If you like your privacy, and controlling if and how online companies track you, you should like Apple devices. Of the biggest tech companies–including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook–Apple is the most privacy focused. They can afford to be “the privacy company”, given they make most of their money selling you hardware (with high margins), and they’re betting privacy is of great value to Apple customers. Some companies make money selling your history and preferences to advertisers, political groups, or more malicious organizations. Apple does not, and is helping you fend off those who do. Here are a couple recent examples of Apple’s focus on user privacy and transparency in data tracking.

App Tracking Transparency

Apple updated iPhone and iPad operating systems (iOS and iPadOS) to version 14.5 this week. Once you update your device to 14.5 (and you definitely should…right now…go ahead, I’ll wait), you’ll likely see more pop-up windows asking whether or not you’d like to allow your Apps to track you and your data. It may seem annoying at first, but the messages or short, simple, and welcome assuming you value awareness and control over your own data and privacy. Apple calls it App Tracking Transparency, and describes it in this short Apple video. For even better understanding, check out this 8-minute Wall Street Journal video in which Joanna Stern talks with Apple Software Engineering Senior VP Craig Federighi about the transparency & privacy features in iOS 14.5 and how they counter App & ad tracking.

App Privacy

If you’ve opened the Apple App Store recently on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, you may have noticed a new App Privacy section below Ratings & Reviews on any App page. In this area, Apple asks App developers to openly declare what data they collect on users who download and use their App. Some Apps don’t track you, and will say “Data Not Collected” in App Privacy, as shown below for Magnet for Mac.

Unfortunately, some companies use their Apps to harvest a lot of your data, even data their Apps don’t need to work, often in order to sell your data to other companies or government agencies. Below is the App Privacy section for Google Earth for iPad. It makes sense that Google Earth might need your Location to place you on the Earth, but does it really need your Contact Info? Clicking on See Details shows what Other Data of yours is tracked by Google.

For over a decade, Apps simply took your data and sent it to online company servers for monetization, mostly without your knowledge. Technically, they had your consent since you tapped OK or Accept buttons at the end of absurdly long User License Agreements (ULA) that no one other than a corporate lawyer ever reads or understands…you remember agreeing, right?! Sneaky App developers count on your unwitting complicity in surveillance business models. Now, Apple is simply asking them to tell you what data they intend to collect before you download their Apps, and then to ask permission for data access when you first use their Apps on your device.

Who could argue against honest transparency? Facebook, of course. Facebook attacked Apple in the NY Times and elsewhere, claiming they were “standing up to Apple”. They are against App Tracking Transparency and App Privacy, implicitly acknowledging that giving users awareness and control of data tracking is bad for Facebook’s business. Given Facebook is the most egregious privacy offender on the Internet, with a long track record of tracking, exposing and algorithmically manipulating user data and behavior, it is no wonder they fear Apple’s transparency and privacy initiatives…and the scary possibility that Google and Android phones may follow suit under public pressure, once users get a little taste of privacy. “Wait, you want us to tell users how bad we are?! What if they don’t like being spied upon, exploited, manipulated?! We can’t keep growing to over 3 billion products…er…users being open and honest with them!”

Check out the long list of your data tracked and harvested by the Facebook App below. Do you really want Facebook monitoring and selling your Health & Fitness, Financial Info, Sensitive Info?! For a real scare, click on See Details to get a very long, scrolling, detailed list of tracked data that goes on for many pages…basically, there’s not much about you Facebook doesn’t want to track, sell, and possibly lose to nefarious clients and hackers as they have a habit of doing. Yikes! Who would choose that?! This scares Facebook: newly aware users saying “NO, of course not!”

A NY Times article this week reports that in a 2019 conference for tech/media moguls (Silicon Valley meets Sun Valley), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg–still reeling from Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal breaking the year before–asked the more senior Apple CEO Tim Cook for advice on how he would handle the fallout of such a debacle. Tim told him to delete the data collected outside the core Facebook App, and stop collecting such data from his users. Mark “was stunned”, as this would undermine his user-as-product business model, and may have been his first clue that Tim would not be his ally in the surveillance economy, that Apple was tacking to the more user friendly direction of transparency and privacy. Attaboy, Tim!

Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma, a Netflix “documentary-drama hybrid,” does an impressively good job describing visually, dramatically, and in simple, understandable terms to a non-techie audience (e.g., your Facebook-addicted elderly relatives) the dangers posed by global social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube upon ourselves and our society. The entertainingly educational 90-minute movie shows how largely unfettered machine learning algorithms on these sites manipulate and addict you with one goal: keep you engaged as much as possible (whether enthralled or enraged matters little), clicking and tapping, so they can charge advertisers more for a larger user base, and they gain ever more data on your behavior, preferences and emotional triggers to sell to advertisers and to fine tune your targeted, individualized manipulation and addiction in an endless spiral. As the modern saying goes, if you’re not paying for social media, you’re the product, not the customer.

The Social Dilemma relies upon expert insiders–some of them responsible for creating the algorithms that learn to hook you–and fictional families to explain and dramatize how the relentless, amoral pursuit of growth by social media giants led to giant social problems, such as enabling mass manipulation by advertisers and propaganda peddlers on an unprecedented scale, connecting and emboldening conspiracy theory cranks and bad actors around the globe, giving foreign adversaries cheap-n-easy direct access to US voters for disinformation campaigns, and offering authoritarian regimes tools for surveillance, control and even genocide. It has never been easier to grow the ranks of flat earthers, climate science deniers, anti-vaxxers, Qanon believers, white supremacists, and angry mobs than now when Facebook/Twitter/YouTube algorithms lead susceptible users down dark rabbit holes of misinformation, successfully increasing engagement as “outrage machines.” The docu-drama spends a lot less time on detailed solutions to these urgent problems, though it does touch on a bunch of tips for average users at the end (e.g., turn off notifications, limit your screen time, delete the phone app, or simply delete your account). I highly recommend checking it out on Netflix (whether you already subscribe or just want to try it for a month) for your own education and awareness. As a target for manipulation, you should learn how it works so you can recognize and fend it off.

Confronting Misinformation

I first read Scientific American in the late 70’s, when my step-dad subscribed to it. I later subscribed myself, first in paper then digital, before more recently getting it as part of my Apple News+ subscription (along with Wired, Motortrend, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and many others…not a bad deal). The November issue focuses on Confronting Misinformation: How to protect society from fear, lies and division…quite timely given the rising tide of misinformation in recent and current campaign seasons.

With The Social Dilemma still on my mind, one of the November SciAm features in particular caught my eye: Trolling for Truth on Social Media, by Joan Donovan, a social scientist faculty member at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. Her article harkens back to a simpler time in the late 80’s and early/mid 90’s, long before your senior relatives had even heard of the Internet, when going online meant you were at college (.edu) or work (.com or .gov), or later at home with a dial-up modem commandeering your only phone line, when we early adopters shared files, software, technical info, homework and perhaps some dialog in usenet groups and early email accounts, but not personal data, and we certainly didn’t buy anything online. Many viewed the rapidly expanding Internet clad with the newly accessible World Wide Web as a public tool for information and democracy…hello world, you’re welcome! Dr. Donovan traces our online history from those naively idyllic beginnings into the modern digital economy, first driven by porn (like VHS in the 70’s), later by more general sales sites, eventually by social media giants who figured out how to convert users’ personal data into a marketable commodity, for sale to other corporations, political organizations, and even governments. Agencies in the latter figured out how to use social media to surveil and manipulate people in other countries, and even their own citizens. Dr. Donovan describes some of the tactics used by these good and bad actors, for good or ill.

While I enjoyed the walk through the digital history of the last few decades and learned some tricks of the trade, I awaited the punch line at the end, when she speaks to how those who still care about truth and public access to it might fight back against the online flood of dis/misinformation around the world and here in the US. It starts by losing our naïveté and “dispatching with the ideology that technological platforms are democracy in action.” By design, social media and misinformation incentives are “weighted in favor of disinformers,” given “novel claims travel far and fast,” racing past and drowning out boring old truth. If such harmful incentives are inherent in the current design of social media, a redesign is in order, i.e., design to incentivize truth over dis/misinformation, or at least to achieve a better balance for a more “equal-opportunity media ecosystem.” Our “techno-nostalgia” and era of laissez-faire attitudes toward the Internet and the global media/information companies that use it must come to an end if we are to rescue truth on social media for our own social and democratic health.

As we all know now, while social distancing and self-quarantining, the first, (repeated) middle, and last thing to do every day is wash your hands, wash your hands, and wash your hands. After riding droplets coughed or sneezed out by an infected person into your mouth–greatly mitigated by ~2 meters (~6 feet) of social distancing–the coronavirus’ favorite path into your body is from a public surface to your hands to your face. Some have noted that singing Happy Birthday twice roughly clocks the 20-30 seconds of thorough hand-washing necessary to mechanically remove viruses from your hands…but such a boring song! To sing something much cooler (and more appropriate?) while washing your hands correctly, enter a song title and artist at WashYourLyrics.com, and the site will generate a downloadable & printable “Hand-washing technique” poster with your chosen lyrics under infographics so you can wash and sing in sync. You may need to try different songs to get a desired fit: I first tried It’s the End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M., but got the intro lyrics rather than the more recognizable titular chorus. My next try worked much better: Fever by Peggy Lee…

I first met US Astronaut and Navy Captain Scott Kelly while he was training in Moscow (Москва) and Star City (Звёздный городок) during my 4-year tour in Russia and Kazakhstan supporting the International Space Station (ISS). Scott’s a very cool and funny guy, definitely the sort you’d want to calmly handle a stressful situation in the air or space (or at the Volga Hotel in Moscow). A veteran of several Shuttle, Soyuz and ISS missions, he famously spent a year aboard ISS to study prolonged zero-G living over the kind of duration required for a human Mars mission someday, and later wrote the NY Times best seller, Endurance: My Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery. OK, Scott’s an impressive dude, but what does he have to do with coronavirus?! Hopefully very little beyond his NY Times article yesterday (21-Mar-2020): I Spent a Year in Space, and I Have Tips on Isolation to Share. Here’s a summary of his advice for being stuck at home (with a few of my comments interjected), based upon his experience being stuck in space, enticing you to read his full article:

1. Follow a schedule for structure and normalcy, even when stuck at home. I still have my alarm set for every morning…admittedly an hour later than before since I don’t necessarily have to shave, shower, and dress for teleworking these days (teleworking is pants optional).
2. But pace yourself, because we’re in this for the long haul, so make time for fun. I’m not sure Scott watching the 8th season of Game of Thrones twice qualifies as fun, but point taken.
3. Go outside every day, because nature rules (forget that coronavirus is natural), and reduces stress. Even with social distancing, this is so much simpler to do on Earth than on the ISS!
4. You need a hobby, an outlet that isn’t work or home maintenance. Scott took a digital guitar trainer and paper books to orbit (at how many $K/kg?!). I’m counting this blog as a hobby.
5. Keep a journal, writing about your daily experiences and memories. Scott used his journal to write a popular book. Varya adores fancy Japanese paper journals, while I prefer digital apps–more searchable, cheaper, lighter, and take up far less space in my office (electrons are so tiny).
6. Take time to connect with people remotely using your phone, tablet and/or computer. Isolation damages mental and physical health, actually lowering your immunity to viruses (oops), so this becomes more important the longer we self-quarantine.
7. Listen to experts, not crazy internet sites, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, far right/left commentators, or even friends spewing fake remedies, cures, rumors, and bad advice. Scott recommends the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center and WHO, and you should also listen to the CDC and your city & state health officials. Remember, social media like Facebook and Twitter are neither your friends nor real news, but merely entertainment, as informative and useful as pro wrestling, political propaganda, and cat videos.
8. We are all connected, as is obvious when viewing the borderless Earth and its thin atmosphere from space, and when humans face a borderless pandemic (or alien invasion, planet-killer asteroid, etc.).
9. Wash your hands–often, now singing along with your Fever-synched hand-washing poster!

So that’s what to do individually, but what should we as a species expect of this pandemic, and how should we fight it? With all due respect to Capt. Kelly, let’s turn to a real expert, epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant (good career/name pairing; Dr. Fever would have been cooler). Brilliant helped eradicate smallpox and contain SARS (bird flu), and for many years has been arguing for a global early warning system for identifying and containing pandemics. Before consulting on the 2011 movie Contagion (now trending again in iTunes…go figure) to communicate this need to the public, he gave a prize-winning TED2006 talk, Help Me Stop Pandemics. Watch his TED Talk to learn how…

• He helped WHO track down every case of smallpox in the world to eradicate this ancient lethal/scarring/blinding disease from the planet by 1980!
• Early detection and early response using GPHIN helped conquer the SARS epidemic, “the pandemic that didn’t occur”, and are the keys to attacking…
• The next big pandemic could spread worldwide in a few weeks, halt air travel, trigger global recession (or depression), cost the US economy $1-3 trillion, cause mass unemployment, and if it infects a billion people around the globe, kill up to 165 million of those according to models. He said this in 2006, but at least some of this is happening now: coronavirus spread worldwide in a month or two, airplanes are empty of passengers, markets are crashing, Congress is talking about more than $1 trillion in response/stimulus, and the infection rate continues to accelerate in the US and Europe. China curbed their infection rate by locking down large sections of the country, testing and tracing contacts of infected people. South Korea curbed their rate with rapid response including early mass testing, contact tracing and targeted quarantine. These examples show that mass testing/tracking and strict social distancing/isolation/quarantining can mitigate the spread of infections. So, perhaps we can slow it down enough to keep the peak well under a billion, at least until anti-viral drugs and vaccines for coronavirus (hopefully) are available next year.

Steven Levy–renowned tech writer/editor for Wired magazine and a host of other publications previously–published his interview with Larry Brilliant in Wired’s Science section last week (19-Mar-2020): The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What’s Coming. Here are a few take-aways from Steven’s interview with Larry, which you should read in its entirety when you get a chance:

• Dr. Brilliant describes coronavirus as “the most dangerous pandemic in our lifetime,” but believes we can beat it with quick, strong action including a lot more testing.
• The term novel preceding coronavirus simply means it’s new, so humans have no immunity to it (yet) and everyone is at risk until we survive infection and disease and (assuming it acts like other viruses) develop immunity, and/or develop a vaccine for worldwide distribution, likely next year.
• He applauds current state government directions–self distancing/isolation, closing schools and some businesses, canceling events and gatherings–while criticizing the early slowness, denial and misinformation from some federal government officials lacking expertise.
• Slowing down or flattening the curve does not decrease the total number of cases (the area under the curve), but rather postpones many of them (1) to avoid overwhelming hospital capacity (as in Italy), and (2) until we get a vaccine in 12-18 months.
• Epidemiologist “Gold Ring” = combination of two factors to create herd immunity (70-80%):
  1. Enough of us have caught and survived the COVID-19 disease to become immune
  2. Vaccine developed, tested, mass produced and globally distributed
• It will be hard for the US to follow the Chinese model of strict national lockdown, but we should be able to follow the South Korean model, including rapid mass testing to clearly understand where the virus really is and how fast it is spreading or receding in those areas.
• US coronavirus response should be centralized under an experienced person like “Ebola Czar” Ron Klain, perhaps retitled Covid Czar, with the respect of public health and political communities. Dr. Tony Fauci of the NIH is the closest we have to that so far.
• If you’re not worried, you’re not paying attention, but don’t be scared. We can slow down the virus and increase the odds of getting a vaccine or at least a prophylactic antivirus medication in time to avoid a much bigger disaster. This is not the zombie apocalypse. (Whew!)
• N95 mask pores are 3 times wider than the virus. However, these masks still provide significant protection. Think of a huge bunch of football players trying to rush through a single door–a few will make it, but slowly, and many won’t. So, we need to get many more masks to health professionals, as they do help a lot.
• Before we can beat this thing and the world starts looking normal again, we need 3 things:
  1. Measure virus distribution (mass statistically designed testing program)
  2. Vaccine or antiviral treatment that works
  3. Large numbers of people are identified as immune (herd immunity), especially in public professions that make us comfortable returning to schools, hospitals, etc.
• Brilliant is encouraged by seeing civic engagement and volunteerism in the face of pandemic, especially among our youth (did he miss Spring Break videos showing thousands of idiots/carriers crowding beaches?!), and a huge influx of medical professionals putting in more hours than they’ve ever worked before.
• Coronavirus is an equal opportunity infector that does not see red or blue states or pink or red hats. So, perhaps we’ll come out of this seeing ourselves more united, more alike than different (with less denial and ignorance of science and true expertise!).

(Next post: After Pandemic)