Hey, there! Log in / Register
How noisy is your neighborhood?
By adamg on Mon, 11/30/2015 - 11:12am
Erica Walker, a doctoral candidate in environmental epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is studying the epidemiology of noise in Boston. She's put together a survey in which you (yes, even you people living in downtown areas infested with bucket drummers) can discuss urban noise and how it affects you.
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
can she
can she do this for Chelsea? We'd be off the charts..
Gotta love it.. thanksgiving night until 3am some drunk dude was singing karaoke.. ugh.
Yep
The form actually has a space to fill in a non-Boston neighborhood.
During the warm weather
During the warm weather months my new neighbors who are probably in their 30s host parties in their back yard, they give these craft beer gatherings with a number of educated yuppies I would say in the ballpark of 25 educated yuppies, they play horseshoe or dart board games in their yard the sort of activities the Brady bunch would do in their back yard, they talk loudly and noticeably pronounced their R's. It's seems like a fraternaty house , this is in East Boston, previous owners of house were much louder, during the warm weather months they played extremly loud merengue music you can hear it from 2 blocks away, so loud I would occasionlly call the Police.
You've got your terminology wrong
If it "seems like a fraternaty house" and they "noticeably pronounced their R's" (oh the horror!), the word you're looking for is "dudebros".
merengue
Yes this is my issue with my neighborhood. Its the constant thumping of tejano music all the time at like full blast. So loud it rattles the windows and you can feel the vibrations several houses away.
And then add some booze and folks just get loud and obnoxious. It's not that I care about people having parties.. I want people to enjoy themselves. But when the music is full blast (to the point where it's distorted) and you've got 2 people in your yard and it's after 11pm, it's a bit excessive. (and of course having the noise level for 6-8 hours just gets very tiring after a while when it's almost every weekend)
Chelsea Police won't do a thing.. we get told "We have better issues to deal with" (as we were told at 2am Friday morning).
I'll take a bunch of yups and a beer party.. at least they know at some point the noise level needs to go down a few notches.
Yes! Chelsea is one loud
Yes! Chelsea is one loud place! I have been doing some monitoring there recently. I'd love to hear your experiences!
I will
I will send this to many, many people in Chelsea....
South Shore
My neighborhood is too quiet. I need more airplanes to fly over.
yep
And definitely worth the soul-crushing commute every AM.
Do my kids count?
I think when they're inside they significantly contribute to noise pollution but when they're out in the yard, maybe then it's urban noise?
They do not, however, have bucket drums.
Yet...
Fine Print
From the introduction:
Yet the survey is a Google Form. Google is not bound by the rules she lists above. (They specifically aim to collect person information.) I don't think Google Forms has a "research" mode which summarizes the results in a way which makes it impossible to tell one survey from another. Google for schools can be FERPA compliant (sometimes) but we don't know that here.
I'm not criticizing the project -- it sounds like good research. But at least be honest that when you use 3rd party data collection the privacy policy of that 3rd party might not be as strict as your own.
One of the
One of the many reasons not to use Google for anything... they just harvest information for marketing without you knowing it. (since it's buried in their terms of service)
I don't hate Google
They offer me valuable services and the price is personal information. Sometimes I'm willing to pay the price.
But in the case of this survey the demographic questions are pretty personal and detailed -- I'm not sure what they have to do with noise pollution. I would be willing to give this data to a researcher working under an IRB at a reputable school. But I'm not willing to give this to Google.
(Yes, Google probably knows this information anyway but I don't need to confirm it with them.)
As a security junkie
As a network security junkie.. I despise google with a passion. Everything they do is an invasion of privacy. And they can legally do it because its in (buried) in their ToS.
Still surprised that companies are switching to Google Apps because of the big privacy holes in Google's ToS.
We'll see.. we're getting pushed at my company to switch to GApps for some things. Our security officer is having a field day with their ToS (and may be the reason we don't switch)
And your standpoint is why they are allowed to continue to do it... people want the service(s) and are willing to give up privacy to get them so they continue to do so. If people pushed back and went to other services, they would have to change.
* Posted from my android phone (unfortunately, I refuse Apple more than I do Android so I don't have any other choice now thanks to Apple and Google dominating the market)
Firefox OS?
Curious why you haven't at least listed why you haven't tried Firefox OS phone.
because
because virtually no apps exist for it.I had a Windows Phone for years but got tired of having no apps written for it. (of course this was a few years ago)
Just hypothetically
Let's say that Google actually takes my answers (which I doubt they would, although I agree they could.) What is the worst-case scenario that could happen? They send me a coupon for Bose headphones and I, as someone who is is bothered by noise, buys them? But seriously, what evil thing could they do with that data?
free
If something is free, you are the product.
Facebook Is Infinitely Worse
Facebook threatened to shut off my account unless I provided them with a government issued photo ID showing my real name. Elmer is not the name on my birth certificate, but it's the name that everyone knows me by — I'm Elmer or ElmerCat virtually everywhere on the Internet, and in most real-world places too — it has a reputation that I stand behind.
I certainly wasn't about to give Facebook a copy of my legal identity documents! Ironically, the only way I could keep my account was to change my name to something else entirely, which now nobody knows me by. I value being able to see pictures and happy things about friends and family members that I'd otherwise never know about, but I've stopped posting anything anymore for fear of getting cut off.
What's even more insidious is how people are targeted for real-name verification on Facebook. Apparently, any user can flag any other user with a suspicion they're not a real person. I can only imagine because I commented on a few political stories on websites that use the Facebook comment plugin, someone who disagreed with my opinion raised such a flag. With the proliferation of trolls and paid followers that infest many other discussion sites, I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who toil deliberately to flag Facebook users whose views they disagree with.
Facebook profits from selling information about its users. The information becomes even more valuable when it can be directly tied to a user's legal identity. Expressing political views using a pseudonym has been a form of American free speech since pre-revolutionary times. By silencing my voice on theirs and other websites, Facebook has infringed upon my right to free speech.
Not Hardly
Nope. Facebook is, at any analysis, a private entity. You are not required to use them, so they can't infringe on your rights. They have terms of service, which you can reject (as many do), but it has no legal impact on your rights.
Governments can (and do) infringe. If you're not allowed to be anonymous on an anonymous tip line, or complaint line, that is infringement. Some employers make a valiant attempt to, and many fall for it.
Are Facebook scum? Probably; I won't have a Facebook account until they give me a way to PAY THEM MYSELF for that account. I have zero interest in being their product for sale, or having to check my settings twice a week to make sure they haven't put everything public (which my mom does).
Google doesn't much like my attitude either (they can't have my cell #, nanananana), but they don't whine about it like Facebook seems to.
They Can Get Away With It Legally, But The Effect Is Still Real
Whether we like it or not, Facebook has become a mainstream form of communication for many people. I have friends and family who don't use the telephone or email, but who only use Facebook.
There's no way I can convince everybody to stop using Facebook in favor of some other social media. So, I'm forced to choose between accepting Facebook's terms, or else lose contact with people I care about.
I'm not the only person who has been harmed by Facebook's tactics — many other reasons to dislike Facebook are described on this website: https://stallman.org/facebook.html
Leaving Facebook
As someone who has left facebook a few times.. I concur with what you are saying. It has become a primary source of contact for many people I know... many of the same people who have my cell phone number also. It always amazed me who I'd get a txt from or a call from while disappearing from facebook. Very very few. But the minute I got back on.. it was like I never left and I was talking with people who had my cell but only wanted to 'talk' on facebook.
One of my favorite paranoid delusions is
The belief that people who disagree with your politics on-line are being paid by nefarious sources to vex you. (But of course I would say that, as a disinformation agent).
how to confuse Facebook
Just because they want your name doesn't mean you can't mess with them in other ways.
The birthday I gave them is twenty years after I was born. The day of the month is wrong.
I told them I was born in LA (actually Boston) and I currently live in Dorsetshire UK (actually SE Mass).
And I gave them my zip - 02134 (thanks, ZOOM).
Last month I got a pop-up from Facebook (I think it was FB, might have been Google) that told me that nearby my location were Disneyland, LAX - and Harvard University.
Now Google and Twitter recommend all sorts of LA & UK sites for me to shop and visit
I put that in the 'win' column.
It can be done
Thanks!
Hey, thanks for the heads up. I'm TOTALLY not trying to be dishonest. I'm not really collecting any identifiable information. Just your noise complaints! NO big brother here. Just interested in the community's response to noise.
Clueless
If you're the Erica involved with this survey, you really don't get it. The concern expressed by virtually all the posters here is not necessarily you, but rather your use of google to compile your survey. Online surveys are not confidential. The internet is not confidential. You have little control over this, and thus your assurances are worthless.
Not sure Erica is the clueless one here
Before you start frothing about how Google will come and steal your firstborn, you might want to actually look at the survey.
The closest it comes to asking you for intimate details that Google could use to sell your soul to Chinese conglomerates is when it asks for your street name and the nearest cross street and your neighborhood. You are NOT asked for your name, your phone number, your e-mail address, your blood type, etc.
You are asked to click a radio button that says you're giving your consent to have her look at your data, but again, you're not asked for any identifying data about yourself - unless perhaps you're well known for your specific thoughts on noise in your neighborhood. People who still think Google will somehow tie the information to them are aware, I'm guessing, of how to use incognito or privacy mode.
Not the point
if I have ever logged into google and i use the same computer or in fact any computer in the same zip code, then me clicking on the form will allow the mayor and his corporate stooges to triangulate my position and determine what hours i sleep based on my noise comments, which will allow them to aggressively market to me in a way that i am powerless to overcome and will cause my children to slip one step farther into a dystopian nightmare that will make orwell look like winnie the pooh - signed michael, right before burning my computer and moving to an undisclosed location in the quebec woods
I dont agree
I did look at the survey (at least the first page as it wouldn't let me look at the second page without answering something), and I know it didn't ask for my name and ss number, etc. Also privacy mode/ incognito mode are not what they pretend to be, although they do provide some limited protection in some cases.
There is no privacy on the internet. And despite "Micheal"'s sarcastic post, governments, criminals, and corporations all can and do track every detail about you. And one way they do it is through a digital equivalent of triangulation.
The researchers guarantee of confidentiality are false . Password protected? That's amusing .
The other assurance of confidentiality
Comes via the fact that you're not being asked to provide any confidential information.
At worst, the Russian Super Hackers who steal and decrypt this specific form and the associated metadata would learn that my ISP is RCN. Because, yeah, I did look at the entire form, and not once did it reach into my wallet and grab my credit-card numbers (I had my eye on the screen the whole time).
Yes, I understand the general privacy ramifications of Google forms and tracking cookies. No, I don't think this is the hill you want to die on in the war against Google forms and tracking cookies.
Harvard IRB
Harvard has one of the better Internal Review Boards that I have worked with. It isn't made up of petty professors with OCD but is advised by actual legal staff who are expert in confidentiality and protection of human research participants.
People can contact them about this study if they have any issues or questions about the data confidentiality and use of the google interface.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ohra/
Google places tracking
Google places tracking cookies on your computer. When you do this survey, they'll receive that cookie, and connect the user of this survey with everything else your computer has done with Google, including searches, or even any website you visited that uses Google Analytics and therefore has a web bug embedded somewhere. If you've ever logged into Google, now your account and its personal information is connected to the survey responses, too.
If you've been on the Internet more than 30 seconds, you've probably had a Google cookie placed on your computer via the Analytics web bugs. This website I see loads content from google.com and googleapis.com, so there.
So Google will identify you whether you want it to or not. If you want to do the survey and you use Google anywhere else, you need to clear all your cookies first, or open a tab/window in Incognito/Private mode when you do the survey.
Not going to go back and
Not going to go back and forth with the passive aggressiveness. The original commentator raised a valid issue and I responded by saying that (1) I am not collecting any identifiable information and, additionally, (2) Harvard's IRB has enough faith in the google system to give me permission to use that method and this is fine with me.
If the worst case scenario happened--that someone hacked into my google account--guess what? They STILL would never be able to track your responses to you because there is no identifiable information to be had.
Now, if you want to start a gofundme page for non-free host, by all means, go ahead! Thanks in advance!
That's hardly enough.
That's hardly enough, Erica. If you really want this research project to be at all credible, you're going to need to host all data and webhosting on hardware physically attached to your body, running an operating system and TCP/IP stack that you wrote yourself in x86 assembly (you weren't thinking of using a high-level language to write your custom UDP handler, were you? GNU is a notorious front for the CIA, and Richard Stallman can read your license plate if you install Unix). Actually, come to think of it, that's still not enough... you'll also need to design your own networking protocol, infrastructure, and backbone from first principles. If you use ANY AMOUNT of existing architecture, your respondents will be completely within their rights to sue you to the moon and back, and you'll have to pay triple damages when DARPA moves on its nefarious plan to harvest their iron-rich organs.
Comment of the Day
You win the all the (Google-shadow-run) Internets.
Erica....
Good luck -- and don't worry too much about anonymous trolls.
Amen, brother
I, too, refuse to have anything to do with this "internet" business. Wouldn't want the CORPORATE FAT CATS to earn a nickel off of my honest labor by STEALING MY
precious bodily fluidssensitive personal data. That's why Adam pays me for every word I write here, and I submit comments to him via an ingenuous system of pulleys, semaphore, and--Wait. I fear I've already said too much. Now Google will be able to track my location, which they totally couldn't do before now.
This is technically a big human subjects mistake
You can't assure "complete confidentiality" to a human subject, and then go and use a Google service to capture the data. A proper human subjects board would have checked this and thrown the proposal back at the researcher, until they got proper IT direction.
I live in East Boston...
Nothing more need be said.
What did you say??
.
depends on where
Jeffries Point is far quieter for airplane noise than Southie or the South End in my experience, and it certainly doesn't have the medflight issues that the Fenway does. If you're closer to Wood Island or Orient Heights, it's a different story in terms of plane noise, though.