Alphabet's NYC kiosks also have two cameras which are recording passers-by, <a href="https://cryptome.org/2016/06/linknyc-spy-kiosks-installation-videos.htm" rel="nofollow">https://cryptome.org/2016/06/linknyc-spy-kiosks-installation...</a><p>A dystopian "smart city" vision can be seen in the "Hyper Reality" video, <a href="http://hyper-reality.co" rel="nofollow">http://hyper-reality.co</a> that is inspired by Magic Leap's AR, in which Google is an investor.
I was walking down 3rd ave at 2am a week ago. I saw a homeless man with headphones listening to music on YouTube on a link. He had a little chair and was rocking out. It was beautiful.<p>We might give up a lot, but maybe those with nothing to give have plenty to gain.
<i>As he spoke, the screens shifted and a new message appeared: "If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended."</i><p>Okay, that's kind of creepy.<p><i>[Google] actually went so far last year as to shit-can its own "Don't be evil" admonition to its employees in favor of "Obey the law"</i><p>No, they didn't[1]. Alphabet has a slightly more formal code of conduct[2], and it's not simply "Obey the law", it's "follow the law, act honorably, and treat each other with respect." Sloppy. Reporting using another news article as a source rather than just looking it up.<p>1: <a href="https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html" rel="nofollow">https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html</a><p>2: <a href="https://abc.xyz/investor/other/code-of-conduct.html" rel="nofollow">https://abc.xyz/investor/other/code-of-conduct.html</a>
> They're telling you that they can use your IP address, which is essentially you, and all of the pages you've viewed or searched for, including how long you visited them, to serve ads.<p>You don't bring your own IP when you use public WiFi, so this feels like a very confused argument.
While I certainly understand the paranoia here (hell, I uninstalled PokemonGO due to the invasive permissions), I see the positive here far outweighing the negative. The Internet is becoming akin to fresh air or clean water—a right for all citizens, not just those with means. I don't know the percentage, but there are a huge number of New Yorkers who can't afford Internet and are missing out on the digital world we're all engaged in on a daily basis.<p>As a New Yorker, I heartily welcome a city blanketed in free wifi. For the 300Mbs I get off of one of those things, I'll use a VPN just like I do with all public wifi networks.
Funny, I don't see the Village Voice writing screeds about how terrible it is that NYC has a subway system or busses, even though advertising (ie. "propoganda") helps to underwrite their costs as well.
I really do hope that by now, everyone knows not to do anything they wouldn't want the public to know about on public WiFi, especially these systems. Using a VPN when you are on public WiFi such as this helps solve a lot of the privacy problems that you face using said service.
I'd really like to hear from a domain expert whether tor or something like it could a) drastically mitigate the impact of this type of surveillance and b) how likely it is that it (tor) could become mainstream (sort of like WhatsApp made end to end encryption mainstream)?
This sounds eerily like the plot of Watch Dogs<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs</a>
400 mbs/200 mbs data rates in Manhattan on the Mac laptop where I've tried it. The iPhone 6s+ with the security cert. is about 185 mbs/195 mbs.<p>Not bad for free.
I'd love to see a thoughtful article on what it took to get these kiosks installed, or what awesome tech is inside, or what the traffic looks like, or what lessons we can learn. How is tin foil hat-ism making the world better for those who are most benefiting from being able to access these kiosks?
'That LinkNYC is, ultimately, underwritten by Google should tell you a lot about why New York got so very lucky as to receive an unprecedentedly fast network of citywide public Wi-Fi — for "free."'<p>Except that none of this is free. Google gets all of the data collected by these kiosks and the ad revenue. Why was this allowed without any public say in the matter? The very public whose data was bought will also be sold by Google. What's the ad revenue worth on these? There are ads on each sides of these kiosks. These are effectively billboards on some of the most trafficked street on the planet. Does our society really need more advertising?<p>So did New York get lucky or did Google get lucky?
My new startup is building a system like this out for retailers. It has the added benefit of helping customer service personalize a shoppers experience as well as connecting digital ad spend (ads and landing page vidits) with foot traffic in both real-time and aggreated. Prototype is built and we are currently seeking investors and developers that would like to help us flesh this out. Pm me for details or questions.
The village voice talking about another company being a propaganda engine is laughable. Also VV requires logging into Facebook to leave a comment on that story too.
I don't know if I should be impressed or scared. Everything google^1 does in the last few years feels like they really know what they are doing, autonomous cars, everything they do about machine learning, now they are integrating that with fiber. It feels like Microsoft, if they would have nailed the browser and activeX in 95.<p>^1 I will use alphabet and google interchangeably, since I am not trying to do math here. If you are looking for a mathematical theory of world domination, just ask google's famously responsive customer service.
A ++good piece. I particularly liked this astute observation by one of the article's sources:-<p>> "They are working hard to get you to behave true to your statistical profile," Rushkoff says, "and in doing so they reduce your spontaneity, your anomalous behavior, your human agency, as they try to get you to conform to the most marketable probable outcome. When we're doing that en masse, to an entire city - that kind of long-term manipulation is just astounding."
If they're serving ads based on personal information, some people might have a little embarrassment heading their way.<p>Jokes aside, we all knew this was coming, right? It's not like your telecom isn't serving you up to the NSA already, and with this you know you're being watched. It's just driving VPN sales.
This is very hit-piece and I'm someone generally wary of Google.<p>Titan has owned and operated all of the city's remaining phonebooths for near 20 years. And I believe the MTA bus stop and subway advertising too. This is something they've already been doing.<p>Control Group developed those info kiosks you may have seen on subway platforms. They're good people that have got some cool tech. They even post in Who's Hiring here frequently (Hi, Ben!).<p>If this is something that the city wants, I don't see that there's another way that they would get it. The real problem that I have with LinkNYC though, especially in midtown where I live, is that all the terminals have become 24/7 campgrounds for the city's homeless. They charge their phones and browse the web there. There is no way that I would use one of these things now.