Who has your data? - BBC Click

a lot has happened on Facebook since you last logged in and that's an understatement [Music] it's the week the world got a wake-up call the Rao over Facebook and the misuse of data seeking a warrant to search the offices a data firm associated with the Trump campaign has been suspended we willingly let Facebook Google and other companies access our personal data and in return they give us personalized services for free it means our personal information is valuable to them and for a long time now we've wondered just how but ever since these companies started amassing our data the clock has been ticking in 2008 we showed you how you and your friends 'facebook data could be accessed by a rogue Facebook application without consent in 2011 a researcher called Mikael Kaczynski warns that if computers could analyze enough Facebook data from enough people they could spot connections between the way you act online and your personality traits the type of person you are what's really world-changing about those algorithms it's that they can take your music preferences or your book preferences and extract from these seemingly innocent information very accurate predictions about your religiosity leadership potential political views personality and so on by having hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americans undertake this survey we were able to form a model to predict the personality of every single adult in the United States of America by 2016 alexander nix was explaining how cambridge analytic could use this kind of research to find people of different personality types and target them with specific messages that might influence their behavior if you know that the personality of the people you're targeting you can nuance your messaging to resonate more effectively with those key and groups because it's personality that drives behavior and behavior that obviously influences how you vote soon afterwards these techniques were used by two political campaigns that would rock the world yes your likes and dislikes your comments and posts your personal data they are valuable but it's what they say about you as a person that's where the real power lies no one knows exactly how much these techniques actually contributed to the results of the votes one of the first researchers to ask the question was Paul Olivier de hey he worked on an article at the end of 2016 that investigated what was happening and this week he was here in London to give evidence to MPs about the latest revelations sitting alongside him in the Commons Select Committee was Cambridge analytic a whistleblower Christopher Wylie and straight after the session Paul sat down with me this isn't just about Facebook and this isn't just about Cambridge analytic error is it this kind of data collection and analysis has been going on for a long time and it's being done by lots of people right so in two ways it's not just about those companies Facebook enables a lot more companies than just Cambridge energy care to suck out data in similar ways so that's the first thing and then Facebook is just one player in a big ecosystem of online advertising online profiling some of the companies you have heard of but some of them you just have no relationship with even if you fully understand the terms and conditions that you're agreeing to about what data you're sharing I don't think anyone really understood what can be inferred from the data so not the list of your friends not your likes and dislikes but the things that you've never talked about that now they can tell from your digital footprint yeah it's really hard to understand the inference power with this data what can be deduced from it that's true how people make decisions basically whether they think about about the issue but before making a decision or not another way to say this is that they were trying to find gullible people so if you are able to do that you can just make them you know buy into anything into any content it's easy to believe that Facebook managed to swing the US election and managed to swing breck say it was only people on Facebook who saw these new ads that were targeted to them and then went out and possibly changed their vote is that what we're talking about or are we talking about Facebook just being used as a research tool that could then be applied to the wider community in in many ways whether people were individually convinced to vote differently I don't personally believe that's how it happens what I believe is that Facebook itself could be manipulated using those techniques to make some content go viral that would affect public discourse so that would steer the conversation basically and if you're able to do this more or less you know automated more less repetitive in a repetitive fashion then you have partly already won the election because you're steering the conversation around the election and that's precisely the point that Hillary Clinton has been making again and again about camber genetic ax is their ability to steer the conversation on specific topics like emails her own emails and that's that had an impact the fact that some content was reciate widely during the election had an impact on editorial decisions made by classic media more established media which in turn had an impact on you know other people's opinions Paul says that even though Facebook and Google have recently allowed us to download everything that they have on us it's not really everything so Facebook can collect data of people who don't have Facebook accounts yeah it's called shadow profiles yeah so that practice for instance has been forbidden in Belgium where I'm from they even people who do have an account are being tracked all over the web all over that same information is collected about them why can't they see it why can't they see all the web pages that Facebook knows visited before making that transparent will have a very dramatic effect I think in making people aware of how much tracking goes on do you think that UK or EU regulation is strong enough when it comes to protecting our data that's what part of what I wanted to say in the committee we have very strong regulations around personal data that are going to get stronger but it's completely useless and actually worse than not having them if we're not going to enforce them they need to be enforced that's the critical point we're currently things are failing why are they not being enforced because the regulator's currently see their role as balancing commercial interests with democratic interest around oversight of personal data and that balancing they've done so far was wrong or simply wrong too much on the side of commercial interests and not enough the counter balances if you want Facebook's reputation and its wealth has taken a massive hit in the last couple of weeks with 80 billion dollars being wiped off its value so can the recently announced new privacy tools help to restore confidence this is the end for Facebook Facebook can still adapt their ways they can still change they will have to anyway because of the regulation that's coming into force it's an opportunity to reinvent themselves if you want to say it that way it's not just Facebook and Cambridge analytical which have been raising big questions about the future of tech as you'll probably know an uber self-driving test car hit and killed a pedestrian 49 year-old Elaine Hertzberg in Arizona on March the 19th Hoover subsequently announced that it would indefinitely discontinue all of its other tests but the accident leaves big questions about how the self-driving sector is now to proceed well Dave Lee has met the boss of one of the other big self-driving frontrunners wham-o to find out what this might mean I'd like to introduce to you all the world's first premium electric fully self-driving car you're looking at the eye pace a fully electric now self-driving vehicle the sensors are engineered by whammo but the car is every inch a Jaguar whammo and Jaguar Land Rover are going to work together to get 20,000 of these cars on the roads within the next two years their eventual aim is 1 million self-driving trips every single day so by the end of this year we will have this driverless transportation service up and running in Phoenix folks will be able to use a way mail app to get from point A to point B anywhere that they might want to go that would be anybody in the public that's right and there won't be a safety driver behind the road that's correct how willing do you think people will be to jump in a car without a driver you know if our experience so far in Phoenix is any indication a lot of people more people then that we would be able to handle quite frankly self-driving are you ready what way moe is hoping to do with self-driving is coming years before most would have predicted the company has been running tests with a select few customers and says it is having a profound effect on their lives but the self-driving industry suffered a major tragic setback when ubers self-driving car struck 49 year-old Elaine Hertzberg as she crossed the road with her bicycle there are lots of questions being looked at by investigators namely why didn't the car which should have been able to see in the dark stop but even if the public is worried it's clear way mo which has been working on this tech longer than uber is still confident it's very bold of you to do this launch so soon after a fatal crash in this sector did that cross your mind at all when we're setting up this event were not really our focus has always been on safety it's how we founded this project more than nine years ago at Google is the Google self-driving car project during that time we've driven over five million miles autonomously on public roads in the US testing in 25 different cities we've exercised that software and over five billion miles of simulation at any given time we've got twenty five thousand cars driving around in simulation making that software even stronger and better but are you worried about the perception maybe in the wake of what happened to you I appreciate it's not the same company of course but the perception of self-driving took a real hit when that happened you know we'll have to see right I think our job is just to get out there and be as transparent as we can with our technology last fall we published a 40 page safety report which meant to explain to the world how it is we think through all aspects of safety again it is our founding foundational concept at way Mouse to provide a very safe car for people so you know we'll see Beauty but shall my little bit of this to match our cover I'm feeling a bit peckish and I've got some gadgets to test but luckily I can deal with both of those things here so how about a spot of Italian food and some help from a few of the latest translation devices to see if I can order from the native Italian speakers who work here in their first language wish me luck first up for the Google pixel part now these were released last year and as well as being a set of Bluetooth earbuds they also translate in real-time the thing is you do need to have a Google pixel phone to make these plausible help me speak Italian I'd like the mozzarella tomato and avocado salad please but I don't eat garlic is there any garlic in it just waiting for the Italian horn in my you know banjo a non c'est la lune le insalata and then if you want to understand the response you get well that can be picked up by your phone and translated into your ears creating some sort of two-way conversation there was no oil in the salad you go okay so they sound similar in Italian do they yeah the only thing is I feel rather silly talking with these on I think I probably would have felt more comfortable just using Google Translate on my phone these are braggy - Pro totally wireless earbuds now the old version has been updated they now have integration with third-party apps and that includes itranslate which is what I'm about to use now okay I like the sound of the avocado buffalo mozzarella and plum tomatoes please but can I just check there's no garlic in it okay no cattle no lunch are you perfect thank you very much please I just overriding the scene of the water to drink please I'd like some water from the sinks to drink please okay I kind of listen what you're asking if I you read that in Italian but you know he's not probative translation for that the final device I'm going to test is Travis the translator now you may wonder why you would want to stand alone device when actually your phone can do most of this so do you need any earphone and certainly do you need one of these well you can either put a sim inside it it connects by Wi-Fi or you can connect it to your own personal hotspot the company claims it can understand context better than phone apps in more languages as it calls upon data from many translation engines including IBM Microsoft Google and nuance this is probably the fiddly is keyboard I've ever used I think it's time to give ordering dessert ago I'd like what's described on the menu as a traditional homemade Italian favourite perfecto of course this has just been a brief demonstration of these devices and what they can do but I've tested them in a few different environments and so far well this one thinks to have worked pretty well the others to the translations been okay it's just been a little bit fiddly and a little bit alarming something in my ears and many points I felt like well I could just use my smartphone for this thank you very much that was Lara now we haven't talked about virtual reality for a little while but don't worry it hasn't gone away in fact its effects are now being felt in popular culture with VR and virtual worlds featuring prominently in TV shows like Black Mirror and the electric dreams sci-fi anthology and now VR is making a return to the big screen thanks to a Hollywood legend and marches like this is the Oasis [Music] ready player one explores a virtual world through the eyes of Wade watts an inhabitant of the stacks the gigantic community of stacked motor homes in Columbus Ohio the grim imagining of the Year 2045 it's the latest sci-fi offering from Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg scraping by in a slum composed of old caravans and shipping containers is such an unpleasant existence that most of the characters in the movie choose to shun the real world creating avatars for themselves and spending most of their time the virtual reality called the Oasis dial Alex Wade and played by Ty Sheridan searching for three keys left by Mark Rylance as deceased creator of the Oasis James Halliday these keys will turn over control of the virtual world to whoever finds them Wade and his gang aren't alone in their quest an evil corporation is also searching for the keys so that it can take over the Oasis and exploit its user base ridiculous what could be further from reality virtual or otherwise maybe tell us anything about the way we live now cuz yeah obviously in the film everybody spends their time inside a virtual online world and now we get people spend a lot of time on social media that kind of thing so is this something that audiences can take away and that's largely in the Oasis there the limits are your own imagination you can do whatever you want and in our world now like you know it's right there in your fingertips and you can choose to be invested and immersed in a digital screen or you can choose to look up and embrace reality and I think that's this film is is I think in a resonate because it's explores themes that are that are really present in our world today as the movie is split between the real and virtual world the cast engaged in extensive performance capture before effects gurus Industrial Light & Magic could create their virtual alter egos world's nerve-wracking at first because of the tiny I had never performed using that medium you a completely operating in your own imagination you don't have a costume dive hair and makeup and so your avatar kind of encapsulate a certain some kind of swagger and confidence because you are completely using your own imagination and you are being playful the movie is based on the hugely popular book of the same name penned by author Ernest Cline who along with Zak Penn co-wrote the movie screenplay as well is ready player one a cautionary tale or a celebration of virtual reality and online worlds for me it serves as an allegory for the Internet you know the Internet I think is the most powerful communication tool that we've ever devised it connects all of us but it also the internet somehow even though it's a communication tool serves to isolate us you know I always thought of it is the opposite of the matrix as opposed to you know machines enslaving us you know we would create a virtual world and then willingly escape into it you know it's easy to see you know how the real world and the needs of the real world would be neglected if we had something like that so for me is it's a it's a fun adventure that kind of shows this the potential of this technology but also the pitfalls of it I'm a dreamer the book by anis kine has had a massive influence on a lot of people because it references so many other things that they love like the movies Back to the Future there's a lot of video game references as well these are things that his audience already feel quite nostalgic about and can have an emotional reaction to already so that really kind of embedded the book within the kind of that feeling of nostalgia but the tech featured in the film isn't a sci-fi as you might think ready player one is set in 2045 but we're actually seeing sort of starting versions of a lot of the technologies that you see in the film will read back in the book already things like haptic suits and haptic controllers and the VR headset looks very much like something that you could get today for example the Tesla suit provides false feedback and can simulate physical sensation and even pain via tiny electrical pulses and cutting cables out of the equation HTC is working on a wireless adapter for its vive headset there's a host of lower end VR headsets powered by mobile phones but oculus is just about to launch a headset called go self-contained device which doesn't need a computer I think the technology maybe isn't quite there yet you've still got the problem of cables on a lot of VR headsets all you have to make the trade-off and get a mobile version and in which case the quality isn't so good one solutions are the problems that come with all of the kit is to let somebody else set it up for you that's where VR arcades come in and I think we're going to be seeing more of these live VR experiences like the void which is the Star Wars it's an experience you can go we're friends and it's a it's a prepared room environment especially for that experience kind of like going to a movie or an escape room or some interactive theater I think that will become more popular and more widespread here at game box in South London virtual reality games combined with a pub to create a social vr experience that makes use of a harness rig to ensure players don't injure themselves one point too many collaborative games like rec room rely on teamwork to solve simple quests it also illustrates the potential of more social VR experiences failing that you could just try to shoot the snot out of opponents in the zero-g shooter sky front and the brains behind this outfit are going to use this game to launch the world's first into pub VR tournament it's gonna be between London and Brighton and there are going to be teams from from both sides competing against each other the pub that wins over all they're going to win happy hour for the whole pub so the tech behind ready player one isn't so far-fetched after all but whether it's a frightening vision of an online future all an all-action pop culture mashup is all just a matter of perspective that was much as like Ernest Cline and the stars are ready player one how about an entire movie in VR next time let's just build oh yeah that would be brave wouldn't it that's it from us for this week don't forget we live on Facebook and on Twitter at BBC click thanks very much for watching we'll see you soon [Music]

Channel: BBC Click

Views: 24,991

Rating: 4.8210864 out of 5

Keywords: click;, bbc, facebook, ready player one, waymo, data, cambridge analytica

Id: W3cqNHwIPjY

Length: 24min 31sec (1471 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 12 2018