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Facebook Filed a Patent To Calculate Your Future Location (buzzfeednews.com)
Facebook has filed several patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for technology that uses your location data to predict where you're going and when you're going to be offline. BuzzFeed News reports: A May 30, 2017, Facebook application titled "Offline Trajectories" describes a method to predict where you'll go next based on your location data. The technology described in the patent would calculate a "transition probability based at least in part on previously logged location data associated with a plurality of users who were at the current location." In other words, the technology could also use the data of other people you know, as well as that of strangers, to make predictions. If the company could predict when you are about to be in an offline area, Facebook content "may be prefetched so that the user may have access to content during the period where there is a lack of connectivity."
Another Facebook patent application titled "Location Prediction Using Wireless Signals on Online Social Networks" describes how tracking the strength of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and near-field communication (NFC) signals could be used to estimate your current location, in order to anticipate where you will go next. This "background signal" information is used as an alternative to GPS because, as the patent describes, it may provide "the advantage of more accurately or precisely determining a geographic location of a user." The technology could learn the category of your current location (e.g., bar or gym), the time of your visit to the location, the hours that entity is open, and the popular hours of the entity.
Yet another Facebook patent application, "Predicting Locations and Movements of Users Based on Historical Locations for Users of an Online System," further details how location data from multiple people would be used to glean location and movement trends and to model location chains. According to the patent application, these could be used for a "variety of applications," including "advertising to users based on locations and for providing insights into the movements of users." The technology could even differentiate movement trends among people who live in a city and who are just visiting a city. A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: "We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patent applications -- such as this one -- should not be taken as an indication of future plans."
Another Facebook patent application titled "Location Prediction Using Wireless Signals on Online Social Networks" describes how tracking the strength of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and near-field communication (NFC) signals could be used to estimate your current location, in order to anticipate where you will go next. This "background signal" information is used as an alternative to GPS because, as the patent describes, it may provide "the advantage of more accurately or precisely determining a geographic location of a user." The technology could learn the category of your current location (e.g., bar or gym), the time of your visit to the location, the hours that entity is open, and the popular hours of the entity.
Yet another Facebook patent application, "Predicting Locations and Movements of Users Based on Historical Locations for Users of an Online System," further details how location data from multiple people would be used to glean location and movement trends and to model location chains. According to the patent application, these could be used for a "variety of applications," including "advertising to users based on locations and for providing insights into the movements of users." The technology could even differentiate movement trends among people who live in a city and who are just visiting a city. A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: "We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patent applications -- such as this one -- should not be taken as an indication of future plans."
KILL THE ZUCKERBERG!
None of that sounds remotely patentable. Its sounds like the bad software patents of the 90's coming back to haunt us yet again. So.. its math (algorithms, not patentable material) run on a computer (again, adding 'on a computer' to something does not make it patentable) to guess the destination of someone based on where they have been (something an idiot with time and patience can do in person by following someone for a while) and where others with the same profile have gone next (hire a lot of idiots to watch people and you get the same data).
I can almost guarantee these will be granted by our Patent Offices.
Hell, isn't this literally an entire field of social science? This really is just adding 'on a computer' to something!
If we can convince them to use 256-bit values for the accelerometers, they can calculate our velocity to such exquisite precision that they'll no longer know where we are.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
When will they publish a RESTful api that tells burglars the best time to visit your home?
I patented a sophisticated model of the stock market predicting all future prices of all stocks with 100% accuracy.
Sadly when model was consulted to obtain Facebook's future share price result was division by zero.
After days of painstaking debugging it was determined the error is a result of model calculating both uncertainty of its own prediction and predicted stock cost to be exactly 0.
Can I just look it up on Facebook now?
The smart kids have dropped FB and "smart" phones as well. Their internet is on one device in one room at home. They carry a "dumb" 3G "burner" phone with the battery removed and taped to the back, if they feel they need to carry a cell phone at all.
They've realized that paying to have one's privacy, security, and freedom violated by both corporations and government in exchange for convenience and "cool" is a very, very bad deal.
That's one of the reasons why they're the smart kids.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
I assume that my Android phone does pretty much all of this already anyway. It doesn't feel like something that other popular apps haven't already done before, and it instead feels more like advertising basics that take a huge amount of data collection and processing to be effective. I'm often impressed by how appropriate/accurate suggestions/predictions can get with enough data points to analyze, and suggestions should improve drastically over time. I'm glad that such information seems to be used mostly for good or neutral purposes so far, but it's easy to imagine not tolerating data collection like this in the future. And it's also easy to imagine very accurate suggestions leading to bubble-like effects where people see or go to more of what they already like instead of being exposed to more of the world. People will like it, but it might not be good for society unless it's countered by something else.
How can someone patent a way to calculate a probability, and transition matrix, etc? I mean even if you add the word machine learning. Gosh US patent system is completely broken...
I'm either going to at home or work, maybe the shop. There's really nowhere worth going to anywhere near me.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
HITLER WAS RIGHT. ZUCK THE JEW N1GGER IS GOING TO END FREEDOM AND LIBERTY.
I wasn't aware Hitler spoke much about Zuckerberg? Also, why bother swapping the i for a 1? Censoring yourself at this point seems a bit pointless.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
One day a week, every week. my wife goes to babysit our grandson.
Even I know where she is. I don't need FB for that.
Application should be denied for being "obvious."
AI Designed to predict where the largest crowds of certain types of people will gather is a weapon platform.
Just because you can Make a thing, does not mean you should.
Zuckerberg is way people are going back to low cost Flip Phones.
Removable battery to Know it is really off. No Apps. Freedom From Technology is just as important as Free Speech, since studies demonstrate more than 2 hours a day on any type of screen makes children depressed and harms brain growth and development. That's the physical damage, the social damage of facebook has xriven young people to suicide. It's time to enforce rules on these info-Sucking blood leach corporations. NO ONE under 18 permitted. Protect our families from Facebook. Protect children from Mark.
i think google is already doing similar things.
i get notifications about things (like traffic mostly) where i might be going.
yes, most of the time it because they are in my calendar, but not always, it appears to be 'learning' my daily/weekly routines.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
And this is yet another reason why I will never use Facebook, why their domains are blocked by my browsers, and why I refuse to give a shit about most mobile apps.
Overwhelmingly, the assholes and ad networks are just tracking the ever loving shit out of you and everything you do.
No thanks, I have no interest in being constantly tracked, analyzed, predicted, marketed to, and having my information sold to other assholes.
Fuck Facebook and their tracking and analytics.
The only way to win this game is to not fucking play.
What does that mean for me and my college roommate? He has a crush on the only cute girl in my econ class. I told him she leaves the Econ Building M-W-F at exactly 11:50, tweets about the class (leaking her position data) while walking across the quad one of two ways to the Student Union and orders a burrito for lunch. So the best way to "accidentally" meet her is to track which path she's using by the tweet location, walk out of the Electrical Engineering building at exactly 11:51 and head either northwest or southwest (depending on the tweet info) then let nature take it's course.
Now I discover I'm probably going to be violating a Facebook patent by telling him the algorithm via a text. It could be worse I guess; I could owe a Chinese company a royalty or get sued by a Boston patent troll.
Wouldn't this be used to identify what events you are likely to attend, and then notify your friends that you might be there? Really I see the value of this as a way to get groups of people excited about the same activity before they have had a chance to discuss it.
Actually not anymore, because Google's walled garden and shitty webexperience made me switch back to calcurse and pen&paper. But before that, pretty much everything went into my google calendar.
well I patent useing the letter E in on line math!
tracking the strength of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and near-field communication (NFC) signals could be used to estimate your current location, in order to anticipate where you will go next. This "background signal" information is used as an alternative to GPS because, as the patent describes, it may provide "the advantage of more accurately or precisely determining a geographic location of a user."
This is an end-run around the laughable protection that turning off location services offers the user. Time to put my phone in a Faraday cage, dump it in a hole in the ground, and cover it with concrete.
The Delft (NL) train station is in a tunnel. The train station itself has good connectivity, but the rest of the tunnel doesn't. So when I stand at the station for 3 minutes, betcha I'm going to take a train. And that I'll be offline for two minutes until the train exits the tunnel.
Things could be more complicated. Suppose I go to a more-or-less regular "remote" event, say a sports training, that somehow is far enough from cell towers that I lose connectivity. So starting to move with some mode of transport in that direction may be a hint that I'll lose connectivity soon.
Deducing this from the "pile of data" that you have is difficult.
I used to troll quite a bit, so I have some knowledge others might not have. I see how destructive trolling is, especially with the general decrease in civility over time. That's why I stopped and strongly advocate for curtailing the abuse.
Occasionally, Slashdot deletes posts. I know, I've had a few of my posts get deleted. I've also seen other trolls have their posts get deleted. It's very infrequent, though, and there is absolutely no consistency to when posts get deleted. I'm pretty sure Slashdot occasionally bans IP addresses from posting. This seems to be different from banning open proxies. Again, I speak from experience, and from what I can tell, this is as inconsistent and infrequent as the deletion of troll posts.
The infrequent response is more troubling than if the editors did nothing at all. It shows they're aware that there's a problem, otherwise they wouldn't be deleting any posts. Many people have opposed deleting posts because they view it as a free speech issue. If the editors were concerned with free speech, they wouldn't delete any posts. In the past, posts weren't deleted but editors would use unlimited mod points to mod the posts to -1, hoping ordinary users would focus on modding up good comments. At least there was some level of consistency in how the editors addressed the problem. Now we just get a half-assed effort from the editors, with no apparent thought or effort put toward solving the problem. They're not even standing on the principle of free speech.
Everything about Slashdot in 2018 feels half-assed. I suppose I still read the site out of habit and the misplaced hope that the site will eventually return to the lively and interesting place it once was. Unfortunately, I just don't think the editors care about improving Slashdot.
Grow up, APK. You made some civil and constructive posts yesterday, then you come back and post this shit today. It's a shame that consistently being civil and decent seems to be beyond your capabilities.
I do not see APK's name on that nor does anyone see you prove historical and religious fact jews supply wrong either. So much for you trying to frame apk.
They are? Let their history and beliefs speak for them here then and you decide https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...
Freedom of speech is there to protect speech you don't agree with...that's the ENTIRE point of it.
All data related to me including my personal information and my location are all my intellectual property. If Facebook or any other entity attempts to collect or utilize any such information as it relates to me, they are agreeing to pay me Ten Million U.S. Dollars, payable on demand by me.
See subject: SCHOOLING wannabe sysadmin/Linux guru (not) arth1 https://linux.slashdot.org/com...
(Who FAILED vs. me long ago, butthurt trying again FAILING again, took shots @ me before & FAILED e.g. As to me he said "malware has billions of entries you can't store on disk in hosts to block 'em"!
Then botnet herders CAN'T MANAGE botnets entirety minus being able to HOLD STATE either!
Arth1's a by-rote MENIAL & Linux distros DEFAULT to DNS = "modern stupid" IF they do!
Most ISP dns != patched vs. Kaminsky flaw & their modems OFTEN DON'T ALLOW CHANGE from ISP DNS & so SystemD DEFAULTS to ISP supplied SLOWER RESOLVING security issue riddled TRACKS YA by dns requestlogs ISP DNS!
KUbuntu 18.04 LTS a MODERN Linux defaults FILE (hosts) in nsswitch (so resolv.conf doesn't F ya via SystemD) vs. his either LIE or mistake in linux distros he notes.
APK
P.S.=> & either /. users = STUPID or arth1 sockpuppet UPMODS himself (+5 & I was downmodded for what STOPS A THREAT?)... apk
Until you try to stay legal while staying off record.It becomes difficult fast today. I've been living that lifestyle for 10 years, and a subset for 15. Since that time it's become impossible to travel freely without being recorded in some form. Whether it is store cameras, traffic cameras (a whole new generation of which have been put up in my region, including PTZ units.) Every year makes it just that much harder to move around, while the job market gets tighter and more corporate.
This isn't a freedom of speech issue. If it was, Slashdot wouldn't be deleting comments except where legally required to. They are occasionally deleting comments they don't like, but that aren't illegal. Their inaction is not because they're taking a principled stand for free speech.
Also, there's a difference between supporting unpopular positions that offend people and blaring noise for the purpose of disrupting all speech. This spam is an example of the latter, not the former.
By the way, when I initially tried to submit this comment, I received an error saying "you are not allowed to use this resource." Slashdot is willing to censor users, so this is not a principled support of free speech. It's because the management seems disinterested in improving the site.
APK doesn't always sign his posts. It's widely believed that he's responsible for that particular spam comment, and I concur.
It's off-topic and consumes a large portion of the page on the mobile site. It's very annoying to scroll past. It's a spam comment. If Slashdot is going to delete spam occasionally, why not block/delete this particular spam?
If Cheetospurchases + Hotpocketpurchases > 10000 then Location = Mumsbasement
Yet it's okay for you to defame people like arth1, Zontar, Ash-Fox, Coren22, c6gunner, amicusNYCL, webmistressrachel, Khyber, and so many others?
Yet it's okay for you to spread bigotry and incite hatred of Jews when you post anti-semitic comments?
Yet it's okay for you to disrupt Slashdot discussions with spam threads, then reposting your spam when it's modded down?
Yet it's okay for you to write a spambot of your own and threaten to cause further disruption of Slashdot discussions?
Yet it's okay for you to defame whipslash and make unfounded allegations against him, when the only thing he's definitely done is modify the lameness filter to limit some of your shitposting?
You're not winning. You're making Slashdot even worse for the users who are here to actually discuss the articles. You're further trashing your awful reputation.
When Slashdot loses even more readers and eventually closes down from the loss of revenue, I hope you're proud of your role in making that happen. I hope you can proudly tell your children (you have a stepdaughter, no?) that you wrote all these spam comments and personal attacks. I hope you can live with yourself, though I don't know how you can.
Please seek professional help. You need it.
See subject: I do what you nerdlings can't yourself & it works https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & I WIPE THE FLOOR w/ you butthurt wannabes every SINGLE time lmao https://linux.slashdot.org/com...
* Accept it & KNOW YOUR ROLE "nerdling" wannabe - against MY kind? "Your kind" the DO-NOTHING mere by rote "ne'er-do-well" NOT MEN can't EVER win - life shows us all that.
APK
P.S.=> LMAO - I didn't attack 1st, I don't start things - but I sure FINISH them & "your kind" w/ it everytime (see above) & what do you loser weezils do (which MY code WIPED OUT TOO defending me overriding downmod hiding it)?
U LOSE & write bots to try "defame me" as you are Superkendall, raymorris, creimer & others https://science.slashdot.org/c...
Get 1 thing STRAIGHT punk who is STALKING ME as usual by UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous not standing BEHIND YOUR LIES - I will DESTROY you & yours, every time PUBLICLY to your dismay (& you're SO deluded playing "snowflake victim" trying to deceive others vs. FACT I use above too? LMAO - weak, stupid like you)... apk
See subject & what I stated PROVES IT ALL w/ concrete, UNDENIABLE verifiable fact (inviolate) https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...
* FUNNY how EACH of those MORONS was DESTROYED by me too (which one wasn't & I'll show proof of that too, annihilating you HIDING behind UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous REFUSING to stand behind your LIES yet again PROVING MY POINT for me again, lol!) - yes, each MANY TIMES was annihilated by fact I used vs. them (even their own words).
Bring it on - get ready to get KNOCKED the hell out by fact on EACH ONE OF THOSE LOONS & LOSERS + their reprehensible crap they pull my way only to EAT THEIR OWN WORDS (they supply the ammo for me & I cardinal richelieu them, lol).
GOING FOR POST BURIAL TOO via UNIDENTIFIABLE ac too I see - have fun burying all this fact from me in a new thread everyone sees anyhow, lol!
APK
P.S.=> Ask WHIPSLASH why he's tried to block me (I block his profiteering in ads, well if his PRIMARY FINANCIER in Google + other advertisers wouldn't TRACK/SLOW/INFECT US I'd never have released my programM.bhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?... 1st 2 minutes shows it all - great role model, great man, inspiring to me & many worldwide) - he failed too, lol!
I break no laws defending myself BUT I SURELY BREAK DIMWITS DEAD UP IN 1/2 easily. Dumbos like you!
Fact is, you PROJECT I'm winning even SAYING that stupid - lol, you're SO DAMN DUMB thinking lies & libel can win? WRONG - it always LOSES vs. verifiable fact & so do you... apk
There is only one reply appropriate to your disaster of a post:
SPH
You don't sign yours stalking him by unidentifiable anonymous hypocrite and I don't see you prove that post wrong either. So much for your crap. Whoever posts it is accurate and so much so you fear it. Wonder why facts are feared? Is it since you can't beat fact?
Please seek professional help.
"I could tunnel my way/power my way thru" (ask whipslash trying to suppress me LOSING) "& score by air" https://linux.slashdot.org/com...
* :)
"There are 2 types of players - those who KNOW (me) & those who don't" (erth1 above & WHIPSLASH failing too)
(See link above arth1 HUGE fail wannabe 'sysadmin' whom are HELPLESS minus guys like ME that create tools for them to merely USE, users w/ a better password @ most usually, & what I do works better & more efficiently + natively vs. ANY other SINGLE 'solution' full of bugs, slowdown & inefficiency https://linux.slashdot.org/com... for MORE SPEED/SECURITY/RELIABILITY/ANONYMITY, period - undeniable)
Whipslash FAILED too, I break no laws defending myself & DESTROYING weezils like YOU stalking me by UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous via facts you can't beat, lol - 2 for the price of 1 - thanks for making ME look GREAT & yourself like cowardly shit that hides stalking me.
APK
P.S.=> Analogy per the Marcus Allen story https://www.youtube.com/watch?... who INSPIRES me to NO end (having had Al Davis the JEW try crush him FAILING TOO, lol)... apk
You need help against APK's "100th career touchdown" crushing you trolls stalking him unidentifiable anonymous https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...
Nothing to see here. Move on, cattle.
â Zuckerberg wrote a friend while at Harvard. âoePeople just submitted it. I donâ(TM)t know why. They âtrust me.â(TM) Dumb fucksâ
Good luck directing ads to me there
For "Offline Trajectories" 20180352383-A1,
It should cite "System and method for providing quality of service mapping" US8620339B2 while talks about doing that very thing (but with a different spin to it).
https://patents.google.com/pat...
I'm not saying it invalidates the patent (I'm not a patent examiner) but it should at least be cited as a related patent.
Interesting to read your perspective. Thanks for sharing it. And thanks for changing your ways!
If you happen to see this, I'd be curious to know your perspective: Do you think that the posts are mostly people doing it for kicks or that many are made to polarize people by exaggerating opposing views to a disagreeable/assholish level? There's so much "alt right" hate speech and completely offtopic "far left" Trump bashing that it feels much more like manipulation than peoples' actual views. It's in-line with Russia's tactics, but I wouldn't have expected them to target this site.
See subject & the WEAK little 'nerdlings' butthurt trying to 'frame me' w/ raymorris (whom I respect) https://mobile.slashdot.org/co...
* Do you all LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?
Do you wonder WHY the LIMITED RANGE "nerdlings" always LOSE?? They're DISHONORABLE "not-men" acting WORSE than women! No small wonder WHY they favor "transgenderism" etc. - they're more women THAN WOMEN ARE, proving it for me.
Only 1 problem: I DEFEND MYSELF w/ undeniable facts!
See - unlike many here I don't "lay down" to these WEEZILS & they aren't used to it, but they ARE to losing as they do their WHOLE LIVES, lol!
(ray included taking that shit from them imo - they'll do it until they destroy you by lies in the eyes of uninformed others LIKE FAKE NEWS DOES, or creimer whom I suspect whipslash is behind all of that for actually since creimer PUBLICLY on YouTube SHIT ALL OVER HIM & /. for (if not vs. me too failing as he has & 2 yr. anniversary's COMING UP lol (rollerball "Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan" soon in commemoration of it per https://news.slashdot.org/comm... SOON, lol), along w/ Superkendall too being STALKED & TROLLED as I have been undeniably also.
Those guys, many of whom I've noticed EMBRACE TRADITIONAL PROVEN VALUES vs. the STUPID "new normal" bullshit DESTROYING us)? They're making a mistake "ignoring it"!
I don't take DEFAMING ME (which you all saw w/ this asshole writing a bot ADMITTEDLY & my work FLOORED THAT TOO defending me w/ FACTS https://science.slashdot.org/c... too?)
APK
P.S.=> Take shots @ me? I will FUCKING WIPE YOU OUT with facts - life's a streetfight & I've been DUSTING douchebags like those noted above the entire way successfully, always... apk