We are all targets of information managers who lurk behind seemingly innocuous networks and apps. Graeme Addison highlights a new direction for investigative journalism.
Do you get the creepy feeling that you are being watched – but don’t know by whom or how? Increasingly, all of us are being watched by digital spies, be they advertisers, government agents, perverts, or even our own “friends”, who use social media and apps to profile us and unwittingly declare our weaknesses to the world.
The Shorenstein Centre on Media Policy, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard has published a fascinating summary of a research paper on holding digital power accountable. The paper from the University of Maryland explores the emerging field of reporting on algorithms and lays out definitions, strategies and key issues for journalists.
Incidents recounted in the study include Apple’s apparent schoolmarmish attempt to suppress words like “abortion”, “rape”, “arouse” and “virginity” on the Apple iPhone’s spell-checker.
It’s time investigative journalists took this seriously and acquired the tools to pursue digital evil-doers.
A frien
d of mine once wrote a wonderful poem about a cockroach with a creepy feeling. A man was sneaking up behind him with a can of DOOM. Little did the man know that God was creeping up behind him with a gigantic can of FATE.
It was good for a laugh but it has stuck with me.
Our digital fate may be decided by backroom techies who write the programmes that allow us to see, or not see, what concerns us.
Your fate may be decided by Continue reading
