Facebook's Big Trouble With Big Data And More On This Week's CTRL ALT Delete Segment On CHOM 97.7 FM
Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly on i Heart Radio, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away about what’s going on in the digital world. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
Facebook is back in hot water. 50 million profiles were allegedly harvested to create content and target individuals with specific political messages. Using personal profile data, analytics, predictive software and algorithms, the company, Cambridge Analytica, with investment from hedge fund billionaire, Robert Mercer, along with leadership/advisor Steve Bannon (from Breitbart and Donald Trump‘s election team) allegedly used our personal information (without explicit authorization) in 2014 to build a database that could target personalized political advertisements down to specific individuals. Who watches the watchers?
When we first started talking about driverless cars, it all seemed like a joke and something that would happen in the very distant future. Then, as Kevin Kelly (Futurist and co-founder of Wired) likes to say: “the future happens slowly and then all at once.” Well, welcome to the future now. Vancouver and Seattle may get one lane of their highway for self-driving/autonomous vehicles. The idea was pitched the other week in Vancouver by several tech luminaries at an event. “Improved transportation from Seattle to Vancouver is not merely about leisure and travel; it’s about making sure Seattle and Vancouver maintain and improve their competitive edge in the modern economy,” said a report issued by the group.