Tag Archives: digital

2 November 2024
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Protecting minors in the age of AI

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Introduction to the Digital World

In today’s digital age, the internet has become an integral part of daily life, especially for children and teenagers. From learning and gaming to social networking, young people are increasingly spending more time online. While these digital advancements provide numerous benefits, they also bring significant risks, making the protection of minors a pressing concern. As young people navigate the online world, it is crucial to ensure their safety and privacy are prioritized.

Exposure to Online Risks

The internet, though a valuable resource, is not without its dangers, especially for minors. Children can be exposed to various online risks, including cyberbullying, inappropriate content, and predatory behavior. The anonymity of the internet allows for harmful interactions that may lead to emotional and psychological distress. For instance, cyberbullying can have long-lasting effects on a child’s self-esteem and mental health. Moreover, minors are often more susceptible to falling victim to scams or sharing personal information with strangers, making them easy targets for exploitation.

Privacy and Data Protection

Protecting the privacy and personal data of minors is another critical issue in the digital age. Many online platforms collect data from users, including children, for targeted advertising or other purposes. Young users may not fully comprehend the consequences of sharing personal information online, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches and misuse. It is essential for digital services to implement stronger privacy protections for minors, limiting data collection and ensuring that children’s information is safeguarded.

Mental Health Impact

The constant connectivity of the digital age can take a toll on the mental health of young people. Social media, in particular, can create pressure to conform to certain standards, leading to anxiety, depression, or feelings of inadequacy. For children and teenagers, who are still developing their sense of identity, the impact of negative online experiences can be profound. Encouraging responsible use of social media and educating young people about the potential mental health effects are key steps in promoting digital well-being.

Role of Parents, Educators, and Policy Makers

Ensuring the safety of minors online is a shared responsibility. Parents need to guide their children in navigating the internet safely, educators should incorporate digital literacy into the curriculum, and policymakers must enact regulations that protect children from online harm. Comprehensive strategies that involve all stakeholders are necessary to create a safer digital environment for young users.

Solutions for Online Safety

To effectively protect minors in the digital world, a multi-faceted approach is required. Education on digital literacy should be a priority, helping young users understand both the benefits and risks of online activity. Technological tools such as parental controls, content filters, and anti-cyberbullying software can provide additional layers of protection. Furthermore, regulations need to be strengthened to enforce age-appropriate content and prevent the exploitation of minors’ data. When combined, these measures can significantly enhance online safety for children.

Sources:
“AI for Children | Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight.” UNICEF, www.unicef.org/innocenti/projects/ai-for-children. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

“The Dark Side of AI: Risks to Children.” Child Rescue Coalition, childrescuecoalition.org/educations/the-dark-side-of-ai-risks-to-children/. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

Garrate, Chatty . “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Kids and Teens.” AI Magazine, 25 June 2022, aimagazine.com/machine-learning/the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-kids-and-teens. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.

Generative AI tool used: Chat-GPT

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9 December 2018
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Uncover humanity and secrets of your face

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Due to the fact, that deep learning technology takes giant steps in developing and improving, we might say that modern cities are just around the corner. One of the things that cities of the future need is face recognition system.

Why do we need that?

Face ID, for instance, can help the police to identify perpetrators and send them fees. It can bring huge benefits, because people will know that they can be punished for minor hooliganism. They can use it for finding criminals and elimination syndicates. Thus, security of life will be improved. Moreover, in the nearest future, face recognition technology will be able to understand human’s emotions, so that it will bring some benefits in medical industry and can be implemented in pain management procedures. Yet, its general mission is to help security system. It would be better to use Facial biometrics combined with fingerprints to authenticate persons.

How is it performing now?

Huge software corporations like IBM, Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. are shipped to work on facial biometrics.  They have already achieved impressive results. For example, Facebook DeepFace can determine two photos of the same person with accuracy rate of 97.25%. In June 2015 Google’s program FaceNet achieved 95% on YouTube Faces DB. Although, its performance is quite high, this technology still has a lot of issues to be solved.

Firstly, as you may know Apple introduced Face ID in Iphones since X’s version and it had been heavily criticized by Chinees people because of inability to recognize some of their faces.

Secondly, In February 2018 found that Microsoft, IBM and Megvii tools had big percentage of mistakes when identifying dark skin women. This problem has been solved, though such occasions show us not thoroughness of this technology. This is due to the fact, that there are too many variables that need to be taken into consideration.

Moral dilemma

If we implement such a technology into our cities, there is a chance that it would not be accepted by usual peasants. Because, face recognition requires huge number of cameras in cities and human, like a creature, may take it as an endless monitoring and lack of freedom because we will have to act like robots to prevent punishment from the government. Moreover, the technology will replace manual work and this won’t be welcomed. Yet, advantages take over disadvantages and it is not long time before face recognition technology will be entered.

 

Links

For more information:

https://www.gemalto.com/govt/biometrics/facial-recognition

https://www.biometricupdate.com/201811/dhs-issues-call-for-2019-biometric-technology-rally-participants

Pics

https://pixabay.com/ru/cctv-%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%8B-1144371/

https://pixabay.com/ru/%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BC-%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5-3859536/

 

 

 

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26 November 2018
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RIP wallets. Are implanted microchips here to stay?

Reading Time: 3 minutesAs some of you have surely noticed, old breathtaking fantastic fiction films steadily become our reality today. But, should we wave goodbye to wallets and welcome implanted microchips with open arms?

Has anybody of you encountered with inconvenience when the wallet somehow got lost in the bag or because of your goldfish memory stayed at home? Hey, we’re living in the world of cutting-edge technologies, why do we still have to lug around the rarely-used discount cards with us all the time as well as fiddle with irritating keys at the front door? It shouldn’t be our concern since technology has far surpassed the demand for any of these things.

Картинки по запросу Thousands of people in Sweden get microchip implants

Originally, the idea came to the mind of Swedes back in 2015, who seem more willing to try the technology than most other nations. It is so mainstream there that, since June 2017, people have even been able to buy train tickets with their microchips. You must admit it’s more practical to have a surgically inserted microchip than such services like Apple Pay or smart locks on your phone, which can be lost and hacked. So an increasing number of people, including approximately 3,000 Swedes, are opting for implanted microchips.

Tiny little chip implants, via X-ray.

The chip itself is the size of a grain of rice despite it could hold the key to many aspects of our life, considerably simplifying it. The microchip implanted in the hand between a thumb and a forefinger and basically functions as a digital keychain. The subcutaneous chip intended to help people do things like hold entry codes, unlock and start their car, gain access to certain vending machines or printers, log on to computers, sign into the gym, make credit card payments.

“In the past year, the chip has turned into a kind of electronic handbag and has even replaced my gym card”– says Ulrika Celsing, one of 3,000 Swedes, who have injected a microchip into her hand to try out a new way of life.

Over time, as the technology doesn’t stand still, the implant will be able to do even more. However, the question arose whether are these chip implants a step toward future where employers track their subjects’ every movement? Or are they simply an easy way to log in to accounts and open doors with a wave of a hand?

Nick Anderson, an associate professor in public health sciences at the University of California, Davis, says the privacy and security of any information stored on the chips is a conspicuous concern. The implants use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, also used in credit cards, and are “passive”, which means they hold data that can be read by other devices but cannot read information themselves. Actually, NFC chips right below the skin give corporations a fair amount of control over you — they could track where you are, how long you take for lunch every day, or how often you go to the restroom if the chip were scanned by a reader. Moreover, abandoning this kind of data collection is too much complicated when you’ve got a chip implanted in your body tissues.

Maybe we are really stuck with small keypads and overstuffed wallets. But is carrying a key or remembering a password so difficult or potentially risky? Without additional safeguards and guarantees of privacy, the microchipping quirk may quickly become a digital security nightmare.

Links:

https://futurism.com/sweden-microchip-trend

https://www.businessinsider.com/swedish-people-embed-microchips-under-skin-to-replace-id-cards-2018-5?IR=T

 

 

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16 October 2017
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An Overview of the Ecommerce Market Globally

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What could we expect until 2021

Our markets have been transformed digitally in every sense. Life has become much easier, compared to a decade back. People prefer to buy a product online as it helps them save their time, avoid traffic and your product is there at your doorstep. So this is a very serious market, and everyone, be it a Major company or a startup has the access to reach across their targets with ease. Its more of an equal opportunity that makes the digital world a step ahead compared to offline sales or marketing.

The eccomerce market is in a state of expansion and consolidation. There are even more consumers who are going digitally, which means worldwide retail ecommerce is sales are rising. This also means that the big fishes, that are Amazon and Alibaba are expanding their kingdom to smaller and secondary markets by buying local companies.

 

   It is said that the retail ecommerce markets are shooting up in 2017, rising by 23.2 %, i.e  $2.290 trillion. It is estimated that by the end of 2021,  equating to 16.1% of their total sales.

On a global level, Amazon and Alibaba are leading the market, around the world. Accoridng to Deloitte, report in January 2017, the sales for Amazon reached $79.27 billion, which is nearly triple of the second  largest digital retailer, China based JD.com ($ 26.99 billion). This ranking is followed by Apple on the third with $24.37 billion and Wallmart ($ 13.70 billion).

 

              

 

Alibaba is not featured on Deloitte’s list, likely because the data excludes consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sales and sales from third-party sellers, both of which make up a large part of Alibaba’s business. When those are included, however, Alibaba is likely on par, if not ahead, of Amazon.

  • Retail ecommerce sales worldwide will increase at four times the rate of retail sales this year, jumping 23.2% to $2.290 trillion. Ecommerce sales growth will stay in the double digits throughout the forecast period.
  • China and the US will combine for $1.584 trillion in ecommerce sales this year, representing 69.1% of global ecommerce.
  • In 2017, mobile commerce will account for more than 70% of ecommerce sales in both China and India, and 59.0% in South Korea. In Germany, the UK and US, mcommerce will comprise at least one-third of total retail ecommerce sales.

   Our markets are growing at a high scale everyday, and in time, we realize that the development is so high that we can’t even imagine how better the digital market can come up with a better idea, that helps lead in the competition ladder. Our future is bright, its getting smarter and faster by day.

Sources:
https://www.emarketer.com/Report/Worldwide-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-eMarketers-Estimates-20162021/2002090
https://retail.emarketer.com/article/brief-overview-of-global-ecommerce-market/59690010ebd40005284d5cc5

 

 

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8 October 2017
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Interactive fashion: are people ready to adopt it?

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Have you ever thought that your clothes would assimilate with your body?

Just imagine, your all-natural reactions, behavior and processes are now all captivated by the shoes that you are wearing every day, some T-shirt, dress. Can you come with the idea that your favorite sweater might change a color every time you catch a flu or that you would be able to see the ignorance or anger of the person not through his facial mimics, but due to the movement of the fabrics in his or her shirt?

In the near future, it can be used not only as the protection from the outside of your body factors, but as a real part of you that compliments you, your physical processes and would be an integral part of the communication with the surrounding world.

Nowadays, such assumption is already not a fantasy, but a real fact. There are already created numerous examples of the clothes that seem to not only provide comfort, but to visualize and assist the hidden physical and mental processes of the human body.

The well-known fact is that, people have always been demonstrating their individuality through the clothes they are wearing, in order to create a specific social position in the conversation with others. In fact, the innovations in technology have provided us with the opportunity to express ourselves in a broader way.

The use of technology in fashion is now no more a tool to produce the clothes, but a new way to execute the human’s inside vision.

The newly invented fabrics and materials can correspond and show up the human’s emotions and condition. In result, a person wearing such clothes will be already unique due to the uniqueness of his or her own emotions and feelings, because the inner world of each human is already exclusive.

Therefore, as well, the high-tech clothes would be able to open a real conversation with a human body itself and due to physical factors and sensory processing the clothes would be able to interact with the body and, consequently, transform itself to satisfy the wearer.

Spider Dress

The Dutch designer Anouk Whipprecht through the combination of fashion and robotics has created a new realm of personal space. Due to the ability of biosensors to catch any evidence of a dress wearer feeling threatened, the robotic spider legs, built-in dress, create a “spider attack” position.

Social Escape Dress

As well, as Anouk Whipprecht, the designers from Urban Armor have been working on the problem of the personal space within a big city. In fact, the Social Escape Dress is equipped with GSR sensors (Galvanic Skin Response) that indicate a strong feeling of stress. As a result, the dress would emit a cloud of fog from the collar, if the wearer feels stressed and uncomfortable in any surrounding.

(NO)WHERE (NOW)HERE

By experimenting with the smart fabrics, robotics, sensory processing and eye-tracking technology, the Montreal designer Ying Gao got a chance to create the garment, which is complimenting its “user”. It is a series of two dresses, which have the ability to change the form and light up, if someone is looking at the person wearing these dresses. According to The Culture Trip: “It is normally the wearer who notices your gaze, not the clothes themselves, but this innovative creation has everyone’s head turning”.

Swarovski gemstone headpiece

The creative group “The Unseen”, headed by Lauren Bowker, has always been mixing the fashion and science. The Lauren Bowker, as the press calls her, “The Alchemist” has come with the invention of the ink that changes the color of the item it is applied on. Among a large majority of her inventions, like the hair dye that changes color, the headpiece created for Swarovski is the one that is acting in accordance with human body condition. The headpiece is constructed by the gemstones, which have been specially grown and later covered by the specific ink, created by Lauren, to become real indicators of the shift of amount of energy of the human. In fact, when the gemstones “feel” the transition of the condition of the human, they change color.  As the Dezeen has stated: “Excitement, nerves, and fear all produce different colours; and quicker shifts in emotion create more dramatic patterns.”

Bubelle emotion sensing dress

About a decade ago, Philips have been experimenting with the combination of smart electronics and fashion and, in fact, there was created one of the first garments that react to the wearer’s emotions. The dress is covered with numerous LEDs that illuminate and change colors due to the emotional condition of the human. Such changes are caught by the bottom layer of the dress, in which there have been installed the skin sensors.

Caress of the Gaze

Behnaz Farahi has developed an interactive garment. The 3D printed collar seems to become an artificial skin that due to built-in camera is able to catch the gaze of the other person and react on it by the lifelike motions. The garment is equipped with the Shape Memory Alloy actuators, which work as a muscle system for this 3D printed “skin”. The idea is to create a conversation not only “person to person”, but “person to person to clothes”.

To conclude, the technological innovation and, in fact, technological symbiosis with fashion have given us the ability to create a new way of expressing ourselves and interacting with the outer world through demonstrating our real inner processes. There, the clothes become a medium between a wearer and the surrounding. Such processes are assisting a human to enter a different level of interaction with the others, where the garment might become an equal conversational partner for people and the world.

But is it the thing that a person wants? There, step up millions of ethical questions. Would we be able to uncover our thoughts, our mood, health status, etc.? Would we be able to sacrifice the privacy of our own bodies and show up the real “I”?

 

Sources:

racked.com

dezeen.com

dazeddigital.com

businessinsider.com

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6 October 2017
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Ivyrevel Digital Fashion House: Discovery or Empty Promise?

Reading Time: 3 minutesIvyrevel is a clothes brand founded in 2003, which officially is a part of H&M global business group since 2016. It was co-founded by popular Swedish fashion blogger Kenza Zouten Subosic, and have been heavily promoted by her through social media channels as well as through her blog (kenzas.se). Ivyrevel already has been on the market for several seasons, but last year the founders have decided to offer a brand new and innovative relaunch that will turn it into the first truly digital fashion house. H&M is a major investor to offer strategic and production support. Another partner is Paypal, which is supposed to provide advisory services on payment and distribution issues.

Ivyrevel clothes are inspired by urban contrasts, strong independent women and by the contemporary now. Its style is polished, loud and extrovert with feminine silhouettes and ample amounts of attitude. It follows fashion trends and continuously releases new items with no pause, by reacting to latest fashion drifts.

The creators of the brand say that their site is their palace, their home, their one and only shopping window to the world. Consequently, you can find Ivyrevel clothes only online and there is no single physical store or a showroom to come try the clothes. Nevertheless, Ivyrevel ships worldwide and their clothes can be bought through many various e-commerce platforms, such as German Zalando or British Asos, and with the support of such a giant as H&M, it makes Ivyrevel a recognizable brand all around the world.

Using the hype around the brand relaunch, Ivyrevel announced that they are partnering with Google to bring couture into the digital age with the Data Dress – a personalized dress designed using a smartphone app developed by Ivyrevel and Google. The app tracks each user’s activity and lifestyle which is then interpreted into a truly unique, and on-trend, custom-made Ivyrevel dress.

”It’s such an exciting moment. We’re about to change the fashion industry by bringing the customer’s personality into the design process through data technology. To get a unique piece of clothing today you need to either buy a custom-made design piece or design it yourself, but that is generally not an affordable option and most people lack the design experience. The Data Dress enables women around the world to order a dress made entirely for them, that reflects the way they live their lives,” says Aleksandar Subosic, co-founder of Ivyrevel.

You ask how does it actually work? At 2016 Google I/O developer conference, Google introduced a new Awareness API that would allow for smarter applications that could understand where you were, what you were doing, what’s nearby, and even the weather, in order to more intelligently react to your current situation. In 2017 Google introduced a new application that’s taking advantage of this sort of data in order to…design you a dress.

Through a forthcoming Android application, users can consent to have their activity and lifestyle data monitored – by way of the Awareness API –  to create their own, personalized, custom-made dress that’s ordered through the app. Now it is officially called the “Data Dress,” says Google.

The idea is that you can translate your life and your lifestyle into a unique, wearable look sounds promising, but in reality, the resulting creation mainly displays your routes and routines as lines on a map, sans street labels and points of interest. But who would like to wear a roadmap?

Creators have promised that the app will release later this year, but still, there are no signs of progress.

 

Sources:
ivyrevel.com

kenzas.se

techcrunch.com

fashionpost.pl

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28 January 2017
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Global Digital Marketplace (G2A.com Limited)

Reading Time: 2 minutesGlobal Digital Marketplace (G2A.com Limited)

Let’s think for a second and try to imagine a market which is completely digital. Back in 2010, a company called go2arena was founded by Bartosz Skwarczek and Dawid Rożek in Rzeszów, Poland as an online game retailer. The main aim of the market was the young gamers with a lack of disposable income.

A Polish company that aimed mainly to objective of the company to sell cheaper games than normal market. Selling video games at the place where it is the lowest possible price got attractive customers suddenly. The CEO of the company Skywarcze set the goal to approach as large as possible game developers to make them sell their games on the platform. Skywarcze achieved this goal by joining various events such as Gamescom, E3 and G-Star by reaching and securing as many partnership deals as possible in order to become an official seller of the games. This decision and deals changed the company’s business model from retailer to marketplace. The company allowed people or small companies to sell video games through the platform.

The hay-day of the company happened in 2016, it began to focus on the technological innovation by investing money into development of Virtual Reality and Customer Services for its customers. G2A pay, G2a direct and G2A shield made the company to became bigger and bigger.

G2A pay, launched back in January 2015, The company introduced its online payment system through the platform in order to make the customers pay easily. With the integration of global payment methods thought the system such as PayPal, Skrill, Webmoney and financial services such as Maestro, Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Also integrating chargeback production availability to system to protect the customers and sellers through the system against the illegal refunds which is called Chargeback Fraud which was a big issue on the digital market place.

Introducing G2A Direct which allowed developers to join the program in July, 2016. Selling developer’s games and charging the customers became much easier. G2A was only getting small commission from those sales from the customers and developers. By joining the program, G2A allowed developers to ranked higher on the market place of G2A platform.

G2A Shield which is a paid membership service for the customer. It offers additional protection to customer who are buying the game thought platform and enjoy the games by playing. Thanks to its customer services, if customer has any problem from the buyer perspective, G2A has 24 hours to solve this issue with the seller. Also G2A including G2A coin transfer, up to 10% cashback, priority pre-order games receive by the customer. With 24/7 live chat in customer service, customer is buying the games without any problem.

Poland is a developing country which is an European Union member state, that’s why companies such as G2A gets a lot of free space to develop and grow in this country.

Let me know about what is your thinking for buying games or anything online. Do you think, it is a good idea to start a business online such as G2A?

 

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