AI Biases in Search Engines: Are Our Searches Truly Unbiased?
Introduction
Search engines have become indispensable in our daily lives, allowing us to find information instantly by entering keywords or phrases. Using the prompt "search Google or type a URL" reflects just how seamless this journey to knowledge has become. With millions of searches conducted every second, and Google handling over 6.3 million searches per minute as of 2023 (Statista), one critical question arises: do search engines prioritise results based on user preferences and past behaviours, or are they truly unbiased?
Understanding AI Bias in Search Algorithms
AI bias is also known as machine learning bias or algorithm bias. It refers to the occurrence of biased results due to human biases that deviate from the original training data or AI algorithm which leads to distortion of outputs and creation of potentially harmful outcomes. The sources of this bias are algorithmic bias, data bias and interpretation bias which emerge from user history, geographical data, and even broader societal biases in training data.
Common biases include excluding certain groups of people from opportunities because of AI bias. In healthcare, underrepresenting data of women or minority groups can skew predictive AI algorithms. While AI helps streamline the automation of resume scanning during a search to help identify ideal candidates, the information requested and answers screened out can result in biased outcomes due to a biased dataset or any other bias in the input data.
Case in Point: Google’s "Helpful" Results and Its Impact
Google optimises results by analysing user interactions to determine satisfaction with specific types of content. This data-driven approach forms ‘filter bubbles’ by repeatedly displaying content that aligns with a user’s preferences, regardless of factual accuracy. While this can create a more personalised experience, it risks confining users to a limited view, excluding diverse perspectives or alternative viewpoints.
The personal and societal impacts of such biases are significant. At an individual level, filter bubbles can influence decision-making, perceptions, and even mental health. On a societal level, these biases can reinforce stereotypes, polarise opinions, and shape collective narratives. There is also a growing concern that these biases may promote misinformation or limit users’ exposure to diverse perspectives, all stemming from the inherent bias in search algorithms.
Policy Challenges and Regulatory Measures
Regulating emerging technologies like AI, especially in search engine algorithms, presents significant challenges due to their intricate, proprietary nature. Traditional regulatory frameworks struggle to keep up with them as existing laws were not designed to address the nuances of algorithm-driven platforms. Regulatory bodies are pushing for transparency and accountability in AI-powered search algorithms to counter biases and ensure fairness globally. For example, the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act aims to establish a regulatory framework that will categorise AI systems based on risk and enforces strict standards for transparency, accountability, and fairness, especially for high-risk AI applications, which may include search engines. India has proposed the Digital India Act in 2023 which will define and regulate High-risk AI.
Efforts include ethical guidelines emphasising fairness, accountability, and transparency in information prioritisation. However, a complex regulatory landscape could hinder market entrants, highlighting the need for adaptable, balanced frameworks that protect user interests without stifling innovation.
CyberPeace Insights
In a world where search engines are gateways to knowledge, ensuring unbiased, accurate, and diverse information access is crucial. True objectivity remains elusive as AI-driven algorithms tend to personalise results based on user preferences and past behaviour, often creating a biased view of the web. Filter bubbles, which reinforce individual perspectives, can obscure factual accuracy and limit exposure to diverse viewpoints. Addressing this bias requires efforts from both users and companies. Users should diversify sources and verify information, while companies should enhance transparency and regularly audit algorithms for biases. Together, these actions can promote a more equitable, accurate, and unbiased search experience for all users.
References
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241101-how-online-photos-and-videos-alter-the-way-you-think
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241031-how-google-tells-you-what-you-want-to-hear
- https://www.ibm.com/topics/ai-bias#:~:text=In%20healthcare%2C%20underrepresenting%20data%20of,can%20skew%20predictive%20AI%20algorithms
Related Blogs
Along with the loss of important files and information, data loss can result in downtime and lost revenue. Unexpected occurrences, including natural catastrophes, cyber-attacks, hardware malfunctions, and human mistakes, can result in the loss of crucial data. Recovery from these without a backup plan may be difficult, if not impossible.
The fact is that the largest threat to the continuation of your organization today is cyberattacks. Because of this, disaster recovery planning should be approached from a data security standpoint. If not, you run the risk of leaving your vital systems exposed to a cyberattack. Cybercrime has been more frequent and violent over the past few years. In the past, major organizations and global businesses were the main targets of these attacks by criminals. But nowadays, businesses of all sizes need to be cautious of digital risks.
Many firms might suffer a financial hit even from a brief interruption to regular business operations. But imagine if a situation forced a company to close for a few days or perhaps weeks! The consequences would be disastrous.
One must have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place that is connected with the cybersecurity strategy, given the growing danger of cybercrime.
Let’s look at why having a solid data security plan and a dependable backup solution are essential for safeguarding a company from external digital threats.
1. Apply layered approaches
One must specifically use precautionary measures like antivirus software and firewalls. One must also implement strict access control procedures to restrict who may access the network.
One must also implement strict access control procedures to restrict who may access the network.
2. Understand the threat situation
If someone is unaware of the difficulties one should be prepared for, how can they possibly expect to develop a successful cybersecurity strategy? They can’t, is the simple response.
Without a solid understanding of the threat landscape, developing the plan will require a lot too much speculation. With this strategy, one can allocate resources poorly or perhaps completely miss a threat.
Because of this, one should educate themselves on the many cyber risks that businesses now must contend with.
3. Adopt a proactive security stance
Every effective cybersecurity plan includes a number of reactive processes that aren’t activated until an attack occurs. Although these reactive strategies will always be useful in cybersecurity, the main focus of your plan should be proactiveness.
There are several methods to be proactive, but the most crucial one is to analyze your network for possible threats regularly. your network securely. Having a SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solution in place is beneficial for SaaS applications, in particular.
A preventive approach can lessen the effects of a data breach and aid in keeping data away from attackers.
4. Evaluate your ability to respond to incidents
Test your cybersecurity disaster recovery plan’s effectiveness by conducting exercises and evaluating the outcomes. Track pertinent data during the exercise to see if your plan is working as expected.
Meet with your team after each drill to evaluate what went well and what didn’t. This strategy enables you to continuously strengthen your plan and solve weaknesses. This procedure may be repeated endlessly and should be.
You must include cybersecurity protections in your entire disaster recovery plan if you want to make sure that your business is resilient in the face of cyber threats. You may strengthen data security and recover from data loss and corruption by putting in place a plan that focuses on both the essential components of proactive data protection and automated data backup and recovery.
For instance, Google distributes all data among several computers in various places while storing each user’s data on a single machine or collection of machines. To prevent a single point of failure, chunk the data and duplicate it across several platforms. As an additional security safeguard, they give these data chunks random names that are unreadable to the human eye.[1]
The process of creating and storing copies of data that may be used to safeguard organizations against data loss is referred to as backup and recovery. In the case of a main data failure, the backup’s goal is to make a duplicate of the data that can be restored.
5. Take zero-trust principles
Don’t presume that anything or anybody can be trusted; zero trust is a new label for an old idea. Check each device, user, service, or other entity’s trustworthiness before providing it access, then periodically recheck trustworthiness while access is allowed to make sure the entity hasn’t been hacked. Reduce the consequences of any breach of confidence by granting each entity access to only the resources it requires. The number of events and the severity of those that do happen can both be decreased by using zero-trust principles.
6. Understand the dangers posed by supply networks
A nation-state can effectively penetrate a single business, and that business may provide thousands of other businesses with tainted technological goods or services. These businesses will then become compromised, which might disclose their own customers’ data to the original attackers or result in compromised services being offered to customers. Millions of businesses and people might be harmed as a result of what began with one infiltrating corporation.
In conclusion, a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity won’t vanish. Organizations may never be able to totally eliminate the danger of a cyberattack, but having a variety of technologies and procedures in place can assist in guaranteeing that the risks are kept to a minimum.
References:
Introduction
In today's digital age protecting your personal information is of utmost importance. The bad actors are constantly on the lookout for ways to misuse your sensitive or personal data. The Aadhaar card is a crucial document that is utilised by all of us for various aspects. It is considered your official government-verified ID and is used for various purposes such as for verification purposes, KYC purposes, and even for financial transactions. Your Aadhaar card is used in so many ways such as flight tickets booked by travel agents, check-in in hotels, verification at educational institutions and more. The bad actors can target and lure the victims by unauthorized access to your Aadhaar data and commit cyber frauds such as identity theft, unauthorized access, and financial fraud. Hence it is significantly important to protect your personal information and Aadhaar card details and prevent the misuse of your personal information.
What is fingerprint cloning?
Cybercrooks have been exploiting the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS). These scams entail cloning individuals' Aadhaar-linked biometrics through silicon fingerprints and unauthorized biometric devices, subsequently siphoning money from their bank accounts. Fingerprint cloning also known as fingerprint spoofing is a technique or a method where an individual tries to replicate someone else's fingerprint for unauthorized use. This is done for various reasons, including gaining unauthorized access to data, unlocking data or committing identity theft. The process of fingerprint cloning includes collection and creation.
The recent case of Aadhaar Card fingerprint cloning in Nawada
Nawada Cyber Police unit has arrested two perpetrators who were engaged in fingerprint cloning fraud. The criminals are accused of duping consumers of money from their bank accounts by cloning their fingerprints. Among the two perpetrators, one of them runs the Common Service Centre (CSC) whereas the second is a sweeper at the DBGB branch bank. The criminals are accused of duping consumers of money from their bank accounts by cloning their fingerprints. According to the police, an organized gang of cyber criminals had been defrauding the consumers for the last two years with the help of a CSC operator and were embezzling money from the accounts of consumers by cloning their fingerprints and taking Aadhaar numbers. The operator used to collect the Aadhaar number from the consumers by putting their thumb impression on a register. Among these two perpetrators, one was accused of withdrawing more money from the consumer's account and making less payment and sometimes not making the payment after withdrawing the money. Whereas the second perpetrator stole the data of consumers from the DBGB branch bank and prepared their fingerprint clone. During the investigation of a case related to fraud, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Cyber Police conducted raids in Govindpur and Roh police station areas on the basis of technical surveillance and available evidence and arrested them.
Safety measures for the security of your Aadhaar Card data
- Locking your biometrics: One way to save your Aadhaar card and prevent unauthorized access is by locking your biometrics. To lock & unlock your Aadhaar biometrics you can visit the official website of UIDAI or its official portal. So go to UIDAI’s and select the “Lock/Unlock Biometrics” from the Aadhar service section. Then enter the 12-digit Aadhaar number and security code and click on the OTP option. An OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number with Aadhaar. Once the OTP is received enter the OTP and click on the login button that will allow you to lock your biometrics. Enter the 4-digit security code mentioned on the screen and click on the “Enable” button. Your biometrics will be locked and you will have to unblock them in case you want to access them again. The official website of UIDAI is “https://uidai.gov.in/” and there is a dedicated Aadhar helpline 1947.
- Use masked Aadhaar Card: A masked Aadhaar card is a different rendition of an Aadhaar card that is designed to amplify the privacy and security of an individual Aadhaar number. In a masked Aadhaar card, the first eight digits of the twelve digits Aadhaar number are replaced by XXXX- XXXX and only the last four digits are visible. This adds an additional layer of protection to an individual Aadhaar’s number. To download a masked Aadhaar card you visit the government website of UIDAI and on the UIDAI homepage, you will see a "Download Aadhaar" option. Click on it. In the next step, you will be required to enter your 12-digit Aadhaar number along with the security code displayed on the screen. After entering your Aadhaar number, click on the Send OTP. You will receive an OTP on your registered phone number. Enter the OTP received in the provided field and click on the “Submit” button. You will be asked to select the format of your Aadhaar card, You can choose the masked Aadhaar card option. This will replace the first eight digits of your Aadhaar number with "XXXX-XXXX" on the downloaded Aadhaar card. Once the format is selected, click on the “Download Aadhaar” button and your masked Aadhaar card will be downloaded. So if any organisation requires your Aadhaar for verification you can share your masked Aadhar card which only shows the last 4 digits of your Aadhaar card number. Just the way you keep your bank details safe you should also keep your Aadhaar number secure otherwise people can misuse your identity and use it for fraud.
- Monitoring your bank account transactions: Regularly monitor your bank account statements for any suspicious activity and you can also configure transaction alerts with your bank account transactions.
Conclusion:
It is important to secure your Aadhaar card data effectively. The valuable security measure option of locking biometrics provides an additional layer of security. It safeguards your identity from potential scammers. By locking your biometrics you can secure your biometric data and other personal information preventing unauthorized access and any misuse of your Aadhaar card data. In today's evolving digital landscape protecting your personal information is of utmost importance. The cyber hygiene practices, safety and security measures must be adopted by all of us hence establishing cyber peace and harmonizing cyberspace.
References:
- https://www.livehindustan.com/bihar/story-cyber-crime-csc-operator-and-bank-sweeper-arrested-in-nawada-cheating-by-cloning-finger-prints-8913667.html
- https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/cloning-fingerprints-fake-shell-entities-is-your-aadhaar-as-safe-as-you-may-think-2398596-2023-06-27
Executive Summary:
This report deals with a recent cyberthreat that took the form of a fake message carrying a title of India Post which is one of the country’s top postal services. The scam alerts recipients to the failure of a delivery due to incomplete address information and requests that they click on a link (http://iydc[.]in/u/5c0c5939f) to confirm their address. Privacy of the victims is compromised as they are led through a deceitful process, thereby putting their data at risk and compromising their security. It is highly recommended that users exercise caution and should not click on suspicious hyperlinks or messages.
False Claim:
The fraudsters send an SMS stating the status of delivery of an India Mail package which could not be delivered due to incomplete address information. They provide a deadline of 12 hours for recipients to confirm their address by clicking on the given link (http://iydc[.]in/u/5c0c5939f). This misleading message seeks to fool people into disclosing personal information or compromising the security of their device.
The Deceptive Journey:
- First Contact: The SMS is sent and is claimed to be from India Post, informs users that due to incomplete address information the package could not be delivered.
- Recipients are then expected to take action by clicking on the given link (http://iydc[.]in/u/5c0c5939f) to update the address. The message creates a panic within the recipient as they have only 12 hours to confirm their address on the suspicious link.
- Click the Link: Inquiring or worried recipients click on the link.
- User Data: When the link is clicked, it is suspected to launch possible remote scripts in the background and collect personal information from users.
- Device Compromise: Occasionally, the website might also try to infect the device with malware or take advantage of security flaws.
The Analysis:
- Phishing Technique: The scam allures its victims with a phishing technique and poses itself as the India Post Team, telling the recipients to click on a suspicious link to confirm the address as the delivery package can’t be delivered due to incomplete address.
- Fake Website Creation: Victims are redirected to a fraudulent website when they click on the link (http://iydc[.]in/u/5c0c5939f) to update their address.
- Background Scripts: Scripts performing malicious operations such as stealing the visitor information, distributing viruses are suspected to be running in the background. This script can make use of any vulnerability in the device/browser of the user to extract more info or harm the system security.
- Risk of Data Theft: This type of fraud has the potential to steal the data involved because it lures the victims into giving their personal details by creating fake urgency. The threat actors can use it for various illegal purposes such as financial fraud, identity theft and other criminal purposes in future.
- Domain Analysis: The iydc.in domain was registered on the 5th of April, 2024, just a short time ago. Most of the fraud domains that are put up quickly and utilized in criminal activities are usually registered in a short time.
- Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC, a reputable registrar, through which the domain is registered.
- DNS: Chase.ns.cloudflare.com and delilah.ns.cloudflare.com are the name servers used by Cloudflare to manage domain name resolution.
- Registrant: Apart from the fact that it is in Thailand, not much is known about the registrant probably because of using the privacy reduction plugins.
- Domain Name: iydc.in
- Registry Domain ID: DB3669B210FB24236BF5CF33E4FEA57E9-IN
- Registrar URL: www.godaddy.com
- Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
- Registrar IANA ID: 146
- Updated Date: 2024-04-10T02:37:06Z
- Creation Date: 2024-04-05T02:37:05Z (Registered in very recent time)
- Registry Expiry Date: 2025-04-05T02:37:05Z
- Registrant State/Province: errww
- Registrant Country: TH (Thailand)
- Name Server: delilah.ns.cloudflare.com
- Name Server: chase.ns.cloudflare.com
Note: Cybercriminals used Cloudflare technology to mask the actual IP address of the fraudulent website.
CyberPeace Advisory:
- Do not open the messages received from social platforms in which you think that such messages are suspicious or unsolicited. In the beginning, your own discretion can become your best weapon.
- Falling prey to such scams could compromise your entire system, potentially granting unauthorized access to your microphone, camera, text messages, contacts, pictures, videos, banking applications, and more. Keep your cyber world safe against any attacks.
- Never reveal sensitive data such as your login credentials and banking details to entities where you haven't validated as reliable ones.
- Before sharing any content or clicking on links within messages, always verify the legitimacy of the source. Protect not only yourself but also those in your digital circle.
- Verify the authenticity of alluring offers before taking any action.
Conclusion:
The India Post delivery scam is an example of fraudulent activity that uses the name of trusted postal services to trick people. The campaign is initiated by using deceptive texts and fake websites that will trick the recipients into giving out their personal information which can later be used for identity theft, financial losses or device security compromise. Technical analysis shows the sophisticated tactics used by fraudsters through various techniques such as phishing, data harvesting scripts and the creation of fraudulent domains with less registration history etc. While encountering such messages, it's important to verify their authenticity from official sources and take proactive measures to protect both your personal information and devices from cyber threats. People can reduce the risk of falling for online scams by staying informed and following cybersecurity best practices.
