How Alexa knows the difference between a breaking window and a wine glass

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Privacy.

For Amazon, getting Alexa’s new security-guard feature to work meant literally breaking a lot of windows.

In December, the company started inviting Amazon Echo users to try out Alexa Guard, a new setting that turns the smart speakers into home security devices. It listens for suspicious sounds when you’re away and sends a smartphone alert if it detects, say, a window breaking and a possible break in.

According to Prem Natarajan, vice president of Alexa’s AI division, Amazon employees had to destroy different types of glass, such as window glass, wine glasses and drinking glasses, with tools like baseballs or hammers to train the technology.

Source: CNN Technology News

Date: January 17th, 2019

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/15/tech/amazon-alexa-guard/index.html

Discussion

1) Amazon surely can’t have people doing lab tests like this for every single thing.   Why is it worth it to Amazon to spend time and money on this?

2) What privacy issues might there be if you turn your Amazon speakers in to listening devices that, presumably, are always listening?

Bell wants permission to gather and track customer data

Posted by & filed under Privacy.

Canada’s largest telecommunications group is getting mixed reviews for its plan to follow the lead of companies like Google and Facebook in collecting massive amounts of information about the activities and preferences of its customers.

Bell Canada began asking its customers in December for permission to track everything they do with their home and mobile phones, internet, television, apps or any other services they get through Bell or its affiliates.

In return, Bell says it will provide advertising and promotions that are more “tailored” to their needs and preferences.

Source: CBC News

Date: January 10th, 2019

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell-customer-data-1.4969066

Discussion

1) Why would you allow Bell (or not) to “track everything” just to allow for more tailored advertising?

2) What sorts of people do you think will sign up for this, why, and what does it mean?

It’s not just Apple — Samsung is hurting, too

Posted by & filed under Apple, Samsung.

The South Korean company said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter operating profit is set to plunge nearly 30% from a year earlier, well below analysts’ forecasts. It blamed the sharp drop on “lackluster demand” for its memory chips and “intensifying competition” in the smartphone industry.
Samsung’s guidance comes after Apple (AAPL) set off alarm bells last week by warning that it will sell fewer iPhones than previously expected, mainly because of disappointing demand in China amid an ongoing trade war with the United States.
Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, didn’t mention China specifically in its earnings guidance on Tuesday, but it said “mounting” macroeconomic uncertainties are affecting its business.
Source: CNN Technology News
Date: January 10th, 2019
Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/tech/samsung-earnings-drop/index.html
Discussion
1) Why is it important (or not) to pay attention to how companies like Samsung and Apple are doing?
2) Samsung says they have “intensifying competition” yet Apple is not that competition.  Who is?

America, China and tech’s next step

Posted by & filed under Competitive advantage, Consumer Technology, Cybersecurity.

Huawei's stand at CES

In a corner of the Las Vegas Convention Center, a row of Huawei Mate P20 smartphones are lined up, sparkling, for CES delegates to try out.

It’s a typical scene at the trade show but one made slightly surreal by the fact that few Americans will likely ever own these phones. Right now, US networks don’t offer any Huawei smartphones, because US security services are worried they could be used for Chinese surveillance.

And yet, Huawei has still decided to promote itself at CES in some force – at a time when the company’s chief financial officer faces possible extradition to the US over accusations of bank fraud.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: January 10th, 2019

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46819325

Discussion

1) Any phone can be “used for surveillance”, so why the particular issues with Huawei phones?

2) Should consumers be just worried Chinese phones, or other devices and manufacturers too?

Would you upload your house key to the cloud?

Posted by & filed under Cloud Computing.

Keys, CES, Security

A digital solution for lost house keys has been revealed at the CES tech show.

KeyHero will scan and upload a precise image of a key to the cloud for free, but it can only be accessed in one of the firm’s partner stores.

This image is encrypted and linked to a phone number or email, rather than a home address.

If a key is lost, its image can be then recalled via a mobile phone app and recreated in a shop, instead of calling out a locksmith.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: January 8, 2019

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46795616

Discussion

1) What are reasons for wanting to, or not wanting to upload your house key to the cloud?

2) Is the cloud more or less secure than your phone?

Banning Huawei from building new 5G wireless network won’t really hurt Canada’s big telecom firms

Posted by & filed under Cybersecurity.

A possible federal government ban prohibiting Huawei from building Canada’s 5G network is unlikely to have a major financial impact on two of the country’s top communication companies, analysts said.

Source: CBC News

Date: December 19th, 2018

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/huawei-ban-government-bell-telus-5g-1.4950521

Discussion

1) “Huawei’s equipment is already used in telecommunications infrastructure run by Canada’s major cellphone carriers, namely BCE and Telus. Those two companies are currently in 5G pretrial stages with Huawei, a company some western intelligence officials consider a security risk due to its links with China’s government. ”  Do you know what Huawei is being accused of doing?

2) Why is important to communications to have them be secure?

As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants

Posted by & filed under FaceBook.

For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews.

The special arrangements are detailed in hundreds of pages of Facebook documents obtained by The New York Times. The records, generated in 2017 by the company’s internal system for tracking partnerships, provide the most complete picture yet of the social network’s data-sharing practices. They also underscore how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age, traded on a vast scale by some of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Source: New York Times

Date: December 19th, 2018

Link (open with an incognito browser to avoid limitations on article access): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html

Discussion

1) Facebook is a company, and there is no requirement to use Facebook in order to live your life.  Given that, should it matter at all what Facebook does with the information you provide to them, freely, on the platform they provide, freely, to you?

2) Would it matter to most people if Facebook was very explicit about what they were doing with your information?  That is, would user behaviour change if Facebook was more open?

5G is here. What that means and how you can get it

Posted by & filed under 5G, Emerging Technologies.

Ushering in the mobile 5G era, AT&T announced Tuesday that it will start selling a 5G wireless hotspot. It can offer speeds up to 400 megabits per second, which is way faster than most home broadband connections and between 10 and 100 times faster than 4G, depending on network conditions. 4G is the fastest wireless technology available to most people right now.

The hotspot will convert the network’s airwaves into Wi-Fi, allowing PCs, phones, and other internet-connected gadgets to access AT&T’s ultra-fast 5G speeds.

Source: CNN Business news

Date: December 18th, 2018

Link (includes video): https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/tech/5g-mobile-att/index.html

Discussion
1) The article suggests that 5G “will enable some really cool, futuristic technology.”  What might this mean?
2) How do things change if you don’t need to have a broadband service provider as a company, and can instead operate completely off a wireless network?

Russia, Facebook, the US election and when 126 million isn’t 126 million

Posted by & filed under FaceBook, IT and Politics.

The Facebook logo displayed on a smartphone screen.

As many as 126 million Americans may have seen content uploaded to Facebook by Russia-based operatives since 2015.

That’s nearly half of the 270 million Americans who are old enough to be allowed a Facebook profile.

The figure comes from the social network itself, which along with Google and Twitter, is preparing for a Senate hearing where it will explain Russia’s impact on the popular sites.

But how many people have actually seen those posts?

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: December 17th, 2018

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41819819

Discussion

1) “126 million, is the “reach” of some 80,000 posts published between June 2015 and August 2017.  Facebook defines a post’s “reach” as those people who may have come across the content (text story/video/image/ad) in their News Feed.  A post counts as reaching someone when it’s shown in their News Feed.  So this figure takes no account of the number of people who may or may not have stopped to actually read the post.”  So, 126 million is not really the number of people “influenced” by possible Russian ads.  How might you come up with a realistic number of people who were influenced by possible Russian ads?

2) “Facebook goes on to explain that the number of Americans who saw those posts directly is 29 million – a much smaller number.”  What might it mean when Facebook says “saw directly”?

3) By a survey in class of your friends, from your last 24 hours of using Facebook, Instagram or other social media, what do you think the percentage of ads that have been shown to you that you actually were impacted by?

France to go it alone on digital tax

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Apple, FaceBook, Google.

Google, Facebook and Amazon illustration

France has said it will introduce its own tax on big technology firms from 1 January after EU-wide efforts stalled.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he expected it to bring in €500m (£450m) in 2019.

France, along with Germany, had been pushing for the European Commission to agree measures by the end of this year.

But it is opposed by countries including Ireland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland.

Earlier this year, the European Commission published proposals for a 3% tax on the revenues of large internet companies with global revenues above €750m (£675m) a year and taxable EU revenue above €50m.

The move would affect companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.

But critics fear an EU tax could breach international rules on equal treatment for companies across the world.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: December 17th, 2018

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46591576

Discussion

1) Why does it make sense to tax big technology firms more than other firms?

2) Do you think it is fair to tax Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon more than other firms?  What would make a firm eligible to be taxed more than someone else?