Weaponized Personal Data

Wars have a way of bringing out the best and worst qualities in humans.  Courage, selflessness, loyalty, discipline, perseverance are all virtues that stand out.  Likewise, the sins of man are on full display whenever there are wars, and are likely the cause of them.  One of the things that makes the war in Ukraine so uniquely horrible is the amount of participants' personal data being captured, analyzed against social media sites, and then shared with family members and the public.  Artificial intelligence, trained on billions of social media posts, can identify just about anyone and any military personnel today.  Once identified, personal information can be associated with them and stories told - true or not.

Jack McDonald, a senior lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, was quoted by Wired as saying, "Openly publishing lists of your opponent[s], particularly at the scale that digital operations appear to allow, seems very new.” What kind of information is being shared with the public? Names, birthdays, passport numbers, job titles and photos of them in death.

Information as a Weapon

There are many important subjects and debates worth considering today including the merits of globalization, economic systems, freedom, equality, personal dignity, pluralism, human rights, politics, morality, peace and our future.  All of these important discussions are informed by information.  As such, how to find, capture, validate, weigh and authenticate information is critical to our societies' futures.

Just today, I read how TikTok has stopped information from outside of Russia from being viewed by Russian users.  That means Russian users get only a one-sided, Russian view of the war in Ukraine.  A biased, one-sided view does not support rational, balanced perspectives and objective decision-making.  The same challenge arises if any of us limit our news and information to only one perspective.

My wife insists on reading news from a wide variety of sources, even sources she most often disagrees with.  I hear her grumbling when she reads, but she adamantly defends the need to include a plethora of viewpoints in order to gain perspective.  She is a wise lady.

Abundant Public Data Impacts Modern Warfare

My last article was about leadership decision-making processes - where the trifecta of achieving better understanding, making better decisions, and taking better actions leads to better outcomes.  The first part, "achieving better understandings," is evolving at a speed we have never before witnessed as a result of sensors, satellites, smartphones, GPS, social media platforms, AI, big data, analytics and more.  We will spotlight some of these that made the news this week in the tragic events in the Ukraine.

Russia's unconscionable invasion of Ukraine demonstrated in real-time how the widespread use of commercial satellite imagery and sensors and the reporting of massive volumes of public data can impact world events. As an example, Google Maps is likely to have shown the Russian invasion before it became public.  The Observer published this description of the event, "Google Maps’ live traffic data was believed to have indicated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before the news broke. On Thursday, Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, noticed an unusual “traffic jam” at 3:15 a.m.—way too early for rush hour—in Russia’s Belgorod city, near the Ukraine border."

Disinformation is Both Expensive and Deadly

The Covid-19 pandemic ambushed businesses and global economies.  Since the pandemic took hold in the U.S. in March 2020, job loss has been one of the most significant consequences. The U.S. has recently reached a total of 60 million unemployment claims, while loss to the US GDP is estimated to be around $7.6 trillion.  

In addition, a recent survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank revealed that 9 million small firms in the US are at risk of closing for good in 2021 as a result of the pandemic.  The International Monetary Fund estimated the total cost to the global economy from Covid-19 will ultimately top $28 trillion in lost output (the time frame was years 2020-2025).  

Conspiracy Theories and Their Impact on Employment Opportunities

A question has been lingering in the back of my mind of late.  Does a belief in and the sharing of conspiracy theories have any potential impacts on employment opportunities and/or career advancement?  This week I finally carved out some time to do research.  I found more research than I expected on this topic and my findings follow. 

I have shared many of the excerpts from my research with their associated links to their sources below.  Much of my research was found on PubMed.gov, a research site from the National Library of Medicine's National Center for Biotechnology Information.

• The current research suggests that conspiracy theories may have potentially damaging and widespread consequences for intergroup relations.  © 2019 The Authors. British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30868563/
• Conspiracy theories are consequential as they have a real impact on people's health, relationships, and safety; They are emotional given that negative emotions and not rational deliberations cause conspiracy beliefs; They are social as conspiracy beliefs are closely associated with psychological motivations underlying intergroup conflict.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30555188/
• Research suggests that conspiracy theories are associated with political apathy, support for non-normative political action, climate denial, vaccine refusal, prejudice, crime, violence, disengagement in the workplace, and reluctance to adhere to COVID-19 recommendations.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33612140/
• Belief in conspiracy theories about the workplace are associated with increased turnover intentions and decreased organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The current studies therefore demonstrate the potentially adverse consequences of conspiracy theorizing for the workplace. We argue that managers and employees should be careful not to dismiss conspiracy theorizing as harmless rumour or gossip. © 2016, The British Psychological Society - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27488243/
• In May-June of 2017, the organization Leadership IQ surveyed 3,272 leaders and professionals in the USA and found that: 59% are concerned about ‘fake news’ in the workplace.  24% rising to the level of ‘very concerned'.  64% are concerned about ‘alternative facts’ in the workplace.  27% rising to the level of ‘very concerned’
• Higher faith in intuition, uncertainty avoidance, impulsivity, generic conspiracy beliefs, religiosity, and right-wing ideology, and a lower level of cognitive reflection were associated with a higher level of belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32837129/