social media

Explaining social media tracking

May 19, 2026
social media, surveillance, advertising

Nothing to hide? The business model of cost free web services # Following my mantra to put online behind a public URL what I share more than twice: The following are three + two presentations that dig deeper into the business model of advertising financed online services that people can use without paying money that in the past I have consistently shared with friends and aquaintances to explain what’s broken about this business model from the perspective of “independent media is one of the corner stones of a free and open society”. ...

A short, incomprehensive history of spam and counter measures

April 11, 2024
ranking, recommendations, adverserial learning, Learning To Rank, spam, social media, hacks

A short, incomprehensive history of spam and counter measures # “… it should be clear that improvements in communication tend to divide mankind …” by Harold Innis in Changing Concepts of Time This post was triggered by multiple conversations in my big data circle of friends. All conversations agreed on some important topics: Social media sites these days are influential on the daily life of people globally. With that influence comes an incentive to use these sites to influence behaviour and public opinion. ...