Author: Rob Burdett

Tech Tip – Windows 10 – Using The ‘My People’ Feature

Posted on by Rob Burdett

The ‘My People’ feature in Windows 10 provides a handy way for you to access all your favourite contacts from your taskbar using the inbuilt settings and account that is linked with the email that you have used in your Windows.

Here’s how to activate the feature:

1-Check whether your taskbar has the “people” icon there or not.
2-If it’s not there, click on the “Settings” icon on your windows and then select “personalise“.
3-Click on the option taskbar and activate the option “Show contacts on the taskbar“.
4-Click on the people icon on your taskbar, and then click on the option “Get started” to make the ‘my people’ panel appear.
5-Select the apps that you want to integrate with to get the contacts (these apps will be displayed).
6-Once you have selected the account, click on “Find people and add” and then select the people you want to add to your taskbar.
7-You can then add multiple contacts in your taskbar, and also pin and unpin them from the taskbar.

Facebook Ads That Target Your Beliefs

Posted on by Rob Burdett

In a new trial involving a small number of users in the UK, Facebook has said that it will be testing the targeting of adverts based on users’ specific political and religious beliefs.

Why?

According to Facebook, the trial will help the social media platform to process and manage its customer data, so that it will be in a better position to ensure compliance with GDPR when it comes into force in May this year.

The severity of the fines associated with the enforcement of GDPR for large companies such as Facebook e.g. a fine for a breach of up to €20 million or 4% of their global annual turnover, whichever is greater, is likely to be a big motivator behind a trial that could improve how Facebook processes and stores data.

How Could Targeting Adverts This Way Be Of Help?

The trial appears to be using adverts for consenting participants to focus on testing and improving how the company handles the required greater consent from data subjects that GDPR will bring, and to ensure that sensitive data is better protected.

One other important result of the trial will be to enable the testing of facial recognition. Facebook is exploring how it can successfully give users an opt-in for facial recognition, which will form part of a measure to stop online impersonations by informing users whenever their faces have been used elsewhere on the site.

The Trial

It has been reported that the trial will work by first asking a number of UK users for permission to allow advertisers to target them on the basis of their political and religious beliefs, and their listed interests.

It is understood that Facebook will also ask users whether they are happy for their public information that identifies them (e.g. their faith and politics) to remain visible for everyone and, if permission is given, Facebook will provide an opt-in for allowing the information to be used to personalise content, and also act as one of the signals for relevant suggesting ads. This will include targeted advertising based upon things like politics, sexuality and faith.

Worries

Some people have expressed fear that opting-in to elements of the trial could enable extremists to use targeted advertising for recruitment propaganda. Facebook has denied this.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story is more proof that the seriousness of the implications of GDPR is hitting home, particularly with those companies that stand to lose in a big way if they are found not to be compliant. Although the subject of targeted advertising is an emotive one that can make us feel a bit uneasy as Internet users in terms of privacy, it is at least good news that this Facebook trial could lead to better protection of our personal data by a platform that arguably knows more about us than most.

With X-day now past this story should be another reminder that its time for companies everywhere to think about double-checking that their own systems and procedures will be GDPR compliant.

Location Based Marketing … Creepy?

Posted on by Rob Burdett

MoviePass CEO, Mitch Lowe, has caused controversy by telling the Hollywood audience at the Entertainment Finance Forum that his MoviePass app can track and gather information about users before and after their trip to the movies.

What Is MoviePass?

MoviePass, based in New York, offers a service whereby, for a flat monthly fee ($9.95 per month), users can go and watch unlimited number of movies in cinemas, with some restrictions. It could be described as a kind of Netflix for moviegoers.

Location Tracking

According to the MoviePass CEO, the company’s app has location-tracking built-in. What some commentators have described as ‘creepy’ though is that the app can track your movements long before and after you’ve been to watch a movie.

Why?

What MoviePass prefers to call ‘location-based marketing’ is reportedly being used to improve the customer’s experience of the service and create more opportunities for subscribers to enjoy all the various elements of what the company thinks make up a good movie night. The company says that by tracking customers and gathering data along the way, it can “create a full-featured movie-going experience”.

How?

The big idea is that subscribers may want refreshments before or after the movie, and may have to travel some distance to the cinema. By knowing a subscriber’s location and route, MoviePass can then, via the phone app, give the subscriber details like discounts on transportation, finding places to park nearby, coupons for nearby restaurants, and other similar opportunities.

What Kind Of Data Is Gathered?

According to online reporting of CEO Lowe’s speech, as well as your location, the MoviePass app is also capable of gathering “an enormous amount of information,” which includes your address, which Mr. Lowe says can be used for demographic information.

Criticism

What MoviePass may see as a kind of personalised, helpful marketing idea, critics appear to see as a potentially dangerous invasion of privacy that could have security consequences for MoviePass subscribers.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Using new technology to improve marketing and customer experiences is all very well, but the point here is that customers need to be informed exactly what happens to their data, what is collected by the app, how it’s stored and for how long. This will enable them to make an informed choice, give consent, or decline. In a time when cyber-crime and data mismanagement and theft appear to be rife, customers value their privacy and data security more than ever. Companies need to be transparent about their intentions and methods, and need to be able to show customers that they can be trusted with their valuable personal data.

Also, in this case, it appeared to come as a shock about the capabilities of the app, and to some commentators, it may have appeared to be an inappropriate way and style to reveal what the app is capable of. This is likely to prompt complaints from some customers, and could harm the reputation of MoviePass.

If you are worried about the security implications of apps of this kind, for example, you could try to limit location data collection by going into your phone’s app settings. One other, obvious way to avoid any problems with the app would be to avoid MoviePass for now.

The introduction of GDPR in May this year is also likely to have implications for how MoviePass deals with the data of any EU citizen subscribers, as the company will need to comply with the new Regulation.

One Hour To Take Down Illegal Content

Posted on by Rob Burdett

New measures by the EU will mean that technology companies will have as little as just one hour to take down illegal and terror content, or face penalties under new legislation.

Why Only One Hour?

The new measure, which has reportedly been met with dismay by the big tech companies such as Google and Facebook (who will arguably be most seriously affected), is focused mainly on terror-related content. The logic is that because terrorist content is considered to be most harmful in the first hours of its appearance online, all companies will, therefore, be required to remove such content within only one hour from its referral, as a general rule.

Other illegal content that is being targeted by the new measures includes incitement to hatred and violence, child sexual abuse material, counterfeit products and copyright infringement content.

3 Months To Report Back

As well as the news that tech companies must remove the most serious content within one hour, the EC has also announced that any tech company that is responsible for people posting content online will have only three months from now to report back to the EU on what they were doing to meet the new targets it has set.

Operational Measures

The EC recommendations are that a set of operational measures will be used to ensure faster detection and removal of illegal content online, to reinforce the cooperation between companies, trusted flaggers and law enforcement authorities, and to increase transparency and safeguards for citizens. These operational measures will be:

  • Clearer ‘notice and action’ procedures. Companies should set out easy and transparent rules for notifying illegal content. These should include fast-track procedures for ‘trusted flaggers’. Also, to avoid unintended removal of content which is not illegal, content providers should be informed about such decisions and have the opportunity to contest them.
  • More efficient tools and proactive technologies. This means that companies should set out clear notification systems for users. These should include proactive tools to detect and remove illegal content, in particular for terrorism-related content and for content which does not need contextualisation to be deemed illegal, such as child sexual abuse material or counterfeited goods.
  • Stronger safeguards to ensure rights. To ensure that decisions to remove content are accurate and well-founded, companies should put in place effective and appropriate safeguards. These should include human oversight and verification, in full respect of fundamental rights, freedom of expression and data protection rules.
  • Special attention to small companies. The technology industry should, through voluntary arrangements, cooperate and share experiences, best practices and technological solutions, and this shared responsibility should particularly benefit smaller platforms with more limited resources and expertise.
  • Closer cooperation with authorities. If there is evidence of a serious criminal offence or a suspicion that illegal content is posing a threat to life or safety, companies will be required to promptly inform law enforcement authorities, and EC Member States should establish the appropriate legal obligations.

The recommendations are in addition to on-going work with the technology industry through voluntary initiatives to ensure that the internet is free of illegal content, and are intended to reinforce actions taken under different initiatives.

Response From The Tech Industry

Although Facebook has said that it shares the European Commission’s goal, the industry association EDiMA, (which includes Facebook, Google, and Twitter) has stressed that the one-hour turn-around time could harm the effectiveness of service providers’ take-down systems rather than help.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

As the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip has pointed out, online platforms have become many people’s main gateway to information. For this reason, and if we accept that what is illegal offline is also illegal online, many people feel that these widely used technology platfoms now have a responsibility to provide a secure environment for their users. Many businesses are advertisers on these platforms, and are likely to share a desire to rid them of illegal content.

While some popular tech platforms have continued to resist what some see as too much censorship, interference, or over-regulation, the frequency and severity of terrorist attacks in Europe and the role and influence of platforms in spreading information, true or false (e.g. the US election) has given governments the fuel, impetus, and feeling of justification to try and apply more force to tech companies. The EC’s view is that the spread of illegal content online undermines the trust of citizens in the Internet and poses security threats, and the new operational measures could, along with any self-regulation, speed up the process of clearing illegal content.

The scale and frequency of illegal content posting has posed serious cost and resources challenges to tech platforms in recent years.

Dropbox Integrates With Google Cloud and G-Suite

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Dropbox has announced that it is now one step closer to delivering a unified home for work by forming a new partnership with Google Cloud that will integrate G-Suite in its cloud storage.

What Was The Problem?

Dropbox had been looking for ways to respond to the need for users to be able to make projects easier to manage, centralise their frequently used files and information, and reduce the time wasted in having to swap between files and bits of work scattered across storage buckets, apps, and devices. The company is also looking for new ways to compete in a crowded cloud storage market.

The new integration that the partnership will deliver to all Dropbox users will mean that they can use Dropbox to create, open, and edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files live. It will also mean that Business Administrators will be able to manage Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files like any other content that resides in Dropbox.

With a G Suite made accessible, no matter what tools users bring to work, Dropbox and Google customers will be able to better collaborate with their frequently used tools.

Additional Native G Suite Integrations

As well as being able to use Google Docs and files in Dropbox, users will also be able to benefit from additional native G Suite integrations e.g. with Gmail and Hangouts Chat. This could help teams to stay connected with project content and the conversations around it. The Gmail add-on will allow users to display the dates of creation, modification, and last-accessed for linked files, and the Hangouts integration will bring previews for linked files directly to chats.

When Is It Available?

The new Dropbox, Google Cloud and G-Suite integration will be made available to Dropbox customers in the second half of 2018.

One of Many Collaborations For Dropbox

This is one of many collaborations with leading brands for Dropbox in recent times. For example, Dropbox has formed partnerships with Adobe Creative Cloud and its Adobe XD, Microsoft, Apple, and Workplace by Facebook.

Answer To Competition

The latest partnership with Google is another way that Dropbox can fight back against some fierce competition from the likes of Microsoft. For example, Microsoft is reported to have been trying to lure users of cloud services from Box, Dropbox and Alphabet’s Google Drive by giving them its competitive product ‘OneDrive for Business’ for free until their current contract expires. Microsoft will be running the promotional switching offer for the next five months.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses that collaborate online and need to centralise stored documents, this latest partnership is likely to be good news. The promise of centralised content, secure collaboration, and more effective communication through platforms that are already in popular use for many businesses could bring cost and time savings, reduce wastage and frustration, and could improve competitiveness by simplifying things.

All the collaborations between Dropbox and other leading brands could be particularly beneficial to small businesses that will be able to more easily access files, documents and other types of data they need on a daily basis.

Also, this good news about Dropbox can only be helpful in making some headway in restoring trust and helping customers to forget about the bad news from last September when it was revealed that the usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords of an astonishing 68 million customers, stolen in a hack back in 2012 had re-surfaced in a leak.

Blockchain Used To Reduce Child Labour

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Blockchain Used To Reduce Child Labour Blockchain, the same technology that powers the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is being tested in a pilot project between car-maker BMW and start-up Circulor with a view to eliminating battery minerals produced using child labour.

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way. Blockchain’s Co-Founder Nic Carey describes Blockchain as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”.

Battery Mineral Problem

The pilot between BMW and Circulor is focusing on reducing child labour by finding a way to avoid using any cobalt that is mined in unregulated artisanal mines in Democratic Republic of Congo. At the moment one fifth of cobalt is mined in a way that often uses child labour.

How Can Blockchain Help?

The pilot project is using Blockchain to help provide a way to prove that artisanal miners are not using child labour in their cobalt mining activities.

Each bag of cobalt produced by an artisanal miner will be given a digital tag. This tag will be entered into Blockchain using a mobile phone. The details of the digital tag will then be entered by each link in the chain of buyers, thereby providing a clear, verifiable trail, all the way from miner to smelter. Since Blockchain is ‘incorruptible’, provided all organizations throughout the supply chain will be involved in the project, the Blockchain evidence should be accurate.

Challenges

Challenges to the system being tested in the pilot could include cobalt mined by a child could simply being mixed in with ‘clean’ cobalt prior to processing.

Used In Similar Industries

There is every reason to think that Blockchain could help with ethical cobalt mining and supply because it has been used in a similar way by the diamond industry to provide a forgery-proof record of a diamond’s lifecycle.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The Blockchain technology has always shown huge promise, beyond simply being used in digital currencies. One of its key strengths is that trust is embedded into the incorruptible system. This means that businesses can use it to categorically prove a certain source and route for e.g. delivery, raw materials or production. This could be particularly valuable to businesses where provenance of some kind is necessary to add to the monetary, ethical or other value of a product or service.

After first being used in the financial, legal and public sectors, Blockchain is now being used by businesses and organisations around the world in many other different ways such as:

  • Using the data on a Blockchain ledger to record the temperature of sensitive medicines being transported from manufacturers to hospitals in hot climates. The ‘incorruptible’ aspect of the Blockchain data gives a clear record of care and responsibility along the whole supply chain.
  • Using an IBM-based Blockchain ledger to record data about wine certification, ownership and storage history. This has helped to combat fraud in the industry and has provided provenance and re-assurance to buyers.
  • Shipping Company Maersk using a Blockchain-based system for tracking consignments that addresses visibility and efficiency i.e. digitising a formerly paper-based process that involved multiple interactions.
  • Start-up company ‘Electron’ building a Blockchain-based system for sharing information between those involved in supplying energy which could speed up and simplify the supplier switching process. It may also be used for smart grid processes, such as local load-balancing of supply and demand.
  • Australian start-up Zimrii developing a Blockchain-based service that allows independent musicians to sell downloads to fans, distribute the proceeds between collaborators, and allow interaction with managers.

Blockchain still has huge untapped potential for all kinds of businesses and could represent a major opportunity to improve services, and effectively tackle visibility, transparency and efficiency issues.

Tech Tip – Prevent Travel Bag Laptop Battery Wake-Up

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Sometimes your laptop can spring into life while still in your travel bag. This can drain the battery. Here’s how to prevent it from happening.

On a PC running Windows 10, change the behaviour of the system so that closing the lid causes the system to hibernate instead of sleeping. This means that the system won’t start-up until you instruct it to.

  1. Open Control Panel (or use the search box on the taskbar).
  2. Search for Power Options – this will open the dialog box.
  3. From the list of links on the left, click ‘Choose what closing the lid does’. Every modern laptop should have the option to define settings for ‘When I close the lid’.
  4. Change the behaviour under ‘On Battery to Hibernate’ and then save your changes.

Amazon’s $1 Billion ‘Smart Doorbell’ Purchase

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Amazon has paid $1 billion for ‘Ring’, a smart doorbell company, so that it can improve how it delivers parcels, and compete with Google and Apple in expanding the opportunities for their digital assistants and app ecosystems.

What Is Ring?

Ring, run by CEO Jamie Siminoff, is a US company that primarily manufactures ‘smart doorbells’. These doorbells work by recording live videos of customers’ doorsteps, then sending the videos to their smartphones.

Filming Couriers

There are obvious security benefits for customers from an innovative IoT product of this kind. In this case however, there is also a big benefit for Amazon in helping its customers trust its new service which allows couriers open people’s front doors and put deliveries inside. The new service, which was first announced in October last year, requires a leap of faith from customers, as they have to trust couriers to enter their premises unaccompanied to deliver parcels (while being filmed).

In the original plans for the service, smart locks and Cloud Cam cameras were to be used to monitor couriers who would scan a package barcode outside the door, and once the delivery has been verified online, the camera would record the delivery person unlock the door (using an app) and making the delivery. The purchase of ‘Ring’ enables Amazon to acquire the system to operate this service effectively in the marketplace very soon.

Part Of A Bigger Battle

The purchase of Ring for $1 billion is further serious evidence of Amazon competing with multiple rivals for all aspects of our homes, and invariably, our business premises.

For example, back in September 2017, Nest (owned by Alphabet / Google) released an internet-connected intruder alarm, a video-streaming doorbell, and a door lock system that was developed in collaboration with Yale. Nest has also just announced that it will be incorporating Google Assistant into its products so that they will work with Google Home.

It is, therefore, not just the lure of the lucrative and growing smart home security market that Amazon has been interested in, but also the competition among the big players – Google, Apple and Amazon – to link up their digital assistants with many different smart home devices e.g. to control the lighting, heating, and now the security.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Many businesses receive frequent parcel deliveries during the day, and this type of service may, therefore, be a useful one (particularly for smaller businesses), and could minimise disruption and help efficiency. Amazon has the parcel delivery network, the services e.g. Amazon Business (its online trade counter), and now its point of delivery security system.

This product is an example of how multiple technologies have linked together to provide another new business opportunity in a new and growing market. Some critics have, however, pointed out that this service requires some serious faith and trust from customers, and that it would only take a few incidents to kill that trust and to force the expensive idea onto the back burner. There is still, of course, the broader, general problem of IoT security, which has not been fully addressed in many other products, and could still prove to be the Achilles Heel in this one.

This story is also an example of how Amazon is expanding and diversifying into many different aspects of our home and business lives e.g. parcel delivery, groceries, and now smart security. The story is also an example of how the big home digital assistant manufacturers are now locked in competition to expand the number of products and services that link up to their devices e.g. Amazon Echo, and this market could provide many business opportunities for many other tech companies and manufacturers in the along the way.

Facebook Shooting Game Gaffe

Posted on by Rob Burdett

Facebook has faced criticism this week after news that it promoted a virtual reality shooting game set in a public train station, on its stand at a US conservatives’ event.

Bad Timing

Clearly, in the light of the latest mass school shooting incident in Florida where a gunman killed 17 victims, it appeared to be a poor decision by Facebook to take the ‘Bullet Train’ game to the event.

The game, which Facebook says is a free title first unveiled in 2015, and was bundled with a number of other VR demos at the event, allows the player to shoot imaginary weapons against enemies in the setting of a public train station.

NRA

Adding to the weight of Facebook’s criticism for the game being aired is the fact that the event was a rightwing, CPAC conference where the National Rifle Association (NRA) has promoted gun rights. It has also been reported that CPAC featured speeches attacking gun control advocates, and a much criticised call from Donald Trump to give guns to school teachers.

It is darkly ironic that at a conference that had been dominated by discussions over gun control following a school shooting, delegates were then able to play a VR game which involved shooting people in a public place.

Exposed Via Twitter

News of the use of the game at the event was made public when a journalist at CPAC took to Twitter to post footage of the game being played.

Facebook has since expressed regret for promoting that particular game at the conference, and has announced that it has removed Bullet Train and any other action games that include violence from the VR demo.

Bad Few Weeks For Facebook In The Media

This latest gaffe is another in series of stories in the media that have generated some bad publicity for Facebook over the last couple of weeks.

For example, last week Facebook faced criticism for allegedly using registrations to 2 factor authentication as an opportunity to send out spam SMS notifications. Any requests to stop the texts were also reported to have been posted onto the user’s Facebook profile page. In the same week, a court in Belgium told Facebook to stop using tracking code to follow and record internet use by people who weren’t even Facebook users, until it complies with Belgium’s own privacy laws.

Facebook has also received some very bad publicity since it released figures showing that Russia-based operatives uploaded 80,000 posts to Facebook in the last 2 years, and thereby may have been able to have influenced the outcome of the last US election.

Not Allied To Any Political Party

Even though this latest shoot-em-up game gaffe took place at a rightwing event, Facebook has also been quick to stress that it routinely participates in events hosted by organizations across the political spectrum.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

At the very least, this is an example of how it’s worth reviewing and checking every aspect of anything you’re presenting and promoting at a high profile event, coupled with a final reality-check is always worthwhile if you want to avoid any unnecessary bad publicity.

This story is also a reminder that we live in an age where we are constantly connected to a worldwide news network where social media can be used to instantly broadcast any errors that companies, organisations and governments make.

This story also reminds us that the activities of powerful internet companies are now under scrutiny by campaign and other interest groups, and in today’s environment, the stories of individuals rather than governments about their experiences with big internet companies can become quite powerful in keeping those companies in check and holding them to account once those stories gain momentum and mass on social media.

Intel Didn’t Reveal Chip Flaws To Authorities First

Posted on by Rob Burdett

It has been revealed that US authorities found out about the Spectre and Meltdown chip flaws from media reports rather than being informed directly by US computer chip manufacturer Intel.

What Chip Flaws?

Back in January, researchers from Google’s Project Zero, the Technical University of Graz in Austria and the security firm Cerberus Security in Germany, discovered that two major security flaws are present in nearly all modern processors / microchips. The hardware flaws were dubbed ‘Spectre’ and ‘Meltdown’.

Meltdown affects all Intel, ARM and most other processors on the modern market. It is believed that Meltdown could affect every processor since 1995, except for Intel Itanium and Intel Atom before 2013. The flaw could, for example, leave passwords and personal data vulnerable to attacks.

Found Out Via The Media

In this latest revelation, news has emerged that Intel didn’t inform US cyber-security officials about the flaw in its processors until after the news had been leaked to the media.

Google’s parent company Alphabet has said it informed Intel, AMD and ARM about the chip flaws in June 2017, and the three semiconductor / chip manufacturers were given 90 days to fix the flaws before disclosing the discovery of the flaws and the fix to the public. According to Alphabet, and in keeping with ‘standard practice’, it had left it up to the companies to decide whether they should inform government officials about the security flaws.

Extended

In response, Intel gives a slightly different version of events. According to Intel, Google Project Zero had chosen to extend the 90-day timeframe to 9 January 2018, and Intel had agreed to keep the information confidential until that date.

No Exploits Anyway

Even though there is general agreement that the security flaws are now present in nearly all modern devices, including all iPhones, iPads and Macs, Intel has been quick to stress that there have been no known exploits to date.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It is worrying that ‘standard practice’ in the industry is to be allowed to keep quiet about a security problem for 3 months from government cyber-security officials, and from the public. It is also worrying that it took journalists to uncover the problem, particularly when you consider the sheer scale of the flaws i.e. that they’re present in almost all modern processors.

There have been far too many stories of large, well-known companies choosing to keep quiet as long as possible about cyber / data security risks or breaches, and these episodes all serve to undermine confidence that companies will act responsibly themselves, without the threat of new regulations and huge fines (such as those that GDPR will bring).

The best advice to businesses is now to install all available patches for the flaws without delay, and to make sure that you are receiving updates for all your systems, software and devices.

Regular patching is a good basic security habit to get into anyway. Research from summer 2017 (Fortinet Global Threat Landscape Report) shows that 9 out of 10 impacted businesses are being hacked through un-patched vulnerabilities, and that many of these vulnerabilities are 3 or more years old, and there are already patches available for them.