Blurts

The concern with the collection of personal data has focused on Facebook and Google. Your ISP is a greater danger as your ISP knows every site you visit. Cloudflare has a way to address this issue. Cloudflare takes advantage of the requirement for a domain name server (DNS) that is required in order to translate the web address you enter into a dotted-quad – the number system that is actually used to locate the site you want. Typically, your ISP offers you a DNS and this keeps your activity within that system. Cloudflare offers you an alternative DNS and will allow you to get past your ISP without revealing your search history.

The project is called 1.1.1.1 (the ISP Cloudflare owns). If you are curious, 1.1.1.1 also works as a web address (you can enter the dotted quad for a site if you happen to know what it is). 1.1.1.1 is free to use and ends up being faster than most other DNSs so the content you request will arrive more quickly.

You will have to replace the DNS entries you are using at present with 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. The 1.1.1.1 site will determine your device type and explain how to do this. Here is an example for the chromebook.

Instructions:

Use the Gear icon in the bottom right of screen

Show list of ISPs you use

Select the right arrow for the ISP DNS you want to change

Select advanced

Select manual and enter 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

The concept of targeting social media users has received a great deal of attention following the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. Researchers have known for some time just how accurately this could be done using freely available data such as likes without even the additional data used by Cambridge Analytica.

If you read about the practice of user categorization, you might find reference to a 2013 study by Kosinski and colleagues. Some complain about public access to research data, but this study is freely available so you can take a look. Actually, research reports of this type are available to the public, but you would likely have to make the trip to the library on a nearby college campus.

Kosinski and colleagues establish the feasibility of categorization of Facebook users. They did this by asking for access to the the Facebook likes of 58,000 Facebook users and also additional information about these individuals (demographic data such as sex, marital status, political party affiliation) and information from personality inventories, etc. Once they have this data sets, the researchers are able to determine if the types of likes these individuals generate can be related to the other variables and how accurate one could predict these variables from the likes. This is a statistical process. The technique they built from the statistical data could differentiate homosexual and heterosexual men in 88% of cases, African Americans and Caucasian Americans in 95% of cases, and between Democrat and Republican in 85% of cases. So, if you wanted to send a specific message to Republicans or Democrats in the state of Iowa you could do so with a high degree of accuracy.

Padlet has long been a useful tool for educators and it has added new capabilities. Padlet has increased the cost and is now $12 per month for classroom access. For constant use this is a reasonable price. When it comes to such price increases, I always wish there was another tier.