VERIFYING USER CONTENT
A Training Companion by the SecDev Foundation
EXERCISES
THIS TRAINING WAS IN PART INSPIRED BY THE VERIFICATION HANDBOOK
EXERCISE 1
EXERCISE 2
EXERCISE 3
EXERCISE 1
Using the CARS Checklist found in your handout material, assess the legitimacy of this Twitter post.
Was the photo taken when it claims to have been? Using some of the tools listed in this guide verify whether the post is true or not. Try tools such as Suncalc to verify the sun position, or Wolfram Alpha to match the weather on the date claimed. Tools such as Foller.me can provide insights into a user account.
Download Checklist
VERIFICATION EXERCISE 2
Go to http://bit.ly/1xhzw0c and find the picture shown here to the right.
Reports indicate that this is a candid photo of Putin on vacation in Denmark. Your task, using the Verification Checklist in your handouts, is to verify whether or not this is accurate.
Be sure to follow the steps - this is more about practice than finishing first!
Download Checklist
EXERCISE 3
Watch this video.
Identify the plane crash, noting the type of airplane, location and where/when it occurred.
Use tools such as Google Settings and Filters to determine when the video was posted. Check the video settings for quality. Match the plane using the Planespotting Guide.
Download Checklist
SEARCH
BELOW ARE SEARCH OPERATORS CHEAT SHEETS
Search Filter
Finds Content for…
“world cup”
Use quotation marks if searching for an exact phrase. Also use quotation marks to manage the logic of your search and ensure you don’t combine terms by accident
super -star
Add a hyphen before a word to exclude a search term
reviews site:
economist.com
Return results from within a specific domain
related:
secdev.com
Find sites with similar content to a specific domain
allintext: happy hedgehogs eat
Find pages where all the terms appear in the body of text
James dean intext:boston
Find pages where the first term appears in the body of text, and the other terms appear elsewhere (e.g. title, domain etc.)
allintitle: breaking bad is good
Find pages with titles containing all of the search terms
Jian intitle:sad
Find pages with titles containing a particular word, with other terms appearing elsewhere in the document (e.g. body, domain etc.)
allinurl: super star
Find pages with the search terms mentioned in the URL
Toronto location: Canada
Find content from a particular location using Google News
best cities 2014 filetype:pdf
Find particular file types
dslr £500..£700
Search number ranges by separating different numbers with two periods
why does
* act like *
Use asterisks as wild cards – great if you forgot a word!
Richard Gere OR Michael Douglas
To search for multiple terms without having to return all of the input queries, add a capitalised OR in between
Search Filter
Finds Content for…
twitter search
Contains both “twitter” and “search”
“world cup”
Contains the exact phrase “world cup”
love OR war
Contains either “love” or “war” or both
super -star
Contains “super” but not “star”
#CanadaStrong
Contains the hashtag “CanadaStrong”
from:lageneralista
Sent from the user “lageneralista”
to:secdevfdn
Sent to the user “secdevfdn”
@secdev
Referencing the user “secdev”
“world cup” near:”boston”
Contains the exact phrase “world cup” and sent near “boston”
near: London within:20mi
Sent within 20 miles of “London”
geocode:51.23284,-22.14563,1km
Content geolocated to within 1 km of the location at the specified latitude/longitude combination
Grumpycat since:2012-04-13
Contains “grumpy” and sent since the date “2012-04-13”
SmellyCat until:2012-04-13
Contains “SmellyCat” and sent up to the date “2012-04-13”
Twilight –movie :)
Contains “Twilight”, but not “movie”, and with a positive attitude
Jian :(
Contains “Jian” and with a negative attitude
Sharks filter:links
Contains “Sharks” and linking to URLs
news source:
twitterfeed
Contains “news” and entered via Twitterfeed
VIDEOS
BELOW ARE THE VIDEOS WATCHED DURING THIS TRAINING SESSION
HOW INFORMATION IS EASILY DISTORTED: THE OTTAWA SHOOTING
THE AIR ASIANA FOLLY
STORYFUL'S MARKHAM NOLAN ON HOW TO SEPARATE FACT AND FICTION ONLINE
INTERVIEW WITH ELIOT HIGGINS ON WHAT STEPS HE TAKES WHEN A NEW VIDEO COMES IN
BBC TRENDING ON THE SHARING OF FALSE IMAGES DURING THE GAZA CONFLICT
GLOSSARY
A GLOSSARY OF TERMS
API - short for Application Programming Interface, is a computer language and message format used by an application to communicate with the operating system or some other control program such as a database management system or communications protocol
digital shadow – is the online data that is left behind by users on digital services
entity resolution - is the process of identifying and “resolving” the user accounts of a single person (“entity”) on different social media platforms
EXIF – short for Exchangeable Image File Format, is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras. EXIF data is often found attached to multimedia on the internet and can provide valuable technical information about when, how and when the footage was captured
firehose - the massive, real-time stream of user-generated content published to a social media channel. Most free sources of social data only provide a small percentage of total social media traffic. A firehose provides 100 percent of publicly available data.
geo-location – information that is tagged with GPS or specific geographic data as added by the user or the social network as per the user’s consent and settings, and correlated to the place where that user-generated content is created
geo-referenced – content in which a geographic location is mentioned
GPS – short for Global Positioning System, is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time data, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites
hashtag – a word or an unspaced phrase prefixed with the hash character, “#”, to form a label such as #CanadaStrong. A hashtag is a type of metadata tag that enables the easy filtering of similar content
Image search – is a technology that allows users to find images that are visually similar from online sources. Google Image Search and TinEye are popular Image Search engines
keyword – is a term used to search for relevant or related content on the internet
metadata – Metadata is "data about data". Metadata consists of details about information, (such as author, creation date, location and device used), that makes finding and working with data easier
the mosaic effect - is the process by which small pieces of information from disparate sources produces a larger, clearer picture of an individual, event or location
thumbnail – is a smaller sized version of a picture, used to index original files making it easier to identify and organise
triangulation – is the application of two or more methods or sources used to verify the accuracy of information
user-generated content – any form of content (such as video, blog posts, discussion forums, digital images, audio files, social network posts etc.) created by consumers or end-users of an online system or service and that is publicly available to other consumers and end-users
CONTACT
THIS TRAINING WAS DEVELOPED BY THE SECDEV FOUNDATION
info@secdev-foundation.org
THE SECDEV FOUNDATION
World Exchange Plaza 45 O'Connor Street, Suite 1150
Ottawa, ON, K1P 1A4
Canada
+1.613.755.4007
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