Apple Fights Back

From the readings and in your opinion, should technology companies implement backdoors in their products for the benefit of the government? Are companies like Apple ethically responsible for protecting the privacy of their users or are they ethically responsible for helping to prevent violent or harmful activities that their platforms may enable? How are these two conflicting goals to be balanced in a world of free-flowing communication and extreme terrorism?

If you are against government backdoors, how do you response to conerns of national security? Isn’t save lives or protecting our nation worth a little less individual privacy. How do you counter the argument: If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear?

Before reading anything about Apple and the backdoors that the government is requesting, I had not thought much about this issue. In fact, I thought that Apple had probably already implanted some sort of hack that could help people out if their information was lost or something. However, now after reading the article sent out from Apple, amongst the other readings on the website I believe that Apple is doing the correct thing in not creating code that is a backdoor into their product.

Of course Apple is placed in a difficult situation when trying to balance the privacy of their customers with the harmful acts their devices can aid. However, I believe that Apple has more of an ethical duty toward protecting their customer’s privacy because while it is their specific product that was helping commit a violent crime, it was not their intended use of the product. If the terrorist wasn’t using an iPhone he would have used an Android or some other similar type of phone. Once a person buys an iPhone, I am not sure how much responsibility Apple should take if that person does something negative using the phone. It is hard though. We live in a world where a lot of our speech is protected and we can instantaneously be in touch with other people. How are we supposed to protect ourselves? The N.S.A. believed that one of the best ways was to spy on everyone and tap into their Internet and phones. Clearly I think that is overstepping the bounds, but the US does need to come up with a way to protect ourselves in this world of free-flowing communication without intruding on the people’s privacy.

At one time the public might have agreed that saving and protecting lives is worth a little less individual privacy, however the government went about doing this secretly and therefore the American people lost trust in them. One of the main reasons according to the article, “Inside the FBI’s encryption battle with Apple” that Apple created such a tough encryption on their phone was because Snowden released the documents and the American people felt violated. Apple wanted to give back to them what they deserved. They wanted to provide the people with reassurance that their data would be private. Ever since then, the FBI has been looking for a case to make their point and turn around the encryption placed on these phones. Finally, the San Bernardino case allows the FBI to make their argument. The FBI is not requesting for Apple to turn off the encryption they are just requesting that Apple makes it easier for the agents to guess the password as many times as they wanted and to turn off the wait time when too many wrong guesses occur. The FBI wants special privileges for this once case only. “US officials on Wednesday stressed that their request for Apple is only limited to Farook’s phone. ‘The judge’s order and our request in this case do not require Apple to redesign its products, to disable encryption or to open content on the phone’” (Inside the FBI’s encryption battle with Apple). It sounds really good, but one needs to think about the consequences of creating such a code. Two such consequences that “Inside the FBI’s encryption battle with Apple” notes is that “Apple said that it would be impossible to limit the technology to this case. Once Apple built such an investigative tool, any iPhone’s security system – even the most modern ones – could be weakened by it.” And “Apple’s lawyers are concerned that if a judge validates the FBI’s use of the All Writs Act in this case, it will give the government sweeping authority to dictate how Silicon Valley builds products in the future.” The government has gone about it all-wrong and is not allowing the public to regain any trust in them. They keep doing things behind our backs that make us distrust them more. They need to be forthcoming about their plans and desires. Maybe if this happened people would not be as protective of their information. I don’t think people are wanting to hide their information because they genuinely have stuff to hide, I think they are wanting to hide it because they feel like they were wronged or violated by the government. It is almost as if the American population is acting like a stubborn teenager, not wanting to give up their privacy just because something bad happened to them.

However, as of now I think that Apple is doing the correct thing. I think that the FBI does not realize the magnitude of their ask and the negative consequences that could come from the backdoor they are asking to create.

Response to Project 2

Podcast

I think the first thing I wish I knew earlier was that it was all going to work out. Camden said it best, you should not worry too much about getting a job because it will all work out in the end. I know at least that I stressed out basically all last semester, worrying if I would get a job. And I know that there were definitely some interviews that could have gone a lot better if I was not nervous. Of course someone is always going to be nervous interviewing but just knowing that everything will work out for the best in the end if you put the handwork in then I am sure it will ease some of the nerves.

The best guidance I received was to reach out to everyone you know. Even if they do not directly relate to what you want to do, they might know someone who does. In addition to this, it is also good practice to talk to a lot of people and formulate the way you want to express your goals and interests and other similar things.

I do not necessarily think that colleges should change their curriculum to face this reality. I think that real world experience should be implemented whenever possible, but I think that colleges are never going to be able to fully prepare students for the work force and taking time to prepare them will only distract from actually learning the material. I think there is a value in learning the different subjects and participating in debates with your peers about different topics. The preparation for interviews, especially when reading the books, are good things to know but not all of them apply to your job as well. So, trying to teach kids the information they need to know for interviews might not help them in their job and would be detrimental to their other studies. I cannot really speak specifically to the CSE program but I think above is probably try for any major at Notre Dame.

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Tragic Accidents

The designers of the Therac-25 thought that they were improving the older editions (Therac-6 and Therac-20) and making it more efficient so that they could help more patients and save more lives. While it did help some people, it also led to 6 tragic accidents. How did this happen? Well according to “Killed by a Machine” the problem was twofold. First, the software controlling the machine contained bugs and second, the machine only relied on the controlling computer for safety. In the update, they had replaced the interlocks, which in previous versions had prevented something dangerous from happening. If an accelerator was activated in an invalid mode then it would blow a fuse and the machine would shut down.

After the accidents, researchers found that the Therac-25 would display a “Malfuction-54” message when an error occurred. This meant that the computer could not determine if there was an underdose or overdose, and would just hit the patient with a very radioactive beam. It all had to do with the timing of things. “If the user selected X-ray mode, the machine would begin setting up the machine for high-powered X-rays. This process took about 8 seconds. If the user switched to Electron mode within those 8 seconds, the turntable would not switch over to the correct position, leaving the turntable in an unknown state.”

After figuring out the reason for these horrible accidents, people wanted to blame the programmer, especially because he had little experience with coding for real-time systems. However, is this fair? What about his supervisor, or the hospitals that brought these machines in or the FDA? Why is it not any of their responsibility. Or even the people that designed the machine. Sure the code had a bug in it, but what about the fact that safety-critical loads were placed upon a computer system that was not designed to control them.

Overall, I think that the responsibility should be shared. I think the programmer should have asked for trial runs or help when coding if he was unsure of real-time systems, but I think other precautionary steps should have been taken.

Respect

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me…. Aretha Franklin said it best in her song. Most women and other minorities for that matter, just want to respect and fair pay in life and the workforce. They want to feel like they belong there and are welcomed. The tech industry is no different than other, in fact the tech industry might have the smallest population of women. However, this is only just becoming public knowledge that there is such a lack of diversity in companies. For example, Google only began releasing their stats within the last 2 years. Since then, their company amongst many other tech companies have rightfully been the target of pressure from society to start fixing this problem and implementing minority programs. These programs are created to benefit women, African Americans, and Hispanics, the three least represented groups overall in the industry.

One of the major obstacles that these groups feel is a sense of not belonging. In a way it is not the tech industry’s fault. Women haven’t been in the workforce in general in that long and for tech as such relatively new industry it is not that surprising that the number of women joining in is just now beginning to grow. We can’t expect that just because in general the numbers are beginning to even out that this will be the same for all industries, especially new ones. However, I think that people in the tech industry should be welcoming to all people and should try to expand their horizons. Another obstacle that these groups must overcome is not being scared away by the stereotypes. When computer science first started those stereotypes were probably true, or at least some element of them were, and even now there are probably some people that fit them, however we cannot make general accusations and should not be afraid of those. This is in the fault of the people running away. Nevertheless, if people were more open about computer science and what it is really about and what goes on in the day to day job, maybe less people would be afraid.

I think continuing to implement minority programs and just being more honest and open about the tech force will continue to attract more and more people. As it is, the numbers have already been rising. I think that right now, as we talked about in class, many of the people became interested in computer science because a relative or close family friend got them into. I think the more that computer science is talked about the more attention it will gain and the more people it will spur on.

Classic School Slump

I find that I really relate to this question for many ways. I have yet to have an internship in the field in which I desire to be a part of after graduation. However, this will all change this upcoming summer, when I begin a 10 week internship as an analyst at an Investment Banking firm. People usually cringe when they hear this because it is commonly known in Investment Banking that the hours are miserable and that usually after you sign on for 2 years, you will be burned out and will accept any other job than to continue working in this field. Going into the recruiting process I did not quite understand why. However, just from a semester full of emails, calls, information sessions, and interviews I feel burned out. I think that I became both physically and mentally burned out after this semester. On top of my school work and extra-curriculars, I had a whole different and in some ways a more important thing to care about that took anywhere from 1 to 4 hours of my time per day. This caused me to stay up to 5 am at least 3 times a week. Of course any person that is getting such little sleep is going to get exhausted and burned out. Mentally, trying to balance that schedule and think about what is the best decision career wise and school wise and fun wise is draining. Needless to say that spreading myself to thin last semester and having constant pressure of making important, life changing decisions, amongst little sleep burned me out.

Come back to school after a rough first semester and a month of doing nothing but lounging on the couch watching reality tv shows, I have found myself in a junior year slump. I am unmotivated to do anything school related. It is hard when you already have obtained one of the main reasons you come to school. However, slowly I am regaining my motivation by recognizing that there is merit in learning things for the enjoyment of knowing more. Hopefully, I will soon regain my full motivation.

As mentioned above, it is known of investment banking that many of their analysts become burned out and leave the field. Obviously, this is not what employers want, especially if their top analysts are leaving because they are over-worked. In addition to leaving the company, the Harvard Business School article also stated that people who are overworked can have a harder time performing day-to-day tasks that any job requires, such as interpersonal communication, making judgment calls, and/or reading other people’s faces. Output can only increase up to a certain point of hours put in. Once the maximum hours is reached, output becomes slower and less effective, the quality declines. “Now, this is not to say we can never pull a long day. We just can’t do it routinely.” (The Research is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and Companies). One of the main things that investment banking companies have done to try to change the overworked analyst is to give them protected Saturdays. This means that all analysts get every Saturday off, any exception of this has to be cleared by the Managing Director. This even means sending emails. Kids in this role should be taking a break and resting. This has greatly helped the work life balance of investment bankers and there has been a turn around in the past year or so of more kids sticking in the field.

Going into this field, I am aware of these characteristics, but I also know that different banks value their employees differently and that the field as a while is trying to change the reputation of being over worked. I am confident that the work life balance will continue to improve in investment banking and so I am going in cautious, but am not scared that I will be overworked to the point where I burn out.