image, text, audio, etc.) by default, and yet doesn’t lag too far behind with regard to PLT. Hence, Facebook had to work on improving its algorithms to close the gap on Google, this will prove to be the tipping-point in the race for supremacy.

This comprehensive article illustrates plans by Facebook to “kill” Google in the near future, however, it leaves out a new dimension to the plot … publishing innovation!

The improved user interaction of Web 3.0 empowers the user to create more and more content; eventually web users will be publishers of some sort and will own rights to more than a few web contents. The newly launched “Instant Articles” by Facebook enables publishers to publish directly to Facebook with a new speed level that promises to beat Google’s current page load time. According to Chris Cox, Facebook Chief Product Officer, “Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.”

The threat is simple, Instant Article has promised to load a full article within four (4) seconds, meaning that the version of your article on Facebook will load faster than on your website. Your readers will notice the difference and prefer to read your article on Facebook…this will reduce the number of visitors to websites. As the pillars of Google include search advertising and partnership with website content owners via Google ads, Google makes more money from content on other websites. It is then a plausible assumption that Google will take a massive hit to its income as Facebook gains traction…there will probably be no way for Google to advertise on instant articles.

It’s no surprise that Facebook has gained mileage over Google in recent times, thanks to mega tech-fails such as the Google Glass and Google+, and history seems set to repeat itself. Innovate or die…as the saying goes.

The Librarian, the curator.

The library system is a socio-technical structure for knowledge organization, and its goal is mainly to archive literary resources, thereby preserving knowledge and culture of humanity thru time.

Man has always collated information since ancient times, and the library has always been a central repository of knowledge and culture of a people. For most of its life, this library structure has been responsible for collecting literature from professionals, and otherwise, in as many distinct fields. . Its study is a science in its own right – library science.

For several decades cataloguing and archival science led the branches of library science. Today a new trend has come to the front burner – curation.

Curation is the most nascent branch of library science – it deals with information sourcing. The advent of web 2.0 on.the internet platform has empowered the consumers of archived contents to be creators themselves. Hence, new information streams are generated from observing what, when, how and why a consumer interacts with a content.

The largest library in the world, the US library of congress with over 26 million volumes stands head and shoulder above its contemporaries. Its huge capacity fails to solve some of the basic problems facing even the least equipped libraries , problems such as proximity to the user.

So now the largest library in the world is probably the most reliable search engine on the world wide web, with an ability to network libraries and their resources, as well as information (random or specific) around the globe, presenting it to users in their preferred formats and on their various ubiquitous devices.

This means that now, more than ever before, the “information technologist” in a librarian has to rise  to the growing demand of the information science in our ever changing world.