Table Of ContentCunningly Smart Phones
Deceit, Manipulation, and
Private Thoughts Revealed
Jack M. Wedam
Copyright © 2015 by Jack M. Wedam.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015910181
ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-5035-8103-6
Softcover 978-1-5035-8104-3
eBook 978-1-5035-8105-0
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I want to thank Nathan for designing an excellent book cover. I also thank him for his patience as we worked through
many styles and concepts to get a book cover that visually portrays the essence of this book.
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
A Cunningly Smart Spy
Mary Godwin
What’s Emotion Got To Do With It?
Reading Your Emotions And Targeting You
Playing With Emotions Is Very Profitable
Manipulating With Fear
The “Belongings Test”: What You Buy, And Where You Go, Reveals More Than You Realize
Big Data Gets To Know You, One Very Small Piece Of Information At A Time
“Anonymous,” But Very Well-Known
The Genius Of Facebook
The Eyes Are The Window To The Mind
Electronic Mind Readers?
Can A “Mechanism” Accurately Reflect Your Thoughts?
“Wearables”: For Your Health Or For Their Profit?
Someday Soon, Maybe Very Soon
Legal And Ethical Issues
What Can You Do?
Glossary
Bibliography, References, And Websites
Listed By Author’s First Name
Listed By Government Agency
Department Of Homeland Security
United States District Court, Northern California, San Jose Division (Litigation)
Federal Trade Commission
Office Of The Under Secretary Of Defense For Acquisition, Technology, And Logistics
Securities And Exchange Commission
US Attorney General
Listed By Patent (Assignee, Inventor, Or Title, Whichever Is Likely More Relevant To The Reader)
Listed By Subject Or Topic
Listed By Website
Notes
This book is dedicated to my mom, who started badly but finished well. It is also
dedicated to my dad, who guided me, loved me, fed me, nurtured me, and taught me well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I
want to acknowledge the many excellent reviewers whose comments made this book
much more readable and understandable than my rough manuscript. This book would not
have come to fruition without Audrey Charles. She read several rough drafts of my
manuscript and provided many suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. I also
want to thank several other reviewers who provided me with helpful suggestions. These
include Andy Aguirre, R. Clare Layton, Steve and Patty White, Jason Pike, John Short,
Dr. Jim Gansberg, Dr. John and Cathy Maas, Dr. Albert Wedam, and Norene Wedam.
PREFACE
O
n September 21, 2007, the Department of Homeland Security awarded a contract to
Battelle Memorial Institute to build a future attribute screening technology (FAST)
demonstration laboratory.1 Headlines such as “Behavioral biometrics to detect terrorists
entering U.S.”2 and “Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists”3
announced that the field of behavioral biometrics was in full stride.
Allegedly, behavioral biometric technologies are more accurate than a lie detector.
Evidently, some nongovernment entities noticed the research and development of these
new technologies. A few years after 2007, several corporations commercialized similar
technologies—and the paradigm shifted drastically. Whereas in the first wave of
development, the aim of using behavioral biometric technology was to help governments
identify potential terrorists and to result in enhanced security measures to protect the
public, the next wave of development, in stark contrast, saw the emergence of
technologies that enabled corporations to target the public. The result of the latter was
enhanced profits for corporations at your expense and an invasion of your privacy on an
industrial level.
* * *
Allow me to discuss what qualifies me to write this book. I learned about neuroanatomy
and neurology while studying to be of doctor of veterinary medicine more than three
decades ago. I and my fellow students were required to know a great deal about
neuroanatomy and neurology, which enabled us to conduct thorough neurological
examinations of our patients—dogs, cats, horses, and other animals. The results of those
examinations led to greater accuracy in making a diagnosis of disease or damage
involving the nervous system. For example, abnormal eye movements and the eye’s pupil
response to light provide important information to help detect the location of damage to
the brain.
Scientists have only recently revealed the function of saccades in the normally
functioning brain. Saccades are very fast eye movements that allow the subconscious to
monitor what is in the peripheral vision. When the function of saccades became known, I
was fascinated. As I conducted research to discover more details, I learned how saccades
and pupil responses could be used to probe the subconscious mind without the awareness
or consent of the person being targeted. Intrigued, I decided to search further.
Mathematical sociology may sound like an awkward combination of disciplines, but it
enables corporations to extract detailed information about you by analyzing your activity
on social media websites. Mathematical sociology uses techniques that are similar to those
used in epidemiology.4 I earned a master’s degree in veterinary preventive medicine,
which included the study of epidemiology. My understanding of epidemiology enabled me
to understand how mathematical sociology can be used to harvest valuable information
about people from their social activities and participation with social media and social
networks.
An understanding of patents and the patenting process has greatly facilitated my
research into these new technologies. I was awarded a patent5 for a finger-actuated
electronic control apparatus. I am not a patent attorney. However, in the process of
obtaining a patent I learned that patents provide a wealth of information about new
technologies. Inventors must explain in excruciating detail what their patent is about and
how their device or process is different from other devices or processes.
I discuss numerous patents in this book; however, you do not have to accept my
explanations of them. I provide many references and links so you can read the patents
yourself and make your own inferences. Alternatively, you can hire patent attorneys,
neuroscientists, and other experts to explain the patents to you.
* * *
In this book, I reference material from two of my previous books, Google Glass Can
Read Your Mind (2014) and Billionaires and eGenies are $elling You Out (2013). This
notice serves as a general citation of my other books.
INTRODUCTION
I
need your help.
We need to spread the word about consumers’ Internet privacy. I hope this book will
galvanize the public into action, the same way Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed
inspired people to act. Because of Nader’s book, a nationwide groundswell of people
clashed with the titans of the automobile industry, which were then as powerful as the
titans of the Internet are today. The public ultimately prevailed against the titans of the
automobile industry. The result was safer automobiles and fewer highway fatalities. If
enough people demand change this time, then we can prevail and take back control of our
rights and privacy.
Together we can push back and force change. This is your chance to change things for
the better. You can help yourself and others by pushing back and opposing the titans of the
Internet who are trampling on our privacy. If you are a little hesitant about subscribing to
the ideas presented in this book, then please make up your mind after reading it, not
before.
I am a proponent of an ethical capitalist system in the United States. I believe that when
corporations are deceptive, they deserve to be called out. I also want smartphone users to
be aware of how smartphones and smartwatches may soon be able to be used in ways that
few people would welcome.
I opted to keep the main body of this text to about half the length of other books that
address Internet privacy, information technology, etc. As such, the main body of this text
is fewer than thirty-five thousand words, not including the glossary, the bibliography, and
the notes. A book of this length should appeal to readers who have an interest in their
privacy but who don’t have the time to read the longer books on the subject. Therefore,
this book is not meant to be an exhaustive study of the many very technical fields of
science and mathematics that have recently become interwoven with the pursuit of profits.
Instead, this book is meant to be an overview to aid the reader in connecting the dots
between mathematics (statistics), cryptanalytics, neuroscience, psychology, and
marketing.
I struggled to simplify complex topics in order to make this book readable at the
twelfth-grade level.1 In order to achieve that objective, I avoided discussing many of the
complex details of various topics in the main text. Some reviewers asked me to include
more details, whereas other reviewers asked me to include fewer details. To satisfy both
groups, I moved some explanations from the main body of the text to the notes so that the
information would be available to those who wanted more detail. A glossary is included to
provide more information. This book also has a long bibliography that contains many
references. You may access these references if you want to learn more.
Almost half of this book is devoted to the glossary, the bibliography, references, and
notes. This is a large amount of space devoted to these areas. As mentioned above, it
moves much of the complex discussion out of the main body of the manuscript and allows
the reading to flow smoothly for the rapid reader who does not want to bother with the
details. More importantly, Cunningly Smart Phones provides an abundance of evidence to
support assertions that may be denied by the titans of the Internet. The titans of the
Internet are very good at making accurate inferences about you. This book will provide
you with ample information so you can make accurate inferences about their activities and
also come to see how their activities might affect you in ways you may not welcome.
