2. agenda
✤ Why WhatsApp?
✤ Peter Thiel, the string-puller
behind Zuckerberg
✤ The data about our “herd”
behaviour
✤ Does any of it matter?
Mark Zuckerberg mosaic.
(Credit: Charis Tsevis; Original Photo: Francois G. Durand)
3. Why WhatsApp?
✤ $21.8bn purchase
✤ SMS / Email vs Messenger Apps
✤ Demographics
✤ Phone book
✤ Big Data
6. Peter Thiel
✤ Paypal Founder
✤ Henge Fund Manager
✤ First investor in Facebook
✤ Believer in Rene Girard
✤ Mimetic theory: ‘herd’
behaviour
✤ Steering Committee of
Bilderberg Group
✤ Megarich Elite
Facebook Friend connections
Illustration: Paul Butler
7. Income Inequality - US Income Inequality - UK
Productivity vs Income - US
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts
MotherJones
8. Data mining the
herd
✤ Big Data is lots of your little
data
✤ Data mining for targeted
advertising
✤ Data mining for societal trends
✤ Anti-terrorism
✤ social control
http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/aug/20/edward-snowden-21st-century-revolutionary-icon
Most global telecoms go through the US
9. ✤ Government data requests that we
actually KNOW about
✤ Massive 19% increase in such
requests Jan-June 2014
http://mashable.com/2014/11/04/facebook-government-requests/
✤ ‘Sentiment analysis’ looking for
sarcasm that might turn into violent
incidents
✤ Has govt. as much right as
marketing companies to our social
media / private chatter?
10. Does it matter?
✤ Most studies suggest even youngsters use the privacy controls on
Facebook: they certainly seem to care
✤ Neocommunitarian ‘herding’ of populations by billionaire elites and
security services not very democratic
✤ Privacy laws focus on the individual in the assumption that the group is
thus automatically protected
✤ Need for new laws/guidelines on the protection of the group: two moral
imperatives - individual human rights AND general human welfare
11. Contact
✤ Dr David Kreps
✤ http://snipr.com/davidkreps
✤ d.g.kreps@salford.ac.uk