I was recently reading an article on CNN Business about the Trump Administrations ongoing efforts to secure a new buyer for the Chinese owned apps TikTok and WeChat. Trump has threatened to completely ban the app fro the United States for data security reasons. He has given the apps 45 days to find a US buyer before he follows through with a ban.

Writers James Griffiths and Selina Wang of CNN report, “… Trump has accused the app of capturing “vast swaths of information from its users,” such as location data and browsing and search histories, which “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.’ “(Griffiths/Wang, 2020).

Though these claims may be true, the apps in question do not gather significantly more data than most other social media apps in the United States. I think that the reason that these apps pose so much of a concern is because the Chinese company that owns WeChat, Tenecent, is know to have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party.(Griffiths/Wang, 2020). It is fair to say that the Trump administration should be worried about user data being shared with the Chinese Communist Party purely based on national security reasons.

Opposers of the ban claim that it is not the government’s job to censor or block foreign services on the internet. They claim that this infringes on their rights and is borderline unconstitutional.

Internet governance is somewhat of a new concept and it has a lot of grey areas in terms of what the government should and should not do to protect user information. I would like to hear, What do you think the Trump administration should do? Is it their job to ban Chinese apps? Are TikTok and WeChat dangerous to use?

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/tech/tiktok-wechat-security-us-china-intl-hnk/index.html

In our consumption of media, we are given the illusion of choice.

Back in 1983, upwards of 50 companies owned 90% of the media in America. Today, that number is down to six. These “Big 6” corporations (Comcast, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS) control almost all of what we watch, read, or listen to.

You may think that because you watch a different channel or read a different news article than your friend you are getting a more trustworthy report, but the reality is, what you are consuming is controlled by these same six companies. Some of you might think this is a non-issue, but when 90% of what we consume comes from only six companies, how can we ever trust that what they are telling us? That’s why now more than ever, it is so important to fact check and do your own research before believing it as an absolute truth.

https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

I have a google home in my room at my apartment. We also have one in the living room as well in all of my other roommates rooms. I think it’s fair to say that anywhere I go in my apartment I am within earshot of one of these devices at all times. I would assume that Google is only listening when we say “Hey Google”. But, if it is listening at all times should we be concerned? This is something I was curious about.

I think we all have experienced whenever we talk about a product we would like to get to one of our friends and then all of a sudden there is a million adds on your phone for that product. That has become the new normal and people don’t even seem to question it anymore. The only reasonable explanation is that these home devices are listening at all times and searching for keywords to sell to companies so they can advertise on our platforms. That is kind of a scary thought to me, I don’t know about anyone else.

Google almost acknowledges these risks that a smart device can bring into your home. They suggest doing things like muting the microphone while not in use, deleting voice recordings, turn off internet to it when not in use, etc. It is unsettling to me that these devices don’t come with features like auto voice recording deletion turned on. But, I guess if you have nothing to hide then you are okay.

All in all, if you are comfortable with a big company knowing what you are talking about and they selling that information to other big companies the enjoy these home devices. Most people just say “I don’t have anything to hide” when talking about these devices listening in. I think that’s a very fair thing to say. As long as you know the consequences and risks of these devices then you shouldn’t stop using them. It seems that as long as it is connected to a safe internet connection and you follow some basic cyber security tips you are more than okay.

Source:

https://www.safety.com/google-home-safety/

It has been 3 years since Microsoft has given us a new console. That had changed a couple months ago when they announced they were going to release a new generation of consoles. This announcement from Microsoft came without pictures of the console or what the price point would be. Last night however there was a leak of these new consoles which forced the company to make the announcement of these console, it seems, earlier than intended.

It was leaked on Monday night the Series S and Series X would could $299 and $499 respectively. The main difference between the two seems to be that the Series S doesn’t have the capability to play games in 4K and it lacks a CD drive, so all games must be downloaded virtually. Sony and Microsoft both have been stuck at 60 FPS on all of their consoles for several years but it seems that trend is going away. Both consoles are supposed to be able to plan games in up to 120 FPS. This is giving console gamers now an opportunity to compete with PC gamers when it comes to frames.

Beyond the specs and the next generation of consoles, it is really unfortunate what happened to Microsoft last night into this morning. Being forced into announcing a product to the public before you had planned on it can not be a good feeling. And this is all because some person got the leak and leaked it to the public. Microsoft seemed to be in good spirits about the entire thing though. Whenever the tweet was released announcing the leak this is how Microsoft responded.

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It is an exciting time though with these new pieces of technology being able to do things that have never been done before. Even if they company was forced to announce it week before its plans.

Source:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/7/21426800/xbox-series-s-price-design-photo-leak-lockhart

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, applications like google maps have had to make changes to the ways in which the program uses data. According to Todd Haselton of CNBC, once lockdowns began “Google found global traffic dropped 50%” (Haselton). This has led the company to look at newer traffic models. Google has now changed its traffic data to “prioritize traffic patterns from the last two to four weeks.” This is a drastic change from the application’s older model where Google estimated arrival time based upon years of live traffic data, which had shown to be accurate for “over 97% of trips worldwide” (Haselton).

Overall, I think this article does a great job displaying how companies use and manipulate data is always changing. Instead of continuing to use data that had been accurate in the past years, Google had to adapt and use practically real-time data. Likewise, I am particularly interested to see how the company decides to use this information going forward. Once the world starts moving towards a new normal, will this data still be of value as people start heading back to offices for work? Also, will google revert back to using pre-pandemic data? I think this pandemic will bring some flaws/problems to traffic data for Google Maps in the future.

Ultimately, this must be a difficult time for Google Maps as they are forced to rely on very new information to make projections for their users. How do you think Google will utilize the pandemic traffic data moving forward?

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/03/covid-19-forced-google-maps-to-change-how-it-predicts-traffic.html

Autonomous vehicles are becoming an inevitable part of the world’s future. According to a CNBC article, China plans to roll out “large-scale commercialization of self-driving taxis in 2023” (Kharpal). AutoX, is currently the company behind the hardware and software development for self-driving vehicles. The Chinese firm launched its “robotaxi” project last month, as “the company opened its robotaxi service to the public in Shanghai” (Kharpal). To schedule a ride, customers use the affiliated Amap app. Currently, China appears it has the chance to become “the world’s largest market for autonomous vehicles”, as it is forecasted that autonomous cars will “account for as much as 66% of the kilometers traveled by passengers in 2040” (Kharpal).

I personally am both intimidated and excited that this kind of technology is planning to arrive in the near future in different parts of the world. This is definitely very exciting as autonomous vehicles are slowly proving to be safer than the typical human-controlled car that many of us drive today. I believe over time, autonomous cars will make the highways and roads of the world much more secure. However, as the world is only in the early stages of this technology, I am anxious about the upcoming launches of these vehicles. I feel if some sort of malfunction happens with this technology, it can be scary knowing that you have limited control over the vehicle. Although, if the technology proves to be safer for passengers, I believe this will help humans be more productive. The world could direct that time they would be driving a car into completing other tasks while on the way to their destination.

Overall, I would not be want to be involved in the early stages/launches of this technology. Once autonomous cars prove their safety over several years, I will be more willing to ride in one.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/07/china-driverless-car-firms-see-robotaxis-scaling-up-in-3-years.html

Telemedicine, the remote treatment and monitoring of patients, has been around for several years now, but it has never really became something that everyone used – until COVID-19. Over the course of the last few months, telemedicine has become a primary source of care for many. “Telehealth is bridging the gap between people, physicians and health systems, enabling everyone, especially symptomatic patients, to stay at home and communicate with physicians through virtual channels, helping to reduce the spread of the virus to mass populations and the medical staff on the frontlines,” said CEO and co-founder of Tyto Care, Dedi Gilad. Gilad’s statement touches on the importance of telemedicine with the pandemic, as with this method, people are able to limit close contact with others, all from the comfort of their homes.

Although telemedicine is on the rise now because of the pandemic, due to its’ convenience, don’t expect it to go away any time soon.

https://medicalfuturist.com/covid-19-was-needed-for-telemedicine-to-finally-go-mainstream/

The Amazon Halo is Amazon’s new fitness band. The device is able to track sleep patterns, physical activity, temperature, body fat, and emotional tone, which seems especially interesting. The band looks pretty similar to that of Fitbit’s, and has similar features, aside from the body fat measurement and voice analysis.

Image Source: Amazon

Believing that body fat is a better indicator of health and wellbeing than weight loss, Amazon implemented the body fat percentage measurement into the device. In order to use the feature, all you have to do is take photos of your body with your smartphone, and the app connected to the fitness band will calculate the body fat and produce a 3D image of your body. According to CNET, “The app requires you to wear minimal form-fitting clothing and trust Amazon to take a picture of you wearing it” (Stein, Orellana). Many people might feel awkward or uncomfortable by doing this, in fear of privacy violations. But, Amazon provided some reassurance by claiming “‘the images are processed in the cloud, but encrypted in transit and processed within seconds, after which they’re automatically deleted from Amazon’s systems and databases… the scan images aren’t viewed by anyone at Amazon and aren’t used for machine learning optimizations’” (Stein, Orellana).

The new voice tone analysis might also be an area of concern for privacy. This feature analyzes conversations and provides information on how you sound when talking to others. Again, Amazon claims “it’s not intended to analyze the content of your conversation, just the tone of your delivery” (Stein, Orellana), but I still wouldn’t be too comfortable with the device hearing every word of every conversation I have. This feature was added to help improve one’s tone and style of speaking.

By releasing this product, Amazon is providing a much more interesting and in depth way of tracking physical health. However, I’m not too sure about how accurate and reliable some of the band’s features are, specifically the body fat measurement and the voice tone analysis. There are also many questions and concerns that arise when it comes to privacy with this device.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-halo-fitness-tracker-thatll-measure-body-fat-with-your-phone-camera/

With a worldwide pandemic going on, numerous healthcare workers are understandably hesitant or unwilling to take care of Covid-19 patients in-person. To solve the issue, researchers from MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Boston Dynamics got together in order to create remote-controlled robots to act as nurses. According to an MIT News article, researcher, Henwei Huang, believed it was possible for “‘a robot to remove the health care worker from the risk of directly exposing themselves to the patient’” (Trafton).

The way the robot is designed makes it look almost like a dog. It has four cameras attached of which one is an infrared camera and the other three are monochrome cameras. These cameras as well as algorithms made by the researchers allow the robot to measure vital signs such as heart rate, temperature, and blood-oxygen levels while maintaining a 2 meter distance.

Image Source: MIT News

As of now, to test their capabilities, these robots have been used to measure vital signs of non-covid patients. But, the researchers plan on having the robots start measuring vitals on symptomatic patients. Hopefully, if all goes well, more and more robots can be produced and begin taking vitals of covid patients in hospitals. This would keep many healthcare workers out of harm’s way, consequently decreasing the spread of the virus while making more people feel safe. In addition, once the coronavirus becomes less predominant (hopefully), these robots can be useful for patients with other illnesses. Overall, by being able to control these robots and monitor their measurements of patients, doctors and nurses would benefit immensely while patients will still be cared for effectively. 

Source: https://news.mit.edu/2020/spot-robot-vital-signs-0831

The fight against climate change has been an ongoing battle throughout the world. But, recently, a 3D-printed aluminum device was created by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to help solve this issue. Specifically, the device absorbs carbon dioxide through the use of solvents. Heat is then produced as they make contact, transforming the gas to a liquid. According to ORNL’s article on SciTechDaily, manufacturing researcher, Lonnie Love, claims, “‘additive manufacturing methods like 3D printing are often cost-effective over time because it takes less effort and energy to print a part versus traditional manufacturing methods’” (SciTechDaily). Therefore, it seems as though it would be fairly easy to mass produce these devices, overall effectively fighting against the dangers of climate change.

I wonder if and how, over time, researchers will improve this device to make it even more effective in capturing carbon dioxide, and possibly other greenhouse gases. Right now, the devices seem quite small (with a diameter of 20.3 cm, height of 14.6 cm, and a 0.6 L volume), so it’d be cool if they can be designed to be bigger in order to catch a greater amount of gas. I’m also excited to see what other technological advances can be thought of and made to reduce climate change and better the environment as a whole. 

Source:

https://scitechdaily.com/3d-printed-device-enhances-capture-of-carbon-dioxide-emissions/