Internet of Things roundtable: Experts discuss what to look for in IoT platforms

Networking is at the heart of every Internet of Things deployment, connecting sensors and other “Things” to the apps that interpret the data or take action.

But these are still early days. Assembling an IoT network from commercial off-the-shelf components is still, let’s just say, a work in progress. This will change over time, but for now the technical immaturity is being addressed by System Integrators building custom code to connect disparate parts and by a new class of network meta-product known as the IoT Platform.

IoT Platform products are still in their infancy, but there are already more than 20 on the market today. Approaches vary, so when making a build or buy decision, consider these critical areas of IoT Platform tech: security, sensor compatibility, analytics compatibility, APIs and standards.

iot platform diagram Iot-Inc.
To see where we stand on developments in these areas, I emailed experts from seven IoT Platform companies, big and small, asking for input: Roberto De La Mora, Sr. Director at Cisco, Steve Jennis, SVP at PrismTech, Bryan Kester, CEO at SeeControl, Lothar Schubert, Platform Marketing leader, GE Software, Niall Murphy, Founder & CEO at EVRYTHNG, Alan Tait, Technical Manager at Stream Technologies and Raj Vaswani, CTO and Co-Founder, Silver Spring Networks. Here’s what they had to say:

* Security
De La Mora: Security technologies and solutions that are omnipresent in IT networks can be adapted (carefully) to serve Operational Technology in IoT environments. But security is not about adding firewalls or IPS/IDS systems here and there. Cyber Security for IoT should follow a model applied at every layer of the architecture, and be combined with physical security to add intelligence to the operation via data correlation and analytics.

Jennis: Without a standards-based security framework it is very difficult to create communication channels that are both secure and interoperable. An interoperable security solution is very important in order to prevent vendor lock-in and to enable the system to be extended if required.

Kester: Sophisticated customers are encrypting traffic between the sensor board and the cloud. However most deployments are using private VPNs which don’t require a lot precious CPU or RAM from the remote device/system.

Murphy: Crypto-secure digital identities for physical things enable authenticated identities online by applying token-based security methods through Web standards to manage application access to these digital identities.

Vaswani: Embed security at each layer of the network, including sophisticated authentication and authorization techniques for all intelligent endpoints, require digital signatures and private keys to prevent any unauthorized access or activity on the system, and end-to-end encryption for all communications across the network. Incorporating physical tamper detection and resistance technologies further reduces the risk of unauthorized access and monitoring.

* Sensor Compatibility
Jennis: The following Platform considerations should be taken into account:

· Memory footprint – how much memory does the Platform require to function? Some simple sensors have only 128KB of memory to work with.

· Operating system support – does the Platform require a full POSIX-like OS or can it accept something simpler?

· Network stack support, e.g. IPv4, IPv6, 6LoWPAN, other – simple sensors used in Low Power Wireless Area Networks (LoWPAN) may require a cut down IP stack.

· Programming language support – a Platform may provide APIs for only specific programming languages (e.g. C or C++).

· Java dependence – does the Platform require a JVM to function, limiting sensor choices?

Murphy: The most important consideration is recognizing the risks inherent in vertically integrated solution architectures. By definition, the Internet of Things is heterogeneous in the types of things it is connecting. A horizontal architecture, to manage the information from and about the things they are connecting, can abstract the transport layer from the application layer. This allows applications to be developed independently of specific sensor devices, and sensor devices to be changed and network connectivity methods changed without breaking the application dependencies.

Schubert: A Software-Defined Machine (SDM) decouples software from the underlying hardware, making machines directly programmable through machine apps and allows connecting with virtually “any” machine and edge device, including retrofitting machines and connections to legacy systems.

* Analytics Compatibility
De La Mora: Support for structured and non-structured data, ease of integration with existing operation, automation and control systems, and the ability to operate in a distributed computing environment are all important factors for analytic compatibility.

Kester: To do advanced long-term business intelligence, machine learning or Hadoop-type of parallel processing, your Platform choice should have a well-documented and Web accessible API to interface with your analytic product of choice. It should also be easy for any IT employee, or even savvy business analysts, to use without training.

Murphy: The network platform has to enable multiple disparate audiences within a company access to benefit from data collection and perform meaningful analysis. Analytics is often thought of in a reporting sense only, but increasingly analytics is being applied in conjunction with machine learning algorithms and rules logic to drive applications and actuate devices.

Tait: You need to be sure the information you are collecting is stored well (backed up, secure, etc.) and that you have the ability to export your data and you maintain ownership.

Schubert: The tremendous data growth in industrial IoT demands massively scalable, low-cost infrastructure, such as that based on Apache Hadoop v2 and COTS (commercial off-the shelf) hardware. It has to support the various security, compliance and data privacy mandates. Predictive Analytics is how value is delivered to customers. It provides timely foresight into asset and operations, and provides actionable recommendations (when paired with rule engines). Perhaps most important, analytics need to be integrated into the operational processes, rather than be a stand-alone IT solution.

* APIs
De La Mora: RESTful API’s are becoming standard. The abstraction capabilities they provide, along with the architectural model based on the Web, are key. SDK’s that provide API’s that are not compatible with the W3C TAG group are a nonstarter for applications that should be in the end, connected to the Internet.

Jennis: First and foremost, APIs should be clean, type-safe and idiomatic. In addition, APIs should favor non-blocking/asynchronous interaction models to make it easier to build responsive systems. Where possible APIs should be standardized to ease component integration and prevent lock-in.

Murphy: APIs should use Web standards and blueprints (e.g. REST and no WSDL/SOAP), and state-of-art Web security systems. They should also offer ways of extracting the data, not just feeding it in.

Tait: Keep it simple, truly good APIs are clear, concise and have a purpose. They should also do the common things easily.

Schubert: Service-oriented architectures (SOA) and related application development paradigms rely on APIs for integration of services, processes and systems. APIs must be open, accessible and upgrade-compatible.

* Standards
De La Mora: We are calling this the Internet of Things because it will be part of the next generation of the Internet, so the only key standard protocol, that I see in the future, is IPv6.

Kester: Any Platform that is in communication with devices should support the major communication protocols in use today, which are UDP, MQTT, XMPP, CoAP, Modbus/TCP and HTTP.

Murphy: RESTful application programming interfaces, JSON and similar Web-centric formats for data exchange should be used. The Platform that an enterprise uses to manage its physical products and assets as digital assets, needs to be able to integrate smoothly with both the enterprise’s other systems and third party applications. Integration means both the technical protocols of system-to-system interaction (e.g. REST, OAuth) but also critically, the semantics of the information itself.

Vaswani: The use of universal standards such as IP ensures that products can be easily mixed and matched from different vendors to ensure full interoperability and to deliver on other applications supported by an even broader ecosystem of hardware and software players.

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9 employee insiders who breached security

These disgruntled employees show what can happen when an employer wrongs them.

Security admins used to have to worry about keeping the bad guys out of the network, but there have been many documented cases where the devil you know is sitting right next to you. A review of recent FBI cyber investigations revealed victim businesses incur significant costs ranging from $5,000 to $3 million due to cyber incidents involving disgruntled or former employees, according to AlgoSec. Here are just a few over the years of insiders trying to take down their employer's network.

Terry Childs, the former network administrator for the City of San Francisco, held the city's systems hostage for a time. He refused to surrender passwords because he felt his supervisors were incompetent. Childs was convicted of violating California's computer crime laws in April 2010.

In June 2012, Ricky Joe Mitchell of Charleston, W.Va., a former network engineer for oil and gas company EnerVest, was sentenced to prison for sabotaging the company's systems. He found out he was going to be fired and decided to reset the company's servers to their original factory settings.

It was discovered in 2007 that database administrator William Sullivan had stolen 3.2 million customer records including credit card, banking and personal information from Fidelity National Information Services. Sullivan agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges and was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay a $3.2 million fine.

Flowers Hospital had an insider data breach that occurred from June 2013 to February 2014 when one of its employees stole forms containing patient information and possibly used the stolen information to file fraudulent income tax returns.

According to Techworld.com, 34-year-old Sam Chihlung Yin created a fake VPN token in the name of a non-existent employee which he tricked Gucci IT staff into activating after he was fired in May 2010.

Army Private First Class Bradley Manning released sensitive military documents to WikiLeaks in 2009. Manning, now known as Chelsea Manning, was given a sentence of 35 years in prison.

Back in 2002, Timothy Lloyd was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for planting a software time bomb after he became disgruntled with his employer Omega. The result of the software sabotage was the loss of millions of dollars to the company and the loss of 80 jobs.

Earlier this year, NRAD Medical Associates discovered that an employee radiologist had accessed and acquired protected health information from NRAD’s billing systems without authorization. The breach was estimated to be 97,000 records of patient names and addresses, dates of birth, Social Security information, health insurance, and diagnosis information.

And of course there is the most famous whistleblower of all time: Edward Snowden. Before fleeing the country, he released sensitive NSA documents that became a blowup about government surveillance.

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Gartner: Top 10 strategic predictions for businesses to watch out for

For a session that is high-tech oriented, this year’s Gartner strategic predictions were decidedly human.

That is to say many were related to increasing the customer’s experience with technology and systems rather than the usual techno-calculations.
Gartner 2014

“Machines are taking an active role in enhancing human endeavors,” said Daryl Plummer is a managing vice president, chief of Research and chief Gartner Fellow. “Our predictions this year maybe not be directly tied to the IT or CIO function but they will affect what you do.”

Plummer outlined the following predictions and a small recommendation as to what IT can do to prepare for the item. Read on:

1. By 2018, digital business requires 50% less business process workers and 500% more key digital business jobs, compared to traditional models. IT leaders — need to develop new hiring practices to recruit for the new nontraditional IT roles.

2. By 2017, a significant disruptive digital business will be launched that was conceived by a computer algorithm. CIOs must begin to simulate technology-driven transformation options for business.

3. By 2018, the total cost of ownership for business operations will be reduced by 30% through smart machines and industrialized services. CIOs must experiment with precursor "almost smart machine" technologies and phantom robotic business process automation. Business leaders must examine the impact of increased wellness on insurance and employee healthcare costs as a competitive factor.

4. By 2020, developed world life expectancy will increase by 0.5 years due to widespread adoption of wireless health monitoring technology. Business leaders must examine the impact of increased wellness on insurance and employee healthcare costs as a competitive factor

5. By year-end 2016, $2.5 billion in online shopping will be performed exclusively by mobile digital assistants. Apple’s Siri is a type of assistant, but many online vendors offer some sort of software-assist that you may or may not be aware of. Marketing executives must develop marketing techniques that capture the attention of digital assistants as well as people. By the end of 2016, $2.5 billion in online shopping will be performed exclusively by mobile digital assistants.

6. By 2017, U.S. customers' mobile engagement behavior will drive U.S. mobile commerce revenue to 50% of U.S. digital commerce revenue. Recommendation: Marketing executives must develop marketing techniques that capture the attention of digital assistants as well as people. Mobile marketing teams investigate mobile wallets such as Apple's Passbook and Google Wallet as consumer interest in mobile commerce and payments grows.

7. By 2016, 70% of successful digital business models will rely on deliberately unstable processes designed to shift as customer needs shift. CIO need to create an agile, responsive workforce that is accountable, responsive, and supports your organizational liquidity.

8. By 2017, more than half of consumer product and service R&D investments will be redirected to customer experience innovations. Consumer companies must invest in customer insight through persona and ethnographic research.

9. By 2017, nearly 20% of durable goods e-tailers will use 3D printing to create personalized product offerings. CIOs, product development leaders, and business partners—evaluate gaps between the existing "as is" and future "to be" state (process, skills, and technology.)

10. By 2018, retail businesses that utilize targeted messaging in combination with internal positioning systems (systems that know you are in or near a store) will see a 20% increase in customer visits. CIOs must help expand good customer data to support real-time offers.

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First Look: BlackBerry Passport

BlackBerry does an about-face, back towards its enterprise roots.

So BB 10 didn't work out so well, did it?
Which helps explain why, with the new Passport smartphone, BlackBerry is ditching the years-late emphasis on competing for consumers and refocusing on the enterprise users on which the company was built. The Passport is uniquely focused on being a device for work first and personal stuff second - take a look at how it's turned out.

It's hip to be square
We're just not used to square screens anymore, are we? I think the last one I used was on a flip-phone, circa about 2005. So in a sense, BlackBerry's not putting the Passport in great company there. Given that this screen is 4.5 inches and boasts 1440x1440 resolution, though, it's probably OK.

Big in Canada
It's a big device, there's no getting around that - as the name suggests, it's the size of a U.S. passport. That said, it's no more outsized than other recently released phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 or the iPhone 6 Plus.

Of course it has a keyboard
It's a new design, and it incorporates some intriguing touchpad functionality, like swiping to select auto-suggest entries. And it's a business-focused BlackBerry device - of course it has a physical keyboard.

A voice search thingy!
One of many catch-up boxes checked by the Passport, the new voice search functionality appears to work more or less the same way as Siri/Cortana/Google Voice search, et al.

Blend
The impressive BlackBerry Blend system provides an app that can run on other mobile devices, as well as on desktops and laptops, that brings files and messages from the Passport to whichever device you happen to be using at the time, and segregates them into personal and enterprise spaces.

Some apps
BlackBerry bolsters its own somewhat limited app offerings with access to the Amazon App Store, which provides a larger selection of Android apps for use on the Passport.

Under the hood
The Passport's specs bring it into line with the latest Androids and iPhones - a 2.2GHz, quad-core Snapdragon processor, 3GB of RAM, a 13MP camera with optical image stabilization and 32GB of on-board storage, with a microSD slot for expandability. It's also got a big 3450 mAh battery, which BlackBerry was eager to talk up.

The nitty-gritty
The Passport goes on sale tomorrow from Amazon and BlackBerry directly, for $600 unlocked. It'll be available on-contract from as-yet unspecified carriers for about $250, BlackBerry said.

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Android Power's 3 favorite things for August 2014

From powerful custom shortcuts to pleasingly pretty home screens, these three simple tools bring fresh functionality to any Android phone or tablet.

This summer's been a wild one for mobile tech launches, and that means it's been a while since I've had a chance to take a deep breath and think about all the interesting little treasures that round out the Android experience.

From apps to accessories and everything in between, Android is full of easily overlooked items -- seemingly small things that make our lives easier or make the mobile landscape a more pleasant place to live.

Now that we have a brief breather between the rapid-fire product launches, I thought I'd take a moment to step back and shine the light on a few of my favorite things, as I occasionally like to do.

So without further ado, here are three things I'm particularly fond of at the moment:

1. TapPath
Sometimes it's the simplest ideas that make the biggest impact. TapPath is a perfect example: The app, created by the same developer behind Link Bubble and Action Launcher, does one very focused but useful thing: It lets you expand and control what happens when you tap a link on your phone or tablet.

Normally, when you tap a link in a third-party app, the link opens in your default browser. With TapPath, you can specify different destinations that you can then trigger by single-tapping, double-tapping, or even triple-tapping any link from anywhere in the system.

Why bother, you might be wondering? Easy: It can save you time by giving you a powerful set of custom universal shortcuts. You might set a single-tap to open a link in your browser, for instance, a double-link to save it directly to Pocket, and a triple-link to open it with the system share picker so you can send it directly to any other destination. There are all sorts of possibilities.

TapPath isn't the kind of thing I'd recommend for a novice user, but for those of us who like to take full control of our phones, it's an incredibly handy tool to have.


2. Commandr
I've mentioned Commandr before, but it's cool enough to deserve a formal spot in this month's roundup. The app, which is free with an optional donation, makes your Android device's Voice Search function more powerful than ever.

All you do is set Commandr up on your phone or tablet, and it gives you a whole range of new voice command options -- you know, the things you can say after "Okay, Google" or after tapping the microphone icon that's part of Google Now. The commands work as if they were part of Android's native Voice Search system, too, so once the app is installed, you'll never actively think about it again.

Since I last discussed it, Commandr has grown to provide an even wider range of interesting possibilities. It could already do things like toggle your device's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or flashlight and control music playback by voice. Now it also gives you native-like voice commands for having your new Gmail messages read aloud, adjusting your device's volume, and controlling your camera.

Commandr can integrate with Tasker for even more advanced functionality, if you want. Its developer also adds new commands quite frequently, so the list of options is always expanding.

All in all, it's one of the most useful apps I've seen in some time and a prime example of how Android's flexibility can work for you.

3. SmugZei
You remember Muzei, right? It's the simple (and free) app by Android Developer Advocate Roman Nurik that changes your wallpaper to a new image every day.

I recently stumbled onto a great (and also free) extension for Muzei called SmugZei. It connects to an online photography gallery called SmugMug to pull in gorgeous photographs for your phone's background.

Muzei, SmugZei, SmugMug -- sounds like an awful lot of gibberish, I know. But forget about the silliness of the names and stick with me for a minute.

The reason this extension caught my eye is that some well-known photographers upload their images to SmugMug for anyone to enjoy. One of them is the talented Trey Ratcliff, whose images I've enjoyed via Google+ for quite a while.

With Muzei and SmugZei, I see a different one of Trey's gorgeous photos as my phone's wallpaper every day. I don't have to do anything; the app just automatically changes out the wallpaper to a new photo every several hours. It's a delightful surprise every time -- and it's really refreshing to have my home screen take on a different and equally beautiful look so often.

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Lenovo N20p Chromebook review: An affordable dual-mode device

Lenovo's latest Chromebook functions as both a regular laptop and a stand-supported tablet. But what is it like to use in the real world?

When you think of a Chromebook, you typically think of a keyboard-centric laptop -- but Lenovo's hoping to shake up that mindset with some versatile new devices.

The company has come out with a couple of convertible Chromebooks that can act as both traditional laptops and touchscreen tablets. The first, the Lenovo N20p Chromebook, costs $330 and offers a 300-degree tilting display. The second, the ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook, costs $479 and features a higher-quality screen that bends back a full 360 degrees.

I've been living with the N20p model to start with, and one thing's for sure: It offers a Chrome OS experience like no other.
Body, design and that tilting display

At first glance, Lenovo's N20p Chromebook looks like any run-of-the-mill laptop: The computer has a matte-plastic gray casing with Lenovo's logo and the Google Chrome logo at its top. Open the lid and you're greeted by an 11.6-in. screen and a chiclet-style Chrome OS keyboard.

In that mode, the N20p Chromebook is pleasant enough to use: It's one of the higher-quality devices in its class, with sturdy construction, a commendable keyboard and a smooth-feeling and responsive trackpad. If you press on the center of the lid, you do feel a little give -- almost a slight springiness -- but by and large, the N20p seems well-built and less flimsy than some of the cheaper options in its price range.

The N20p is comfortable to hold on your lap, too: The laptop is 11.6 x 8.3 x 0.7 in. and 2.9 lbs. -- slightly heavier than some of the less sturdy devices of its size but still quite light and easy to carry.

As with other touch-enabled Chromebooks, you have the ability to tap, scroll or zoom the N20p's screen with your fingers, which I find to be a surprisingly useful feature. It's even more interesting, though, when you push the N20p's display back beyond the standard stopping point -- past the flattened-out 180-degree mark and all the way around to its fully tilted stand mode.

In that mode, you actually end up with the keyboard upside-down -- in other words, with keys facing downward -- serving as a base. The keyboard is automatically disabled in that state, so you don't have to worry about accidental key presses. Instead, what you get is a tablet-like experience, complete with a virtual on-screen keyboard that appears when you need it.

Coupled with the N20p's touch input, this setup works incredibly well. It opens up a whole new range of uses for the device while still leaving its traditional operations in place.

I've been using the N20p Chromebook in its laptop mode for work, for instance, then flipping the screen around and shifting into stand mode when I want to do something less input-oriented and more browsing-based -- catching up on articles I've opened throughout the day, scrolling through my social media streams or watching videos with the device resting comfortably on my lap.

It's reached the point where shifting between the system's two modes feels effortless and natural to me, and I've really grown to appreciate having that option. Chrome OS itself isn't entirely optimized for touch, so certain things are still a little awkward -- like trying to tap the small "x" to close a tab with your finger, for example -- but all in all, the touch-centric stand experience is quite pleasant. You just have to think of it as a complement to the traditional laptop environment rather than a replacement for it.

When the N20p is in its stand mode, the user interface does change a bit: All windows appear maximized, while a button shows up in the bottom-right area of the screen that allows you to switch between opened windows using a graphical interface. (Those already familiar with Chromebooks will note that it's the same task-switching command also present on the top row of the regular Chrome OS keyboard.)

The on-screen keyboard works well enough, too, though if you're typing anything more than a few words, you'll almost certainly want to flip the system back around into its laptop mode for easier text input. Given the choice on any device, I think a full-size physical keyboard is always going to be preferable for heavy-duty typing.

Because the screen can be adjusted to any position while the N20p is in its stand mode, you can flip the laptop into a tent-like arrangement if you want -- or even onto its side for a vertically oriented portrait view. I haven't found a need to use either of those orientations, but the possibilities are there if you want them.

As for the display itself, it's the same 1366 x 768 TN panel found in most lower-end Chromebooks these days -- but even within those parameters, it's one of the better screens I've seen. It's glossy, bright and less grainy than the displays on many similarly priced systems. Viewing angles aren't great and it's no match for a higher-quality IPS display, but I've been able to use it for full days without being annoyed or feeling any significant eyestrain.

On the left edge of its frame, Lenovo's N20p Chromebook has a proprietary charging port along with a USB 3.0 port, a dedicated HDMI-out port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The laptop's right edge, meanwhile, holds a USB 2.0 port and a physical power button -- something slightly different from most Chromebooks, where the power button exists on the keyboard.

The N20p Chromebook has two speakers on either side of its bottom surface. The speakers are pretty decent, with loud, clear and full-sounding audio. They're not the best you'll ever hear, but for this class of device, they're actually quite impressive.

Performance
So far so good, right? Unfortunately, there is one asterisk with Lenovo's N20p Chromebook -- and it's on the subject of performance.

The N20p Chromebook uses one of Intel's new Bay Trail processors -- the Intel Celeron N2830 -- along with 2GB of RAM. In real-world use, it feels like a meaningful step backward from the level of performance I've grown accustomed to seeing with the recent crop of Chrome OS devices, most of which are powered by Intel's speedier Haswell-based chips.

To see the difference between two Chrome OS devices that use Intel processors, I compared the N20p to an Asus Chromebox, with a Haswell-based Cerelon 2955U processor and 2GB of RAM. The N20p Chromebook was consistently slower at loading pages -- by as much as two to six seconds, depending on the site -- and just seemed significantly less zippy overall.

Cons: Low-resolution display with low-quality TN panel; performance not as good as that of other Chromebooks in its class

In fact, even without a side-by-side comparison, the N20p just doesn't feel terribly snappy. I noticed its limitations the most in situations where I had several browser tabs running; there, the device really seemed to struggle and reach levels of sluggishness I haven't experienced on Chrome OS in quite some time.

All things considered, I'd say this: If you're like most people and tend to keep only one or two tabs open at a time, the N20p should be fine for your needs. It's still a noticeable step down from the level of performance you'd get from other similarly priced or even less expensive systems -- which is disappointing, to say the least -- but for basic levels of use, it's acceptable enough and may be a worthwhile tradeoff for all of the device's positives. If you do any resource-intensive multitasking, however, you're going to find yourself frustrated by the relatively low performance ceiling.

Lenovo does offer a model of the N20p Chromebook with a slightly higher-end Bay Trail processor, the Intel Celeron N2930; that model is sold only via Lenovo's website and costs $20 more than the regular base model. While I haven't had an opportunity to test it firsthand, the promise of enhanced performance seems to make the extra $20 a worthwhile investment.

The N20p does do reasonably well in terms of battery life: The laptop is listed for eight hours of use per charge, which is pretty much in line with what I've gotten. As for storage, the device comes with 16GB of onboard space along with the option to expand with your own SD card.
Bottom line

Lenovo's N20p Chromebook offers a compelling experience that goes beyond what the typical Chromebook provides. The tilting display really is a nice touch that expands the device's potential and opens it up to new and interesting types of uses.

The system is held back, however, by lower than average performance -- something we'll probably be seeing more of as Intel's Bay Trail chips make their way into more Chrome OS devices. That's a factor you'll have to closely consider in determining whether the N20p Chromebook is right for you.

The N20p Chromebook is a standout device with lots of attractive qualities. For folks in the power-user camp, it's just a shame it's not available with the more robust internals that other similarly priced products provide.

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In search of a social site that doesn't lie

Facebook and OKCupid experiment on users. So what's wrong with that?

Rudder's post described a few of the experiments that the dating website had carried out. In one, OKCupid told people that they would be good matches with certain other people even though the site's algorithms had determined that they would be bad matches. That's right: The company deliberately lied to its users. OKCupid wanted to see if people liked each other because they have the capacity to make up their own minds about who they like, or if they like each other because OKCupid tells them they should like each other.

(The controversial post was Rudder's first in several years; he had taken time off to write a book about experimenting on people. Due out next month, the book is called Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking).)

The OKCupid post was in part a response to controversy over a recently discovered Facebook experiment, the results of which were published in an academic journal. Facebook wanted to see if people would post more negative posts if their own News Feeds had more negative posts from their friends. In the experiment, Facebook removed some posts by family and friends because they were positive. The experiment involved deliberately making people sadder by censoring friends' more uplifting and positive posts.

Don't like this kind of manipulation? Here's Rudder's response: "Guess what, everybody: if you use the Internet, you're the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site.

That's how websites work."

What's wrong here

Rudder's "everyone is doing it" rationalization for experimenting on users makes it clear that he doesn't understand the difference between what OKCupid and Facebook are doing, and what other sites that conduct A/B tests of different options are doing.

The difference is that OKCupid and Facebook are potentially changing, damaging or affecting the real relationships of real people. They are manipulating the happiness of people on purpose.

These companies might argue that this damage to the mood and relationships of people is small to the point of being inconsequential. But what makes them think it's OK to deliberately do any damage at all?

The other glaring problem with these social science experiments is that the subjects don't know they're participating.

Yes, I'm sure company lawyers can argue in court that the Terms of Service that everyone agreed to (but almost nobody read) gives OKCupid and Facebook the right to do everything they do. And I'm sure the sites believe that they're working so hard and investing so much to provide free services that users owe them big time, and that makes it all OK.

Imagine a splash screen that pops up each month on these sites that says: "Hi. Just wanted to make sure you're aware that we do experiments on people, and we might do experiments on you. We might lie to you, meddle in your relationships and make you feel bad, just to see what you'll do."

No, you can't imagine it. The reason is that the business models of sites like OKCupid and Facebook are based on the assumption of user ignorance.
Why OKCupid and Facebook think it's OK to mess with people's relationships

The OKCupid admission and the revelations about the Facebook research were shocking to the public because we weren't aware of the evolving mindset behind social websites. No doubt the OKCupid people and the Facebook people arrived at their coldly cynical view of users as lab rats via a long, evolutionary slippery slope.

Let's imagine the process with Facebook. Zuckerberg drops out of Harvard, moves to Silicon Valley, gets funded and starts building Facebook into a social network. Zuck and the guys want to make Facebook super appealing, but they notice a disconnect in human reason, a bias that is leading heavy Facebook users to be unhappy.

You see, people want to follow and share and post a lot, and Facebook wants users to be active. But when everybody posts a lot, the incoming streams are overwhelming, and that makes Facebook users unhappy. What to do?

The solution is to use software algorithms to selectively choose which posts to let through and which to hold back. But what criteria do you use?

Facebook's current algorithm, which is no longer called Edgerank (I guess if you get rid of the name, people won't talk about it), is the product of thousands of social experiments -- testing and tweaking and checking and refining until everyone is happy.

The result of those experiments is that Facebook changes your relationships. For example, let's say you follow 20 friends from high school. You feel confident that by following them -- and by them following you -- that you have a reliable social connection to these people that replaces phone calls, emails and other forms of communication.

Let's say you have a good friend named Brian who doesn't post a lot of personal stuff. And you have another friend, Sophia, who is someone you don't care about but who is very active and posts funny stuff every day. After a period of several months during which you barely interact with Brian but occasionally like and comment on Sophia's posts, Facebook decides to cut Brian's posts out of your News Feed while maintaining the steady stream of Sophia posts. Facebook boldly ends your relationship with Brian, someone you care about. When Brian posts an emotional item about the birth of his child, you don't see it because Facebook has eliminated your connection to Brian.

And don't get me started on OKCupid's algorithms and how they could affect the outcome of people's lives.

Not only do both companies experiment all the time; their experiments make huge changes to users' relationships.

The real danger with these experiments
You might think that the real problem is that social networks that lie to people, manipulate their relationships and regularly perform experiments on their users are succeeding. For example, when Facebook issued its financial report last month, it said revenue rose 61% to $2.91 billion, up from $1.81 billion in the same quarter a year ago. The company's stock soared after the report came out.

Twitter, which is currently a straightforward, honest, nonmanipulative social network, has apparently seen the error of its ways and is seriously considering the Facebook path to financial success. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said in an interview this week that he "wouldn't rule out any kind of experiment we might be running there around algorithmically curated experiences or otherwise."

No, the real problem is that OKCupid and Facebook may take action based on the results of their research. In both cases, the companies say they're experimenting in order to improve their service.

In the case of OKCupid, the company found that connecting people who are incompatible ends up working out better than it thought. So based on that result, in the future it may match up more people it has identified as incompatible.

In the case of Facebook, it did find that mood is contagious. So maybe it will "improve" Facebook in the future to build in a bias for positive, happy posts in order to make users happier with Facebook than they are with networks that don't filter based on positivity.

What's the solution?
While Twitter may follow Facebook down the rabbit hole of user manipulation, there is a category of "social network" where what you see is what you get -- namely, messaging apps.

When you send a message via, say, WhatsApp or Snapchat or any of the dozens of new apps that have emerged recently, the other person gets it. WhatsApp and Snapchat don't have algorithms that choose to not deliver most of your messages. They don't try to make you happy or sad or connect you with incompatible people to see what happens. They just deliver your communication.

I suspect that's one of the reasons younger users are increasingly embracing these alternatives to the big social networks. They're straightforward and honest and do what they appear to do, rather than manipulating everything behind the scenes.

Still, I'd love to see at least one major social site embrace honesty and respect for users as a core principle. That would mean no lying to users, no doing experiments on them without their clear knowledge, and delivering by default all of the posts of the people they follow.

In other words, I'd love to see the founders of social sites write blog posts that brag: "We DON'T experiment on human beings."

Wouldn't that be nice?

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