Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

SMS death threats in Oz

Death over SMS: someone is sending Australians scary text messages. They contain a lethal threat combined with extortion:

[M]essages...typically read "Someone paid me to kill you. If you want me to spare you, I'll give you two days to pay $5000. If you inform the police or anybody, you will die, I am monitoring you"

As with most spam strategies, this only requires a few responses to start paying off.

Now there's got to be an autocomplete joke in here...

(via Slashdot)

iDictator apps for your hands to hold

iOS users can now download apps devoted to their favorite tyrants, thanks to the work of some pro-authoritarian developers and the approval of Apple's gated apps store. iMussolini, iStalin, and Hitler (formerly iHitler)

“iHitler,” an encyclopedic offering, didn’t make it through Apple’s vaunted approval process (it’s now called, simply, “Hitler”); but apps named “iStalin” and “iMussolini” did. 

I could listen to over 100 speeches from il Duce. Since I don’t know Italian, I opted for the “songs of Fascism” section, where I read the lyrics to the hymn “Battaglioni M” in English accompanied by an Italian recording: “Duce’s battalions/ Death’s created for life battalions/ … Without hatred there’s no love around.” “Adolf Hitler ST,” an encyclopedia of Hitler’s life, presented me with categories that included Architecture, The Occult, Hitler’s Women, and Dead [sic]. The Holocaust was not listed. The app was available in English and German, at a cost of 99 cents. It was filed under Education.

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Fearing Google Glasses

They barely exist in the world, yet already there are ways to fear Google Glasses.

Forbes broods about surveillance:

Imagine how helpful this could be for reporting crimes. If you witnessed a boy being attacked in your yard, or a hit and run, or a robbery, you could immediately upload that file to police databases. Inevitably, we would all become watchmen, critical parts of the surveillance society. Alternately, law enforcement could use cell location tracking to figure out who was in a certain area at a certain time and get a warrant (or subpoena) for access to their vision logs.

Interesting how the author finds good surveillance alongside the bad. As she concludes, "It’s creepy. It’s awesome."

Meanwhile, Gawker: "the 'Google Goggles' unveiled today take creepy tech to the next level."  That text focuses on intrusiveness and data collection. 

At a third level, this video pokes fun at the possibility for too much/too intrusive advertising.

It's early days, so there hasn't been much time for other media fears to kick in.  Google Glasses depraves children, is being used by eQaeda, enables horrific copyright violation, ruins relationships, wounds, kills: expect 'em all.

(via Reason)

Deleting the voice of the dead

It was bound to happen. We've been creating digital afterlives for years, so naturally someone figured out how to screw it up. T-Mobile deleted a grieving family's last voicemail from their deceased child.

"When I had bad days I would listen to her," the dad tells KOMO 4 News in Seattle. "She said 'Daddy I love you and I miss you.' And I don't have that no more."

T-Mobile has apologized to the family...

(thanks to Peter Naegele)

Handheld Frankenstein's monster

CNN offers this fun image to illustrate an Andrew Keen opinion piece:

Image is more interesting than the article, actually.

CNN: one of our underappreciated Gothic sources.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Decomposhop

Mobile Gothic from The Onion:

New iPhone Application Tracks Progress Of Deceased Loved Ones' Decomposition

CUPERTINO, CA—According to its description on the Apple App Store website, Decomposhop, a new application that allows users to track the putrefaction of their deceased loved ones in real time, will be available for download by grieving iPhone owners starting Tuesday. "Decomposhop lets you import open casket photos, enter a date of death, and then watch over time as the face of a friend or family member slowly shrivels up beyond recognition," read a description of the product, which applies a decay algorithm to replicate the deterioration of human remains from bloat to liquefaction to dry rot. 

 

Phone fear rising: CarrierIQ

Mobile phone fears ramped up over the past few days, as the CarrierIQ story exploded.

Example: Fear Your Smartphone

It’s totally rational to worry that your phone is tracking everything you do.

And

After seeing what Carrier IQ can do, you don’t have to be paranoid to fear that your phone is watching you. Indeed, that’s probably a rational assumption at this point.

Check out CarrierIQ's defense.  It avoids fear language entirely, emphasizing authority, quality of service, and security.

Fearing mobile phones dates back to the 1990s.

Tumblrstalking, or nothing

It's all for me to see how much of a creep I can be, I guess.

Stalking in public: one man follows and photographs a woman, sharing results on Tumblr.  It's an odd story, which ultimately risks collapsing into itself.

Because the players back away from fears and anxieties.  It becomes a kind of in-group social game, of the pre-interent kind.

what's most striking about this incident is the way in which it differs from the horror stories we're used to hearing about the Web. This wasn't some stranger cyber-stalking an unsuspecting victim; this took place among a group of people who socialized IRL as well as on the Internet. Merker knew Walker, and their mutual social connection was the one that eventually spilled the beans.

Will Tumblr's reputation grow into being known for this kind of social gameplaying?  Or will the creepiness swamp it?

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

Deadly mobile phone calls

Another killer phone story, or The Ring: 

Viral text messages had warned that several people had died when they answered calls with the ID 09141. 

...

The text messages gave conflicting accounts of the number of people killed when they answered the call - some put the death toll at seven while others put it at 10.

The Beeb helpfully, drily adds: "A BBC reporter was unable to get through to the number."

Why 09141?

(thanks to Cori Samuel; image from long ago)

Fear is the absence of networks

Once upon a time, vast networks of communication and power were the enemy. But now, as my teacher and friend Eric Rabkin notes, they are sometimes benevolent.

This development is based in part on a shift from transportation to communication functions, but read the whole thing, as they say, to get the idea. Eric's writing is, as ever, a marvel of economy, and resists easy extraction.

Which reminds me of this fine video collection, horror/suspense movie scenes when coverage failure spikes the fear: