The Conversation (0)
Elaine McCallig
Feb 08, 2022
Platinum Jubilee: Charles leads tributes to the Queen
The Independent
Author Adam Kay’s important thread concerning online privacy has gone viral, and for good reason.
The former doctor, who wrote This Is Going To Hurt, took to Twitter to highlight how some people - including the Queen - may accidentally overshare on social media.
Responding to a photograph released to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Kay shows how easy it is to zoom in and read the monarch’s official documents.
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In a viral Twitter thread, he showed how simple it is for an amateur on a laptop to have a nosy at the files.
Now, bearing in mind this is just what I can achieve as an amateur Adam with a laptop, it makes you wonder what other matters of state might have been shared over the years. Let's spin this round a bit and have a quick look at the top document. 2/6pic.twitter.com/GDAszPvOqK— Adam Kay (@Adam Kay) 1644172603
We can probably lose the colour at this point as we're just looking at text. And given we've lost the bit under the red box in any case, I'm just going to concentrate on the words down the left hand side. Here. 4/6pic.twitter.com/zq6mcYmL5C— Adam Kay (@Adam Kay) 1644172605
Kay acknowledged that although it wasn’t “looking great” there are apparently ways, such as optical character recognition, for your computer to decipher what it is the words say.
He wrote: “We're not in 24 where you can magically sharpen a CCTV image. BUT. When it's text you're looking at, computers do have a major card up their sleeves.
“Words are simply patterns of pixels, and having looked at multi-zillions of them, they're remarkably good at guessing what a word might be, even if the words are fuzzy round the edges.”
And then, the grand reveal…
...remarkably good at guessing what a word might be, even if the words are fuzzy round the edges. Optical character recognition, it's called. So - without further ado - I've overlaid the best guess (99.3% accuracy per character) for the document in question. 6/6pic.twitter.com/VBkVQDhpsZ— Adam Kay (@Adam Kay) 1644172607
Reader, we have been Rickrolled. But we must admit, we’re not mad about it.
Twitter enjoyed the high-effort joke, with some expressing their disbelief that they fell for such an old meme.
Did I just get Rick-rolled in 2022 https://twitter.com/amateuradam/status/1490394053799813126\u00a0\u2026— NN (@NN) 1644231358
This is one of the more impressive rick rollshttps://twitter.com/amateuradam/status/1490394053799813126\u00a0\u2026— Alex \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 (@Alex \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6) 1644300403
I didn\u2019t expect to be rickrolled on Twitter https://twitter.com/amateuradam/status/1490394053799813126\u00a0\u2026— Apha-neh (@Apha-neh) 1644261402
you did not....— Arun Maini (@Arun Maini) 1644176279
Dang...usually don't fall for these! nice jobhttps://twitter.com/amateuradam/status/1490394053799813126\u00a0\u2026— michaelepley (@michaelepley) 1644259832
(I properly cackled, you marvel)— Jack Monroe (@Jack Monroe) 1644232689
I hope they take away your show— Mollie Goodfellow (@Mollie Goodfellow) 1644183094
Kay’s book This Is Going To Hurt has been adapted into a series by the BBC. Tune in to BBC One on Tuesday at 9pm or watch it on the iPlayer.
Although the Queen didn’t necessarily overshare in the Twitter picture Kay pointed out, check out the shocking snap the 95-year-old posted on her Instagram story as she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee.
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