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The Woman Whose Phone 'Misdiagnosed HIV' (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report on BBC about a woman in Kenya, who downloaded a prank app that noted that she has HIV simply by "analyzing her fingerprint." While many people would have not trusted an app for such kind of diagnosis in the first place, and some would have figured that something is amiss about the app, the story tells the tale of people who are increasingly finding it hard to deal with the technological advances they see. From the report: Esther sells water on the side of the road in Kenya for a few dollars a day. She also owns a smartphone and ownership of such a device should, according to most of the received wisdom, empower its owner. But in fact it did quite the opposite for her when she acquired an app. It claimed to diagnose HIV simply by analysing her fingerprint on the touch screen. When researchers met her at her roadside workplace, she was worried. "She did not know if it was true and she was panicking," said researcher Laura de Reynal, who worked on a year-long study into the experiences of first-time smartphone users in Kenya. "And she wasn't the only one, there were others that came to us worried about this app and those were just the ones that were willing to speak out." The app was in fact a prank and anyone reading the comments on Google's Play Store would have seen that. However, many first-time smartphone users in Kenya get hold of apps via a friend's Bluetooth connection, rather than downloading them via the net, in order to save data. But the prank would not have been apparent via a Bluetooth share. "People are not able to understand the limits of the technology," said Ms de Reynal. "They think, because it was on a smartphone, it seems real and credible."
The average IQ in Africa is below 70. What do you expect?
Everyone has AIDS!
AIDS AIDS AIDS!
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS!
Everyone has AIDS!
And so this is the end of our story
And everyone is dead from AIDS
It took from me my best friend
My only true pal
My only bright star (he died of AIDS)
Well I'm gonna march on Washington
Lead the fight and charge the brigades
There's a hero inside of all of us
I'll make them see everyone has AIDS
My father (AIDS!)
My sister (AIDS!)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS AIDS AIDS!)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
Everyone has AIDS!
My grandma and my dog 'ol blue (AIDS AIDS AIDS)
The pope has got it and so do you (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
C'mon everybody we got quilting to do (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
We gotta break down these baricades, everyone has
AIDS! x 20
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I also don't think this woman should be criticized. When I see the stupid things people who have grown up with technology do (as opposed to growing up dirt poor in Africa), she's no worse off than they are.
The smartphone did "empower her." It turns out that life does not work in dichotomies the way binary thinkers assume it must because, for whatever reason, that is all they can see. Did this new tool result in a net loss of capabilities for her? No, it just introduced a nasty unintended side effect based on her ignorance and a particular method of app distribution.
well, this sort of machine is seen in films and on TV (think: Star Trek, ...), obviously all of Star Trek is not true, but which bits are and which are not? Then there is an X Prize competition to make a Medical tricorder, so think before you laugh at her.
Someone once said that any technology advanced enough will appear as magic to someone who isn't used to it. (I'm sure if I weren't lazy I could google-fu who said that).
There are places around the world where economics and science dictated they skipped over the computer generation. They went straight from disconnected villages to smart phones. A lot of the tech and what can and can't be done with it was never learnt. The lady in the summary wasn't necessarily gullible, or stupid, nor did she believe the phone was "magic" I'm sure. However, how the phone worked was probably almost magical, with an unexplained technology she couldn't fathom how it might work.
Going from simple life to smart phone life, it's easy to see how someone can be fooled by what exactly is possible.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
If you had the ability and talent to code an app, why waste it on a prank?
What the hell is wrong with people?
Don't worry, you can cure it with another app.
I wonder if there is a civil claim that could be made here. The software was claiming to perform a medical task and did so in the most snake-oily of manners. In the US those who dispense fraudulent medical advice can be subject to lawsuit, fines, and imprisonment. There should have been some disclaimer that the device was not actually medical. Has anyone had this app and killed themselves because of the diagnosis? Has anyone applied it to their child, and killed the child based on the diagnosis? Would someone in a 3rd world country that receives such a diagnosis from a "high cost / high value" device such as an iPhone consider saving their child from a life of suffering after such a diagnosis? Extreme poverty can strongly enhance acts of desperation. It might be easier to sell the child. If the child is going to die anyway, why not move that death away from the home early?
There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.
This was the most interesting part of the article (ignore the "Firefox operating system" error):
This is a great reminder of why I won't donate to moz://a.
Instead of spending money to improve Firefox, which badly needs some real improvement, moz://a squandered money researching the gullibility of third-worlders.
With Firefox now only around 5% of the browser market, and having only 0.03% (yes, a very small fraction of just 1%!) of the mobile browser market, wasting money on nonsensical "research" like this is the very last thing they should be doing.
Moz://a won't be able to have any influence on how third-worlders use the Internet if these third-worlders are using Chrome or some other non-Firefox browser. Since most third-world Internet users use a mobile device, Firefox's 0.03% of the market already means they're irrelevant.
Improving Firefox's performance, and reducing its memory usage, would be a lot more beneficial for these third-worlders than doing more "research" like this into their gullibility.
Part of the problem is in order to get trusted software, you need to have some sort of review process like the Apple Store, where only approved software is placed in, while this is good to make sure harmful or just bad taste software doesn't get placed in. It also creates a freedom issue, because like the Apple Store perfectly valid apps get rejected just because it may affect someones sensibilities, or step into Apples domain and they don't want to compete with your app.
The HIV app is in Bad Taste to a point that could be considered dangerous, but that would require a judgement call, which is faulty.
Just like passengers making jokes about having dangerous material in the airline terminal.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Retards make me laugh...
Is allowing morons to use technology. It's the source of virtually every issue on Earth, and the solution is simple: if someone can't demonstrate the knowledge required to design and build a thing they shouldn't be allowed to utilize that thing. This would apply everywhere from computing through industrialize agriculture and within a generation we'd be heading far far away from Idiocracy and toward a brighter future with individuals possessing more Humanity (intellect) than is possible today.
I've had a smartphone for years. I'm an IT professional in a first-world country. And even I have difficulty at times discerning what's legit and what's not. Spammers are getting better and better, and if it weren't for the fact that I use a unique email address for every company with which I do business (something not accessible to the vast majority of computer users), I'm not sure that I wouldn't have been taken in a time or two.
This is an interesting sociological issue, and I think it's likely to get much worse before it gets any better, if it ever does get better.
It seems we've gone full circle from browser hijacks with computer virus scares, to apps with human virus scares.
Gives new meaning to 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'.
They should say Android phone and not smartphone. Android's competition has built in safeguards against malicious apps.
The app actually diagnosed her as having LUDDITEIS , which can only be cured by apping apps while apping other apps!
Apps!
Well, she'll "understand the limits of the technology" a lot more now. That's how humans learn: through experience.
"They think, because it was on a smartphone, it seems real and credible."
This is no different from "but I have seen it on TV, so it must be true.
Or any media that has been invented. The most memorizeable instance is probably the panic during "War of the Worlds"
bickerdyke
Uh, this goes in your mouth. This one goes in your ear. And this one goes in your butt.
All right, so that'll be... this many dollars.
You don't need "ability" and "talent" to code a simple app. Any idiot can make a simple app.
That's like saying, "If you have the ability and talent to microwave some ramen, why waste it on ramen?"
In all seriousness, this really has little to do with technology.
Into the 1990s and even the 2000s we've seen numerous outbreaks of "Genital Retraction Syndrome" in various African nations.
In essence, these outbreaks are cases of mass hysteria where people mistakenly think that their genitalia are shrinking or even being "stolen".
This is how the Wikipedia article currently describes it:
Unlike AIDS, this is something that men who think they're affected can check for themselves. All that a man needs to do is check if his penis is still present, and that its size is remaining consistent.
Even without cell phones and technology, we'd still see misdiagnoses in Africa, even when this misdiagnosis can easily be proven to be wrong or nonsensical like in the cases of "Genital Retraction Syndrome".
App development is probably the only kind of development more lowly than web development. It doesn't take skill, just knowing whatever backwards system (they all are) you're building an app on. Good developers have an options of what to work on, and none of them choose a platform with extreme limitations, lack of control over content, massive privacy concerns, or a generally shit development environment. Most certainly none would choose Java or Window Universal.
The only way to avoid this happening again is to have a government fake apps investigation department to save stupid people from themselves. Sort of like what's proposed for "fake news".
I know of well paid americans that would do the exact same stupid mistake. Most of them get their computer infected with malware by being that uneducated.
The problem is to safely and correctly use technology requires a high level of education that most people do not get. Most degree holders in the USA are dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to technology.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It's the most depressing thought I have.
The problem is that is that giving people technology does not make them smarter. While certainly tech can be used for the purposes of education, it can not replace education. This is a chronic problem with people of all sorts. People in power want an ignorant populace because they are easier to control. People sitting in a different country with education can't understand why their magic bullets never hit a target. Lastly, the ignorant populace does not know any better and nobody will educate them.
The only people innocent are the ignorant masses.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Uneducated people are gullible.
If you have the ability to read & write, why waste your talent on slashdot?
Because it is so easy and so little effort, perhaps?
Coding up "an app" is trivial. You need to install some development software first. With this comes a "template app", that doesn't do anything but it is a convenient starting point. If you add the text "You have AIDS" to the template, you basically have this prank app.
Yeah, some people are ignorant and have no idea what a phone can or cannot do. These days they are learning that. while in the west,some people get worried when they get chain email. Can't break the chain . . .
You can't just "trust" an app. Fortunately, this app only caused some worry - it did not trick people into doing dangerous things. (Such as recommending crazy ingredients for medicines)
Pretty sure this has less to do with direct access to the Play Store and more to do with people from the third world, who for all intents and purposes view technology as magic, getting access to smart phones. And who was the friend who shared the app with her? One would think that friends would be even better sources for information on an App that they use and have on their phone than the play store's faceless reviews.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
I was surprised to learn that moz://a was involved with this research.
The article says:
And what did this research discover?
That unemployed Africans use their smart phones for gambling and for defrauding financial lenders:
And I suppose it also found that some Africans are gullible enough to fall for obvious prank apps.
Still, I'm not sure what's stupider, this research or moz://a's disastrous $35 Firefox OS phone.
I can't believe how badly moz://a screws up any time they try to get involved with third-world regions.
There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.
Yeah, let's be damn sure to dumb every single thing in existence down until it is idiot proof from the lowest common denominator. I'm sure that'll go real well.
Maybe if enough of these sort of incidents occur, the developing world will start to realize that all these first-world flashy gizmos and gadgets aren't all they cracked up to be, that way when the Google Van drives by on another "silicon valley has come to save the brown people!" campaign, pulls up and begins asking villagers "who wants a shiny new phone loaded down with advertisements and privacy-eroding pseudo-malware?" the villagers might just turn around and say "no thanks, how about some industrial-grade irrigation equipment instead?"
The last millenium of technological and economic progress has been driven by specialization. Instead of everyone having to learn how to grow crops, hunt for food, dig a well, weave clothes, build a home, etc. we've all specialized. One person learns how to grow crops. He sells it to someone who hunts (or grows) livestock. Who hires someone to dig a well. Who buys clothes pre-made by someone else. Who hires people to build their home. Because each individual can concentrate on a small field of human knowledge, we've been able to increase the depth of knowledge in those specific fields by leaps and bounds - much faster than when everyone was a generalist who had to know how to do everything.
A side effect of this specialization is that everyone is pretty ignorant of fields they did not specialize into. To poke fun of people for not knowing as much as you in your chosen specialization is very immature, small-minded, and hypocritical. This app is basically the equivalent of jocks beating up nerds for being bad at sports. Or your friend who is hip with fashion telling you that the bowtie is back in style and you should totally wear it to the frat party. It's a mean-spirited prank which tries to cast as stupidity the ignorance via specialization that is essential to a modern functional society. Shame on the tech guys who thought this would be funny.
Seriously, I would say 1000 hours of social work for the "nice" person that wrote this and, say, 100M fine for Google to allow this in the app-store in the first place would be a good first step. Not everybody gets a good education when they grow up, and it usually not not their own fault. This also has nothing to do with IQ. Camouflage it a bit better and you find supposedly educated people fall for the most obviously stupid things. Examples: Religion, Trump promises, Erdogan promises, human-like AI, etc.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
...so you're suggesting that taking a person from roughly a 15th century existence and handing them a smartphone doesn't immediately make them a sophisticated, worldly Western-world consumer?
Well hell, why didn't someone say that before?
-Styopa
Such apps are popular with many users here in Nairobi. Mostly, 'fresh from village' boys. They can be dangerous to some users.
I wonder if there is a civil claim that could be made here. The software was claiming to perform a medical task and did so in the most snake-oily of manners. In the US those who dispense fraudulent medical advice can be subject to lawsuit, fines, and imprisonment. There should have been some disclaimer that the device was not actually medical. Has anyone had this app and killed themselves because of the diagnosis? Has anyone applied it to their child, and killed the child based on the diagnosis? Would someone in a 3rd world country that receives such a diagnosis from a "high cost / high value" device such as an iPhone consider saving their child from a life of suffering after such a diagnosis? Extreme poverty can strongly enhance acts of desperation. It might be easier to sell the child. If the child is going to die anyway, why not move that death away from the home early?
There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.
"For entertainment use only". You'd be surprised at how often that disclaimer crops up.
People assumed they can trust companies like Google and Apple to protect them from false information. And that the government might actually protect them from fraud, as they have done for generations before.
But now, we've suddenly decided that the Internet and App stores are the wild west. And caveat emptor is the new religion of Internet business.
It's all bullshit though, and it's bound to come crashing down .
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The fact that you typed "moz://a" three times in one post irrationally infuriates me.
How did this app get on any appstore to begin with?
There is some chance that this app has caused some serious harm.
Yeah, let's be damn sure to dumb every single thing in existence down until it is idiot proof from the lowest common denominator. I'm sure that'll go real well.
We already do - as the result of idiots.
Do my christmas lights really need a warning saying "not for use underwater?" I guess someone tried it.
Now that most jocks are addicted to their smartphones, nerds are going to get their own back
**Life is too short to be serious**
Some people should not have computers;
Others obviously should not have smartphones
Even others, supposedly educated, have the tools but do not know how to interpret them, and the biggest offenders are IT people.
It is a shame that common sense seems to go out of the window for the majority when people start using technology; some people would not believe such a tale if they heard it from a stranger, however they believe in everything they hear in some shady email or site; some people would not expose their private bits on the supermakert, yet we already heard of the fappening with Holywood trash....and I bet it wont be the last time.
They are everywhere
Anyone well informed enough to know that a smartphone can't diagnose an illness just finds them stupid and useless, and anyone NOT well informed enough could be caused great distress.
And anyone who reads slashdot knows that the only real use for these apps are as ad or viral vectors. So why not just eliminate such apps from the market?
Honestly, while it isn't possible for a smartphone to do a quick-and-dirty disease assessment from a fingerprint, I wouldn't be surprised if mobile devices in the future come with attachments or accessories that could do blood analysis or more given the right software.
I'd imagine that a device that takes a sample and sends it to a medical professional for diagnosis isn't that far in the future at all, if it doesn't already exist.
She should learn from it (fake apps exist) and be empowered by the "ownership of such a device".
she should also learn that "get hold of apps via a friend's Bluetooth connection" was a bad idea. It's just like spread HIV from person to person but with an app. OH Wait a minute...
and they will make a call...
Give an ignorant third worlder a phone, and they'll use it to beat a monkey to death
They aren't tricorders, yet...