Who is going to fact check the political ads on social media fact checkers? Big Brothers?

Sir, you opine: “The spread of political advertising on social media requires companies fact-check political ads in collaboration with trusted, independent organizations”, “Online political ads are in urgent need of regulation” November 1.

“Trusted, independent organizations”, does that not ring a bell with respect to trusting the human fallible credit rating agencies with so much power to decide on the risk weighted bank capital requirements?

I am reminded of an Op-ed I wrote in 1998 in which I argued, “In many cases even trying to regulate banks runs the risk of giving the impression that by means of strict regulations, the risks have disappeared” 

And in it I opined “in matters of financial regulations, the most honest, logical and efficient is simply alert to alert about the risks and allow the market, by assigning prices for these, to develop its own paths”

Sir, if I was concerned then, how much more concerned should I not be with the possibility of social media, fact checkers and Big Brothers entering joint ventures. 

So no Sir! Much better is a continuous reminder that: “Nothing advertised here has been fact checked and so even though it sounds interesting and correct, it is quite possible that it is all fake, even an outright shameful lye”

@PerKurowski

So if the taxman/(Big Brother) is now to get a share of the revenues some Big Tech obtain exploiting our personal data… who is going to defend us citizens?

Sir, you deem “The ability of some of the world’s most profitable companies to escape paying fair levels of tax…unfair both to other businesses which do not trade internationally and to governments, which lose substantial revenue” “France leads the way on taxing tech more fairly”, July 12.

It might be unfair to us taxpaying citizens but “unfair to the government”, what on earth do you mean with that? That sounds like something statist redistribution profiteers could predicate but, frankly, the government has no natural right to any income.

And since Big Techs like Facebook and Google obtain most of their revenues by exploiting us citizens’ personal data, then if there were some real search for fairness, a tax on ad revenues from such exploitation should better be returned directly to us, perhaps by helping to fund a universal basic income.

But what ‘s the worst with these taxes is that now effectively governments will be partners with these companies in the exploitation of our data. With such incentives do you really believe our interest will be duly defended? We, who are afraid of what all our data could feed with information a Big Brother government, must now recoil in horror from that we will also be suffering an even richer and more powerful Big Brother.

PS. Sir, it is not the first time I have warned you about this.

https://teawithft.blogspot.com/2018/03/our-need-to-concern-ourselves-about-use.html

https://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2019/05/i-have-some-ideas-about-what-could.html

@PerKurowski

When analyzing labor markets, do not ignore the time being wasted/used consuming distractions.

Sir, (as usual) I read with much interest Sarah O’Connor’s article on “labour shortages being reported gloomily all over the developed world” “Labour scarcity helps heal workers’ deep financial scars” July 11.

I think she forgot to include in her analysis the fact that more and more time is used during working hours in distractions. On a recent visit to a major shop in the Washington area, 8 out of the 11 attendances I saw were busy with some type of activity on their i-phones, and I seriously suspect they were not just checking inventories.

Less hours effectively worked, should translate not only in labor shortages but also into higher real salaries. And I also frequently ask myself what would our economic data be telling if treated the distractions as consumption. Could productivity have been increasing fabulously without us noticing it?

@PerKurowski

Mr. Tim Harford, so you want an intriguing puzzle that might engage your curiosity? Have I got one for you!

Sir, Tim Harford writes: “Marina Della Giusta and colleagues at the University of Reading recently conducted a linguistic analysis of the tweets of the top 25 academic economists and the top 25 scientists on Twitter and found that the economists tweeted less and had fewer Twitter conversations with strangers. “Economicky words are just plain icky” November 25.

But not only might they tweet less, they might block more. I say that because I have never, as far as I know, been blocked by a scientists, but I sure have been blocked by an economists, the undercover economist Tim Harford.

Why could that have happened? Perhaps because I might have complained too much that Harford, as an economist, shoud also be out there dennouncing one of the most important economic regulatory cock-ups in world history, namely the risk weighted capital requirements for banks.

Harford writes “If we use a surprising fact as an ambush, that will provoke a defensive response; far better to present an intriguing puzzle.”

Okey Mr Harford here is one for you:

Why on earth do regulators want banks to hold the most capital when something ex ante perceived risky turns out risky? Is it not when something perceived very safe turns out ex post to be very risky one would really like banks to have it the most?

PS. But Sir, of course it is not just Tim Harford. You yourself, advertising a “Without fear and without favor”, seemingy do not dare to ask bank regulators where they got the idea of risk weighting the so dangerous AAA rated with a minimum 20%, and those by being rated below BB- made so innocous with a whopping 150%?

PS. As an aide memoire, here is again a list of the mistakes

@PerKurowski

We need a contact-tax to make sure social media profiles us more adequately, and leave us some time-off to think.

Sir, Tim Harford writes: “fake news entrepreneurs have realised that it is far more profitable to invent eye-catching fables than to research and confirm the everyday truth”, “How to poke Facebook off its perch”, November 4.

The real reason for that, a bit hard to acknowledge, is that most of us (me included) find it much more amusing to read eye-catching fables than blah-blah truths.

So given our weaknesses of falling for fables; and given our de-facto limited attention span, 60 minutes times 24 hours per day; and given our need for some time-off so we do not forget how to think and reflect on what we are being fed with, we must put up some very high walls or dig some very deep moats as self-defense.

At this moment Facebook can send out a message to two billion users at basically zero marginal cost!

So one way could be forcing social media and their colleagues to pay a minuscule fee for any message sent to us that does not originate directly from our private friends; call it a contact-tax.

That would at least force Facebook to target us more carefully. “Profiling us more carefully”? That might sound awful, but being wrongly profiled should be worse… or perhaps not.

But of course the revenues of any contact-tax should not go to increase the redistribution profiteers’ franchise value, but be shared out among us all by means of a Universal Basic Income.

PS. This does not mean I give up on my right to strive for an intellectual property right, a copyright on my own preferences, in order to have something more to bargain with in this data driven world.

@PerKurowski

If today Luther protested the high priests in the Basel Committee, where would he nail his Theses? Twitter, Facebook?

Sir, Kate Maltby writes: “Luther… backed by the painstaking detail of a scholar, took an intellectual stand against the most powerful forces of his day. But Lutheranism ushered in an age in which debates were won by those who read the sources and rejected received interpretations.” “What did Luther ever do for us? Less than we like to think” October 31, 2017

As you know I have obsessively, since more than a decade, with more than 2.600 letters, been nailing to FT my arguments against the maddening stupid bank regulations the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision has decreed.

These regulations not only distort the allocation of credit to the real economy (millions of entrepreneurs have not gotten their opportunity to a bank credit only because of these regulations); but also because in terms of stability, the only thing it promotes is that when a big crisis happens, banks will stand there with especially little capital (as the 20% risk weight of dangerous AAA rated, and the 150% for the innocuous below BB- rated evidences). 

So I want to take this opportunity today, when “five hundred years ago, on October 31 1517, Martin Luther took up a hammer and nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg” to ask you, where would Martin Luther nail his Theses today? Not in FT…perhaps in Twitter or ​Facebook?

An aide-mémoire

@PerKurowski

Our biggest problem with Internet, Google, Facebook, Twitter, is that our attention span scarcity is not duly valued

Sir, you write: “It is clear that Google, Facebook, Twitter and a few others have become an important part of the social fabric. The dissemination of fake political news around elections in the US and Europe has illustrated as much”, “New realities confront a maturing Internet” September 12.

I don’t get it. If there was any “fake political news around elections in the US and Europe” that was that Hillary and Remain were shoe-ins. And although the dissemination is important the fact is that others produced these news… mostly the political correctness clans.

But let me get to the real issue here. We humans do not have more than 7 days a week with 24 hours each with 60 minutes each and 60 seconds each. That’s all! And social media is claiming more and more of that limited attention span and there is little we can do about it, if we do not want to disconnect entirely.

Perhaps if anyone outside our circle of friends would want to send us a message, like a fake news or an irresistible click-ad, had to pay us something, then we could perhaps align the incentives better. Some could charge one cent per message, others one dollar and perhaps a Nobel Prize winner or an important politician 100 dollars for 30 seconds.

If it were so, many more would think differently about losing their time with their silly useless messages… and we would all live happier.

@PerKurowski

Caring more about us, the targets, would go a long way to improve advertising efficiency on the web, and reduce fraud.

Sir, John Gapper describes some tip of icebergs in the word of online advertising “Regulators are failing to block fraudulent ads”, February 3.

But I also assume that those paying for the ads do not pay, or stop the advertising, if the ads fail to translate into profits.

We, the targets, we used to be hit with some few advertising bullets while reading a paper, looking at TV or listening to radio… now, on the web, more and more we are hit with thousand of ad pellets, which give very little consideration to the physical limits of our attention span. If the computer has a malware that keeps it reading ads while I sleep I don’t care… but when I sit there and try to use the web for its original purposes the ads are really getting into my way and into my nerves.

What could be done about it? I have suggested the advertisers, with the help of ad-blockers, take contact directly with us the targets. I am sure we could work something out. I my case I have offered to hire out my very scarce attention span for 30 seconds against the low price of US$ 1… initially!

@PerKurowski ©

The most forceful adblocker is the limited attention span available… and here is an offer on how you can access mine

Sir, Matthew Garrahan, Hannah Kuchler and Robert Cookson write “the latest adblocking software, and programs already available on PCs and laptops, could have ruinous implications for the companies that rely on digital advertising, such as online publishers” “Adblocking threat to marketing industry grows” October 6.

I am perfectly fine with any advertiser who simply tags on a Twitter, Google or Facebook and gets paid for it even if I were bothered is put out of business. We need smart adblocking on our telephone lines too.

But the fact is that the biggest adblocker of them all, is time. There is just so many hours and minutes available per day. And so the whole adblocking technology, instead of being considered a threat, should be good news for the ad industry, since it will permit to separate the good from the bad.

And, since we on the receiving end are in fact the most important participants in all this, let me take this opportunity to once again remind the industry of my offer:

Anyone who following my personal copyrighted preferences feels he has a very special message to me, could begin by paying me a token of good faith, for instance 1US$. If so, I guarantee him the access to my fully devoted attention span, during 30 seconds. For your information my adblocker will be receiving a percentage to be agreed upon of my revenues, and so that it also has an interest in maximizing these.

This is going to be fun.

PS. I just went out to my mailbox. I will need an adblocker there too. My ordinary mail does not fit any longer.

@PerKurowski © J

If Disney though dead makes money on Mickey Mouse © why can’t Per Kurowski do the same on Per Kurowski © while alive?

Sir, let me use Tim Harford’s “Copyright and wrongs” of October 3, in order to bring to your and his attention, my own copyright wishes.

I have spent my whole life, carefully, with great love and dedication, developing interest and taste for many different things. And now, all my efforts doing so, are being vulgarly commercialized by third parties, to whoever thinks he could use it in order to tempt me to buy something or to donate to some cause.

With that information on me, they pursue me on the web and on the phone, day and night. And I can hardly escape any longer. In fact I am no longer a completely free man, I am now being trapped by my own past preferences and blocked from exploring new horizons. “Tell me what you like and I will show you what you like” is a vicious spiritual deathtrap that engulfs you more and more.

And there’s little or nothing in it for me. Oh, if only I could have a copyright on my own preferences… only until I am dead, not one day more. I swear I would not hire lawyers to extend its validity.

If that were possible, I would immediately enlist one of those many emerging ad-blockers, to make sure I was reasonably compensated for any ad that targeted me using what is included in Per Kurowski ©.

And of course, if I also had to look at those ads, I would want some compensation for using up my so scarce attention span. I have initially been thinking about a low revisable fee of US$1 per 30 second of serious attention to anything serious information they want to feed me. 

In order to stimulate the ad-blocker for maximizing my copyright and my attention span revenues, I have thought of paying it a 30 percent commission rate. Sounds reasonable eh?

@PerKurowski ©

Ad-blockers, do not allow any unsolicited ads on my mobile… unless of course I get paid good money for looking at it.

Sir, Richard Waters writes: “Slow loading times for mobile web pages — when users are paying for data… cost more than just time” and yet, while discussing the issue of ad blocking he refers to all major actors, except the users. “Who gets to block ads is flip side of who gets to decide which get through” September 10.

It is we the users who end up bearing the brunt of the costs, when having our limited and valuable attention span filled up with noises of all types. And so therefore let me repeat a request for ad-blocking services that would better serve my purpose.

I want an ad-blocking that charges anyone trying to send me an unrequested solicitation of any sort, or more than one per moth of the requested, to charge the advertiser an adjustable fee for me to look at it. Let us say initially US$1 per 30 second’s view. And on that income I would be willing to pay the ad-blocker for his services an adjustable commission, let us say initially 20%.

An alternative in which I could perhaps bypass the ad-blocker is signing up an agreement, for instance with Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple by which they share their revenues obtained from targeting me and my preferences, for instance, initially 50 percent.

Users unite! Let us maximize the returns for us of our valuable and very limited attention span. 

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2015/07/my-ideal-adblocker-besides-earning-on.html

http://teawithft.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-want-net-40-percent-of-revenues.html

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2015/06/for-1us-i-will-look-for-30-seconds-with.html

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2014/06/should-not-google-and-other-public-eyes.html
http://teawithft.blogspot.ca/2007/06/in-search-of-answers-on-search-engines.html

@PerKurowski

If we get a copyright on our own personal data and preferences, then we have something to trade with.

Sir, I refer to Edward Luce’s “Big Data’s infinite harvest” May 25.

In it Luce asks “Should we charge Big Data for our personal data?” And my answer to that has for quite some time been, even to FT, that we should at least get a copyright on our own personal data, so as to have something to trade with.

I recently bought a Tuxedo shirt on the web, and since then I have been receiving many offers on Tuxedo shirts on the social media where I socialize. It crowds my computer and, in doing so, it definitely affects negatively my possibilities of going on with the rest of my own virtual life, as well as intruding on other ads trying to reach my immense purchasing power :-)

And so I believe that if all these content providers had to share some of the ad revenue they got from targeting me, with me, the owner of my own preferences, then we could put some order in the house, an order that could even benefit our Big Brothers. Frankly, I think that any advertiser would love this idea, as that would guarantee that the ad recipient looks more favorable, or even looks, at his ad… of course current advertisers would initially not like it too much… until they understand that would benefit them too.

Now on the issue of information and searches, there I might be a little bit more radical. Because there I would request that at least 50 percent of all search results provided by Google should be provided on a totally pro-bono basis. That is because it is much too important for us to know what the poorer outliers might be thinking, and because we cannot afford our information needs to be satisfied solely by information lobbyist.

But clearly all this is just in its initial stages and developing.

@PerKurowski

What about 15% of ad revenues to the content provider and the mobile operator, each one, and 70% to me?

Sir, Jonathan Ford seems to agree with “mobile operators… offering customers control over how they use their data allowance online” but is a bit suspicious of their intentions since operators also “want content providers to hand over more of their revenues from advertising”, “Mobile ad-blocking risks becoming a barrier to innovation” May 18.

There is no question that there is a lot of fighting about the value to access us consumers, and if we do not find efficient ways to block ads, we will drown in these, and de facto become incommunicado.

We users, we must fight back for our rights.

If I am going to use my limited attention span, and my data allowances, to look at ads that are directed to me only because my own preferences and lifestyle is known as a result of being on social media or otherwise surfing the web… then it is really I who should be paid.

And I would gladly pay the content providers, for providing advertisers the information they need about me, and the operators a commission for providing me a collection service. How about a generous 15 percent to each one of them? And 70 percent to me :-)​

@PerKurowski

Brussels and US, when ruling on cyber space, never forget it is we, the undefended accessed, who most need assistance.

Sir, Carl Bildt holds that “Digital mercantilism — a misguided attempt to regulate away competition, or build up new boundaries to achieve some imaginary sovereignty in cyberspace — can only hurt Europe’s ability to innovate, compete and succeed in this new world.” “Brussels should resist the urge to rig the rules of cyber space” May 4.

Absolutely, but that does not mean all is fine and dandy.

Bildt writes: “Google, Facebook and Twitter have been extremely successful in establishing services that have a commanding lead in the markets in which they operate… not by exploiting the advantages of incumbency, but through groundbreaking innovations that have led users to flock to the services they provide.”

Indeed, but those companies did not create the internet Mr. Bildt; and all of us flocking to obtain their services are paying a price for it, by means of allowing these to access information about us, in order for them to resell advertising access to us. And that price could be reasonable or not.

If it constrains too much our ability to access information freely, the price would be way too high.

And it is in the area of unfair restrictions in the competition for information of all sort, that we, the undefended accessed, sure need some assistance from regulators, whether European or American, or from anywhere else on the globe where they might be hosted.

PS. Should I have a copyright over my own preferences, so that I could share in the ad-revenues from advertising directed to me, because of my preferences?

@PerKurowski