Week 21: May 21, 2018 - May 27, 2018
Google secret tracking of iPhone users
Google was sued by secretly tracking 4.4 million iPhone users in the UK. Suers are looking for £3.2bn in this lawsuit.
They claim that Google was ignoring the privacy settings on the Safari browser and was aggregating data to classify people into categories for advertisers. Info was including race, health status, sexuality, social and financial class etc. Categories were such as "football lovers", "current affairs enthousiasts" and more.
Google was already paid a fine to settle those claims in the US.
GDPR now in effect
With GDRP laws now in effect companies have to give users choice about how their data will be used. Many companies and sites operating in the EU already done so but there are complains about Facebook, Google, Instagram and WhatsApp about their view of how to comply with the law.
Their approach was a "You must agree or you can't continue" tactic. Making users consent is forbidden under the rules of GDPR in most cases. You can already see that most sites already making users agree by playing with the Yes/Continue button (bright colors on them, gray colors on other options). This is a story to be continued as this is only the beginning of if this law will be actually be enforced and make changes to the way companies are using our data.
Amazon's Alexa mistakenly send private conversation
A woman reported in the local news that a colleague of hers said that he received a private conversation of her and her husband. Amazon responded that they take privacy very seriously and that they will investigate this very rare occurrence. They later provide the Recode.net with the following explanation:
Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like “Alexa.” Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a “send message” request. At which point, Alexa said out loud “To whom?” At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customers contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, “[contact name], right?” Alexa then interpreted background conversation as “right”. As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.”
This is a very strange event indeed but time will tell if it is the last that will happen. Seems unlikely as these technologies are relatively new and mistakes of "mistakes" are bound to happen.
IBM to hire blockchain and AI people
IBM CEO Virginia Rometty revealed the plan to hire 1,800 people in France as part of the Tech for Good Summit organized by the French President Emmanuel Macron.
The company is planning to do those hire in the next couple of years. Their plan is to assemble a team with a focus to blockchain and artificial intelligence projects.
Caracas is mining to live
People in Caracas are suffering from and economic depression. Also the hyperinflation and the utility price freezes are essentially made electricity free (less than a dollar per month to pay all your bills).
This caused people in Caracas to run machines 24/7 mining which may give them from $6 to $30 per day depending on the numbers and spec of the machines. Even $6 per day is a very good salary there. To put things in perspective a family of four can live a decent life with $500 a month.
CryptoKitties charity event
A charity event by the marketplace for CryptoKitties managed to collect from April through May 21.6 Ether tokens currently worth $13,000 for Children's Hospital.
The team that built CryptoKitties hopes that this event will inspire more events in the future. The event was created by the initiative of a young girl and reached so many people.
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
