Do you really need one of these to protect yourself against “public Wi-Fi”? The EFF implies not. CC-licensed photo by Richard Patterson on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 11 links for you. Use them wisely. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

Why public Wi-Fi is a lot safer than you think • Electronic Frontier Foundation

Jacob Hoffman-Andrews:

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If you follow security on the Internet, you may have seen articles warning you to “beware of public Wi-Fi networks” in cafes, airports, hotels, and other public places. But now, due to the widespread deployment of HTTPS encryption on most popular websites, advice to avoid public Wi-Fi is mostly out of date and applicable to a lot fewer people than it once was.

The advice stems from the early days of the Internet, when most communication was not encrypted. At that time, if someone could snoop on your network communications—for instance by sniffing packets from unencrypted Wi-Fi or by being the NSA—they could read your email. They could also steal your passwords or your login cookies and impersonate you on your favorite sites. This was widely accepted as a risk of using the Internet. Sites that used HTTPS on all pages were safe, but such sites were vanishingly rare.

However, starting in 2010 that all changed. Eric Butler released Firesheep, an easy-to-use demonstration of “sniffing” insecure HTTP to take over people’s accounts. Site owners started to take note and realized they needed to implement HTTPS (the more secure, encrypted version of HTTP) for every page on their site…

…What about the risk of governments scooping up signals from “open” public Wi-Fi that has no password? Governments that surveill people on the Internet often do it by listening in on upstream data, at the core routers of broadband providers and mobile phone companies. If that’s the case, it means the same information is commonly visible to the government whether they sniff it from the air or from the wires.

In general, using public Wi-Fi is a lot safer than it was in the early days of the Internet. With the widespread adoption of HTTPS, most major websites will be protected by the same encryption regardless of how you connect to them.

There are plenty of things in life to worry about. You can cross “public Wi-Fi” off your list.

«

This is why every time I’m listening to a podcast and hear an advert for a VPN which talks about “risks” and “credit cards” and “public Wi-Fi” I grind my teeth. As the EFF says, it’s nonsense (though they cleverly don’t mention VPNs or their advertising; but I think the reason for their writing this message now is clear). You’re not going to have your credit card details eavesdropped on public Wi-Fi. The only reasons I can think of to use a VPN are a) you need to connect to a work network which demands point-to-point security or b) you’re in a country where you really don’t trust the government or c) you want to evade geoblocking to access some content.

But VPNs are the new antivirus – a great way for third-party suppliers to coin it. And so much more profitable than antivirus, which actually needs updates. VPNs, you just rent some fibre and bang, job done.
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Facebook to pay $550m to settle facial recognition suit • The New York Times

Natasha Singer and Mike Isaac:

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Facebook said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay $550m to settle a class-action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology in Illinois, giving privacy groups a major victory that again raised questions about the social network’s data-mining practices.

The case stemmed from Facebook’s photo-labeling service, Tag Suggestions, which uses face-matching software to suggest the names of people in users’ photos. The suit said the Silicon Valley company violated an Illinois biometric privacy law by harvesting facial data for Tag Suggestions from the photos of millions of users in the state without their permission and without telling them how long the data would be kept. Facebook has said the allegations have no merit.

Under the agreement, Facebook will pay $550m to eligible Illinois users and for the plaintiffs’ legal fees. The sum dwarfs the $380.5m that the Equifax credit reporting agency agreed this month to pay to settle a class-action case over a 2017 consumer data breach.

Facebook disclosed the settlement as part of its quarterly financial results, in which it took a charge on the case. The sum amounted to a rounding error for Facebook, which reported that revenue rose 25% to $21bn in the fourth quarter, compared with a year earlier, while profit increased 7% to $7.3bn.

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I’m willing to bet that absolutely nobody in Illinois knew how long Facebook would keep the data. (Knew, not “was prepared to make a guess at”.) I’m willing to bet that Facebook didn’t know how long it would keep the data either; is “forever” too broad?
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Scientists find record warm water in Antarctica, pointing to cause behind troubling glacier melt • Phys.org

:

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“Warm waters in this part of the world, as remote as they may seem, should serve as a warning to all of us about the potential dire changes to the planet brought about by climate change,” explains David Holland, director of New York University’s Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and NYU Abu Dhabi’s Center for Global Sea Level Change, which conducted the research. “If these waters are causing glacier melt in Antarctica, resulting changes in sea level would be felt in more inhabited parts of the world.”

The recorded warm waters—more than two degrees above freezing—flow beneath the Thwaites Glacier, which is part of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet. The discovery was made at the glacier’s grounding zone—the place at which the ice transitions between resting fully on bedrock and floating on the ocean as an ice shelf and which is key to the overall rate of retreat of a glacier.

Thwaites’ demise alone could have significant impact globally.

It would drain a mass of water that is roughly the size of Great Britain or the state of Florida and currently accounts for approximately 4% of global sea-level rise. Some scientists see Thwaites as the most vulnerable and most significant glacier in the world in terms of future global sea-level rise—its collapse would raise global sea levels by nearly one meter, perhaps overwhelming existing populated areas.

While the glacier’s recession has been observed over the past decade, the causes behind this change had previously not been determined.

«

I often wonder whether if climate change were an asteroid heading towards earth which was going to have the same long-term effects, and we knew it was going to take time to prepare our response, we would take more immediate action.
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Huawei overtakes Apple in annual race to Samsung’s smartphone crown • The Verge

Jon Porter:

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Huawei overtook Apple to become the world’s second best selling smartphone manufacturer in 2019, according to reports from Strategy Analytics, Counterpoint Research, and Canalys. Over the course of the year, the Chinese manufacturer reportedly shipped around 240 million phones, compared to just under 200 million for Apple. Samsung retained its comfortable lead in first place, shipping just shy of 300 million devices. Xiaomi and Oppo rounded out the list of the top five manufacturers.

The jump is especially surprising given Huawei’s continued presence on the USA’s entity list, which prevents the company from installing Google’s apps and services on its new devices, limiting their appeal outside of China. As a result, Huawei’s main strength was in its home country. Counterpoint Research says China accounted for 60% of its sales, allowing its shipments worldwide to increase by 17% between 2018 and 2019 — though not in Q4 specifically.

However, tensions with the US still had an effect. Canalys notes that 2019 could have been the year that Huawei challenged Samsung for the number one smartphone spot, but ultimately this challenge never materialized. It’s unclear when the situation could change in the future.

«

As ever, it’s the squeeze on “Others” which tells us most about the market. There’s less and less room for smaller players, and most of them are in China – which is decelerating faster than pretty much anywhere. Expect more consolidation.
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Kuo: Apple to launch AirTags, small charging mat, new iPads and Macs, high-end headphones, and more in first half of 2020 • MacRumors

Joe Rossignol on the latest forecast by well-connected forecaster Ming-Chi Kuo:

»

Our insight on these products:
• 4.7in iPhone: Apple is widely rumoured to be planning to release a new low-cost iPhone with a similar design as the iPhone 8, including a 4.7in LCD display and a Touch ID home button, but with a faster A13 chip and 3GB of RAM. The device is expected to launch by the end of March, with pricing predicted to start at around $399 in the United States.

• iPad Pro refresh: New models with a triple-lens rear camera system that supports 3D sensing for augmented reality are expected to be unveiled as early as March.

• MacBook Pro/Air refresh: It is unclear if Kuo is referring to the possibility of either a new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air or both, but previous rumours suggest that a 13in MacBook Pro with a scissor switch-based Magic Keyboard will launch in the first half of 2020, following in the footsteps of the 16in MacBook Pro last October. Apple last refreshed the MacBook Air in July 2019 with a True Tone display and a lower $1,099 starting price.

• Ultra Wideband tags: Last year, MacRumors uncovered evidence of Apple working on Tile-like item tracking tags in iOS 13 code, including a potential “AirTags” name. As with iPhone 11 models, Kuo believes the tags will support Ultra Wideband, which would likely make it possible to locate the tags with much greater accuracy than Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi.

• High-end headphones: Kuo did not provide any details about these headphones beyond claiming that they will support Bluetooth. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously reported that Apple-branded over-ear headphones were under development, but it is unclear if they were canceled, became the Beats Solo Pro, or otherwise. MacRumors has also uncovered evidence of Apple developing new Powerbeats4 headphones, but the existing Powerbeats3 are not considered high end.

• Small wireless charging mat: No further details were shared. Apple canceled its much-anticipated AirPower charging mat last year due to quality concerns. That mat would have been able to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods case simultaneously, regardless of where each device was positioned on the mat and with deep iOS integration.

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If the MacBook Air gets scissor switches, Apple’s going to be happy. It sells like crazy, and with a retina screen and new keyboard would be a terrific purchase.
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Huawei and 5G: UK had little choice but say yes to Chinese – here’s why

Greig Paul is the lead mobile networks and security engineer at the University of Strathclyde:

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many 5G core functions may take place in the radio network, making it increasingly harder to define Huawei’s permitted area. And with base stations inherently connected to the network core, there is a limit to the isolation which can be put in place anyway.

Overall, however, the government seems to have been caught between a rock and a hard place: faced with wounding the UK network operators and slowing the 5G roll-out, it has sought a compromise.

To some extent, this is the consequences of deciding too slowly. Had the UK banned Huawei in 2018 like the US and Australia, the mobile operators’ 5G roll-out plans would have been at an earlier stage. The US also compensated some of its networks for the costs of equipment removal.

The UK government is instead looking to the future. Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, told the House of Lords on January 28 that the government wants to attract established equipment vendors to the UK who are not already present, to support new disruptive entrants, and reduce barriers to market entry.

On established vendors, she may be referring to companies that make radio network equipment but don’t compete aggressively in this space: Samsung, for example. As for new entrants, there may be a hope of enticing players who supply different types of networks, such as Cisco or Juniper. There is also significant potential to innovate in 5G networks. The UK’s Testbeds and Trials programme is enabling this and will continue to do so.

For the time being, the government can hardly be enjoying the fallout from its decision.

«

So it turns out that kicking the can down the road in 2018 didn’t actually put off the decision; it cemented the decision that would have to be made. Paul calls the outcome “far from ideal”.
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Avast Antivirus is shutting down its data collection arm, effective immediately • VICE

Jason Koebler:

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[Motherboard/PC Mag’s] investigation found that Avast, through a subsidiary called Jumpshot, made millions of dollars following its users around the internet. Jumpshot told its clients, which include Microsoft, Google, McKinsey, Pepsi, Home Depot, Yelp, and many others that it could track “every search. Every click. Every buy. On every site.”

Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek wrote in a public letter Thursday morning that he and the company’s board of directors have decided to “terminate the Jumpshot data collection and wind down Jumpshot’s operations, with immediate effect.”

Earlier Thursday, the company announced that it had agreed to buy back a 35% stake in Jumpshot that it sold to the data analytics and marketing company Ascential last year. In July, Avast said that the 35% stake in Jumpshot was worth $60.76m.

Vlcek, who became CEO of Avast seven months ago, said he has spent the first few months of his job “re-evaluating every portion of our business,” and that the Jumpshot revelations had eroded trust in the company: “I feel personally responsible and I would like to apologize to all concerned.”

“I came to the conclusion that the data collection business is not in line with our privacy priorities as a company in 2020 and beyond,” he wrote. “It is key to me that Avast’s sole purpose is to make the world a safer place, and I knew that ultimately, everything in the company would have to become aligned with that North Star of ours.”

Vlcek said that the decision to shut down Jumpshot “will regrettably impact hundreds of loyal Jumpshot employees and dozens of its customer [but] it is absolutely the right thing to do.”

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They had hundreds of people working on Jumpshot? I’m guessing not a huge number of them were engineers.
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Google developing new ‘unified’ communications app for businesses • The Information

Kevin McLaughlin:

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Google is working on a mobile application for businesses that brings together the functions of several standalone apps the company already offers, including Gmail and its online storage service Drive. The move could help it compete more effectively with application suites from Microsoft and others, according to two people who have used the application and three people briefed about it.

The new mobile app, which is currently being tested internally at Google, also includes Hangouts Meet, Google’s video conferencing app and Hangouts Chat, a real-time message app, according to the people. Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google’s cloud unit, discussed the new app at a conference held in mid-January for the unit’s salespeople and business partners, according to two of the people. The new app is expected to be part of G Suite, the collection of online productivity software that is overseen by the cloud unit, known as Google Cloud.

«

Some readers may not have heard of Google Wave, which is no surprise; Google launched it as a “collaboration and real-time communication” product in September 2009, and gave up on it in August 2010, making it the shortest-lived Google communications product ever, while also being as comprehensible as the Voynich manuscript.

Now it seems to be trying to reinvent it, or Lotus Notes, another appalling portmanteau comms offering. Did we mention that the new Google app will also be able to open your Calendar? Start your betting on how long this one will last.
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How Amazon escapes liability for the riskiest products on its site • The Verge

Colin Lecher:

»

what happened next was the best-case scenario for [Wendy]Weintraub [whose house burned down after a hairdryer she bought from Amazon developed a fault]. While she had to leave her house, the insurance company paid for the reconstruction costs and for a rental house while contractors handled the repairs. She’s since been able to move back in. The insurance company, however, has sued both the hair dryer manufacturer and Amazon to recover the money, asking a court to order reimbursement of more than $850,000.

The suit has been tied up in court and may raise the question of what, exactly, Amazon is. For years, the online retail company has argued that many of its customers are simply passing through to use its platform — that the buyer and seller of the product are connecting, and Amazon is merely a passing intermediary.

The argument has given Amazon a crucial legal defense, allowing it to completely sidestep the liability that conventional retailers face. For the most part, courts have been satisfied by the claim, and Amazon has been able to expand its third-party seller business into hundreds of billions of dollars in sales.

Recently, though, that wall has shown signs of fracturing. Some courts and scholars have questioned exactly how far those protections should go, and whether Amazon is truly as hands-off a player as it would like to seem.

“They’re taking affirmative steps to lure the consumer into buying their products or their manufacturer’s products,” says Dennis Crawford, the attorney who is representing Weintraub’s insurance company in its case against Amazon.

The question is: who’s really at fault?

«

Key question as Amazon in particular becomes a larger and larger part of retail. Does that mean that decades of retail law simply gets thrown away? Even asking the question makes it clear how Amazon, and its Marketplace, is undermining consumer safety.
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Congress urges Google to act against climate misinformation on YouTube • CNBC

Jennifer Elias:

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Congressmembers are calling for Google to take action against climate disinformation.

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis wrote a letter addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, requesting the company take action against climate disinformation — specifically on its video platform, YouTube.

“YouTube has been driving millions of viewers to climate misinformation videos every day, a shocking revelation that runs contrary to Google’s important missions of fighting misinformation and promoting climate action,” wrote Kathy Castor, chair of the committee.′ “Last September, you proudly declared that ‘sustainability has become one of Google’s core values from our earliest days,’ and announced ‘the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history.’”

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The letter comes as YouTube, which is one of Google’s largest businesses, faces scrutiny over the spread of hateful content and misinformation on its platform. In recent months, Google has updated policies to try and stem that – especially as the 2020 presidential elections near. The company delayed its reaction to curbing misinformation among political ads following backlash late last year.

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I think Google might take issue with the idea that its missions including fighting misinformation. Even though they should.
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With two weeks to go, Samsung’s Unpacked is already dead on arrival • SamMobile

“Danny D”:

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Even if Samsung can ensure that nothing gets out from its facilities or that its employees don’t say a word about an unreleased device, it can do little to control what leaks from its suppliers’ factories, or what carrier executives who are briefed on new devices choose to reveal anonymously.

What it can do is control what multimedia content is sent to partners ahead of a flagship launch. If that were the case, we wouldn’t get to see high-resolution press renders of new devices weeks before they’re supposed to be unveiled at Unpacked. The consequence of this is that the element of surprise is taken away from Samsung. Anything that it shows off for the “first time” during its press event evokes a solid meh from the crowd and those watching at home because they’ve already seen it. This is the age of information. People consume more content online than ever before. Even those who don’t read news blogs will end up seeing a clickbaity YouTube video that rehashes the same stuff in a more entertaining format.

There used to be a time when people were actually excited about these product launch events. You would get to see products that you had only heard conflicting rumors about and hear all of their details straight from the company that made them. That has no longer been the case over the past few years. Not only high-resolution renders, but even entire spec sheets of new flagships have also leaked online weeks before launch…

…I have attended all Unpacked events ever since I started SamMobile, partly because of work and largely because as a fan it gave me great pleasure to see new devices being unveiled up close. Despite making all travel arrangements weeks in advance, I have now decided to skip the February 11 Unpacked, because with a full two weeks to go the event is already dead on arrival.

«

As Apple still knows: the element of surprise still has value, even in this saturated media world.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

The US DoJ is trying to stop these guys calling by suing US VOIP services CC-licensed photo by Jeremy Brooks on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 9 links for you. Plenty more where that came from. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

Facebook cuts back on original programming for Watch Video • The Information

Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel:

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Facebook is refining the programming strategy for its Facebook Watch video service, pulling back on expensive original shows and sports rights.

Facebook continues to increase its programming budget for Watch—it will rise to around $1.4bn this year, from the company’s initial $1bn budget in 2017, according to a person familiar with the matter. But within that amount, it is spending less on costly originals and more on talk shows and licensing clips from TV networks and sports leagues. Meantime, it has pulled back from bidding for rights to stream major live sports, the person said, at least for the moment.

That strategy sharpens the contrast between Facebook and big-spending subscription video-streaming services like Netflix, Disney and Apple. Netflix, one of the biggest spenders, laid out more than $13bn on programming last year, while Disney and Apple are reportedly spending several billion dollars a year on their new streaming services.

Clearly Facebook is looking to compete against YouTube, which offers lots of mostly short content for free, supported by ads. More broadly, Facebook sees Watch as a way to improve engagement in the flagship app, giving people more to do on the app, and to try to lure in TV advertising dollars. 

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Not even Facebook can manage a pivot to video. It’s going to get killed by YouTube. And it could really improve so much else about its network by spending a billion dollars on things other than video.
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One year inside Trump’s monumental Facebook campaign • The Guardian

Julia Carrie Wong:

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Over the course of 2019, the Trump campaign spent nearly $20m on more than 218,000 different Facebook ads, a new Guardian analysis shows. Among the ads were some of the images and videos that made front-page news for their xenophobic, fear-mongering, vitriolic and outright false rhetoric.

But the campaign also ran a decidedly mundane social media campaign featuring classic marketing ploys designed to harvest user data. Considering the fact that the campaign has run these ads – which are largely substance-free and appear designed to maximize engagement with simple requests – over and over again, they were probably very effective.

Trump’s prowess on Facebook has struck fear in the hearts of Democrats. The architect of his 2016 digital campaign, Brad Parscale, boasted of the sophistication of his Facebook operation, and was promoted to campaign manager for 2020. “The campaign is all about data collection,” Parscale told the Guardian. “If we touch you digitally, we want to know who you are and how you think and get you into our databases so that we can model off it and relearn and understand what’s happening.”

In order to understand how Trump is communicating with Americans on Facebook in the 2020 election cycle, the Guardian built a database of all 218,100 campaign ads launched by the Trump campaign in 2019, using the Facebook political ad archive application programming interface, or API. The analysis is the most comprehensive of the Trump re-election campaign’s Facebook advertising to date.

«

Sad puppies and bizarre polls figure heavily. But it’s mostly about harvesting phone numbers and emails. That’s sophistication? But it’s a terrific piece of work.
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US files lawsuits against handful of robocalling companies for targeting the ‘elderly and vulnerable’ • Android Piolice

Taylor Kerns:

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The US Justice Department has filed lawsuits against a handful of companies and individuals, accusing them of facilitating hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls. The suits accuse the companies of causing “elderly and vulnerable victims” serious financial harm.

According to the suits, most of the calls originated in India and were placed using VoIP systems. The calls use threats of disruptions to social security benefits or arrest for supposed tax fraud, among other tactics, to extort money from victims. The Justice Department wants to crack down on what it calls “US-based enablers” of these scams, and says it’s warned those enablers repeatedly about carrying such calls on their networks. One company, TollFreeDeals.com, is alleged to have carried 720 million calls in one 23-day period, most of which ended in under a second — a clear sign of spam calls. The government is seeking temporary restraining orders on the companies against which it has filed suit to prevent robocalls.

«

So, another attempt to shut down the spammers. Going after the VOIP companies makes a lot of sense: they’re within reach of the DoJ, and it can fine them out of existence, while also terrifying all of the others into refusing such business. Perhaps the UK government could take a hint and do the same.
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Samsung Galaxy Fold review: the future is an ugly disappointment • Ars Technica

Ron Amadeo is a long, long way from gruntled:

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that brings us to today—the Ars review. This one is going to be a little different, since I don’t think the Galaxy Fold has any viability as a serious device anyone should consider purchasing. Should you buy a Galaxy Fold? NO! God no. Are you crazy? The sky-high price, durability issues, nascent form factor, and new screen technology should rule the phone out for just about everyone. (Save your bendy tech dreams for Westworld season three.) Rather than a viable product, right now the Fold feels more like a publicly available prototype device that demonstrates an experimental new form factor.

So while you shouldn’t buy the Galaxy Fold, that still doesn’t answer the question, “Is this form factor a good idea?” Let’s put aside the sky-high price—which will, of course, come down over time—and the durability issues—which will hopefully be fixed in the future with the wild concept of “flexible glass” that Corning is hard at work on. Is Samsung’s current vision of a foldable phone a useful improvement? Unfortunately, the answer here is also a firm “no.” During the initial announcement of the phone, Samsung said the device would be “a powerful smartphone and a revolutionary tablet,” and the Fold is remarkably terrible at being either of those things. Samsung may have delayed the phone to put Band-Aids on the show-stopping design problems, but the overall product still shows a lack of thought and consideration for how actual people will want to use a device like this.

The launch of the Galaxy Fold was a disaster, and while Samsung fought through and got to market, that doesn’t mean the disaster is over. I’m still enthusiastic about the idea of a phone that converts into a tablet, but the Galaxy Fold puts on a master class of how not to do it.

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He justifies all his points. And he has many.
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Exclusive: controversial Nike Vaporflys to escape ban but running shoe rules will tighten • The Guardian

Sean Ingle:

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the shoes, which were introduced in 2016, have deeply divided the athletics community, with some supporting the technological arms race as part of an inevitable evolution of the sport – and others warning that it is deeply unfair to athletes who are not sponsored by Nike.

Kipchoge has denied that, saying: “They are fair. I trained hard. Technology is growing and we can’t deny it – we must go with technology.” But the small number of studies conducted on the Vaporflys suggest that, depending on the model and athlete, they can typically improve a person’s running economy by 4-5% – which translates to at least a minute- to 90-second advantage for an elite male runner over 26.2 miles and even more in an average club athlete.

Where that leaves the Nike AlphaFly, the next generation prototype shoes worn by Eliud Kipchoge when he ran the first sub-two hour marathon in October in an unofficial event is unclear. It is understood that these shoes – which are said to contain three carbon plates and improve running economy by 8% – have not yet been submitted to World Athletics experts for inspection.

Even if the AlphaFlys are banned at elite level there will be no restrictions on ordinary athletes buying and wearing them in races when they are released in the shops by Nike.

However the World Athletics working group is understood be stressing there needs to be far more detailed research into the performance benefits of the new wave of shoes – versions of which have also been recently introduced by New Balance, Hoka and Saucony. In particular it wants to establish how the height of the foam stack, the make of foam used, and the angle of the carbon plates can change speed and performance.

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About 25 years ago, javelin aerodynamics were altered to restrict their flight – the best throws were endangering competitors on the far side of the track. Not sure shoes are quite the same.
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Microsoft’s Surface Pro X is the world’s most extravagant Chromebook • The Verge

Dieter Bohn:

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I’ve been revisiting the Microsoft Surface Pro X ever since the Chromium version of Edge became official — though what I’ve been using is the still-in-Beta version of the browser that runs natively on the Pro X’s ARM chip. My opinion hasn’t changed since November’s review: it’s still an overpriced machine that is nice to look at but frustrating to use because there aren’t enough apps that run natively on its chip.

I just want to make that very clear at the top — that this is not a machine I recommend — before going any further. That’s because what I’m about to say could be misconstrued into buying advice. It is not. Here goes.

The Surface Pro X is the best, most extravagant Chromebook I’ve ever used — except for the pesky facts that it doesn’t run Chrome OS, and I’m not using Chrome on it; I’m using Edge.

What I mean is that I’ve been using the Surface Pro X like I use a Chromebook. I’ve been using web apps for the vast majority of my computing tasks, but every now and then, I’m using a Windows app when I need it. That’s how I use Chrome OS: web for nearly everything, Android in a pinch.

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As long as he doesn’t run the emulator (for x86 apps), things are rosy and it chugs along for hours. But costs $1,700. We’re all sure Apple will shift to ARM; the key metric will be how quickly third-party apps are natively in ARM. (Is that an Xcode/App Store thing?)
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Why The Guardian will no longer accept fossil fuel advertising • The Guardian

Anna Bateson and Hamish Nicklin:

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We have decided that we will no longer accept advertising from fossil fuel extractive companies on any of the Guardian’s websites and apps, nor in the Guardian, Observer and Guardian Weekly in print. Our decision is based on the decades-long efforts by many in that industry to prevent meaningful climate action by governments around the world.

Of course we know some readers would like us to go further, banning ads for any product with a significant carbon footprint, such as cars or holidays. Stopping those ads would be a severe financial blow, and might force us to make significant cuts to Guardian and Observer journalism around the world.

More importantly, fossil fuel extractors are qualitatively different. The intent – and extent – of their lobbying efforts has explicitly harmed the environmental cause over the course of many years – as our own reporting has shown and environmental campaigners have powerfully argued. Many environmental experts have called out the difference between fossil fuel extractors and their foundational role in the carbon economy, and other sectors with high emissions.

Advertising has always been a vital part of how we support Guardian journalism – it made up roughly 40% of our revenues last year – and we hope to continue working with advertisers to keep our journalism open to all.

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Love to know how much advertising that is. Anyhow: your move, Facebook, Google, Microsoft (on Bing), etc.
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Exclusive: the cyber attack the UN tried to keep under wraps • The New Humanitarian

Ben Parker:

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Dozens of UN servers – including systems at its human rights offices, as well as its human resources department – were compromised and some administrator accounts breached, according to a confidential UN report obtained by The New Humanitarian. The breach is one of the largest ever known to have affected the world body.

The cyber attack – unreported until TNH’s investigation – started mid-July, according to the report. Dated 20 September, the report flags vulnerabilities, describes containment efforts, and includes a section titled: “Still counting our casualties”.

The incident amounted to a “major meltdown”, according to a senior UN IT official familiar with the fallout, who spoke to TNH on condition of anonymity. This official provided TNH with the August 2019 alert above and several other alerts related to the breach.

In response to questions from TNH, the UN confirmed it had kept the breach quiet.

“The attack resulted in a compromise of core infrastructure components,” said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who classified it as “serious”. “As the exact nature and scope of the incident could not be determined, [the UN offices in Geneva and Vienna] decided not to publicly disclose the breach.”

Staff were asked to change their passwords, but were not told of the large breach or that some of their personal data may have been compromised. The “core infrastructure” affected included systems for user and password management, system controls, and security firewalls.

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China first in the queue for suspicion. Russia next, I guess. Who’s particularly concerned about the UN’s offices?
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Ring doorbell app packed with third-party trackers • Electronic Frontier Foundation

Bill Budington:

»

An investigation by EFF of the Ring doorbell app for Android found it to be packed with third-party trackers sending out a plethora of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). Four main analytics and marketing companies were discovered to be receiving information such as the names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers, and sensor data on the devices of paying customers.

The danger in sending even small bits of information is that analytics and tracking companies are able to combine these bits together to form a unique picture of the user’s device…

…Ring has exhibited a pattern of behavior that attempts to mitigate exposure to criticism and scrutiny while benefiting from the wide array of customer data available to them…

…Our testing, using Ring for Android version 3.21.1, revealed PII delivery to branch.io, mixpanel.com, appsflyer.com and facebook.com. Facebook, via its Graph API, is alerted when the app is opened and upon device actions such as app deactivation after screen lock due to inactivity. Information delivered to Facebook (even if you don’t have a Facebook account) includes time zone, device model, language preferences, screen resolution, and a unique identifier (anon_id), which persists even when you reset the OS-level advertiser ID.

Branch, which describes itself as a “deep linking” platform, receives a number of unique identifiers (device_fingerprint_id, hardware_id, identity_id) as well as your device’s local IP address, model, screen resolution, and DPI…

…Ring gives MixPanel the most information by far. Users’ full names, email addresses, device information such as OS version and model, whether bluetooth is enabled, and app settings such as the number of locations a user has Ring devices installed in, are all collected and reported to MixPanel.

«

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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

Green roofs – or solar-panelled ones – are now obligatory in New York on new buildings. CC-licensed photo by Andrew on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 8 links for you. Use them wisely. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

Facebook’s ‘Clear History’ tool doesn’t clear worth a damn • Gizmodo

Shoshana Wodinsky:

»

“To help shed more light on these practices that are common yet not always well understood, today we’re introducing a new way to view and control your off-Facebook activity,” Zuckerberg said in the post. “Off-Facebook Activity lets you see a summary of the apps and websites that send us information about your activity, and clear this information from your account if you want to.”

Zuck’s use of the phrases “control your off-Facebook activity” and “clear this information from your account” is kinda misleading—you’re not really controlling or clearing much of anything. By using this tool, you’re just telling Facebook to put the data it has on you into two separate buckets that are otherwise mixed together. Put another way, Facebook is offering a one-stop-shop to opt-out of any ties between the sites and services you peruse daily that have some sort of Facebook software installed and your own-platform activity on Facebook or Instagram.

The only thing you’re clearing is a connection Facebook made between its data and the data it gets from third parties, not the data itself.

As an ad-tech reporter, my bread and butter involves downloading shit that does god-knows-what with your data, which is why I shouldn’t’ve been surprised that Facebook hoovered data from more 520 partners across the internet—either sites I’d visited or apps I’d downloaded. For Gizmodo alone, Facebook tracked “252 interactions” drawn from the handful of plug-ins our blog has installed. (To be clear, you’re going to run into these kinds of trackers e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.—not just on our site.)

«

It shows six months’ data, though it’s not clear whether that’s all it keeps. Mine has three: a company website I ordered pet food from, a small news site, and a small crowdfunding site. I certainly didn’t consent to any of them handing data to Facebook.

However, it says “this list doesn’t show all of the activity that we’ve received. Activity that is not shown includes information that we’ve received when you’re not logged in to Facebook, or when we can’t confirm that you’ve previously used Facebook on that device.” Surely the very thing we want to know is what it sees when we’re not logged in. Clearing your history isn’t much help either: “We’ll continue to receive your activity from the businesses and organisations that you visit in the future.”

Useless, Facebook. Useless.
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Britain defies Trump plea to ban Huawei from 5G network • The New York Times

Adam Satariano:

»

Despite more than a year of intense lobbying by the Trump administration, which has accused Huawei of having ties to China’s Communist Party that pose a national security threat, the British government announced it would allow the company to provide equipment in some portions of a next-generation network to be built in the coming years.

The British decision was crucial in a broader fight for tech supremacy between the United States and China. Britain, a key American ally, is the most important country so far to reject White House warnings that Huawei is an instrument of Beijing. Britain’s membership in the “five eyes” intelligence-sharing group of countries, which also includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand, gave the outcome an added significance.

Many countries have been caught between the United States and China in their tech cold war. American officials have threatened to withhold intelligence if countries do not ban Huawei, while Chinese representatives have warned of economic retaliation if they do.

“This is a U.K.-specific solution for U.K.-specific reasons and the decision deals with the challenges we face right now,” said Nicky Morgan, the secretary for digital, culture, media and sport, the government agency that oversaw the decision.

“It not only paves the way for secure and resilient networks, with our sovereignty over data protected, but it also builds on our strategy to develop a diversity of suppliers,” she said.

«

I don’t think it was a Trump “plea”. It was a demand. The only plea you’ll hear from Trump is when he’s arraigned after leaving office (unless he goes out feet first; all things are possible in the multiverse). Huawei gets up to 35% of the network, and can’t be used near military bases. A neat enough swerve by the UK government.
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The iPad awkwardly turns 10 • Daring Fireball

John Gruber:

»

Software is where the iPad has gotten lost. iPadOS’s “multitasking” model is far more capable than the iPhone’s, yes, but somehow Apple has painted it into a corner in which it is far less consistent and coherent than the Mac’s, while also being far less capable. iPad multitasking: more complex, less powerful. That’s quite a combination.

Consider the basic task of putting two apps on screen at the same time, the basic definition of “multitasking” in the UI sense. To launch the first app, you tap its icon on the homescreen, just like on the iPhone, and just like on the iPad before split-screen multitasking. Tapping an icon to open an app is natural and intuitive.

But to get a second app on the same screen, you cannot tap its icon. You must first slide up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the Dock. Then you must tap and hold on an app icon in the Dock. Then you drag the app icon out of the Dock to launch it in a way that it will become the second app splitting the display. But isn’t dragging an icon out of the Dock the way that you remove apps from the Dock? Yes, it is — when you do it from the homescreen. So the way you launch an app in the Dock for split-screen mode is identical to the way you remove that app from the Dock. Oh, and apps that aren’t in the Dock can’t become the second app in split screen mode. What sense does that limitation make?

«

He’s absolutely right on this – and his point that multitasking on the Mac is simple and consistent to invoke (start another app by double-clicking its icon, or navigate to it via Spotlight, [OKAY or ask Siri to open it]) is a killer. It’s a terrific analysis because it documents so precisely what’s missing and what’s inconsistent.

How Apple can clean it up, well, that’s a lot harder to answer.
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American Herald Tribune pays Americans to write ‘news’ articles. Signs indicate it originates in Iran • CNN

Donie O’Sullivan:

»

American Herald Tribune bills itself as a “genuinely independent online media outlet.” Set up in 2015, it publishes in English and pays Americans to write articles. But multiple investigations by American tech companies, details of which have not previously been reported, point to the site originating in Iran.

A Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business that company staff who looked into the website’s Facebook page say it was linked to Iranian state media. Facebook removed the page in 2018. FireEye, a top cybersecurity company, says it assessed with “moderate confidence” that the website originates in Iran and is part of a much larger influence operation.

The new details about alleged Iranian ties to the American Herald Tribune shed light on how the country has attempted to run a years-long covert online influence campaign targeting the United States. As Russia did around the 2016 election, Iran appears to have co-opted and in this case paid a small number of unwitting Americans to lend legitimacy to its operations…

…The articles posted to American Herald Tribune are largely in line with the views of Iran’s ruling establishment. It publishes stories criticizing American foreign policy and attacking President Donald Trump and Israel. Often the criticism is not unlike viewpoints expressed on authentic US-based independent websites, especially ones with an anti-establishment perspective.

«

So what’s the problem, exactly? There are shady right-wing American sites which don’t disclose their funding. Is the problem shadiness, or Iranian-ness?
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Why the UK is banning default passwords in IoT devices • New Statesman

Matt Warman is the minister for digital and broadband:

»

Our aim is to make the UK the world’s leading digital economy. But if we are to achieve this ambition we need to make sure people trust technology.

I believe we can do this through pro-innovation regulation. So today I’ve announced we are developing new legislation to hold firms manufacturing and stocking internet-connected devices to account to stop hackers threatening people’s privacy and safety.

These new laws will mean consumers are protected from devices which do not adhere to the three rigorous security requirements we’ve developed alongside a code of conduct.

These measures will mean all the passwords pre-programmed in internet-connected devices must be unique and not resettable to any universal factory setting.

«

Only a brief lifetime ago, Matt was a technology correspondent at the Daily Telegraph, so he understands this a bit. “Pro-innovation regulation” is a strange phrase; what does it really mean? How do you spot pro-innovation regulation from, um, the other kind?

More to the point: having unique passwords coded in is mostly a good idea – until you lose the little piece of paper that came in the box, or the sticker it was on rubs off. So a crouching ovation on that one. (There’s more about security update guarantees, which are also good.)

The bigger question: how will the government enforce this on the junk sold on Amazon? Will it be Amazon’s responsibility, or the manufacturer’s, and who gets penalised? (Anyone know: do Huawei routers have unique passwords?)
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US media polarization and the 2020 election: a nation divided • Pew Research Center

»

evidence suggests that partisan polarization in the use and trust of media sources has widened in the past five years. A comparison to a similar study by the Center of web-using U.S. adults in 2014 finds that Republicans have grown increasingly alienated from most of the more established sources, while Democrats’ confidence in them remains stable, and in some cases, has strengthened.

The study asked about use of, trust in, and distrust of 30 different news sources for political and election news. While it is impossible to represent the entire crowded media space, the outlets, which range from network television news to Rush Limbaugh to the New York Times to the Washington Examiner to HuffPost, were selected to represent popular media brands across a range of platforms.

Greater portions of Republicans express distrust than express trust of 20 of the 30 sources asked about. Only seven outlets generate more trust than distrust among Republicans – including Fox News and the talk radio programs of hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

For Democrats, the numbers are almost reversed. Greater portions of Democrats express trust than express distrust in 22 of the 30 sources asked about. Only eight generate more distrust than trust – including Fox News, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

«

Oh, America.
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MGM leads 2020 media acquisition targets • CNBC

Alex Sherman:

»

Two major shifts in the past year have made scale — the concept of being as big as possible — more important than ever for media companies. The first is the transition from linear cable TV to streaming services, which are expensive to build out and run and require premium content to stand out.

The second is major consolidation — Disney buying Fox, Comcast acquiring Sky, AT&T purchasing Time Warner and Viacom merging with CBS — that has put media companies with enterprise valuations under $50bn at a severe disadvantage to their peers.

The result leaves a handful of companies, including AMC Networks (enterprise value: $5.2bn), Discovery (~$40bn), Lions Gate (~$6bn), MGM (private), Sony Pictures (part of larger company, Sony), and even the merged ViacomCBS (~$25bn), in positions of relative weakness.

On the other side, Netflix (~$160bn), Amazon (~$965bn), Comcast (~$320bn), AT&T (~$487bn), Disney (~$315bn) and Apple (~$1.4trn) have all put their flags in the ground in what the media calls The Streaming Wars, an evolution from bundled cable TV to a world of a la carte services that can be watched anywhere on any device. If Comcast, Charter/Time Warner Cable, Dish and DirecTV were the Big 4 of the media distribution world for the past decade, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Comcast, Disney and Netflix look like the Big 6 of the streaming era.

MGM, in particular, seems like a logical candidate to sell this year. Its owners include Anchorage Capital, Highland Capital and Solus Alternative Asset Management, hedge funds that acquired the company out of bankruptcy in 2010…

…MGM has held preliminary talks with a number of companies, including Apple and Netflix, to gauge their interest in an acquisition, two of the people said. MGM owns the James Bond catalog and its studio has made several current hit shows including “The Handmaid’s Tale,”…

«

Apple owning MGM would be a hell of a thing. Unlikely; but maybe at arm’s length, as Pixar wasn’t owned by Apple but was run by Steve Jobs? The corollary to yesterday’s article about film sequels v streaming services.
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NYC’s roofs are getting a sustainable makeover, but is green or solar better? • Utility Dive

Cailley LaPara:

»

As of Nov. 15, 2019, Local Laws 92 and 94 are in effect to target a vast, often overlooked and underutilized resource in New York: roofs.

The laws, known informally as the Sustainable Roof Laws, require most new buildings and buildings undergoing major roof reconstruction to include a sustainable roofing zone on 100% of the available roof space.

Sustainable roofing zones are defined as “areas of a roof assembly where a solar photovoltaic electricity generating system, a green roof system, or a combination thereof, is installed.” In other words, the roofs must have a solar panel array, green roof or both.

“When you fly into New York City, you see an amazing amount of unproductive roof space,” Jonce Walker, senior associate at Thornton Tomasetti, told Smart Cities Dive. Walker and others in the sustainable design community hope Local Laws 92 and 94 are going to change that.

«

But the question is: green roof or solar? The conditions that are best for each tend to be opposite (shadowed space? Green. On a slope? Solar), though there can be edge cases where it’s tricky to decide. Maintenance of green roofs could be interesting, though, compared to solar.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

Ten years ago, Apple freaked Microsoft out by doing what Microsoft had done. But better. CC-licensed photo by Mark Botham on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 10 links for you. Catch it, kill it, bin it. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

As virus spreads, anger floods Chinese social media • The New York Times

Raymond Zhong:

»

Recently, someone following the coronavirus crisis through China’s official news media would see lots of footage, often set to stirring music, praising the heroism and sacrifice of health workers marching off to stricken places.

But someone following the crisis through social media would see something else entirely: vitriolic comments and mocking memes about government officials, harrowing descriptions of untreated family members and images of hospital corridors loaded with patients, some of whom appear to be dead.

The contrast is almost never so stark in China. The government usually keeps a tight grip on what is said, seen and heard about it. But the sheer amount of criticism — and the often clever ways in which critics dodge censors, such as by referring to Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, as “Trump” or by comparing the outbreak to the Chernobyl catastrophe — have made it difficult for Beijing to control the message.

In recent days, critics have pounced when officials in the city of Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, wore their protective masks incorrectly. They have heaped scorn upon stumbling pronouncements. When Wuhan’s mayor spoke to official media on Monday, one commenter responded, “If the virus is fair, then please don’t spare this useless person.”…

…“Chinese social media are full of anger, not because there was no censorship on this topic, but despite strong censorship,” said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founder of China Digital Times, a website that monitors Chinese internet controls. “It is still possible that the censorship will suddenly increase again, as part of an effort to control the narrative.”

«

This is going to be quite the challenge for the Chinese government.
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Coronavirus 2019-nCoV • ArcGIS

You wanted a live map of confirmed coronavirus cases, with a dashboard for different countries and a map too? At your command. (Depending on how much we trust the Chinese figures.)
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The iPad at 10: a new product category defined by apps • MacStories

John Voorhees:

»

According to an Engadget story published the day before the iPad was revealed, tablet rumours stretched back to at least the early 2000s.

It wasn’t until the iPhone was released in 2007 that the rumors really picked up in earnest, though. At the time, a small army of bloggers covering Apple competed for scoops by combing through patent filings, domain registrations, and any other scrap they could get their hands on, looking for evidence of a tablet. It was the waning days of the ‘golden age’ of Apple rumors, before Apple ‘doubled down on secrecy.’ The same competition that fuelled the rumour mill led to a cottage industry in device mockups that sometimes got passed off as ‘spy shots’ of real hardware.

It was an environment that fed on itself, spawning crazy speculation. The rumors and mockups may seem like unimportant historical relics now, but they’re still instructive in understanding the expectations going into the iPad’s launch and a lot of fun to revisit. Here is a collection of some of my favourites: [images on site].

Looking back at these mockups, what strikes me is how many imagined a tablet that would run OS X. Over and over, the mockups envisioned a windowed environment with a Mac-like UI. Even though the iPhone had been out for over two years, surprisingly few mockups approached the design with the iPhone as their starting point. Instead, it was assumed that a tablet with a screen closer to the size of a Mac would naturally inherit the Mac’s OS too. Surely a device with room for windows would run something more than just iPhone OS.

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Ten years of the iPad. Steve Sinofsky, who was in charge of Windows at the time, wrote about it too.
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Hollywood ‘sequelitis’ and why pay-TV follows a different script • Financial Times

Chris Campbell and Patrick Mathurin:

»

The decades-long trend of “sequelitis” is striking a chord globally. Of the top ten grossing films of 2019, all were either franchise entries, sequels, remakes or spin-offs. Avengers: Endgame, one of the year’s three instalments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero franchise, scored a record-breaking $1bn opening weekend and generated worldwide box-office receipts of nearly $2.8bn. At about seven times its production budget, this makes it one of the most successful films ever.

“The reason that the studios rely so heavily on the sequel is because generally the odds are with you, if you are creating a franchise,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at ComScore, a data analytics company. “There’s a wellspring of potential box office takings coming from every movie that’s part of that universe.”

The successes of these franchises — and the changing pattern of cinema attendance — have spurred the studios to focus their output.

In the 1950s, large crowds would go to the cinema on a weekly basis; today audiences are going less frequently. Greater competition for cinema goers’ leisure time, the rise of on-demand entertainment without the constraints of a static broadcasting schedule, and fewer local screens mean that viewers may not risk paying for something unfamiliar.

“Cinema is now where you go to play safe,” says Peter Miskell, professor of international business and media history at Henley Business School. “You want to be fairly assured that you’re going to be getting content that you’re going to enjoy. Whereas you can take a bit more risk with TV and streaming services and that’s where a bit more innovation is happening.”

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Completely makes sense, as long as the streaming service can keep ahead of its debt.
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Leaked documents expose the secretive market for your web browsing data • VICE

Joseph Cox (VICE) and Michael Kan (PC Mag):

»

An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data to many of the world’s biggest companies, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag has found. Our report relies on leaked user data, contracts, and other company documents that show the sale of this data is both highly sensitive and is in many cases supposed to remain confidential between the company selling the data and the clients purchasing it.

The documents, from a subsidiary of the antivirus giant Avast called Jumpshot, shine new light on the secretive sale and supply chain of peoples’ internet browsing histories. They show that the Avast antivirus program installed on a person’s computer collects data, and that Jumpshot repackages it into various different products that are then sold to many of the largest companies in the world. Some past, present, and potential clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, Sephora, Home Depot, Condé Nast, Intuit, and many others. Some clients paid millions of dollars for products that include a so-called “All Clicks Feed,” which can track user behavior, clicks, and movement across websites in highly precise detail.

Avast claims to have more than 435 million active users per month, and Jumpshot says it has data from 100 million devices. Avast collects data from users that opt-in and then provides that to Jumpshot, but multiple Avast users told Motherboard they were not aware Avast sold browsing data, raising questions about how informed that consent is.

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I’ll go with.. not very informed? Antivirus: the only thing worse is viruses.
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IoT trouble: the Sonos example — and more • Monday Note

Jean-Louis Gassée:

»

Today, grafting a microprocessor and a Wi-Fi radio onto a power plug is child’s play (and a dollar) for the engineers of an appliance maker. Smartplugs that work with Alexa or Google Assistant are plentiful and inexpensive on Amazon, going for as low as $19.98 for a two pack. What will happen when these plugs need updates for bugs and security patches, or when the manufacturer wants to force us to buy a newer, more capable model? This will happen to smart bulbs, locks, cameras, thermostats, dishwashers…

And this is just the beginning of the Consumer IoT fun. The ongoing adoption of 5G technology will bring improvements and another layer of disorganization.

I’m hardly hostile to technology, to the contrary. My professional life in the tech world — more than 50 years — has been enormously fun, I’ve met remarkable individuals and have seen unimaginable advances such as supercomputers in our pockets. But I now wonder. It was one thing to fight a cranky operating system or application on one’s laptop. It created a culture, a folklore. Managing the dozens of devices in a smarthome is a set of tasks for which we are ill-prepared, it’s not more of the same.

Nor are we prepared for what happens to our privacy when the IoT devices that share information about our activities become “required” by market forces or, worse, mandated by new laws and regulations.

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As he says: the complexity now has grown geometrically. That’s a problem – yours, mine, everyone’s.
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Google halts paid-for Chrome extension updates amid fraud surge: Web Store in lockdown ‘due to the scale of abuse’ • The Register

Thomas Claburn:

»

Developers began reporting that they’d received “Spam and Placement in the Store” warnings on January 19, and more reports followed over the next few days.

In an email to The Register, Jeff Johnson, who runs Lapcat Software, which makes macOS and iOS audio apps and a privacy extension for Chrome and Safari called StopTheMadness, said that existing extensions remain accessible in the Chrome Web Store, but updates and new extensions are being rejected.

“I submitted a minor bug fix update on January 19, and I received an email on January 22 from Chrome Web Store Developer Support titled ‘Chrome Web Store: Removal notification for StopTheMadness,'” he explained, noting that the extension was not removed but the update was rejected.

“There have been many complaints in Google’s Chromium Extensions forum in the past few weeks, but Google provided no useful information until now.”

Johnson said that he has a Safari app extension in the Mac App Store and while developer support isn’t great, the Chrome Web Store is worse and feels understaffed – a charge other software makers have made.

“The Mac App Store usually reviews my updates within 24 hours, and if something goes wrong, I can contact support and get a response within a reasonable amount of time,” he said. “With the Chrome Web Store, however, my updates can take up to a week to get reviewed, and if something goes wrong, you’re almost hopelessly lost.”

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Seems to be a followup to this Register story from two weeks ago.
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DNA collection at the border threatens the privacy of all Americans • The New York Times

Daniel I. Morales, Natalie Ram and Jessica L. Roberts:

»

How we treat the people that cross our borders speaks to our identity as a nation. Immigrants are Americans of the future and the criteria we use to select or bar immigrants reflect our aspirations for the society we wish to become. The new DNA collection program may yet revive darker, eugenic impulses in immigration history. Modern, quota-based immigration law was born of a desire to improve the “quality” of America’s racial stock by drastically limiting immigration from peoples “scientifically” believed to be less intelligent than other groups. Italians and other southern European immigrants, for example, were granted fewer visas based on this false science.

It is a small leap from requiring immigrants to submit their DNA to verify familial relationships, or to mitigate future criminal risk (the pretexts the government has cited to justify its recent policy change) to requiring DNA screening of immigrants for health, disability, intelligence or disease. These screens for “fitness”— likely based on questionable science — could ultimately be used to deny entry into the United States or, if discovered later, as a basis for expulsion. Regardless of reliability we would not support genetic screening for fitness. Courts have usually failed to protect immigrants from such impulses, so it is up to citizens to learn from this history and decide that building a society this way is unacceptable.

«

The point that DNA could be used to deny entry, and then might be expanded to the general population, is a good one. If you think that it couldn’t possibly happen, look at the utter inability of the American system to rein in Trump (or his mini-me, Stephen Miller), and cast that forward a few years.
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Monopolies cost Americans $300 a month. We’re no longer the land of free markets • The Guardian

Thomas Philippon is a professor of finance at New York University:

»

The polarization of the political debate is partly the result of ignorance. The American left sees Europe as an El Dorado of free healthcare, free education and workers’ rights. The American right sees it as a socialistic nightmare with no growth and no innovation. They’re both wrong, and the result is misguided policies and time wasted tilting at windmills.

But we are also witnessing a justified backlash against the corruption of American free markets. A powerful system of lobbying and campaign finance contributions is largely responsible for the growing monopolization of the US economy.

Implementing a pro-competition policy in America will be no easy task. Incumbent companies maintain their power with an array of unfair tactics to exclude rivals – acquisitions of nascent competitors, heavy lobbying of regulators, and lavish expenditures on campaign donations. To be successful in today’s economy, a pro-competition policy would need to tackle the new monopolies as well as the old ones – the Googles and Facebooks and the pharmaceutical and telecom companies alike.

The payoffs would be large, however. Based on my research, I estimate that monopolies cost the median American household about $300 a month. Taking into account all the other inefficiencies monopolies entail, I estimate that the lack of competition deprives American workers of about $1.25tn of labor income every year. No wonder, then, that American workers are angry.

There is also another ironic lesson for Europe. The quality of existing European institutions is partly due to the beneficial influence of the UK. Historically France and Germany did not have a tradition of strong and independent regulators able to stand up to lobbyists and resist short term political pressures. The European Central Bank and the EU Directorate General for Competition (DG Comp) have demonstrated that they can. These institutions, while imperfect, are a public good that benefits all European citizens.

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$300 a month. And that’s before you get to sensible healthcare. (Philippon has a whole book where he shows that the cost to the US economy is around a trillion dollars annually.)
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Here’s why I think the refresh rate wars are dumb • Android Authority

Suzana Dalul:

»

the culprits were the OnePlus 7 Pro and the Pixel 4, both featuring 90Hz displays. Many manufacturers have followed their example, with a number of Android devices now featuring the faster and smoother screens. But the race to have the highest refresh rate looks like yet another manufacturer tactic to have the best specs on paper.

It is easy to argue that high refresh rates are not necessary for the average consumer. My colleague Ryan’s video certainly demonstrated that most people cannot tell the difference between 60Hz and 90Hz at a glance. But many smartphone features aren’t terribly practical — they exist because people want to buy phones that have them. Many people don’t take advantage of the variety of lenses many smartphone cameras come with, for example, but they are a selling point regardless. So, we will move on to better and more compelling arguments against the refresh rate wars.

First, we can’t deny that a higher refresh rate improves the overall visual experience. Anyone who has made the switch from a 60Hz PC monitor to 144Hz or higher can attest that there is no going back. Once you get acclimated to the smoother visuals the new monitor offers, everything else feels sluggish. Movement is less blurry and you get a competitive edge when playing games too. Yet, on a smartphone, which unlike a monitor isn’t constantly plugged in, there are many more drawbacks.

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Never underestimate OEMs’ desire to have a bigger number – any number, no matter how meaningless – for the spec sheet, though.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

Nike’s Vaporfly will make you run faster over significant distances. So should they be banned? CC-licensed photo by beast120815 on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 13 links for you. Ready or not. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

23andMe lays off 100 people: CEO Anne Wojcicki explains why • CNBC

Christina Farr:

»

Home DNA-testing company 23andMe is laying off about 100 people, or 14% of its staff, on Thursday, in the wake of declining sales.

The layoffs include the operations teams, which were focused on the company’s growth and scaling efforts, as well as other teams. In the coming months, the company plans to tighten its focus on the direct-to-consumer business and its therapeutics arm while scaling back its clinical studies arm.

CEO Anne Wojcicki told CNBC she’s been “surprised” to see the market starting to turn.

Wojcicki has theories, but she doesn’t have clear proof for why consumers are shying away from getting tests that reveal their percentage of Irish heritage, propensity for a favorite ice cream flavor, or whether they have a limited set of variants that are associated with breast cancer. Either way, she notes, she’s downsizing because it’s “what the market is ready for.”

“This has been slow and painful for us,” she said.

«

The reality is she doesn’t know why it’s slowing down; maybe privacy, maybe economic concerns. Or maybe once you get past the early adopters, people don’t care about their genetic ancestry, and don’t really want to know their genetic future. That puts a very definite ceiling on sales.
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Why the Jeff Bezos phone hack is a wake-up call for the powerful • Financial Times

Richard Waters:

»

Three things come together to make the case an object lesson in the exploitation of digital vulnerability. The first involves social engineering. Attacks like this play on weaknesses in the human operating system that can’t easily be patched. At senior levels of business and government, ego, opportunity and responsibility jostle to shape how personal networks operate. Trust is a requisite, and electronic channels of communication unavoidable.

Even friends spy on each other. Angela Merkel’s phone calls were monitored by the US National Security Agency, according to leaks by Edward Snowden — though German prosecutors dropped their investigation after failing to come up with hard evidence.

For anyone aspiring to power and influence in the world, this prompts deeply uncomfortable questions. For instance, which is worse: that a future head of state hasn’t been sending you internet memes over WhatsApp, or that he has? It’s a safe bet that the crown prince has many fewer WhatsApp contacts today than he started the week with.

«

I think that point is the really important one. People will be a lot more careful to quarantine their personal phone from their business phone. It might be a pain, but it will become necessary again. Not that it wasn’t before, but the Bezos case is now always going to be the “um, remember when…?”
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Motorola on the Razr’s folding screen: ‘bumps and lumps are normal’ • The Verge

Dieter Bohn:

»

Motorola has posted a series of videos on its YouTube channel that are somewhere between brief ads and how-tos for the folding phone. And as you might have guessed from the headline, “Caring for razr” caught our eye.

In it, Motorola runs through the basics of what you need to know if you have a phone with a plastic folding screen. We thought we knew most of them already based on our experience with the Galaxy Fold, but Motorola’s video has one more thing to think about: “Screen is made to bend; bumps and lumps are normal.”

With the Galaxy Fold, “bumps and lumps” ended up being the first harbingers of a catastrophic screen failure on our review unit. Apparently that’s not going to be the case with the Razr. There are lots of ways to build a hinge for a folding plastic screen, and Motorola apparently opted for a design that allows for a little more flex than the original Fold design did. It’s also able to close completely flat.

Because of that plastic material, the screen is likely to have some kind of crease — though we weren’t really able to see much of one in our original hands-on. We’ll obviously need to review the phone in full before we can say ourselves whether the screen has a notable crease, bumps, or lumps.

«

They’re normal, but only if you pay $1500 first.
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Can Bernie (really) save America? • Eudaimonia and Co

umair haque:

»

America made a socioeconomic choice — a fatal one. It wasn’t going to be like any other society. No — it was exceptional, and always had been: a promised land. Here, people would learn to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps — and along the way, they’d learn the virtues of industry, hard work, and decency. They’d become better people — and everyone would grow rich. All it would take was a little punishment, a little selfishness, a little bit of hard-heartedness. Or maybe a lot. “Tough love” is what American pop culture calls all that.

The problem, of course, is that America’s economic exceptionalism didn’t work. Making Americans beg each other for dollars to pay for healthcare online didn’t make anyone better off — it just made people dead. Turning the middle class into the new, desperate poor didn’t lead to some kind of mass movement of generous and beautiful people — it just led to neofascism, as they sought even more powerless people to hate. Making working class Americans work around the clock and never take vacations didn’t add to more industry — in fact, it only led to abusive monopolies, and mega-billionaires that corrode democracy.

American ideas have failed in every possible way — and hence, as a result, America’s having something very much like a Soviet collapse…

…Europeans live not just the world’s longest, happiest, richest, healthiest, sanest lives — by a very, very long way — but history’s. Moreover, they’ve accomplished that in just one human lifetime — from the ashes of war. The magnitude and triumph of such a thing isn’t taught in America, but it should be. It might just be humanity’s greatest accomplishment, ever. The European miracle should be taught to every child in preschool, so that they really understand what human prosperity is made of, where it comes from.

«

Haque’s complaint that Sanders is only incremental, not revolutionary, misses the point to me: Americans simply wouldn’t vote for someone who offered real revolution like that. (Thanks Adewale Adetugbo.)
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Google is backtracking on its controversial desktop search results redesign • The Verge

Nick Statt:

»

Google is backtracking on a controversial search engine redesign, announcing that it will experiment with some elements of the new look in response to user feedback.

Google made one of the biggest changes to how it displays search results in the company’s history earlier this month, with the changes taking effect over the course of the last week. It involved a visual overhaul that makes it more difficult to differentiate between advertising and organic search results with the removal of color overlays and the introduction of small branded iconography, known on the web as favicons, next to non-ad results.

The company’s stated intention was to align desktop search results with the way they’re presented on mobile, but it became clear this also had the effect of making it harder to distinguish between paid results and non-paid ones. The only difference between an ad and an organic result in the new design is the small lettering or icon next to a link, meaning ads and organic results now look more similar than ever before.

«

I wonder if people inside Google tested this and suggested that it wouldn’t be good. I bet some did. And that they weren’t listened to.
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Vaporfly shoes will help me reach my marathon dream. Should I use them? • The Guardian

Jamie Doward:

»

When they first went on sale, the Vaporfly 4% – the first iteration of the shoe [used by Eliud Kipchoge to run his sub-two hour marathon] – sold out so quickly that pairs were going for more than £1,000 on the resale market.

Struggling to justify that price to myself, I bagged a pair of the 4%’s cheaper cousin, the Zoom Fly 2 Flyknit, which, at £140 (at the time) were still a good £50 more than I’d ever spent on a pair of running shoes.

But, like the Vaporfly, they had a carbon plate [in the sole], and the difference this made was immediately apparent. I ran the Pisa marathon in three hours 17 seconds, shaving more than seven minutes off my personal best.

To be clear: there were many factors at play on that day and I’m not suggesting the shoes benefit everyone. Many runners claim that the shoes reward more efficient, faster runners who have spent several years chasing personal bests. Reviews suggest they are not great for regular training at a slower pace. But it’s clear they gave me a significant boost.

Too significant, apparently.

The world athletics ruling body is preparing to tighten regulations governing shoe technology, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters. World Athletics is expected to make the announcement when it unveils the findings of a review at the end of the month.

“World Athletics definitely agrees that there needs to be greater clarity on what is permissible in elite sport and in our competitions,” it said in a statement to Reuters, adding that any change would need to be ratified by its council.

«

In that case, shouldn’t everyone run in bare feet? How and where do you draw the line on this technology?
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Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright law • BBC News

»

Universities and Science Minister Chris Skidmore has said that the UK will not implement the EU Copyright Directive after the country leaves the EU.

Several companies have criticised the law, which would hold them accountable for not removing copyrighted content uploaded by users, if it is passed. EU member states have until 7 June 2021 to implement the new reforms, but the UK will have left the EU by then.

The UK was among 19 nations that initially supported the law. That was in its final European Council vote in April 2019…

…Critics claimed Article 13 would make it nearly impossible to upload even the tiniest part of a copyrighted work to Facebook, YouTube, or any other site.

However, specific tweaks to the law in 2019 made memes safe “for purposes of quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody and pastiche”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticised the law in March, claiming that it was “terrible for the internet”. Google had campaigned fiercely against the changes, arguing they would “harm Europe’s creative and digital industries” and “change the web as we know it”.

«

It’s never seemed likely that this would be used to go after folk posting memes; only those who are doing really egregious infringement.

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Sonos’ frantic flailing illustrates the stupidity of smart tech • ExtremeTech

Joel Hruska:

»

My Advents [mid-market hi-fi loudspeakers] are 45-50 years old. Even when new, they didn’t qualify as “the best” speakers — they were designed to be very good, midrange, affordable speakers. I have no doubt that some of you own audio systems that utterly outclass my own, though I have a vague plan to build a 7.1 sound solution using them as the front pair, then adding a subwoofer underneath it, just for fun.

My Advent Loudspeakers are the best speakers for one and only one reason: my father gave them to me.

I thought of all this when I read [The Verge’s] summary of Sonos’ position. According to Sonos, a speaker they built just 10 years ago has reached its “technological limits.” It made me think about the way we’ve allowed companies to arbitrarily define what “technological limits” are, and what they look like, and how easily that phrase gets tossed about by companies to justify bricking hardware, removing features, or preventing customers from repairing their own equipment. It’s an issue that’s much bigger than Sonos or any single company. It even impacts the US military.

If Sonos had existed in the mid-to-late 1970s and my father had chosen to buy a speaker from it, there would have been nothing to pass on in the first place.

«

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Unauthorized Bread • Ars Technica

A novella by Cory Doctorow which is a finalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s national book award, and more; the whole thing is at the link, and this is how it starts:

»

The way Salima found out that Boulangism had gone bankrupt: her toaster wouldn’t accept her bread. She held the slice in front of it and waited for the screen to show her a thumbs-up emoji, but instead, it showed her the head-scratching face and made a soft brrt. She waved the bread again. Brrt.

“Come on.” Brrt.

She turned the toaster off and on. Then she unplugged it, counted to ten, and plugged it in. Then she menued through the screens until she found RESET TO FACTORY DEFAULT, waited three minutes, and punched her Wi-Fi password in again.

Brrt.

Long before she got to that point, she’d grown certain that it was a lost cause. But these were the steps that you took when the electronics stopped working, so you could call the 800 number and say, “I’ve turned it off and on, I’ve unplugged it, I’ve reset it to factory defaults and…”

There was a touchscreen option on the toaster to call support, but that wasn’t working, so she used the fridge to look up the number and call it. It rang seventeen times and disconnected. She heaved a sigh. Another one bites the dust.

«

For all those who have been having fun with printers lately.
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A letter from our CEO • Sonos Blog

Patrick Spence:

»

rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.
While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so.

«

This is a good move, essentially clarifying what had been said already, but imperfectly reported. However I – and plenty of others, I’d suspect – still feel that the way the trade-in program bricks devices is bad. The problem comes in the way that the app keeps being updated, and eventually will leave some devices behind (or that’s the way it feels). But culturally, we’re completely unused to the idea that a piece of hi-fi (or Bluetooth speaker) will stop responding to its controls.
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Why Xylo had to die • Pioneer Square Labs

Peter Denton is in charge of marketing at PSL, which is a VC fund and incubator:

»

At PSL, we kill nine out of ten ideas that we test. We haven’t talked much about these publicly before, but we wanted to share what it looks like when we make a “kill” decision. Our goal in publishing this is to help other founders think about how to do early validation the way that we do inside the studio.

The idea we tested was Xylo, which solved a problem that millions of parents in the U.S. experience: finding great teachers for music lessons. Our proposed solution was an online platform to connect these teachers with students for remote (or in-person) lessons with a great user experience. Sounds like a great idea, right? Let’s dive in!

«

The detail in the numbers is remarkable. Turns out Xylo would just about keep one person clothed, but certainly not housed (in San Francisco).
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Guessing names based on what they start with • FlowingData

Nathan Yau:

»

I’m really bad at names. A lot of the time when I meet someone new, the name goes in one ear and out the other. If I manage to remember the name short-term, remembering long-term is still a toss-up in favor of forgetting.

But sometimes I can remember the first letter and then I can cycle the alphabet on the second letter to jog my memory.

I wonder: If I can remember the first letter or two, can I use name data from the Social Security Administration to make an educated guess about the full name?

Put in your sex, the decade you were born, and start entering your name below. I’ll try to guess your full name before you’re done.

«

I’m not American, but it got mine from the first letter. (X is always Xavier. Z apparently includes Zoltan, which is fun if you remember Big. OK, so that was Zoltar, but anyway.)

Power of big data, as ever.
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Apple pushes back against EU common charger, warns of innovation risks • Reuters

Foo Yun Chee:

»

iPhone maker Apple on Thursday pushed back against EU lawmakers’ call for a common charger, warning the move could hamper innovation, create a mountain of electronic waste and irk consumers.

Apple’s comments came a week after lawmakers at the European Parliament called for a common charger for all mobile phones and amended a draft law to say the ability to work with common chargers would be an essential requirement for radio equipment in the bloc.

A move to a common charger would affect Apple more than any other companies as its iPhones and most of its products are powered by its Lightning cable, whereas Android devices are powered by USB-C connectors.

“We believe regulation that forces conformity across the type of connector built into all smartphones stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, and would harm consumers in Europe and the economy as a whole,” Apple said in a statement.

It said regulation was not needed as the industry is already moving to USB-C through a connector or cable assembly.

“We hope the (European) Commission will continue to seek a solution that does not restrict the industry’s ability to innovate,” Apple said.

A study by Copenhagen Economics commissioned by Apple showed that consumer harm from a regulatory-mandated move to a common charger would cost at least €1.5bn, outweighing the €13m in associated environmental benefits.

«

OK, well I’m confused: I’d call the thing that goes into the phone a “connector”, not a charger. Separated by a common bureaucratic language, as ever.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

The Bristol Pound’s looming collapse seems to prove.. that we should have a world currency? CC-licensed photo by alister on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 9 links for you. Use them wisely. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

TikTok memes like WW3, impeachment, and Australian fires prove the platform is political • Vox

Rebecca Jennings:

»

TikTok was never supposed to be political. The app was expressly designed to discourage news-sharing — its home feed is non-chronological, and there are no visible timestamps for when a video is posted, making it nearly impossible to understand what happened when. Political advertisements are not allowed, and until recently, TikTok had vague content guidelines that reportedly encouraged moderators to censor content sensitive to local governments. Its slogan is “Make your day,” presumably by distracting you from *gestures widely at everything*.

TikTok was never supposed to be political, but of course it was always going to be. During 2019’s widespread climate strikes, TikTokers used jokes about e-girls to spread awareness about e-missions. When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was revealed to have worn brownface, TikTok had fun brutally roasting him. In November, a New Jersey teen posted a viral TikTok discussing the Chinese mass internment of Muslims (and was subsequently locked out of her account). Another teen used the app to organize a strike in solidarity with her school district’s teachers. When adults on TikTok mocked teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, there was a flood of comments with just one phrase, sparking one of the year’s biggest memes: “ok boomer.” US Democratic presidential candidates are on TikTok. Police officers, soldiers, and the Israel Defense Forces are on TikTok. Nazis and terrorists are, too…

…“Conversations are difficult to have on Twitter or Instagram because of how reactive everybody is on those apps,” [TikToker Gem] Nwanne says. “Comments on a video about the Australian fires were like, folks asking questions and people answering them. On Twitter or Instagram they’d be like, ‘How dare you ask the question?’ The community’s a lot chiller, and I do think it’s because they’re younger, and so they don’t know to be pretentious douchebags yet.”

«

Hmm. I’m not sure that demonstrating that people make short videos about political topics does actually demonstrate that it can wield political weight. Facebook has proven that. Twitter has. Instagram, Snapchat – they haven’t.
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Help! I’m trapped inside TikTok and I can’t get out • WSJ

Joanna Stern:

»

TikTok doesn’t divulge how its algorithms work but various experts explained that the artificial intelligence powering the For You page uses lots of factors to determine what you like to watch, including how long you watch and how fast you swipe away.

Everyone I spoke with pointed to the app’s full-screen video design. Instead of giving you lots of thumbnails to choose from, like YouTube or Instagram, TikTok watches you flick away stuff you don’t like, gathering helpful negative signals. It also learns what you do want to watch—even if you don’t “heart” anything.

“You can also get a lot more behavioral data when someone watches lots and lots of short videos,” says Jason Davis, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Singapore campus of the Insead Business School, who has studied TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance Inc.

How quickly TikTok figures you out is bananas. Within minutes, the app knew I’d enjoy videos of millennials making fun of themselves, odd iPhone pranks and dogs. (OK, fine, even serial killers like dogs.)

“As soon as I wake up—it used to be Instagram or YouTube—now I head straight to the For You page and I’m just laughing,” says Dominic Toliver, a 26-year-old TikTok-famous creator with 8.7 million followers. “I’m just laughing and it’s my motivation for the day. I have my ideas and I’m set and ready to go.”

«

What you do and don’t like on TikTok can be incredibly telling. I bet the difference in swipe time is measured in single milliseconds to distinguish between likes. I loved this.
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About us • Parlia

Parlia:

»

Parlia is an encyclopedia of opinion.

We’re building a definitive collection of all the opinions in the world*. A wikipedia of opinion.

We hope Parlia will:

• help us understand the world a little faster and little better

• stop us having to go over the same arguments over and over

• help us better hear the opinions on all sides of a question.

We need you to sign up and help us build it.

«

An encyclopedia of opinion? I’ll go for “ambitious”. But Wikipedia looked wildly ambitious when it began. Now it’s part of the background hum. Though what I would say is that presently Parlia offers too much distraction on its front page; less there might encourage people to seek out an opinion.
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App games about plague and disaster go viral in China • Quartz

Jane Li:

»

Strategy games about epidemics and war are going viral in China, just as it’s facing a real-life challenge of grappling with a fast-spreading new virus that has led to hundreds of infections and nine deaths.

Plague Inc. and Rebel Inc., both developed by British game studio Ndemic Creations, have seen a surge in downloads since Monday (Jan. 20), the day China announced that a new pneumonia-like illness had spread to cities outside Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak began.

Plague Inc, which lets players evolve a pathogen to wipe out humanity, jumped from the fifth spot on Monday to top the charts among paid games on China’s iOS store as of Wednesday (Jan. 22), according to data provider Sensor Tower. Meanwhile, Rebel Inc., which requires users to stabilize a war-torn country and “win the hearts and minds of the people” while also trying to prevent a deadly insurgency from taking power, jumped from the 27th spot on Monday to fifth on Wednesday.

The popularity of the doomsday simulation games comes as worries have increased about the new coronavirus, a type of virus that can cause colds but also more serious respiratory illnesses, as it spread to more cities in China and more countries this week.

«

Is “going viral” really the phrase you were reaching for here, Jane?
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2016 WSJ story on Apple’s plans for E2E encryption for iCloud data • Daring Fireball

John Gruber found a 2016 WSJ story by Daisuke Wakabayashi, which said this:

»

Apple is working to bolster its encryption so that it won’t be able to decode user information stored in iCloud, according to people familiar with the matter.

But Apple executives are wrestling with how to strengthen iCloud encryption without inconveniencing users. Apple prides itself on creating intuitive, easy-to-use software, and some in the company worry about adding complexity.

If a user forgets a password, for example, and Apple doesn’t have the keys, the user might lose access to photos and other important data. If Apple keeps a copy of the key, the copy be “can be compromised or the service can be compelled to turn it over,” said Window Snyder, a former Apple security and privacy manager who is now chief security officer at Fastly, a content-delivery network.

«

Of which Gruber remarks:

»

Given that this was four years ago, something clearly interrupted this plan. I’ve heard from a few additional sources at Apple (or very recently at Apple), and all believe that Apple’s reluctance to use end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups is about the frequency of customers who don’t know their password but need to access their backup. My idea is to make it optional, but every additional option makes a feature more complicated. No one expects to forget their password — even if this were only an option, some number of iCloud users would turn it on because it’s more secure, forget their password, and be forever locked out of their backup.

«

Bear in mind that iCloud backups include photos. You lose your phone, you need to recover from the backup. But – oops! You can’t remember the password. All those photos are lost forever. You can encrypt local backups, using iTunes. I’ve done that and forgotten the password before. It’s certainly a very difficult balance.
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Google’s ads just look like search results now • The Verge

Jon Porter:

»

In the past, Google’s Sundeep Jain justified simplifying the company’s ad designs by saying that a simpler design “makes it easier for users to digest information,” according to Search Engine Land. He added that the company was trying to reduce the number of different colours used on a page in order to bring a little more “harmony” to the layout.

It’s hard not to get the feeling that this “harmony” is less about offering a better user experience, and more about helping Google’s ad revenue. As Digiday reports, there’s data to suggest that’s actually the case. According to one digital marketing agency, click-through rates have already increased for some search ads on desktop, and mobile click-through rates for some of its clients increased last year from 17 to 18% after similar changes to Google’s mobile search layout.

Google is fundamentally an ad business. In the third quarter of 2019, Google’s parent company Alphabet made nearly $34bn from Google advertising, out of a total revenue of $40bn for Alphabet as a whole. At that sort of scale, small changes in ad click-through rates could end up having a huge effect on Alphabet’s bottom line, even if it means tricking users for cheap clicks.

«

I’ve heard claims from some people that when Google used to have a differently coloured background for ads, people used to think those were “special” results and click them; and that labelling its ads as “Ads” made that much clearer.

So, shouldn’t the organic search ads have the coloured background now? You’d discover how far down you have to scroll to find them too – on mobile, past the first screen.
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The demise of the Bristol Pound shows the folly of local currencies • CapX

Christopher Snowdon:

»

The Bristol Pound is on its last legs. The idea of creating a local currency for the city emerged ‘around a table in a pub in early 2009’ but will soon come to an end unless its directors can find £100,000 to cover its running costs. Printing money is not an option this time.

Bristol’s experiment is not the first local currency to hit the buffers. The Exeter Pound ceased operations in 2018. The Totnes Pound came to an end last September. The Stroud Pound, which was launched by Molly Scott-Cato in 2009, has been defunct since 2013. The Lake District Pound will go out of circulation next month. If the Bristol Pound goes under, the only remaining local currencies will be in Brixton and Lewes.

The Bristol Pound was intended to encourage people to spend their money with local businesses rather than with their competitors in Bath, Gloucester or – God forbid – a foreign country. The logic, such as it is, rests on an economic fallacy that was debunked in the eighteenth century. Under mercantilism, it was assumed that the route to prosperity lay in circulating money in the domestic economy, rather than gainfully exchanging it for goods from abroad. Fear of wealth ‘leaking out’ of the country led to an obsession with the balance of trade, of which the philosopher-economist Adam Smith said ‘nothing could be more absurd’.

The fallacy is in confusing wealth with money. Money is a token of exchange. It is a form of wealth, but so are the products it buys. If you spend £500 on a diamond ring you will have less money, not less wealth.

A nation which chooses to buy expensive, inferior goods at home when there are cheaper, better options abroad will make itself poorer. The same principle equally applies to villages, cities and counties. One only has to imagine what would happen if every town in Britain decided to trade exclusively with local firms to see how inefficient a ‘circular economy’ would be.

«

Excellent points. So… logically… shouldn’t we have just one single currency for the country, the continent, the world?
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Twitter tells facial recognition trailblazer to stop using site’s photos • The New York Times

Kashmir Hill:

»

Twitter sent a letter this week to the small start-up company, Clearview AI, demanding that it stop taking photos and any other data from the social media website “for any reason” and delete any data that it previously collected, a Twitter spokeswoman said. The cease-and-desist letter, sent on Tuesday, accused Clearview of violating Twitter’s policies…

…Tor Ekeland, a lawyer for Clearview, confirmed that it had received Twitter’s letter and said the company “will respond appropriately.” He declined to comment further.

The Times article set off angry protests from Democratic lawmakers and privacy watchdogs, who said it was paving the way for universal facial recognition technology that would effectively end people’s ability to remain anonymous while in public.

On Wednesday, Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, also sent a letter to Clearview, addressed to its co-founder and chief executive, Hoan Ton-That. “Widespread use of your technology could facilitate dangerous behavior and could effectively destroy individuals’ ability to go about their daily lives anonymously,” Mr. Markey wrote.

«

Essentially, this is the latest Google (the potential for FR is that big, I’d say), and its attitude to people telling it to stop stealing their content is just the same as Google’s was. Maybe Clearview will reply by asking Twitter to come to their offices and review each photo in turn.
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Instagram says it’s removing posts supporting Soleimani to comply with US sanctions • CNN

Donie O’Sullivan and Artemis Moshtaghian:

»

Instagram and its parent company Facebook are removing posts that voice support for slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani to comply with US sanctions, a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CNN Business Friday.

The Iranian government has called for nationwide legal action against Instagram in protest, even creating a portal on a government website for the app’s users to submit examples of posts the company removed, Iranian state media reported.

Instagram is one of the few western social media platforms that is not blocked in Iran. Facebook and Twitter are blocked but some Iranians access those sites using VPNs.

Twitter is not removing posts that support Soleimani, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN Business on Monday. It said as long as Twitter users abide by company rules, their posts will not be removed…

…Instagram shut down Soleimani’s own account on the platform last April after the US government designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization. Soleimani was an IRGC commander.

“We operate under US sanctions laws, including those related to the US government’s designation of the IRGC and its leadership,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

Iranian soccer player Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who has a verified Instagram account, posted a photo of Soleimani after his death. Jahanbakhsh said Instagram had removed that post.

«

No doubt Facebook/Instagram will say it was a “mistake” and restore it, now attention has been brought. Removing posts by Soleimani and other members of the IRGC makes sense. Beyond that, though?
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

This Puerto Rico factory owns $39bn of Microsoft’s intellectual property – at least, that’s what it told the US tax authorities. CC-licensed photo by Jose Izquierdo on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 11 links for you. Don’t break them. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

UN experts call for investigation into allegations that Saudi Crown Prince involved in hacking of Jeff Bezos’ phone • OHCHR

Agnes Callamard and David Kaye, the UN special rapporteurs on extrajudicial killings and protection of free expression:

»

“The circumstances and timing of the hacking and surveillance of [Jeff] Bezos also strengthen support for further investigation by US and other relevant authorities of the allegations that the [Saudi] Crown Prince ordered, incited, or, at a minimum, was aware of planning for but failed to stop the mission that fatally targeted Mr. Khashoggi in Istanbul.

At a time when Saudi Arabia was supposedly investigating the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, and prosecuting those it deemed responsible, it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post.”

The two experts – who were appointed by the Human Rights Council – recently became aware of a 2019 forensic analysis of Mr. Bezos’ iPhone that assessed with “medium to high confidence” that his phone was infiltrated on 1 May 2018 via an MP4 video file sent from a WhatsApp account utilized personally by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to the analysis, the Crown Prince and Mr. Bezos exchanged phone/WhatsApp numbers the month before the alleged hack. The forensic analysis found that within hours of receipt of the MP4 video file from the Crown Prince’s account, massive and (for Bezos’ phone) unprecedented exfiltration of data from the phone began, increasing data egress suddenly by 29,156% to 126 MB. Data spiking then continued undetected over some months and at rates as much as 106,032,045% (4.6 GB) higher than the pre-video data egress baseline for Mr. Bezos’ phone of 430KB.

The forensic analysis assessed that the intrusion likely was undertaken through the use of a prominent spyware product identified in other Saudi surveillance cases, such as the NSO Group’s Pegasus-3 malware, a product widely reported to have been purchased and deployed by Saudi officials. This would be consistent with other information. For instance, the use of WhatsApp as a platform to enable installation of Pegasus onto devices has been well-documented and is the subject of a lawsuit by Facebook/WhatsApp against NSO Group.

The allegations are also reinforced by other evidence of Saudi targeting of dissidents and perceived opponents.

«

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The IRS decided to get tough against Microsoft. Microsoft got tougher • ProPublica

Paul Kiel:

»

Eight years ago, the IRS, tired of seeing the country’s largest corporations fearlessly stash billions in tax havens, decided to take a stand. The agency challenged what it saw as an epic case of tax dodging by one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft. It was the biggest audit by dollar amount in the history of the agency.

Microsoft had shifted at least $39bn in U.S. profits to Puerto Rico, where the company’s tax consultants, KPMG, had persuaded the territory’s government to give Microsoft a tax rate of nearly 0%. Microsoft had justified this transfer with a ludicrous-sounding deal: It had sold its most valuable possession — its intellectual property — to an 85-person factory it owned in a small Puerto Rican city.

Over years of work, the IRS uncovered evidence that it believed laid the scheme bare. In one document, a Microsoft senior executive celebrated the company’s “pure tax play.” In another, KPMG plotted how to make the company Microsoft created to own the Puerto Rico factory — and a portion of Microsoft’s profits — seem “real.”

Meanwhile, the numbers Microsoft had used to craft its deal were laughable, the agency concluded. In one instance, Microsoft had told investors its revenues would grow 10% to 12% but told the IRS the figure was 4%. In another, the IRS found Microsoft had understated revenues by $15bn.

Determined to seize every advantage against a giant foe, the small team at the helm of the audit decided to be aggressive.

«

And this is where the story really starts. Well, actually, they could have dropped in at any point. The 2003 decision to restructure Microsoft’s taxes around the “factory”. The manipulation of campaign-contributed and thus “friendly” politicians first to lobby, and then to change laws. It’s all so astonishingly greedy; people doing things because it means unimaginable, unspendable sums of money staying with them, rather than going to taxes where it could help more people.
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Remember that Sonos speaker you bought a few years back that works perfectly? It’s about to be screwed for… reasons • The Register

Thomas Claburn:

»

Sonos is doubling down on its previously disclosed inclination to drop support for older products that aren’t profitable to support.

The Internet-of-Things speaker biz said on Tuesday that it will stop providing software updates for some legacy gear in May – some of which are barely five years old. The cessation of service doesn’t have any immediate consequences but it dooms older devices to stasis, insecurity, and potential incompatibility as software from Sonos or its partners change.

There is one caveat: customers with a mix of legacy and modern Sonos gear won’t be able to run both together once a future update moves modern kit to a new version of the Sonos software. So legacy gear will have to be quarantined on its own network, a capability Sonos intends to facilitate shortly.

Affected products include its original Zone Players (released in 2006), Connect, and Connect:Amp (sold between 2011 and 2015), its first-generation Play:5 (released in 2009), C200 (released 2009), and Bridge (released 2007)…

…the company’s recent financial filings explain that Sonos itself has planned for the obsolescence of its products and the discontent of customers.

“We expect that in the near term, this backward compatibility will no longer be practical or cost-effective, and we may decrease or discontinue service for our older products,” the manufacturer’s Q4 2019 10-K financial filing explains. “If we no longer provide extensive backward capability for our products, we may damage our relationship with our existing customers, as well as our reputation, brand loyalty and ability to attract new customers.”

This is the same tech outfit that celebrates its environmental and social responsibilities by encouraging customers to flip a kill switch on older products so they cannot be resold in order to trade-in their bricked kit for a 30% discount on new Sonos gear.

«

No word on the bricking. The idea that it’s getting too expensive to support the older products seems less likely than that it’s not practical – ie, they don’t have the processing power.
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Vodafone snubs Libra in favour of M-Pesa • Telecoms.com

Jamie Davies:

»

The main issue with digital currencies is that this is a segment which is largely unregulated, leading to the challenge which is being faced by Libra today. The European Commission and European Parliament has said no to the likes of Libra until rules have been written, while other regulatory bodies have expressed similar disapproval.

PayPal, Mastercard, Mercado Pago, eBay, Stripe, Booking Holdings and Visa are some of the names to have withdrawn support, seemingly due to the regulatory pressure. With support dwindling and regulatory expectations an unknown for the moment, it remains to be seen whether Libra will continue on its current launch trajectory.

Although Vodafone has left the door open for the future, it will drive its efforts towards M-Pesa, the highly success digital currency which is setting the tone in Africa.

Founded by Vodafone in 2007, M-Pesa is a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service. Initially launched for Vodacom and Safaricom in Kenya and Tanzania, the initiative has spread across several markets in Africa, to India, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. There is momentum for the M-Pesa initiative, so it hardly comes as a surprise Vodafone has dropped the controversial Libra.

Many would view M-Pesa as an underexploited asset for the Vodafone Group, though this is likely to change over the coming months. The team plan on expanding the service in the seven African markets it currently operates in, and even plans to launch in Ethiopia, a market where it does not currently manage a mobile network.

«

If you were Vodafone’s board and the options were to pour money into Libra, or into M-Pesa, it would be a pretty easy decision. They can get back on board Libra any time it looks likely to get somewhere.
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New ‘transformational’ code to protect children’s privacy online • BBC News

»

The code includes a list of 15 standards that companies behind online services are expected to comply with to protect children’s privacy.

Examples of online services which are included are toys which are connected to the internet, apps, social media platforms, online games, educational websites and streaming service.

Firms who design, develop or run such products must provide a “baseline” of data protection for children, the code says.

The standards also include:
• Location settings that would allow a child’s location to be shared should be switched off by default
• Privacy settings to be set to high by default and nudge techniques to encourage children to weaken their settings should not be used

“I believe that it will be transformational,” Ms Denham told the Press Association. “I think in a generation from now when my grandchildren have children they will be astonished to think that we ever didn’t protect kids online. I think it will be as ordinary as keeping children safe by putting on a seat belt.”

Ms Denham said the move was widely supported by firms, although added that the gaming industry and some other tech companies expressed concern about their business model.

She added: “We have an existing law, GDPR, that requires special treatment of children and I think these 15 standards will bring about greater consistency and a base level of protection in the design and implementation of games and apps and websites and social media.”

«

As Denham also points out, 20% of internet users in Britain are children. The hope is that this code will come into force in autumn of 2021. Fingers crossed.
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Turn On The Subtitles

»

What if we told you that you that there was a way to dramatically improve the literacy levels of millions of children?

What if we also told you that it was free?

Turn On The Subtitles (TOTS) isn’t an organisation. It’s not a company either. We’re simply a group of people who think this is an idea whose time has come.

Extensive research across multiple countries has shown us a way to improve children’s literacy. It’s incredibly simple; just turn on the subtitles.

So now, along with our friends at a number of leading charities and universities, we’re on a mission to encourage broadcasters, policymakers and parents to Turn on the Subtitles.

Ultimately we’d like to see broadcasters turn on the subtitles for most children’s television, by default. We’d like some of the world’s largest technology platforms to do the same. If you’d like to find out more about our campaign, we’d like to hear from you. Just email us on hello@turnonthesubtitles.org

«

It would be great to turn it on for all childrens’ TV, though it would be a challenge for live events – not that that prevents it for news, where live transcription is available. Subtitles are also a benefit to people, not just children, with hearing problems: figuring out who has said what on TV can be enormously challenging to them.
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More Apple products to have scissor switch keyboards • Digitimes

»

Apple reportedly is looking to adopt scissor switch keyboards in its new 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and new iPads slated to be available later in 2020 and the strategy should benefit their Taiwan-based component suppliers…

Apple is likely to extend the adoption of glowing scissor switch keyboards to its new iPad lineup, with prospects of continuing such design for the comprehensive lineups of its notebook and tablet products in the future, according to industry sources.

«

Demonstrates that Apple’s sourcing for keyboard switches is becoming monolithic: I’m not sure the world really needs glowing switches on iPad keyboards. I have to say that I find the (butterfly) ones on the current iPad keyboard absolutely perfect: robust, quiet, thin.

But equally, scissor switches on more laptops can only be a good thing.
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Regarding Reuters’s report that Apple dropped plan for encrypting iCloud backups • Daring Fireball

John Gruber:

»

[the Reuters journalist who wrote the scoop, Joseph] Menn is a solid reporter and I have no reason to doubt what he is reporting. What I suspect though, based on (a) everything we all know about Apple, and (b) my own private conversations over the last several years, with rank-and-file Apple sources who’ve been directly involved with the company’s security engineering, is that Menn’s sources for the “Apple told the FBI that it planned to offer users end-to-end encryption when storing their phone data on iCloud” bit were the FBI sources, not the Apple sources, and that it is not accurate.

It simply is not in Apple’s nature to tell anyone outside the company about any of its future product plans. I’m not sure how I could make that more clear. It is not in Apple’s DNA to ask permission for anything. (Cf. the theory that a company’s culture is permanently shaped by the personality of its founders.)

Encrypting iCloud backups would be perfectly legal. There would be no legal requirement for Apple to brief the FBI ahead of time. Nor would there be any reason to brief the FBI ahead of time just to get the FBI’s opinion on the idea. We all know what the FBI thinks about strong encryption…

…Surely there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people every day who need to access their iCloud backups who do not remember their password. The fact that Apple can help them is a benefit to those users. That’s why I would endorse following the way local iTunes device backups work: make encryption an option, with a clear warning that if you lose your backup password, no one, including Apple, will be able to restore your data. I would be surprised if Apple’s plan for encrypted iCloud backups were not exactly that.

«

Gruber has been mulling over this, and points out that Google offers (optional?) encryption of backups of Android phones. And also that Tim Cook hinted in October 2018 that iCloud might move to encrypted backups.

Save people from their own mistakes, or save people from the FBI? It’s quite the balance. Ironic too that Google’s backups are the encrypted ones – but we don’t hear the FBI gnashing its teeth over those.
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Facial recognition could help discover fate of Holocaust victims – Reuters

Rinat Harash:

»

Seeking clues to the past, Eli and Saul Lieberman turned to an Israeli research center, which hopes to match family pictures from around the time of World War Two with its database of tens of thousands of photos, many taken by German Wehrmacht soldiers.

Those German photos show the troops themselves as well as people in villages and towns with Jewish populations.

Shem Olam Holocaust Memorial Centre launched its “Face to Face” project in July, calling via social media for people to send in pictures for facial recognition scans.

The Lieberman brothers know few details of the horrors their late father, Joseph, endured during the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed. A survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, he did not speak with them about his experiences.

But a photograph taken somewhere in Europe after the war shows their father together with two cousins, and Eli, 50, and Saul, 61, sent it to the Shem Olam center in July. They are awaiting a match and clues about their family’s history.

“We live in a world that if you can’t provide the document or the picture, it doesn’t feel like it happened,” Saul Lieberman said. “People want to know where they came from, who they came from.”

So far, Shem Olam has received thousands of photos from the public but only several matches were made after further research and none was conclusive.

«

But I thought that facial recognition could only be a bad thing!?
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Smart scale goes dumb as Under Armour pulls the plug on connected tech • Ars Technica

Kate Cox:

»

Today’s example of smart stuff going dumb comes courtesy of Under Armour, which is effectively rendering its fitness hardware line very expensive paperweights.

The company quietly pulled its UA Record app from both Google Play and Apple’s App Store on New Year’s Eve. In an announcement dated sometime around January 8, Under Armour said that not only has the app been removed from all app stores, but the company is no longer providing customer support or bug fixes for the software, which will completely stop working as of March 31.

Under Armour launched its lineup of connected fitness devices in 2016. The trio of trackers included a wrist-worn activity monitor, a smart scale, and a chest-strap-style heart rate monitor. The scale and wristband retailed at $180 each, with the heart monitor going for $80. Shoppers could buy all three together in a $400 bundle called the UA HealthBox.

Ars’ review at the time noted that none of the components, by itself, was revolutionary, but as a trio they talked to each other reasonably well. The linchpin of the whole operation was, instead, the software: the Under Armour Record app. Record tied all the data from all the hardware together into a comprehensive health, fitness, and wellness journal, allowing a user to see both high-level and granular data about their activity, weight, sleep, heart rate, and other metrics. Record also served as a one-stop shop for adjusting settings on any of the hardware.

In 2017, less than two years after launching the HealthBox line, the company gave up on the project.

«

Niiice. Sure going to rush to buy their next smart device!
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Reminder: HP’s ‘Cheap’ Instant Ink program requires monthly payments, constant monitoring • ExtremeTech

Joel Hruska:

»

Instant Ink is HP’s idea of “Printing as a service.” Here’s how it works:

You choose a printing plan that suits your needs. If you print 15 or fewer pages per month, you don’t have to pay anything for Instant Ink. If you pay $3, you can print 50 pages, roll over up to 100 pages that you haven’t used, and buy the right to print 10 additional pages for just $1. This scales up to $20 for 700 pages. The ratio of pages per dollar is 16.6 at the $3 plan and 35 at the $20 plan. Anything with ink on it counts as a page.

There are some good points to Instant Ink, including:
• No contract (service is month to month)
• HP monitors printer ink levels and automatically ships new cartridges before you run out
• You can print in color for the same price-per-sheet as printing in black and white, not counting the cost of photo paper
• Less risk (at least in theory) of running out of ink at a critical moment. I suspect this is why the $19.99 plan comes with a spare set of cartridges — HP is aware that a company might suddenly need to print hundreds of pages
• It appears to be optional on every printer except the HP Tango, which requires Instant Ink in order to work. If you’re aware of other products that require it, sound off below. HP is pushing the idea hard but it doesn’t seem to have started making it mandatory across product lines just yet.

Here’s the downsides:
• The printer requires a constant internet connection in order for Instant Ink to work
• You cannot roll over pages you paid for indefinitely (you can adjust your plan)
• You’re literally paying someone an ongoing fee for the privilege of printing from a product you purchased at a store at full price
• Any amount of ink counts as a page. Need to print a test sheet? That’s a page. Accidentally wind up with one letter printed on an otherwise blank sheet? Still counts as a page
• Instant Ink only competes with printer ink costs if you print a lot of photos, and most people don’t
• Good photo paper is also more expensive than regular paper, which would eat into some of the savings
• The overage fee structure is insane. You’d need to manage your print volume carefully relative to your print plan in order to avoid them, because slapping an extra 5 to 10-cent tariff on a printer’s per-sheet cost ruins the benefits of this service.

«

It’s all downside, really. It’s the razor-razorblade-expensive-razorblade-delivery model.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

Plastic straws: China is going to ban them by the end of the year. This year. CC-licensed photo by Stock Catalog on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 9 links for you. Ooh, have they sent a video? I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince’ • The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner:

»

The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian.

The encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone of the world’s richest man, according to the results of a digital forensic analysis.

This analysis found it “highly probable” that the intrusion into the phone was triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of the Saudi heir to Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post.

The two men had been having a seemingly friendly WhatsApp exchange when, on 1 May of that year, the unsolicited file was sent, according to sources who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity.

Large amounts of data were exfiltrated from Bezos’s phone within hours, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Guardian has no knowledge of what was taken from the phone or how it was used.

The extraordinary revelation that the future king of Saudi Arabia may have had a personal involvement in the targeting of the American founder of Amazon will send shockwaves from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.

It could also undermine efforts by “MBS” – as the crown prince is known – to lure more western investors to Saudi Arabia, where he has vowed to economically transform the kingdom even as he has overseen a crackdown on his critics and rivals.

The disclosure is likely to raise difficult questions for the kingdom about the circumstances around how US tabloid the National Enquirer came to publish intimate details about Bezos’s private life – including text messages – nine months later.

«

Note that it carefully doesn’t say it was MBS’s phone; but his number. That can be spoofed or duplicated, though you’d need to know it to copy it. What’s the Saudi animus against Bezos, though?
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Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained – sources • Reuters

:

»

More than two years ago, Apple told the FBI that it planned to offer users end-to-end encryption when storing their phone data on iCloud, according to one current and three former FBI officials and one current and one former Apple employee.

Under that plan, primarily designed to thwart hackers, Apple would no longer have a key to unlock the encrypted data, meaning it would not be able to turn material over to authorities in a readable form even under court order.

In private talks with Apple soon after, representatives of the FBI’s cyber crime agents and its operational technology division objected to the plan, arguing it would deny them the most effective means for gaining evidence against iPhone-using suspects, the government sources said.

When Apple spoke privately to the FBI about its work on phone security the following year, the end-to-end encryption plan had been dropped, according to the six sources. Reuters could not determine why exactly Apple dropped the plan.

“Legal killed it, for reasons you can imagine,” another former Apple employee said he was told, without any specific mention of why the plan was dropped or if the FBI was a factor in the decision.

That person told Reuters the company did not want to risk being attacked by public officials for protecting criminals, sued for moving previously accessible data out of reach of government agencies or used as an excuse for new legislation against encryption.

“They decided they weren’t going to poke the bear anymore,” the person said, referring to Apple’s court battle with the FBI in 2016 over access to an iPhone used by one of the suspects in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

«

Which puts the decision time at post-2016. Another possibility, raised by an ex-Apple employee in the staffer, is that people would have locked themselves out of their data too often. Which is feasible. But it sounds much more like Apple decided that the balance was fine as it was.
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How I stopped a credit card thief from ripping off 3,537 people – and saved our nonprofit • freecodecamp

Quincy Larson:

»

I’d been up until 2 a.m. finishing the announcement for our new #AWSCertified Challenge. [He’d slept and been woken up again.]

And so far, the launch was going well. Our new Twitter bot was tweeting, and our Discord chatroom was abuzz with ambitious developers eager to earn their AWS certifications.

I was getting ready to meet with my team when I noticed two strange emails – both of which arrived within minutes of one another.

“Your a fraud” read one of the emails in typo-riddled English. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking since I see a charge on my financial institution from you and since I’ve never heard of you. Yes you need to resolve this.”

The other email was… well, let’s just say it was also an angry letter and let’s leave it at that.

freeCodeCamp is a donor-supported nonprofit, and we have thousands of people around the world who donate to us each month. Once in a while, there are misunderstandings – usually when one family member donates without telling the other. But this felt different.

So I tabbed over to Stripe, the credit card processing service our nonprofit uses for donations. On a typical day, we’d have 20 or 30 new donors. But here’s what I saw instead:

Stripe’s dashboard showing 11,000 new customers and $60,000 in revenue for a single 24 hour period.

It took me a moment to process what was happening. Our nonprofit – which operates on an annual budget of less than $400,000 – had just received more than $60,000 in 24 hours – and from thousands of donors.

«

It’s a fascinating story, told at speed, which grabs from the outset.
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Mnuchin warns UK and Italy over digital-tax plans • WSJ

Greg Ip and Paul Hannon:

»

Italy and Britain will face U.S. tariffs if they proceed with a tax on digital companies such as Alphabet’s Google and Facebook, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned.

Mr. Mnuchin issued the warning after France agreed to delay the imposition of its own digital tax in the face of threats of steep U.S. tariffs on French exports. Mr. Mnuchin said French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to hold off on the tax through the end of the year while the two countries work out a permanent resolution.

The truce is “the beginning of a solution,” Mr. Mnuchin said an interview with The Wall Street Journal at a Journal-sponsored event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

France announced the tax last year as a way of collecting revenue from web-based companies that pay little or no tax on substantial sales in France. Italy’s parliament passed a similar tax last year that was set to take effect this year. Britain is scheduled to implement a similar tax this year.

Mr. Mnuchin said the U.S. was clear it thought France’s digital tax was an unfair levy on gross revenue and hoped Britain and Italy would suspend their plans. “If not they’ll find themselves faced with President Trump’s tariffs. We’ll be having similar conversations with them.”

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June 2019: Leading scientists set out resource challenge of meeting net zero emissions in the UK by 2050 • Natural History Museum

»

A letter authored by Natural History Museum Head of Earth Sciences Prof Richard Herrington and fellow expert members of SoS MinErals (an interdisciplinary programme of NERC-EPSRC-Newton-FAPESP funded research) has today been delivered to the Committee on Climate Change

The letter explains that to meet UK electric car targets for 2050 we would need to produce just under two times the current total annual world cobalt production, nearly the entire world production of neodymium, three quarters the world’s lithium production and at least half of the world’s copper production.

A 20% increase in UK-generated electricity would be required to charge the current 252.5 billion miles to be driven by UK cars.

Last month, the Committee on Climate Change published a report ‘Net Zero: The UK’s Contribution to Stopping Global Warming’ which concluded that ‘net zero is necessary, feasible and cost effective.’

«

Again, it’s from June 2019, but nothing will have changed since then. The letter is pretty devastating in terms of the impossibility that it envisions.
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First case of coronavirus in US detected in traveller from China • NPR

Merrit Kennedy:

»

The first case of an infection with a new coronavirus has been discovered in the United States.

A man from Washington state returned home after a trip to Wuhan, China, on Jan. 15, sought medical attention on Jan. 19 and now is in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington.

State health officials say his condition is quite good and even referred to him as “healthy.” But testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 20th confirm that he is infected with the Wuhan coronavirus. The man arrived back in the U.S. prior to the implementation of screening at three domestic airports on Friday.

About 300 cases of the virus and six deaths have been reported in China, and health officials there and around the world are ramping up precautions to stem the spread.

Chinese authorities are trying to control the flow of people in and out of the eastern city of Wuhan, where a strain of the coronavirus was discovered last month. Wuhan’s mayor has asked residents to stay in the city to try to prevent the spread of the virus, which can cause respiratory symptoms such as pneumonia.

«

So that’s a plane flight, plus four days of him noodling around. Guess we’ll find out how infectious it is.
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Ozone-depleting substances caused half of late 20th-century Arctic warming, says study • EurekAlert! Science News

»

A study published today in Nature Climate Change by researchers at Columbia University examines the greenhouse warming effects of ozone-depleting substances and finds that they caused about a third of all global warming from 1955 to 2005, and half of Arctic warming and sea ice loss during that period. They thus acted as a strong supplement to carbon dioxide, the most pervasive greenhouse gas; their effects have since started to fade, as they are no longer produced and slowly dissolve.

Ozone-depleting substances, or ODS, were developed in the 1920s and ’30s and became popularly used as refrigerants, solvents and propellants. They are entirely manmade, and so did not exist in the atmosphere before this time. In the 1980s a hole in Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer, which filters much of the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun, was discovered over Antarctica. Scientists quickly attributed it to ODS.

The world sprang into action, finalizing a global agreement to phase out ODS. The Montreal Protocol, as it is called, was signed in 1987 and entered into force in 1989. Due to the swift international reaction, atmospheric concentrations of most ODS peaked in the late 20th century and have been declining since. However, for at least 50 years, the climate impacts of ODS were extensive, as the new study reveals.

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YouTube’s algorithms might radicalise people – but the real problem is we’ve no idea how they work • The Conversation

Chico Q. Camargo is a postdoctoral research in data science at the University of Oxford:

»

trying to write laws to regulate what algorithms should or shouldn’t do becomes a blind process or trial and error. This is what is happening with YouTube and with so many other machine learning algorithms. We are trying to have a say in their outcomes, without a real understanding of how they really work. We need to open up these patented technologies, or at least make them transparent enough that we can regulate them.

One way to do this would be for algorithms to provide counterfactual explanations along with their decisions. This means working out the minimum conditions needed for the algorithm to make a different decision, without describing its full logic. For instance, an algorithm making decisions about bank loans might produce an output that says that “if you were over 18 and had no prior debt, you would have your bank loan accepted”. But this might be difficult to do with YouTube and other sites that use recommendation algorithms, as in theory any video on the platform could be recommended at any point.

Another powerful tool is algorithm testing and auditing, which has been particularly useful in diagnosing biased algorithms. In a recent case, a professional resume-screening company discovered that its algorithm was prioritising two factors as best predictors of job performance: whether the candidate’s name was Jared, and if they played lacrosse in high school. This is what happens when the machine goes unsupervised.

In this case, the resume-screening algorithm had noticed white men had a higher chance of being hired, and had found correlating proxy characteristics (such as being named Jared or playing lacrosse) present in the candidates being hired. With YouTube, algorithm auditing could help understand what kinds of videos are prioritised for recommendation – and perhaps help settle the debate about whether YouTube recommendations contribute to radicalisation or not.

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“You’d have been shown a nicer video if you weren’t such an inherently nasty person”, perhaps?
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China to ban single-use plastic bags and straws • Deutsche Weld

Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com):

»

China, one of the world’s biggest producers of plastic waste, is set to introduce a ban on all non-degradable plastic bags and single-use straws in major cities.

As part of a plan to drastically reduce plastic pollution, China’s government said the production and sale of disposable foam and plastic tableware, often used for takeout, and single-use plastic straws used in the catering industry will be banned by the end of the year.

Disposable plastic products should not be “actively provided” by hotels by 2022.

The changes were outlined in a document released on Sunday by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the Environment Ministry. The changes are part of a move to achieve a 30% reduction in non-degradable, disposable tableware for takeout in major cities within five years.

Postal delivery outlets are also targeted in the new guidelines with a ban on non-degradable plastic packaging and disposable plastic woven bags by the end of 2022.

China produced 215 million tons of trash in 2017, according to World Bank figures, which warns that could soar to 500 million tons annually by 2030. However recently Beijing has taken environmental issues more seriously.

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That’s a pretty big step; makes everyone else’s look unambitious.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified

Perhaps you didn’t know, but Children Of Men is set in 2020. CC-licensed photo by sparkynufc_86 on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 11 links for you. Up, up, and away. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

How science fiction imagined the 2020s • OneZero

Tim Maughan:

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that’s the most important thing to consider when evaluating science fiction about the future, whether old or new: to not get bogged down in the details, in the accuracy of its predictions, or whether it seems dated. Making accurate predictions about the future is not only an impossible task for science fiction but also one of its least interesting aims. It’s never really about the future, but the present, is an oft-repeated mantra for good reason: It’s impossible to remove art from the time in which it was created, and as such, stories about the future will obviously reflect the aspirations, concerns, and fears of the period in which they were first told.

Which is why so many themes in 2020s science fiction from the 1980s and ’90s seem to be repeated: A fear of economic collapse and inequality is understandable when your well-being seems tied to fragile cycles of boom-and-bust economies, and it’s not surprising to worry that technology might strip you of political control — or even your humanity — when there seem to be so many new, smaller, more powerful gadgets in the stores every week that you start to lose track. It was also the era when climate change started to make the news for the first time, and while it didn’t find its way into the public consciousness quickly enough, it certainly seemed to have grabbed the interest of science fiction writers.

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Lovely idea, and some fine books among those he examines. (Who’d have thought Rollerball, the film, is set in 2005 but Running Man, the book/film, is set in 2020?)
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Twitter is considering tipping via tweet, new identifiers for trolls and more • Social Media Today

Andrew Hutchinson:

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In a recent interview at CES, Twitter’s head of product Kayvon Beykpour gave an overview of where the company is at, where it’s looking, and what his key priorities are in the role.

One of the more interesting notes within that chat was Beykpour’s thoughts on trolls, and reducing the incentive for anti-social behavior in the app.

“Some prominent incentives that we have: the follower counts, the likes, the retweet, impressions. These mechanics all tend to incentivize content that gets a lot of reach and popularity. And sometimes outrage can get popularity and reach. […] Oftentimes, unhealthy content can get viral more easily precisely because of those mechanics. So one of the things we’ve been thinking about is whether we have the right balance of incentives within the core product experience. Putting our rules aside for a moment, just as an example, there isn’t really a disincentive today to being a total jerk on Twitter. And that’s a product problem.”

To address this, Beykpour noted that there may be a way to disincentivize such behavior through a rating system, similar to those in use by ride-share services.

“If you think about a service like Lyft or Uber, there is a disincentive to be a total jerk. As a passenger, I have a passenger rating. As a driver, I have a driver rating. And there’s an understanding within the marketplace that if you behave a certain way, that your reputation will be impacted in a way that can have adverse consequences.”

Beykpour didn’t necessarily suggest that a similar rating system would work on Twitter, but a “troll score”, which would delineate users based on their past activity, is something that Twitter is considering, at least in some form.

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Unmasking a company that wants to unmask us all • The New York Times

Kashmir Hill on how she learnt more about Clearview, the facial-recognition-of-everyone company:

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The website listed an office address, a few blocks from The Times building in Midtown Manhattan. I walked over, but the address didn’t exist. (The company later told me it was a typo.) Business filings that my colleague, Kitty Bennett, found listed an address for a building on the Upper West Side. When I went there, a doorman told me it was someone’s home and wouldn’t let me go up.

These red flags initially suggested that the technology could be fake, but police officers using the app said that wasn’t the case. (I reached out to the police departments that had turned over public records about Clearview as well as those that had Clearview AI as a line-item on their public municipal budgets.) Detectives in Florida, Texas and Georgia said it worked incredibly well and had helped them solve dozens of cases in just the few short months they had been using it. I wanted to see for myself how well it worked, so I asked a few officers if they would run my photo through the app and show me the results.

And that’s when things got kooky. The officers said there were no results — which seemed strange because I have a lot of photos online — and later told me that the company called them after they ran my photo to tell them they shouldn’t speak to the media. The company wasn’t talking to me, but it was tracking who I was talking to.

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All started from a tipoff. Persistence pays off.
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Why Google thinks we need to regulate AI • Financial Times

Sundar Pichai:

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there is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. It is too important not to. The only question is how to approach it.

That’s why in 2018, Google published our own AI principles to help guide ethical development and use of the technology. These guidelines help us avoid bias, test rigorously for safety, design with privacy top of mind, and make the technology accountable to people. They also specify areas where we will not design or deploy AI, such as to support mass surveillance or violate human rights.

But principles that remain on paper are meaningless. So we’ve also developed tools to put them into action, such as testing AI decisions for fairness and conducting independent human-rights assessments of new products. We have gone even further and made these tools and related open-source code widely available, which will empower others to use AI for good. We believe that any company developing new AI tools should also adopt guiding principles and rigorous review processes.

Government regulation will also play an important role. We don’t have to start from scratch. Existing rules such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation can serve as a strong foundation. Good regulatory frameworks will consider safety, explainability, fairness and accountability to ensure we develop the right tools in the right ways. Sensible regulation must also take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms, especially in high-risk areas, with social opportunities.

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Lots of claims, but zero evidence. How can we audit those guidelines? And how does he distinguish mass surveillance from what Google does with the tracking in its phones? Is it somehow OK because the masses are identified personally?

All in all, it feels like an article that was written by an AI text generator; or, just as likely, someone in Google’s PR division. I’d be surprised if Pichai ever saw it.
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Alphabet CEO backs temporary ban on facial recognition; Microsoft disagrees • Reuters

Foo Yun Chee and John Chalmers:

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While [Sundar] Pichai cited the possibility that the technology could be used for nefarious purposes as a reason for a moratorium, Smith said a ban was akin to using a meat cleaver instead of a scalpel to solve potential problems.

“I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and give a framework for it,” Pichai told a conference in Brussels organized by think-tank Bruegel.

“It can be immediate but maybe there’s a waiting period before we really think about how it’s being used,” he said. “It’s up to governments to chart the course” for the use of such technology.

Smith, who is also Microsoft’s chief legal officer, however cited the benefits of facial recognition technology in some instances such as NGOs using it to find missing children.

“I’m really reluctant to say let’s stop people from using technology in a way that will reunite families when it can help them do it,” Smith said.

“The second thing I would say is you don’t ban it if you actually believe there is a reasonable alternative that will enable us to, say, address this problem with a scalpel instead of a meat cleaver,” he said.

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So he said more definitive things there than in all of that FT article. Smith’s response demonstrates Kranzberg’s First Law of technology: it’s not good or bad, but neither is it neutral. But we also live in a world where a scalpel can be resized into a meat cleaver in a moment.
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Should the world be worried about the coronavirus in China? • The Guardian

Sarah Boseley:

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What are the symptoms caused by the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. Antiviral drugs may be used, but usually only lessen the severity of symptoms. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get breathing support as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Those who have died are known to have been already in poor health.

Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China’s National Health Commission in two cases of infection in Guangdong province, although it does not appear to be happening easily as was the case with Sars. As of 20 January the Chinese authorities had acknowledged 139 cases, double the number previously reported, and three deaths. Modelling carried out by Imperial College experts has suggested there may be more than 1,700 cases. Those that are mild may not be detected at all.

There are fears that the coronavirus may spread more widely and person to person during the Chinese new year holidays at the end of this month, when millions of people travel home to celebrate. At the moment, it appears that people in poor health are at greatest risk, as is always the case with flu. But the authorities will be keen to stop the spread and anxious that the virus will become more potent than so far appears.

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So far, “the authorities” are trying to stop the spread by not being straight about the number of cases – as happened with SARS. Should the world be worried? Yes – but only at arms’ length, for now.
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Vaccines: TikTok video of Cincinnati doctor Nicole Baldwin goes viral • USA Today

Erin Glynn:

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Nicole Baldwin, a paediatrician working in suburban Cincinnati, posted a TikTok video encouraging vaccination on Twitter Saturday evening.

It took less than 24 hours for the video to go viral on both TikTok, a video sharing app, and Twitter – and just another 48 hours before Baldwin was facing backlash from hundreds of thousands of people associated with the anti-vaccine movement.

The video shows Baldwin dancing to “Cupid Shuffle” and pointing to diseases that vaccines prevent. It ends with her pointing to the words “Vaccines don’t cause autism.”

Baldwin, 42, sees social media as a useful way to spread public health information to her patients. She maintains an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, and runs a blog with tips on keeping parents and children well. The Blue Ash, Ohio pediatrician said she created her TikTok account last week because she wanted to reach a different demographic than she does with her other accounts…

…Baldwin reached out to Todd Wolynn, a colleague she had met a couple of months earlier at an event in Columbus and CEO of a pediatric practice in Pittsburgh. Wolynn had dealt with his own intense online backlash from the anti-vaccine movement two years prior and started the organization Shots Heard Round the World as a result.

…Baldwin ended up with 11 people volunteering their services to monitor her social media pages and prevent the spread of inaccurate information about vaccines. By Thursday morning, the volunteers had banned over 5,000 anti-vaccine accounts on Facebook and the angry calls to Baldwin’s office had slowed. By Friday afternoon, Google Reviews had removed all fraudulent reviews of Baldwin’s practice.

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OK, but “hundreds of thousands of people associated with the anti-vaccine moment”? Doubt there are hundreds of thousands. And it’s not a “movement”; it’s an idiocracy, or if we’re being polite, a “grouping”. A movement is going somewhere. These people aren’t.
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TomTom closes deal with Huawei for use of maps and services: spokesman • Reuters

Bart Meijer:

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Dutch navigation and digital mapping company TomTom on Friday said it has closed a deal with China’s Huawei Technologies for the use of its maps and services in smartphone apps.

Huawei was forced to develop its own operating system for smartphones, after it was effectively blacklisted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration last year out of concerns over national security.

This banned Huawei from using Google’s official Android operating system, along with widely used apps such as Google Maps, in new phones.

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Deal was made “some time ago”. TomTom also offers the navigation, though having the map and navigation doesn’t mean you’ve got all you need: points of interest and, crucially, the geocoder. (Highly recommend the geocoder article.)
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It’s time for Google to build a video editor for Chromebooks and Android • Android Police

Corbin Davenport:

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It takes a lot of applications to build an ecosystem. Google has all the essentials down — email, calendar, contacts, productivity applications, and so on — but the company has always struggled with creative tools. Most notably, Google is still lacking a proper video editor for its own operating systems, which is becoming even more of an issue as high-end Chromebooks gain momentum.

Let’s rewind a bit. Back in 2011, Google introduced a new app called ‘Movie Studio,’ as part of the Android Honeycomb update. It was a full-fledged video editor, complete with a timeline, transitions, audio importing, and multi-format exporting. The app turned out to be pretty awful, partially because of the meager hardware in the Motorola XOOM tablet, and also because it never received any significant updates after its introduction. Google never included it with the Nexus 7, and it was removed from AOSP at some later point.

That was more or less the only time Google ever tried to create a video editing application for Android.

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I recall seeing that 2011 video editor being demoed. But of course Android tablets didn’t become A Thing (at least, not a content production Thing). Chromebooks should be capable of doing this now, but lack video acceleration.

And the commenters agree – including Android Police’s own staff, who have even more reason to be frustrated with this missing app (which should just be a feature of any modern OS).
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OnePlus foldable phone: here’s why it hasn’t happened yet • Android Authority

Adamya Sharma:

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OnePlus looked into foldable phones, but CEO Pete Lau is not a believer just yet. The Verge caught up with the OnePlus head on the sidelines of the OnePlus Concept One launch. In a podcast interview with the publication, Lau expressed that OnePlus hasn’t found significant value in making a foldable smartphone just yet.

He believes that the appeal of foldables is “outweighed by the shortcomings or the disadvantages of the current state of the technology.” Lau says he has qualms with the way creases appear on the displays of foldable phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Due to the plastic nature of current foldable displays, the screen can scratch easily and issues can occur at the point where the actual fold happens, Lau explains. “This isn’t something that I can accept in products that are built,” he adds.

Lau says that the technology needs to come to a level where display folds are crisp and don’t impact the potential usability of phones. He even shrugs off the redesigned Moto Razr. The executive says that even though it’s a different implementation, its display faces the same challenges as the Galaxy Fold.

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Love texting? You better skip that new Samsung foldable phone! • SamMobile

“Danny D”:

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This device is going to be a lot more compact than the original Galaxy Fold, even though it fits in your pocket just fine. However, it’s going to represent a challenge for you if you’re the kind of person who just loves texting. Since the cover display is absolutely tiny, you’ll have to unfold the device every single time you want to not only send a text but just to even see it. So if you’re sending out a hundred texts every day, that’s how many times you have to fold and unfold your device, unless you’re keeping it unfolded for extended periods of time. Just don’t sit on it accidentally, then, because you’re not going to like what happens next.

Sure, the Galaxy Flip Z is going to put a big display between the size of 6.7-6.9 inches in your pocket, but leaked photos of the device have shown that the cover display won’t be of much use besides showing notification icons. This isn’t a problem with the original Galaxy Fold. It has a 4.6-inch cover display that’s always accessible when the phone is folded. That’s obviously not possible in the first iteration of a clamshell foldable smartphone.

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I consider myself warned. But I think Samsung might be setting itself up for trouble here. I’ve heard that texting and messaging is quite popular among smartphone users.
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Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: yesterday’s link ranking companies by evilness was from Slate, not The Atlantic. (Thanks, Andrew B.)

Maybe the phones aren’t destroying their brains, a new study suggests. CC-licensed photo by Kyle Mahaney on Flickr.

You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.

A selection of 10 links for you. All linked up. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. Observations and links welcome.

Panicking about your kids’ phones? New research says don’t • The New York Times

Nathaniel Popper:

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some researchers question whether those fears are justified. They are not arguing that intensive use of phones does not matter. Children who are on their phones too much can miss out on other valuable activities, like exercise. And research has shown that excessive phone use can exacerbate the problems of certain vulnerable groups, like children with mental health issues.

They are, however, challenging the widespread belief that screens are responsible for broad societal problems like the rising rates of anxiety and sleep deprivation among teenagers. In most cases, they say, the phone is just a mirror that reveals the problems a child would have even without the phone.

The researchers worry that the focus on keeping children away from screens is making it hard to have more productive conversations about topics like how to make phones more useful for low-income people, who tend to use them more, or how to protect the privacy of teenagers who share their lives online.

“Many of the people who are terrifying kids about screens, they have hit a vein of attention from society and they are going to ride that. But that is super bad for society,” said Andrew Przybylski, the director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute, who has published several studies on the topic.

The new article by Ms. Odgers and Michaeline R. Jensen of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro comes just a few weeks after the publication of an analysis by Amy Orben, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, and shortly before the planned publication of similar work from Jeff Hancock, the founder of the Stanford Social Media Lab. Both reached similar conclusions.

“The current dominant discourse around phones and well-being is a lot of hype and a lot of fear,” Mr. Hancock said.

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The secretive company that might end privacy as we know it • The New York Times

Kashmir Hill:

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Until now, technology that readily identifies everyone based on his or her face has been taboo because of its radical erosion of privacy. Tech companies capable of releasing such a tool have refrained from doing so; in 2011, Google’s chairman at the time said it was the one technology the company had held back because it could be used “in a very bad way.” Some large cities, including San Francisco, have barred police from using facial recognition technology.

But without public scrutiny, more than 600 law enforcement agencies have started using Clearview in the past year, according to the company, which declined to provide a list. The computer code underlying its app, analyzed by The New York Times, includes programming language to pair it with augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every person they saw. The tool could identify activists at a protest or an attractive stranger on the subway, revealing not just their names but where they lived, what they did and whom they knew.

And it’s not just law enforcement: Clearview has also licensed the app to at least a handful of companies for security purposes.

“The weaponization possibilities of this are endless,” said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. “Imagine a rogue law enforcement officer who wants to stalk potential romantic partners, or a foreign government using this to dig up secrets about people to blackmail them or throw them in jail.”

…“With Clearview, you can use photos that aren’t perfect,” Sergeant Ferrara said. “A person can be wearing a hat or glasses, or it can be a profile shot or partial view of their face.”

He uploaded his own photo to the system, and it brought up his Venmo page. He ran photos from old, dead-end cases and identified more than 30 suspects. In September, the Gainesville Police Department paid $10,000 for an annual Clearview license.

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The dam has broken, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Essentially, it’s a viral hit – for police forces. But if it gets into citizens’ hands, things will really get wild.
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EU mulls five-year ban on facial recognition tech in public areas • Reuters

Foo Yun Chee:

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The European Union is considering banning facial recognition technology in public areas for up to five years, to give it time to work out how to prevent abuses, according to proposals seen by Reuters.

The plan by the EU’s executive – set out in an 18-page white paper – comes amid a global debate about the systems driven by artificial intelligence and widely used by law enforcement agencies.

The EU Commission said new tough rules may have to be introduced to bolster existing regulations protecting Europeans’ privacy and data rights.

“Building on these existing provisions, the future regulatory framework could go further and include a time-limited ban on the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces,” the EU document said.

During that ban, of between three to five years, “a sound methodology for assessing the impacts of this technology and possible risk management measures could be identified and developed.”

Exceptions to the ban could be made for security projects as well as research and development, the paper said.

The document also suggested imposing obligations on both developers and users of artificial intelligence and that EU countries should appoint authorities to monitor the new rules.

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Carbon pricing is the winning Republican climate answer • The Washington Post

George P. Shultz and Ted Halstead:

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The newfound Republican climate position can be summarized as follows: The climate problem is real, the Green New Deal is bad and the GOP needs a proactive climate solution of its own. Our big question is what form it should take.

There are essentially three ways to reduce emissions — regulations, subsidies and pricing. The first is the worst of all options for a party committed to free markets and limited government. Many Republican legislators are, therefore, gravitating toward the second option: tax credits and research-and-development spending to promote innovation. Those now introducing legislation along these lines deserve praise.
Republicans are correct to focus on clean-energy innovation as a crucial driver of climate progress. But while subsidies are an important stepping stone in fostering nascent technologies, they are hardly the best way to stimulate innovation across the whole economy.

As numerous studies show, subsidies are a costly means to drive clean tech deployment at scale, requiring ever-higher taxes and deficits to get the job done. [Oh, so deficits are bad if they’re not tax breaks for the rich, then – CA]

The winning Republican climate answer is the third option: carbon pricing. Just as a market-based solution is the Republican policy of choice on most issues, so should it be on climate change. A well-designed carbon fee checks every box of conservative policy orthodoxy. Not surprisingly, this is the favored option of corporate America and economists — including all former Republican chairs of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.

…carbon pricing offers the most cost-effective and fiscally conservative solution and would unlock all facets of clean-energy innovation.

Nevertheless, carbon pricing still encounters opposition among some GOP lawmakers, albeit a shrinking number. They fear that putting a price on carbon could hurt ordinary Americans, grow the size of government and harm the competitiveness of American manufacturers.

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It’s just adorkable that they’ve come round to carbon pricing, and that they think it isn’t a form of regulation. (How do you think the price is set? By government. Who checks businesses/people pay it? The government.) But better late than never.
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Sonos, Tile, and PopSockets lead small companies calling foul on Big Tech • Input Mag

Jazmin Goodwin:

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In a statement on Friday, Chairman David Cicilline of the antitrust subcommittee argued that companies “both large and small, have found themselves dependent on the arbitrary whim of these platform giants, one algorithm tweak away from ruin.”

“Because their decisions are largely unaccountable, opaque, and result in sweeping consequences, the dominant platforms effectively serve as private regulators,” Cicilline said.

First there is Amazon. PopSockets was once a vendor on Amazon, selling on the marketplace for two years — but stopped after a dispute with Amazon over its products. In a lawsuit filed in 2019, the company claimed Amazon was damaging the brand with its selling of “defective, damaged and poor-quality” knock-offs of its product. The year before, Amazon was called out for the flagrance of counterfeit products sold on its platform.

PopSockets CEO David Barnett, who testified before lawmakers today, said prior to the hearing that in 2018 the company spent $7m defending its patents and trademarks. He noted: “Hundreds, sometimes thousands would pop up in a day on eBay, Amazon. “We were probably losing every other sale to fakes.”

Sonos, on the other hand, filed two lawsuits against Google regarding five patents on its speaker technology, according to reports from The New York Times. The company alleged Google copied its wireless speaker design following a 2013 partnership.

Sonos alleges continuous infringements followed, dating back to 2016 after Google’s launch of its Home smart speaker. The audio company also requested a sales ban of Google’s laptops, phones and speakers in the U.S. in an ITC complaint case. Google disputes the claims and, of course, has put on its boxing gloves to fight the lawsuits.

Rumors have surfaced that Apple is developing its own tracking device and Tile is not having it. The two were once partners of sorts; Apple carried Tile products in its stores and online. At one point, back in 2018, Apple worked with one of Tile’s engineers on incorporating Apple’s Siri into Tile’s product line-up. Last year, the company stopped selling its product in Apple Stores.

Tile also claims that Apple’s iOS 13 Bluetooth and location tracking device and “Find Me” has a strong resemblance to Tile’s service offerings. Apple claims otherwise.

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Tile has the least strong claim here, given that Apple hasn’t made anything that competes with it – yet. Sonos and PopSockets have real problems, though.
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Joe Biden in conversation with the NYT • The New York Times

Joe Biden, talking to the NYT:

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I’ve been in the view that not only should we be worrying about the concentration of power, we should be worried about the lack of privacy and them being exempt, which you’re not exempt. [The Times] can’t write something you know to be false and be exempt from being sued. But he can. The idea that it’s a tech company is that Section 230 should be revoked, immediately should be revoked, number one. For Zuckerberg and other platforms.Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act says that online platforms aren’t held liable for things their users post on them, with some exceptions. In July, The Times’s Sarah Jeong weighed in on proposed updates to Section 230, arguing that “we should reopen the debate on C.D.A. 230 only because so much of the internet has changed,” but “the discourse will be improved if we all take a moment to actually read the text of C.D.A. 230.”

Charlie Warzel: That’s a pretty foundational laws of the modern internet.

That’s right. Exactly right. And it should be revoked. It should be revoked because it is not merely an internet company. It is propagating falsehoods they know to be false, and we should be setting standards not unlike the Europeans are doing relative to privacy. You guys still have editors. I’m sitting with them. Not a joke. There is no editorial impact at all on Facebook. None. None whatsoever. It’s irresponsible. It’s totally irresponsible.

CW: If there’s proven harm that Facebook has done, should someone like Mark Zuckerberg be submitted to criminal penalties, perhaps?

He should be submitted to civil liability and his company to civil liability, just like you would be here at The New York Times.

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Section 230 is coming under subtle but sustained attack from a number of American politicians, who don’t like the way it gets internet companies off all sorts of hooks. As the interview goes on, it’s clear that Biden really doesn’t like Silicon Valley.
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Instagram drops IGTV button, but only 1% downloaded the app • TechCrunch

Josh Constine:

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At most, 7 million of Instagram’s 1 billion-plus users have downloaded its standalone IGTV app in the 18 months since launch. And now, Instagram’s main app is removing the annoying orange IGTV button from its home page in what feels like an admission of lackluster results. For reference, TikTok received 1.15 billion downloads in the same period since IGTV launched in June 2018. In just the US, TikTok received 80.5 million downloads compared to IGTV’s 1.1 million since then, according to research commissioned by TechCrunch from Sensor Tower.

To be fair, TikTok has spent huge sums on install ads. But while long-form mobile video might gain steam as the years progress, Instagram hasn’t seemed to crack the code yet.

“As we’ve continued to work on making it easier for people to create and discover IGTV content, we’ve learned that most people are finding IGTV content through previews in Feed, the IGTV channel in Explore, creators’ profiles and the standalone app. Very few are clicking into the IGTV icon in the top right corner of the home screen in the Instagram app” a Facebook company spokesperson tells TechCrunch.

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It’s dead, Jim. Creators still can’t earn money directly with videos on IGTV, which is a problem for them.
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Opera: phantom of the turnaround – 70% downside • Hindenburg Research

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Summary: Opera went public in mid-2018 based largely on prospects for its core browser business. Now, its browser market share is declining rapidly, down ~30% since its IPO.
• Browser gross margins have collapsed by 22.6% in just one year. Opera has swung to negative $12 million in LTM operating cash flow, compared to positive cash flow of $32 million for the comparable 2018 period.
• Opera was purchased by a China-based investor group prior to its IPO. The group’s largest investor and current Opera Chairman/CEO was recently involved in a Chinese lending business that listed in the U.S. and saw its shares plunge more than 80% in just 2 years amid allegations of fraud and illegal lending practices.
• Post IPO, Opera has now also made a similar and dramatic pivot into predatory short-term loans in Africa and India, deploying deceptive ‘bait and switch’ tactics to lure in borrowers and charging egregious interest rates ranging from ~365-876%.
• Most of Opera’s lending business is operated through apps offered on Google’s Play Store. In August, Google tightened rules to curtail predatory lending and, as a result, Opera’s apps are now in black and white violation of numerous Google rules.
• Given that the vast majority of Opera’s loans are disbursed through Android apps, we think this entire line of business is at risk of disappearing or being severely curtailed when Google notices.

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This is really skeevy behaviour by Opera. Fingers crossed that Google bans all those apps by later today. Also: who on earth buys shares in a browser company? Between this and Mozilla, life’s not looking good for companies reliant on browsers. (In passing, you’ve got to be really brave to brand yourself with “Hindenburg”, but I guess once you’ve got established, people will remember the name.)
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The Evil List: Which tech companies are doing the most harm? • The Atlantic

:

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The tech industry doesn’t intoxicate us like it did just a few years ago. Keeping up with its problems—and its fixes, and its fixes that cause new problems—is dizzying. Separating out the meaningful threats from the noise is hard. Is Facebook really the danger to democracy it looks like? Is Uber really worse than the system it replaced? Isn’t Amazon’s same-day delivery worth it? Which harms are real and which are hypothetical? Has the techlash gotten it right? And which of these companies is really the worst? Which ones might be, well, evil?

We don’t mean evil in the mustache-twirling, burn-the-world-from-a-secret-lair sense—well, we mostly don’t mean that—but rather in the way Googlers once swore to avoid mission drift, respect their users, and spurn short-term profiteering, even though the company now regularly faces scandals in which it has violated its users’ or workers’ trust. We mean ills that outweigh conveniences. We mean temptations and poison pills and unanticipated outcomes.

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A list compiled by asking journalists, scholars, advocates and others. Some surprises, some completely-as-expected. Welcome to the Decade of Disillusion.
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USB 3.0* radio frequency interference impact on 2.4 ghz wireless devices • Intel

From April 2012:

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As previously shown in Figure 2-2, the noise from USB 3.0 data spectrum can be high (in the 2.4–2.5 GHz range). This noise can radiate from the USB 3.0 connector on a PC platform, the USB 3.0 connector on the peripheral device or the USB 3.0 cable. If the antenna of a wireless device operating in this band is placed close to any of the above USB 3.0 radiation channels, it can pick up the broadband noise. The broadband noise emitted from a USB 3.0 device can affect the SNR [signal to noise ratio] and limit the sensitivity of any wireless receiver whose antenna is physically located close to the USB 3.0 device. This may result in a drop in throughput on the wireless link.

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One of the examples is that a hard drive plugged into a USB 3 socket could make a wireless mouse’s response lag if it’s three feet or more from the wireless receiver.

What sort of mad mess is USB 3? Is this some plot by the makers of tinfoil? And yes, the problem is still ongoing. If you’ve got problems with your wireless mouse, this could feasibly be why. (Via the latest Accidental Tech Podcast.)
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