Why do so many people fall for fake profiles online?
by ilene - September 21st, 2018 1:44 am
Why do so many people fall for fake profiles online?
Do you want to be friends with this person? Sasun Bughdaryan
Courtesy of Arun Vishwanath, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
The first step in conducting online propaganda efforts and misinformation campaigns is almost always a fake social media profile. Phony profiles for nonexistent people worm their way into the social networks of real people, where they can spread their falsehoods. But neither social media companies nor technological innovations offer reliable ways to identify and remove social media profiles that don’t represent actual authentic people.
It might sound positive that over six months in late 2017 and early 2018, Facebook detected and suspended some 1.3 billion fake accounts. But an estimated 3 to 4 percent of accounts that remain, or approximately 66 million to 88 million profiles, are also fake but haven’t yet been detected. Likewise, estimates are that 9 to 15 percent of Twitter’s 336 million accounts are fake.
Fake profiles aren’t just on Facebook and Twitter, and they’re not only targeting people in the U.S. In December 2017, German intelligence officials warned that Chinese agents using fake LinkedIn profiles were targeting more than 10,000 German government employees. And in mid-August, the Israeli military reported that Hamas was using fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to entrap Israeli soldiers into downloading malicious software.
Although social media companies have begun hiring more people and using artificial intelligence to detect fake profiles, that won’t be enough to review every profile in time to stop their misuse. As my research explores, the problem isn’t actually that people – and algorithms – create fake profiles online. What’s really wrong is that other people fall for them.
My research into why so many users have trouble spotting fake profiles has identified some ways people could get better at identifying phony accounts – and highlights some places technology companies could help.
People fall for fake profiles
To understand social media users’ thought processes, I created fake profiles on Facebook and sent out friend requests to 141 students in a large university.…
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Why tech giants have little to lose (and lots to win) from new EU copyright law
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 6:30 pm
Why tech giants have little to lose (and lots to win) from new EU copyright law
Copyright, and copyright laws, will not always match expectations. inkninja, CC BY
Courtesy of Maurizio Borghi, Bournemouth University
The new European Union Copyright Directive, passed recently by the European parliament after a vociferous campaign both for and against, has been described by its advocates as Europe striking a blow against US tech giants in the battle for control of copyrighted content online. This is painted as a battle about who pays for creative works, culture, and the role and workings of a free press in a world where these “commodities” are exchanged freely on social media and other platforms controlled by giants such as Google and Facebook.
The sense of this battle is found in two articles from the text of the new directive. Article 11 introduces the “press publishers’ right”, also called the “link tax”. This permits publishing groups such as newspapers and other media to charge online content sharing service providers and platforms – most obviously, Google, Facebook and Twitter – a fee for a licence to link to their content. Article 13 makes online content sharing service providers responsible for the copyright content uploaded by users. Large platforms must implement filters to monitor copyright infringements and obtain licences from music, film and television rights-holders for the use of copyright content where it appears on their services – YouTube and Instagram, for example. This has led to claims that the directive would effectively ban memes, because automated checking of uploads would identify them only as copyright material, rather than allowable “fair use” or “parody”.
Unsurprisingly, publishers and copyright industries across Europe have saluted the new law as a great victory of European culture and free press against the greedy American titans. But it is not this simple.
First-mover advantage
When companies like Google and Facebook started their ascent as global players in the mid-2000s, they benefited from a generally favourable legislative framework, made of legislative vacuum and liberal legislation. Thanks to the flexible contours of the “safe harbour” provisions for internet hosting services – which essentially immunises them from any liability…
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Here’s how Trump-era politics are affecting worker morale – and what managers can do about it
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 5:40 pm
Here's how Trump-era politics are affecting worker morale – and what managers can do about it
Politics are creating divides in the office. fizkes/shutterstock.com
Courtesy of Wayne Hochwarter, Florida State University
Pundits are projecting this year’s midterm elections to be nasty, polarizing and “epic.”
They’re also expected to stress a lot of Americans out in every part of their lives. And that includes at the office.
I recently conducted a study on a broad range of workplace issues, including how the stress of our increasingly divisive politics is affecting worker health, productivity and relationships with colleagues. I also wondered: Is there anything company managers can do about it?
Growing divisiveness
Political divisiveness in America is hardly new.
Historians have traced its history all the way back to the founding founders. But politics seem to be dividing Americans more and more.
In a recent article in Scientific American, psychologists Cameron Brick and Sander van der Linden explained that individuals of different political ideologies “not only disagree on policy issues, they are also increasingly unwilling to live near each other, be friends, or get married to members of the other group.”
Consequences include marital stress, divorce, family separations and even sharp divides over national pastimes like football.
There is a bright side – if you’re a therapist and benefiting from an uptick in business perhaps as the result of a malady described as “Trump Anxiety Disorder.”
Politics at work
I wanted to see just how bad it’s getting in the workplace.
My field study, conducted this past summer and part of a larger project I intend to have peer-reviewed and published on the anxiety-inducing properties of political conflict, conjoins my interests in the areas of incivility, entitlement, worker self-serving behavior and bullying.
I asked 550 full-time workers whose email addresses I obtained through my undergraduate students to react to hundreds of statements about a wide variety of work issues, from abusive bosses and workplace relationships to incivility and health. I also asked about the…
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Was Brexit really caused by austerity? Here’s why we’re not convinced
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 4:29 pm
Was Brexit really caused by austerity? Here's why we're not convinced
Tally ho! Thitisan
Courtesy of Lawrence McKay, University of Manchester and Jack Bailey, University of Manchester
Like most bad dramas, keeping up with every development in the Brexit saga is difficult. Nevertheless you may have seen recent reports in the media, including in The Conversation, that “austerity caused Brexit”. But we doubt that a clear answer can come from a look at economics alone.
The idea that austerity swayed voters for Brexit is based on a paper by Thiemo Fetzer, an associate professor of economics at the University of Warwick. His paper claims to show that the welfare cuts under David Cameron’s coalition government of 2010-15 had a decisive impact on the UK’s decision to leave the EU. Fetzer argues that material economic changes encouraged grievances with the political system and that this led many to support first UKIP and then Brexit. By his calculations, austerity was responsible for as much as a ten percentage point swing in favour of Leave – thus tipping the outcome.
It’s easy to understand why these findings were so popular. For many, austerity confirms their suspicion that the government does not care about the poor and is willing to see them go to hell in a handcart, all for the promise of lower taxes. If austerity is also the cause of Brexit, these people see it as more evidence that their belief that the government doesn’t care is correct.
Election dissection
We are sceptical that austerity increased Leave’s vote by ten percentage points. Crucially, Fetzer mainly uses UKIP support in the years leading up to the 2016 referendum as a proxy for public support for leaving the EU. His ten-point claim comes from testing the effect of austerity on UKIP’s vote share in the local elections that took place each year since 2010.
But the study also includes estimates of the austerity effect on UKIP’s vote share at the 2014 European parliament elections and the general election of 2015. Importantly, these are much lower. Using the European elections, Fetzer finds that austerity boosted the Leave vote somewhere in the region of two…
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Relaxed environmental regulations heighten risk during natural disasters
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 3:23 pm
Relaxed environmental regulations heighten risk during natural disasters
Environmental regulations generally improve communities’ preparedness and resilience during disasters. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Courtesy of Brian J. Gerber, Arizona State University and Melanie Gall, Arizona State University
Heavy rains following Hurricane Florence have raised concerns over the release of toxic materials. Ash from coal-fired power plants stored at a landfill has spilled out and the state of North Carolina has said dozens of sites have released hog waste or are at risk of doing so.
These types of events not only highlight the potential of harm to humans and the environment due to this type of uncontrolled pollution, but also the linkage between environmental regulations and the risks communities face when natural disasters occur.
The decisions communities make when managing a range of hazards, including industrial waste siting, are a key factor in a community’s vulnerability during a disaster – a dynamic we’ve seen play out in many ways in our work in disaster policy and management. Such choices also help explain why disaster damage is so costly and disaster recovery so complex.
Pollution and disaster flooding
Heavy rainfall from Hurricane Florence caused the Neuse River to flood and erode three soil-capped coal ash landfills near Goldsboro, North Carolina. At another coal ash landfill near Wilmington, heavy rains exposed its toxic contents, which include lead, arsenic and mercury, washing them into a nearby lake that drains into the Cape Fear River. Duke Energy, operator of the landfill and nearby power plant, estimates about 2,000 cubic yards escaped into the lake but claims contaminated storm waters did not make it into the river.
The problem of managing coal ash storage is a useful illustration of how environmental protection choices, good or bad, affect the degree of community vulnerability during a disaster.
Floodwaters surround homes and a power station in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Newport, N.C. AP Photo/Tom Copeland
The North Carolina legislature has a recent history of explicit denial of climate change. A bill passed in…
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How many Americans really misuse opioids? Why scientists still aren’t sure
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 1:14 pm
How many Americans really misuse opioids? Why scientists still aren't sure
Defining opioids. Darwin Brandis/shutterstock.com
Courtesy of Joseph Palamar, New York University Langone Medical Center
With rates of prescription opioid use disorder and opioid-involved overdose deaths on the rise, the U.S. opioid crisis appears to be continuing unabated.
Data on overdose and death are pretty reliable. But there’s still much that’s unknown about opioid misuse that doesn’t lead to an adverse outcome such as overdose.
Drug surveys are reseachers’ main method of collecting data on opioid misuse. I’ve been in drug survey research for almost two decades, but in recent years I’ve learned that collecting accurate data on opioid misuse in particular is difficult. Why? Because many people underreport misuse, while others unintentionally overreport misuse.
Colleagues have been asking me how to ask about opioid misuse on surveys. I’m finding that there’s no easy answer. But one thing I’ve learned in my research is that many people may misunderstand the basics about opioids, preventing researchers like myself from understanding the full scope of the epidemic.
Medical use and misuse
Drug surveys are already difficult to conduct, as many people lie about use. For example, some people deny use to appear more socially desirable, and others simply try to finish the survey quickly without really reading it. But opioid surveys are especially challenging.
A friend of mine recently took my drug survey. She texted me the next day, saying she believed she incorrectly answered my opioid questions. Even though my survey asked only about using to get high or using without a prescription, she admittedly didn’t read the directions and reported misuse of dilaudid, a pain medication.
Situations like this lead some researchers to distrust reportedly high rates of opioid misuse. For example, a few years ago, my colleagues and I estimated that 12 percent of high school seniors have ever misused prescription opioids. However, some of my reports focusing on such national data have (perhaps rightfully) been questioned, but we are limited by what people report.
On surveys, opioid misuse is sometimes defined as using without one’s doctor telling you…
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What a Mike Bloomberg or Jamie Dimon Presidency Would Look Like
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 8:59 am
Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Illustration by Keith Seidel from Mike! Wall Street’s Mayor by Neil Fabricant
Michael Bloomberg served three terms as New York City’s Mayor from January 2002 to January 2014. In 2009, the New York Times reported that Bloomberg had spent “$261 million of his own money” in order to get elected to those three terms as Mayor. When Bloomberg took office, there was a two-term limit in place which had been voted on in public referendums in 1993 and 1996. But two years before Bloomberg’s second four-year term ended, he asked the City Council to repeal the two-term limit to allow him to serve a third term.
Because voters had already expressed their will in a public referendum twice, numerous members of the City Council felt it would be unethical for them to repeal that decision and that the matter should be determined by another voter referendum. But the City Council went forward with their vote in 2008, repealing the will of the people and giving Bloomberg his third term. The City Council’s vote was 29 in favor, 22 against. A Quinnipiac University poll at the time showed that 89 percent of New York City voters felt the issue should have been decided by a voter referendum, not the City Council.
That’s strike one against Bloomberg running for President – he’s not bothered at all about ignoring the will of the people, precisely the failing of the current occupant of the Oval Office. According to Forbes, Bloomberg’s current net worth is $52.4 billion. If he enjoys life in the White House, we have no idea how many billions he might decide to spend to try to repeal two-term limits for the Presidency.
Bloomberg also shares another Trump problem – he has massive business conflicts of interest. He owns both a business heavily linked to maintaining Wall Street’s goodwill and he owns a media outlet, Bloomberg News. The vast majority of Bloomberg’s wealth has come from leasing his Bloomberg market data and news terminals at a cost of approximately $24,000 per terminal per year to tens of thousands of Wall Street trading desks and global banks around the world.
Just how protective of Wall Street Bloomberg is…
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Animal Spirits: Borrowing From the Future
by ilene - September 20th, 2018 2:12 am
Animal Spirits: Borrowing From the Future
Courtesy of Michael Batnick
On this week’s Animal Spirits, we discuss:
Dalio could lose 1% a day for a year and still be worth $400 million
Don’t take asset allocation advice from billionaires
It’s hard to pinpoint how many assets are really indexed
Using the lottery to spur savings
J.P. Morgan going after affluent millenials
The incredible shrinking hedge fund
In the matter of Cadaret, Gran & Co. (UWTI)
Listen here
Charts Mentioned
Tweets Mentioned
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Ending austerity: why public spending is key to building a stable and fair economy
by ilene - September 19th, 2018 5:20 pm
Ending austerity: why public spending is key to building a stable and fair economy
Courtesy of John Weeks, SOAS, University of London
The term “fiscal” comes from the Latin for “purse”. When it comes to fiscal policy – how the government manages the country’s budget – a lot of people wrongly compare the country’s purse, and how it’s managed, with that of an individual or household.
The government’s purse is like no other. Managed correctly, it can end austerity and make the economy both stable and fair.
The UK economy initially showed a strong recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. It began in late 2009 and continued into 2010. Then, eight years of austerity policies by Conservative governments ended the recovery and brought recession, stagnation and growing poverty. Excuses offered by Conservative politicians, from world market instability to Brexit anxieties, fail to conceal the real cause of this dismal post-crash economic performance.
The Conservative government suffers from “deficit fetishism” – where all public policy is held captive to hitting a fiscal balance of zero (or going into surplus) by means of expenditure cuts. But the huge cuts to public spending have repeatedly failed to achieve a balanced budget. Nevertheless, much of the British public remains gripped by the dysfunctional fiscal goal of deficit reduction.
Britain’s woeful recovery from the financial crisis. IFS
Basic problems
A basic problem with budget balancing in all its versions is the improbability of achieving it. Take the example of a deficit, a negative budget balance, and a chancellor committed to reducing the deficit quickly. This chancellor believes the way to reduce the deficit is to increase taxes or reduce spending. Conservative chancellors since 2010 have preferred spending cuts.
But spending cuts reduce the demand for goods and services bought by the public sector, such as medicines and medical equipment. As a result the companies that supply these goods and services reduce the number of people they hire and lower their investment. These declines result in a fall in corporate and…
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America needs more, not fewer, migrant workers
by ilene - September 19th, 2018 4:52 pm
America needs more, not fewer, migrant workers
In this June 2016 photo, a border patrol agent walks near the secondary fence separating Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Courtesy of Frans J. Schryer, University of Guelph
Under President Donald Trump, the United States has taken a tough stance against migrant workers from Mexico crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump’s efforts to build a longer and better wall, so far unsuccessful, are based on the premise that the U.S. economy is better off with fewer migrant workers, regardless of whether such migrants are documented.
But is it true?
Two decades after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the economy of North America is closer than ever to being completely integrated prior to the ongoing renegotiations. The current deal is supposed to prevent a further decline in America’s competitive advantage, as well as to reduce the need for migrant workers from Mexico.
However, there are now more, rather than fewer, migrant workers in the United States. More than 10 million are undocumented. Many obtained false papers with the help of U.S. employers.
I spent 15 years researching the experiences of Indigenous (Nahuatl-speaking) people from the Alto Balsas region of Guerrero, Mexico. During that time, I heard many stories about the hardships migrant workers are willing to endure for the chance of employment in the United States.
Many Americans who may support Trump in his efforts to build a wall may not know about the conflicted feelings many of these migrant workers experience, reflecting the contradictions of a system that demands the free movement of goods and capital — but not of workers.
In this 2014 photo, detained immigrant children line up in the cafeteria at the Karnes County Residential Center, a temporary home for immigrant women and children detained at the border in Karnes City, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Imagine, for example, if you had no other choice but to move to a neighbouring country as the only way to make a decent living, and then…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site
