Name: Algorithms, Privacy, and Outrage
Uploaded: 2021-09-23T00:22:37.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Algorithms, Privacy, and Outrage' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Algorithms, Privacy, and Outrage' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-23. Transcript available.

Do you think that the algorithms are designed to do this or do you think that
it's just a function of human nature that we tend to gravitate towards things
that outrage us and then huddle up together in echo chambers that this is
just a natural tribal behavior and then what the algorithms do is essentially
just highlight what we're really interested in they magnify it in a
feedback loop right so you're right to say that humans do have these trades you
know and I haven't designed the algorithms but I've also talked to people
who have and you know a lot of it they don't even understand how they work at a
certain point like they're off to the races have you seen the social dilemma
yeah yeah what would you think about that it's great it's great yeah yeah you
know
Gary to conclusions that they draw oh certainly I mean I yeah I made a film
about eight years ago called terms and conditions may apply you know and that
that came out right before the Edward Snowden revelations you know when it came
out people the initial response was like oh this is maybe conspiratorial surely
the
government doesn't have this much insight into our behavior and you know and
access to to our devices
and our personal information and then the Snowden revelations came out and then
it was like oh well
maybe the series didn't go far enough you know and I and and back then we had
talked about the idea of
how how how is technology influencing us how is it changing us manipulating us
and it didn't feel like
that was the biggest story at the time and this question of privacy and how our
rights are
being eroded through these agreements that nobody ever really reads and you
could find all kinds of
juicy tidbits hidden in there in terms of what the companies were actually
doing and kind of revealing this unholy
collusion between the government and and big tech you know but it at the time
people would often say well
what's the cost you know what's the big deal if they're mining my personal data
to serve me with ads
and I'd say that the environment we find ourselves in now is the cost do you do
anything to personally
protect your data do you like use DuckDuckGo for searches and think things
along those lines you've brave as a browser
like do you do that stuff all that yeah yeah you signal VPNs VPNs I mean I do
my best you know if a
government actor really wants to get at you they're gonna be able to yeah I
mean you saw the NSO
clickless spyware story right yes I mean if if there's a zero day that allows
you to get access to a
microphone and everything that someone's doing on their phone without them even
having to click on a link
you know it's game over of course governments will abuse that yeah and probably
are right now probably
are right now yeah where are our phones at right there yeah it's um it's
interesting because you would
think that there would be a market for a platform that becomes bulletproof and
there have been some you
you know Linux based uh cell phone operating system phones that they sell like
they buy a phone you get
a google phone they de-google it and put different software on it and stuff but
I'm not sure if that's
like if you're deluding yourself into believing that you're actually protected
with that stuff or you're
actually are protected right I would think they could work around all those
things especially something
that's I mean it's essentially like open source right like you like if it's a
Linux based operating
system there's some super geniuses out there I'm sure they're gonna be able to
hack into that
yeah I mean I think with stuff like signal you're just you're just protecting
yourself as best you can
right you use something that's that's end-to-end encrypted you're doing better
than 99 percent of
people who are out there you're making somebody really have to work to get
access to your to your
to your stuff and if you're using a VPN and you're using DuckDuckGo then you're
minimizing your digital
footprint and you're not as you're not worth as much of these companies and
they're not able to
to you know manipulate you I guess in the same way through these algos but let
me ask you this I
mean would you what would you do about the algorithm problem right because on
the one hand algorithms
are necessary for something like a search engine on the other hand um you know
they are they drive the
most sensational content things like QAnon um and uh and I think have largely
facilitated the situation
we find ourselves in now watch the entire episode for free only on Spotify