In Austin, Texas, AT&T is rolling out its new gigabit fiber internet a la Google Fiber and charging its regular customers 99$ a month for the service. Customers do have the choice, however, to take 29$ off of their monthly internet bill if they agree and submit to what AT&T calls Internet Preferences. This program will track users search terms and web history to tailor ads directly to the individual consumer. There are a number of ethical questions that arise with this program. First off, websites and browsers already do pretty much the same thing on a smaller scale, but what will the repercussions be if your ISP is now tracking your internet life? Could this possibly lead to a time where the discount is not only on tracking your history but on the speed of the internet itself? To me, this is a form of net neutrality being disbanded. It doesn’t manage the content or speed of the web itself, but it offers different services to people on account of how much privacy they want to maintain.
All posts by tankevan
Motorola’s Modular Phone Almost Ready
Motorola has been developing a prototype for a new modular cell phone where users can switch out different pieces of hardware at their own discretion. If a user that wants a better camera but doesn’t care too much about RAM they could spend more money buying a nice lens and less money on memory. Or, someone who has more money to spend could beef up their entire system to create a super phone. I believe motorola has made a huge ethical statement with this idea. It eliminates the idea of planned obsolescence when it comes to cell phone technology. If a piece of hardware fails for a user they can just replace it easily to make their phone last as long as they want it to. A user can have one base model for the next ten years and upgrade the pieces of hardware that they want to as more technology becomes available. Phone manufacturers make a lot of their money when people buy a new phone every year or two years and Motorola seems like it has made a move that is in the best interest for consumers too instead of just for themselves.
Facebook considers adding a ‘Sympathize’ button, eliminating technical bias.
At a recent Facebook company “hack-a-thon,” a developer created a sympathize button to be used just like the ‘like’ button. The author gives us some examples when someone would use a sympathize button instead of the like button such as when a cousin or friend posts that their recovery from an illness is progressing. It’s primary use would be for someone to indicate that they saw the post and acknowledge it, but not necessarily are fond of it. This seems like an attempt to eliminate some of the technical bias that exists when using Facebook. If Facebook ends up using the button, should they keep trying to eliminate other technical bias that is embedded into the site, or is this technical bias engrained into the culture and intended usability?
Fed up with slow internet, cities begin demanding gigabit fiber
A few years ago only a handful of regular consumers had even heard of the new gigabit internet that Google is offering in select cities and now they are demanding it. Google now gives away internet at “regular speeds” (5 mbps downloads) for no charge wherever they have the fiber cables installed and they offer speeds of up to 100 times faster for a pretty fair price. The article states that businesses in certain cities are especially angry because their competitors in cities that already have fiber are paying up to 34 times less for their internet access. “If that was our electric rates or our water rates there would be riots in the streets,” one business owner says. Some people believe that we have the right to internet access and that issue has become a hot debate. Do you think we have the right to affordable internet access or is it still a luxury?
Software patent reform dies in the House of Representatives
Of course, advocates of the program disagree. They point out that software patents are disproportionately responsible for the recent rise of patent litigation. The fact that technology startups almost inevitably face patent threats is itself a significant disincentive for innovation. So it’s far from clear that subjecting software patents to greater scrutiny would be bad for innovation.
Thanks to Microsoft and IBM, a software patent reform that included fighting so called “patent trolls” who advocate low quality software patents was killed. Microsoft and IBM are some of the leaders in software patents and would obviously be effected by this reform. Their excuse is that it would stifle innovation from up and coming software companies. This obviously goes against Richard Stallman and his view on how software should be distributed and owned, and I’m with him on this one.
New Belgian Decree Requires ISPs to Log All Types of Data From its Users
New Belgian Decree Requires ISPs to Log All Types of Data From its Users
A new royal decree (law) in Belgium was just passed that requires internet service providers, telecom companies, and email providers to log metadata about its users. An oddly specific list of information is being collected about the users including how many emails they send, how long your calls are, and how you pay your bills. All of the information is then available to all law enforcement officials to use. The most interesting part of the ordeal is that the bill would only allow the government to collect this data for one year. It would obviously be easier to stop criminals if police knew everything about their actions online, but there is no way they can be watching everyone all of the time. It seems to me like this could very well be Michel Foucault’s idea of the Panopticon at work.
Evan Tank – ettank
i453ethics 