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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Access to justice and advice sector issues  →  Thread

World is stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia

shawn mach
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New report from Philip Alston, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights -

A UN human rights expert has expressed concerns about the emergence of the “digital welfare state”, saying that all too often the real motives behind such programs are to slash welfare spending, set up intrusive government surveillance systems and generate profits for private corporate interests.

“As humankind moves, perhaps inexorably, towards the digital welfare future it needs to alter course significantly and rapidly to avoid stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia,” the Special Rapporteur says in the report ....

More:  https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25156&LangID=E

Mike Hughes
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Won’t hear any argument from me. Facial recognition is the new plutonium etc. (Great article if you go look for it). Most people still haven’t twigged to the fact that using coffee shop; bus; office Wi-Fi allows them to be tracked even when they pass that location and aren’t logging into that network.

John Birks
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Are you overreacting there Mike?

It’s not like we’re bombarded by adverts to regularly check your [Social] Credit Score by app…... for free…or anything

https://youtu.be/TyaU64Ofb54

https://youtu.be/lNAiokZ20PU

https://youtu.be/4VFedLbRw6M

https://youtu.be/VWKIN1rnHCs

“Mobile phone giants and banks are using private companies to root through customers’ social media profiles before issuing contracts and loans.

A major Money Mail investigation found that firms are using data from Facebook and other social media websites such as Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter to find out about customers’ spending habits and earnings as well as to confirm their age, address and employment.”

“One of the most startling findings from our investigation was the emergence of a new breed of credit scoring companies that rely on social media to help banks, mobile phone giants and even car finance companies make lending decisions.

Ordinarily, a firm would use your credit score to determine how much risk you pose as a borrower. The higher your score, the more likely you’ll be accepted for a loan or credit card.

Traditional credit reference firms such as Experian and Equifax calculate this by looking at how many credit cards and bank accounts you have, if you pay your bills on time and whether you’re on the electoral roll.

But newer companies claim they can use social media to verify someone’s identity and predict whether they will be a good borrower.

Friendlyscore claims to work with banks, car finance companies and mobile phone firms, including Carphone Warehouse’s iD Mobile.

It says it can build a picture of your financial health by analysing anything from social media and emails to mobile phone activity.

Crucially, you have to agree to let the company access these accounts by setting up an account online or downloading the mobile app.

Then you can choose which accounts the company can access. If you select Twitter, for example, it will build a picture of your interests by looking at who your followers are and what you write in direct messages.

If you have Gmail, it can monitor your emails to get an idea of how you spend your money via receipts for online shopping, or tickets for events or flights.”

Peter Turville
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/17/benefits-of-welfare-robots-and-the-need-for-human-oversight

Its all wonderful and its going to be even more wonderfuller - wonder when they last worked at the DWP ‘coal face’?

Benny Fitzpatrick
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I wonder when we will have our first prosecutions for “thought-crime”?

Mike Hughes
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Benny Fitzpatrick - 18 October 2019 11:44 AM

I wonder when we will have our first prosecutions for “thought-crime”?

Well now you mention it.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kx4z8/revealed-this-is-palantirs-top-secret-user-manual-for-cops

 

Rehousing Advice.
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In part Phillip draws on a speech made by Boris Johnston to the UN general assembly, on the dangers of digital.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly-

“Digital authoritarianism is not, alas, the stuff of dystopian fantasy but of an emerging reality”

John Birks
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MartinB - 21 October 2019 10:01 AM

In part Phillip draws on a speech made by Boris Johnston to the UN general assembly, on the dangers of digital.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly-

“Digital authoritarianism is not, alas, the stuff of dystopian fantasy but of an emerging reality”

This one seems to work;

https://www.politico.eu/article/digital-authoritarianism-un-speech-boris-johnson/

 

Rehousing Advice.
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Thanks. Spooky that my link no longer works.

John Birks
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Mike Hughes
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John Birks - 21 October 2019 05:02 PM

Coming soon - The Pre-Sanction Division

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/ibm-ai-can-predict-with-95-percent-accuracy-which-employees-will-quit.html

Hmm. I love stuff like this. So obviously stuffed with flaws it’s ridiculously easy to pull apart.

1 - 95% in isolation is meaningless. Is that better than humans; the same or worse? Are humans even attempting to predict or is this just a new measure that becomes available because of AI?

2 - in the latter instance then it needs to be borne in mind that 95% is a shockingly poor success rate in terms of AI. Basically, useless? Like being able to identify terrorists in 95% of cases. Er… !

3 - to what end? If you can predict this thing then… so what? What’s the intention? To stop people quitting or to address something after they’ve quit?

4 - would the AI by any chance have a higher failure rate with anyone who isn’t white? Would the algorithm be sufficiently transparent to deduce? What’s that you say? No transparency at all!!! Sigh.

 

Mike Hughes
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John Birks
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Trouble is Silicon Valley doesn’t sell people.

Robots, machines and software can be financialised - rented, leased, mortgaged, sold and resold before being recycled.

If only there was a franchise in popular culture to warn people of the potential for a battle of survival between the human race and a self-aware autonomous global synthetic intelligence network continually formulating plans to systematically wipe out humanity for its own agenda?