Encryption and the 2016 Election

Encryption and the 2016 Election

Did anybody see the US Republican debate a few nights ago? The main issues were terrorism and national security. Technology encryption is a big part of this debate.

Encryption is a way to communicate online messages so only the sender and recipient can interpret it. This method has been controversial since the 1990s. But this year, with the rise if ISIS and terrorist attacks from Paris, France to San Bernardino, CA, the issue has become a matter of life and death. Where does your favorite candidate stand? Democrat front-runner Hilary Clinton talked loosely about encryption. But earlier this year with Silicon Valley leaders, she called on them to have serious conversations with legislation about encryption. Rival Bernie Sanders hasn’t said much about encryption. In an interview, Sanders expresses fear we’re moving toward a Big Brother society and vows to fight for privacy rights. On the Republican side, front-runner Donald Trump vows to shut out ISIS’s internet connection by any means necessary. Ted Cruz said the USA Freedom Act and giving data collection from the NSA to phone companies could help track terror threats. Marco Rubio wants the Feds and private corporations to share more information to prevent terrorism. The most interesting candidate in this issue is Dr. Ben Carson. His website has high level encryption to process donations, he’s open to surveillance on schools and religious institutions.

Of all these stances on encryption, Dr. Carson’s worries me the most. On one hand, he uses encryption to protect his donors. I’m glad he is. He knows how easy it is for hackers to break into his website. But yet Dr. Carson seems to have little problems with infringing on people’s freedom of religion or education in the name of fighting terrorism. That’s my problem. I know it’s a dangerous, evil world out there. I don’t expect it to get any better in 2016. But we need to fight terrorism without turning into the Big Brother society Bernie Sanders warns about. So far, none of these candidates have a good answer. Do you?

Brazil vs WhatsApp

Brazil vs WhatsApp

Let’s talk about one of the fastest growing apps in technology today, the WhatsApp. The message app has become so popular and so effective even Facebook bought it out and put WhatsApp in it’s lineup. Apparently, one nation isn’t so impressed.

The Brazilian government orders cable and telecommunication companies to censor WhatsApp for 48 hours. The app was blocked because WhatsApp didn’t respond properly to a criminal case. ?The blocking wasn’t in response to catching a serial killer, drug cartel, terrorist organization or hate group. It was in response to a petitioner seeking an injunction against the company! Brazilian telecom companies have been campaigning for their government to limit free VOIP (Voice Over Internet Services). According to a high ranking criminal court in Sao Paulo, WhatsApp didn’t respond to a court order. Prosecutors requested, and got, a blockage of WhatsApp services for 48 hours. Naturally, the app company expressed great disappointment in this ruling. Keep in mind 93%of Brazilian regular online users access Whats App to help avoid astronomical phone service costs. Some Brazilian phone companies even want this app declared illegal. In response, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum?accused Brazil of isolating itself from the rest of the world. Nobody knows who the petitioner is.

And it’s not stopping Brazilians from messaging either. Rival company Telegram gained 1.5 million new customers since this fiasco began! I should call this whole situation more than a fiasco. I call it a borderline shootout situation between WhatsApp and Brazilian telecom corporations. And the Brazilian people are caught in the crossfire. They didn’t ask for this. Business wise, I understand telecom companies are losing money. But if they lower their prices to an affordable rate, maybe the people wouldn’t have to turn to WhatsApp. Do they ever think of that? The year 2015 hasn’t been kind to Brazil at all. They’ve dealt with economic recession, environmental ?problems, political unrest, and more. They don’t need this, especially with the Olympics coming their way next year. Don’t you think shutting down a global messenger app is a little extreme to solve this dispute? Why take it out on the people?

Twitter’s Year in Review

Twitter’s Year in Review

There are still 25 days left in 2015. Yet some are already looking back on the past eleven months and six days. For example, Twitter has a year-end review. Some results might surprise you.

According to 2015 Twitter, the most influential news stories were the terrorist attacks in Paris, terrorist group ISIS and US Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage for all 50 US states. Other heavily tweeted stories include the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality. In technology, the most tweeted about gadgets were the iPad and iPhone. The top tweeted about new technologies include the Sound Cloud and Periscope. One Direction was the top tweeted music group. Top tweeted TV shows include Empire and The Walking Dead. In sports, international soccer took four of the top ten tweets. The NFL was the top American based sports tweet, and that was fifth of the polls. Others include NBA basketball, ML Baseball, and surprisingly, World Wrestling Entertainment. Top tweeted celebrities include Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez. And then there are the emojis. The leading emoji is a smiley face with tears (means laughing so hard he’s crying). But when I look at many events of 2015, I think the third most popular emoji sums it up: the sad face in tears.

There are many surprises here. When I think about the year Taylor Swift had, why isn’t she on the top tweeted list? And the sports list proves the USA sports don’t exactly dominate the world scene like we think they do. And when didn’t any specific sports team make the top 10 tweeted sports list? Why was WWE tweeted? This is their worst year in two decades. In politics, notice none of the 2016 presidential candidates on either side. Here is the Twitter year in review. See if for yourself. What is missing from this list? What shouldn’t be there at all?

ISIS, Social Media and San Bernardino

ISIS, Social Media and San Bernardino

On Wednesday, December 2nd, Syed Farook and his wife?Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a work related Christmas party in San Bernardino, California. Fourteen innocent people were killed; dozens more were wounded, a town is scarred, and a nation is crying out, “Oh no. Not again.”

Facebook executives discovered Tashfeen Malik, one of the shooters, posted a macabre message the very morning of the deadly attack. It was posted under an alias account which has since been removed. It turns out Malik posted her dedication and allegiance to terrorist group ISIS, or Islamic State of the Levant. Some terrorist experts say Malik’s posting may have revealed she and her husband were deeply influenced by ISIS, and not officially a part of this terrorist group. But a federal law enforcement official confirmed Malik pledged allegiance to the group under a false name, then deleted ?the message right before the shootings began. Law enforcement officers aren’t allowed to go into detail because of anonymity; they couldn’t talk about it anymore because of the investigation. But this Facebook posting gives a clear motive for why her and her husband shot up the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino (Farook attended the party as an employee).

But ISIS and other terrorist groups have used social media as a recruiting tool for years. That’s how they’ve been able to recruit thousands from the United States and other Western nations. They even show You Tube videos of themselves serving ice cream to children in impoverished neighborhoods in Syria and Iraq. They use social media to reach out to people who have very little going for them or who are in a very venerable position. Then these terrorists tell them whatever they want to hear. They use a combination of demonic charm/charisma and social media to continue their deadly and destructive work. It’s not social media that’s bad. It’s the person behind the keyboard you need to watch, and when will it ever end?

We at Computer Geeks would like to extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of those who perished in the senseless tragic recent shootings in San Bernardino, California.

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon Wins Black Friday Race

Amazon Wins Black Friday Race

There’s still three weeks left until Christmas Eve. There’s plenty of shopping season left. But when you look at the last Black Friday, Amazon didn’t just win that race…they dominated!

According to a tracking app called Slice Intelligence Amazon accounted for over 35% of?online?Black Friday sales last week. Electronic retail giant Best Buy placed a distant second, only getting 8 percent of online sales. Rounding out the top five are Macy’s at 3.38 percent, Walmart at 3.35 percent and Nordstrom at 3.11 percent. That’s right: these three retail corporations only got a combined 10% of online Black Friday sales. Amazon itself bragged of it’s online success, claiming a record year for Amazon based product sales. Overall, Black Friday sales rose 7 percent. Some online stores, like Wayfair, tripled in Black Friday sales. This trend continued through Cyber Monday. Amazon did well here, too. But Cyber Monday 2015 was good to Ebay. Their online mobile sales increased 13 percent. Payment processing company Pay Pal says the biggest sales came from toys, electronics and cosmetics. In a statement, Amazon VP of Amazon Devices Dave Limp said millions will be playing with Amazon devices this year. Without giving specifics, hundreds of thousands of Kindle products were sold over this big shopping weekend.

What does this mean? Does it mean an improving economy? Maybe. But there’s a deeper meaning here. People are tired of long lines and fights at the store. More people have mobile devices than ever before. So these factors, and others, mean mobile holiday shopping is the trend of the future. Amazon is the first to cater to this trend, and they do so well. Other major retailers like Ebay are catching on. Then there’s Walmart. They got only 3% of the Black Friday online pie. Maybe it’s because so many of their customers are still in the long lines and wrestling over the last TV or crock pot. Walmart can make it a lot easy on themselves and their consumers by investing more time, effort, and advertising on online sales, especially mobile sales. Or does America’s biggest retailer like long lines and fights?

Small Business Saturday and the Internet

Happy Small Business Saturday! Because they’re some of us who don’t like long lines, big crowds, snarling, pushing, trampling, fighting. This day is for us, and the Internet helps promote it.

One may think the Internet favors mega corporations because of they have most of the online superstores and most of the online advertising. But that’s just part of the story. Smartphones and cloud computing often give small businesses an upper edge. Accounting and inventory can be purchased, managed and used through automation services at high quality levels. And since over 90% of Americans own a smartphone, these small business needs can be worked on at any time. Cloud and smartphone technologies give them more time to innovate. In fact, it’s easier for small businesses to innovate because big, global corporations because of the scale of a major corporation. Don’t forget, a mom and pop website can get just as many hits, and as many sales as Amazon and Walmart. This may not happen often, but the technology, and the potential, is always there. All that’s needed is shipping, and shipping companies don’t discriminate based on business size. Add the business owner’s potential to the growing consumer sentiment about local businesses. Last year, consumers spent $5.7 billion of Small Business Saturday alone. This trend has no sign of slowing down.

I try to be as non-bias as possible at times with these blogs, but I can’t with this one. I’m glad people are taking note of Small Business Saturday. Thankfully, technology makes it a level playing field. And that’s good for everybody. Let’s not forget: American free-market enterprise is because of small business. Believe it or now, even Walmart and Target were once small businesses. And I’m happy small businesses can stand on their own without getting shut down or merged out. Whey should the big-time mega corporations have all the fun?

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