3/27/2017 8 Comments Blog #9"Sexism in the Tech World..." Women have been in the tech world for decades, and even more have been entering in recent years. Technology is available to just about everyone, so it only makes sense that women are getting more interested in coding and computer science than ever before. I notice more and more at school how many women are in these classes. Sure, there still aren’t as many as men in the computer science classes, but at least there are there and will work just as hard.
According to this article by Kimberly Weisul there are rumors that woman are being treated the same as men and are making their way up in tech companies just as easy as men, but this isn’t true. Sexism is still as prevalent, in Silicon Valley especially, than ever. One woman was attending a tech conference with her male coworkers and afterward they all (not her) decided to strip down to their undies and jump into the lake. She was not very happy and, understandably, uncomfortable. 60% of women in Silicon Valley admit to have been sexually harassed in the work place, usually from their boss, and sometimes even male clients. This is pretty scary since I am in the tech world, and at my internship I am the only woman. If I were put in a situation like that I would simply quit and report the company to the labor board. But I can’t help but think this is only because it’s an internship and I am only profiting by experience. If I had a high up tech job, paying me the big bucks would I have the guts to quit? Or would I just put up with it, like these women are encouraged to do to save their livelihood? It’s tough. And with stats backing up the sexism in the tech world, it makes it even tougher. With women being 33% more likely to be sexually harassed in some way in the tech world, do you think mothers should encourage their daughters to learn coding and computer science? I think so. I think coding an amazing skill and more women should know how to do it. There is an organization called Girls Who Code. They are a group of extremely smart females who encourage and empower each other in a safe place. I would encourage my daughter to look into that and find other girls who share her passion for tech. This can help with the feeling of being excluded from social gatherings and conferences that 89% of women in the tech world have reported. If they are strong together, it will help them rise higher without worrying about men’s attitudes towards them. Of course women alone can’t change sexism, we need everyone’s help. Men with sexism attitudes need to stop and understand that their words and actions can be inappropriate and their advances are not welcomed in a professional environment. Unless a woman reciprocates the action, leave her alone. Another solution is to teach our sons to always respect women. I think sexism is a learned way of thinking, and if we don’t teach our kids to think that way it could help a lot. They will have outside influences, but if the teachings at home a properly implemented I think the child will make the right decisions. We should also teach our daughters so be strong and confident and to never let a man disrespect them. The more little girls who think this way will bring us closer to equal working environment.
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"These fake fingerprint stickers let you access a protected phone whole wearing gloves..." Taps, a new kickstarter, has development a touchscreen sticker that adheres to gloves you already own. Currently, there are gloves that will allow you to still use your phone but they are special ones you have to buy. This way, you can just stick it on any of your favorite gloves and activate the print. Also, these stickers use the phone fingerprint recognition to unlock your phone unlike other touch screen gloves. TAPS is made with extremely adhesive conductive material so it will not easily fall off, and is guaranteed to work on all touchscreen devices.
I chose this article because I wanted to find something different then everything that happened with the election. I did a lot of searching until I found this article. I myself know how annoying it is to be wearing gloves while snowboarding or just in general, and not being able to unlock your iPhone for a quick picture or to text someone back. It's inconvenient for me to take off my gloves for something that is meant to be quick. It turns into a tedious task. I have gloves that I am able to use my touch screen with, but they do not work with the fingerprint function. I am uneasy about a fingerprint that is essentially a sticker that can easily be misplaced or stolen. I have a lot on my phone, such as my banking, phone numbers, social accounts, etc. I would not want someone being able to have access to my phone. Personal values at stake are the fake that someone can steal another person's gloves to get into their phone or other devices. Is it ethical to create a fingerprint sticker that can be stuck on anything? Does this make it easier for people to get information from personal devices? The first thing that comes to mind is how easy is it to get ahold of other peoples' prints. If someone loses their gloves and it gets into the wrong hands then your phone can be unlocked. This type of technology was made merely for convenience, but I don’t know if it’s something I would personally buy or support because of the risks of someone else getting ahold of the gloves. We all already jeopardize our sensitive information on a daily basis, and I feel like this is just another way to give our information away. Of course if someone got ahold of these gloves it would be difficult to figure out who’s fingerprint it was and how to use it, but if they were to fall into the wrong hands, then I’d be worried. I have always like the fingerprint recognition technology, but at the same time it is one of the most unique ways to identity each and every one of us, so the fingerprint is also a very strong source of information. There are ways for people to get copies of your fingerprints and then it’s only a matter of time before they can figure out everything about you. "$100 store-bought kit can help anyone hack into Iphone Passcodes..." The FBI paid about $1.3 million for software to break into the iPhone of a gunman. It turns out that a computer scientist, Sergei Skorobogatov, found a store bought kit worth less than $100 to bypass the limit on password retry attempts. This allows someone to enter in multiple combinations until the phone is unlocked, when typically it only lets you enter it wrong up to six times. This would only take about two days to cycle through all the possible passcodes to break into an iPhone. According to the article the kit can be bought online from eBay, Amazon, or Alibaba for about $100. A similar technique can also be implemented on the newer devices, iPhone 6s and 7, it would just require "more sophisticated hardware". Skorobogatov was able to do what the FBI thought was impossible, what the FBI had to pay a lot more than $100 for.
I chose this because it is shocking that the FBI wanted to get into the gunman's phone so badly, they were willing to do whatever it took. When there was such a simple route they could have taken. It also relates to class and ethical issues. We actually talked about a similar if not the same topic in class recently as we did our presentations. There was a potential “terrorist” who the FBI wanted information on which they claimed to belong on his phone. The FBI asked Apple if they could have access to this information on the user's phone, but Apple refused. The FBI didn’t take no for an answer of course so they found someone who was capable of hacking into the person’s phone anyways. Apple was not happy to hear they went behind their backs and hacked into their system and demanded to know how they managed to pull it off. Of course, the FBI refused to give away their “secrets” for how they hacked into the user’s phone. I can understand why Apple wouldn’t want to allow the FBI hack into the user’s phone because of privacy agreements, etc, but if there is a case that is threatening other people’s lives then there should be a way for them to give the FBI the information needed. I do not however agree that the FBI should just be allowed to access whatever information they want from Apple and any other company on that aspect. When the FBI wanted access to the San Bernardino gunman, apple wouldn't allow it because they were worried that it would require weakening the security of all iPhones. This led the US government to find another way to get into the phone. They forced the tech company into getting access to the phone, a whopping $1.3 million later, Comey said it was "worth it". The FBI has been saying that we should create a bill to make it easier to access encrypted communications, however that will only make us less secure. We should change the way law enforcements handles these encryptions and devices. 3/2/2017 0 Comments Blog #6"Everyone you know will be able to rate you on the terrifying 'Yelp for People' -- whether you want them to or not..." Yelp allows people to review businesses based on a one to five star rating and it also allows you to leave comments. According to the article, Peeple is an idea for an app that does the same thing, except with fellow people. Anyone can add a person to the app as long as they have their phone number, a Facebook account and the person adding them must classify their relationship to the person as either personal, professional or romantic. People are able to review anyone, their ex, their best friend, even their neighbor who they have had little to no conversation with. You are not able to remove yourself from the app once your name is in the system unless you violate the site's terms of service and you also can't delete any reviews. One of the co-creators is a woman named Julia Cordray who claims there is no reason you shouldn't want to "showcase your character". The other creator is a woman named Nicole McCullough comes at it from a different viewpoint saying she wants it to help her know who to trust with her kids.
This is such a clear outlet for online bullying that I don't understand why someone would even think this is a good idea. A lot of people are outraged by this app and I think it is completely justifiable. There is already such a huge problem with online bullying. People become very brave when they are behind a screen and sometimes lose sense of their humanity. I’ve seen people say some of the cruelest, ugliest things over the internet and this gives those types of people more of a reason to unleash their evil. I might not be coming from an ethical stance, but this type of idea is just something I can’t wrap my head around. As if we didn’t have enough sites to tear people apart. Is it ethical to allow people to say whatever they want about a person online without their consent or even permission to add themselves? If we want to see the positives, this might have it could help people if there are a lot of positive reviews. It could also help in the professional setting as to whether a person should be hired or if that person is right for the company. I do not think any of these positive outweigh the negatives. Negatives include online bullying and inaccurate reviews because of people who just dislike someone and write a bad review. |
Author: Jenn schopferHi my name is Jenn, I'm a Senior at CSUMB. Studying Communication Design with an emphasis in Web Design. And this is my blog! Enjoy! Archives
March 2017
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