Technology driven future, sounds exciting?!! The latest trend and widely used Hashtag may prove to be hazardous in the near future! Currently it’s a trend to add hashtag along with our social media posts and other online platforms and columns. And some of us are prone to mimicking online behaviors!
A simple combination of “#” and a ‘word’ just after; is Hashtag (e.g. “#Jamesbond’). For some they are integral to the way we communicate online, then it’s good to realize how to utilize them. It’s a very good tactic for companies to make their brands more recognizable. It provides managers with profound insights and can guide marketing tactics.
From a user’s point of view: “A hashtag is a simple way to categorize a topic and gives users an easy way to find their favored news or posts.” Social Media users mention it in their posts to categorize them in a way that makes it easier for other users to find. So when a user adds a hashtag to their post, it becomes ‘accessible / discoverable’ by others.
Gets accessible and discoverable by others, eh! Is there a threat behind this…? Allow me to clarify.
From an expert’s perspective: These days there are computer programs that can collect online ‘hashtag’ details and capture/display it in their application; that can also be filtered. That’s how we see social media user’s comments on TV channels, and different mediums. To get all the details of an online identifier (eg. @, #, Like) enter that ‘identifier tag’ in the field specified in the application; this will show the details under that topic. So I want to point out that, we can gather and store ‘data’ of an online identifier. Also note, every hashtag has its own “gallery”.
This article is to make awareness among people on how a particular group or even a Government can target you or a group of people whilst supporting or opposing an online campaign! They can easily gather data of all who have supported or opposed a campaign (with an identifier like ‘hashtag’) and collect the information by filtering it by ‘Content’ monitoring AI algorithms and target them. Beware about following all the latest technology trends without knowing the ‘THREAT’ behind it. This makes you think what the concern is all about if they gather your details.
Let me talk about the ‘risk’ that can occur in the not so distant future. If militants/terrorists want to target Government officials who stand against them, their details can be obtained from online mediums and can be targeted by using AI applications and killer drones. (If terrorists have access to big war weapons these days, buying software is a simpler task!)
On the off chance that Government wants to target supporters or antagonists of a specific online campaign which has a ‘hashtag’ (or any identifier) eg. #anti-party, #anti-community, #anti-nation… and they filter those hashtags, connect it to ‘facial detection’ methods used these days on social media or link it to your Unique ID that incorporates your iris pattern. Those people can then be targeted upon by flying AI Drone killer machines that are used for war by some countries as of late. These palm sized flying executioner weapons can target people quite easily. Elimination of anti-nationals, militants and so forth can be effectively done by linking online identifiers with Facial Recognition application and National ID.
These flying AI micro drone weapons can target predefined age, gender, religion, ethnicity and so on from millions out in the public. “These drones can be designed just like a normal fly!”
Imagine dropping AI powered swarm of drone weapons from the air to the territory where the target is located? Within a couple of minutes it can accomplish its set mission. They may ‘not’ do this to civilians in the near future, yet the fact of the matter is, the moment you get involved with online ‘topic identifiers’ for any anti-political party or against any group or organization; they can easily identify you.
In some countries the Government can recognize their citizens/visitors and their location from among millions in open areas in under 3 minutes by ‘face recognition’ technique using public cameras. In future, we will hear of a military killing terrorists, and this could be made possible using remotely controlled micro drone weapons and “terrorist categorization will be based on your online activities on social media!” . A few nations have already begun checking candidate’s online conduct when they apply for visas or jobs…
EU considers a five-year ban on the use of facial recognition in public spaces. They officially say, “A temporary ban would give governments and regulators time to assess the dangers of the technology”.
Few years into the future, law enforcement authorities will utilize these flying machines controlled remotely with the help of ‘Central intrusion monitoring system’ to weaken or disarm problem makers by shooting nerve agents from the drones. Few countries have already started communicating to their citizens in public places using drones to make them aware of the situations in that area. So now tell me… doesn’t it sound alarming?! Always do some research on its advantages and disadvantages, seek advice of technical people before actively engaging in online activity.
What if I am using another name for my social media account or change my name immediately? Information once stored by AI application will always know who it is whether you change your name or other details. To add to it, we are moving away from Internet era to AI era (Artificial Intelligence). AI is revolutionizing the way we deal with our day today life.
| “A recent report from the New York Times shed light on a facial recognition system that can search 3 billion photos scraped from social media websites without users’ consent, and is used by more than 600 local law enforcement agencies.” |
Do you know one of the reasons behind social media applications freely permitting you to upload and share your photos? Have you at any point thought about it? Their AI team is actually gathering your details for image recognition (face recognition) to sell. They are actually mapping and storing your photos and gestures. We now see that they can recognize us from others’ photo uploads. You are mapped if you have uploaded an excess of 25 photos, which makes it impossible for you to get away! My advice is, when you take photos for online sharing; tilt the photographs a little or don’t give an immediate straight face or do not upload close-up photos (refer my pic). This will make it difficult for AI to identify you. But with the help of AI team this photo can also be manually mapped and saved to their database.
“Remember when you get something for free there is always a string attached to it!!!”
“Imagine identifying major ‘military Personnel’ before a war and targeting them before attacking a nation!” In this case if a nation needs to secure its kin they should put a ton of limitations via web-based networking media. And if you want to be protected, do whatever it takes to camouflage your character and identity on the web. “Recently Google CEO also commented about regulating AI and Facial recognition!”
So implies, create an online campaign, gather online identifier details of those who were active and link it with Unique ID / Facial recognition and trigger AI Drones to eliminate people who were against them in the campaign. “And soon AI tools will automatically determine which user/person they need to target based on user’s online behavior!”
(To know more about ‘autonomous weapons’ just search for ‘AI Micro Drones’ in Google).
Note
This article is written to create mindfulness among public who knowingly or unknowingly support online campaigns that is widely accessible to the world. The point here is to create awareness about online identifiers like ‘@ At Sign, Like, Hashtag’ that can recognize ‘a group of people’ from others since it’s conceivable online. Additionally to give ideas on how authorities can use these strategies to identify people and manage crimes. ‘AI’ algorithm is still undergoing a lot of development.
Author Mr. Abraham Jacob has been working in the digital field for the last 20 years. Currently living in Kuwait and doing research on Artificial Intelligence.
He has a passion for Artificial Intelligence. He has developed and launched the first online supermarket in Kuwait and worked with many global organizations in Kuwait and India. He also designed and developed official ‘Bangalore City Police’ website and Bangalore’s first online shopping experience. He’s a Techie, Writer passionate about cutting edge technology and its impact on human life.
You can catch up with Jacob on Twitter @jinijacob and jinijacob on Instagram.
Email: webbyaj@gmail.com