Week 19: May 7, 2018 - May 13, 2018
Net neutrality changes on June 11
After voting for the changes on December and after some delay, the official date that the "Restoring Internet Freedom" changes will take effect will be on June 11. Even if the rules pass the Senate and House its not likely that any changes will happen soon. The carriers are too smart to make drastic changes immediately.
The mere fact that there is a possibility for all those changes to pass and enable carriers do whatever they want is scary though.
IBM ban on removable storage
IBM has banned the use of removable storage entirely. The rule was already in effect for some parts of IBM but now the rule will be in effect worldwide.
The main reason is "the possibility of financial and reputational damage" from lost or misplaced removable storage devices.
IBM said that it will take some exception for cases like patches and server installs as their own support suggests installing those with USB keys.
UK's Facial Recognition
It is reported that the software the biggest police force in the UK is using, produce false positives in 98% of the cases.
In a request, it is shown that out of 104 alerts produced only two were a positive match. The police does not count the rest as false positives though cause they are checked a second time after the report.
The police are trialling the software but the accuracy rates are too low for now and the legislation is basically not existent at this point.
At least one case were reported last year that a person was detained by an error of the facial recognition system.
Japan to impose stricter crypto exchange rules
The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) are about to impose tougher rules on cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.
Previous incidents like Mt. Gox, bankruptcy filing and exit scams made the investors scary about their next steps.
The FSA wants to prevent further occurrences like those. Regulatory oversight and compliance with the data protection standards will be required to make sure no more investors are scammed. Further transparency is also needed to prevent money laundering through those exchange services.
High anonymity services is possible to be banned at the government level due to the above reasons.
Oracle Corp. to provide blockchain services
Oracle Corp. will unveil and start providing blockchain services and products to companies.
The company will provide a platform-as-a-service blockchain product this month and some decentralized ledged applications next month.
Oracle is also working with Banco de Chile to keep track of inter-bank transactions on blockchain, and with government of Nigeria to log customs and import duties. They will by also pitching to pharmaceutical companies to record and track the batches of medicines and the recalls of them.
The possibilities of utilizing blockchain to improve upon existing services seems huge.
Crypto promotion on public television
Reddit CEO was on "The Late Show" and talked with Steven Colbert about cryptos. Great news explaining cryptos without moons and riches.
That is all for this week's Bits in Technology. Feel free to comment any of the news in the comments. See you all next week.
Have a great week! - Chris Myll
