Facebook is creating a personal timer to curb your social app addiction →

The social media giant may show you just how much time you spend using its service.

Eagle-eyed engineer Jane Manchun Wong found code buried within Facebook's Android app showing the social media giant has created an as-yet-unreleased feature called "Your Time on Facebook," which displays how much time you've spent on the social media site.

The "Time Well Spent" movement, which was started in earnest around 2013 and has gained steam in recent years thanks to the Center for Human Technology, has sought to force tech companies to rethink how they design their apps in an effort to address user complaints and surveys that found social media users increasingly distressed about how much time they spent on social media.

The main culprit users and other tech companies point to is Facebook. Other companies are creating features on both iOS and Android that allow you to check your app usage and time spent, with Apple even mentioning Facebook specifically at its recent developer conference in reference to apps you may want to limit your time on.

The potential Facebook feature, called "Your Time On Facebook," was confirmed by Facebook to TechCrunch. "We're always working on new ways to help make sure people's time on Facebook is time well spent," Facebook told Josh Constine.

According to Manchun Wong -- a computer-science student at the University of Massachusetts -- the unreleased feature will allow you to see just how much time you have spent on Facebook per day and give you the option of setting daily or weekly time limits. She also discovered earlier this month that Facebook was planning something similar for Instagram called "Manage your time."

Limiting screen time

Apple made smartphone app usage an integral part of its keynote presentation at WWDC this year, highlighting the Screen Time feature in iOS 12 that will give users information on app usage and allow you to set time limits for every app. Google is doing similar things with the upcoming Android P update, with an even bigger focus on general phone usage, even creating a feature that would allow users to set a time when your phone automatically goes into "Do Not Disturb" mode.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has leaned into the idea of reducing time on the social media site, with all the criticism aimed squarely at his company.

"Time spent is not a goal by itself. We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions," he said in November.

But Joe Edelman, who has been working with the Time Well Spent nonprofit organization, disagreed with Zuckerberg's assessment of the issue, writing in a Medium blog post this year that the Facebook CEO's desire to get back to "personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other" was shortsighted and did not address the core issues plaguing the site's users.

"If the simplified actions and relationships weren't designed with a users' particular values in mind, then using the software can make living by their values more difficult, which leaves them feeling like their time was not well spent," Edelman wrote.

"Designed to addict us"

"As users, we end up acting and socializing in ways we don't believe in, and later regret. We act against our values: by procrastinating from work, by avoiding our feelings, by pandering to other people's opinions, by participating in a hateful mob reacting to the news, and so on."

The Center for Human Technology says that while the amount of time spent is a concern, it's how that time is being spent that underpins the negative feelings people may have after using these websites.

"Snapchat turns conversations into streaks, redefining how our children measure friendship. Instagram glorifies the picture-perfect life, eroding our self worth. Facebook segregates us into echo chambers, fragmenting our communities. YouTube autoplays the next video within seconds, even if it eats into our sleep," the center wrote.

"These are not neutral products. They are part of a system designed to addict us."

*this article was featured on Download.com on June 25, 2018: https://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/facebook-is-creating-a-personal-timer-to-curb-your-social-app-addiction/

You can now trade Bitcoin on your phone with Square Cash app (in New York) →

The Empire State gave Square a "bitlicense" so users can trade cryptocurrency through the app.

Square's Cash App has officially been approved by the State of New York to handle cryptocurrency transfers after expanding the feature to other states last year.

Users will now be able to trade Bitcoin using the app, which is only the 9th company to receive a virtual currency license or "bitlicense" by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Only Xapo, Genesis Global Trading, bitFlyer USA, Coinbase, XRP II and Circle Internet Financial have received licenses and two more have gotten charters.

"DFS is pleased to approve Square's application and welcomes them to New York's expanding and well-regulated virtual currency market," said Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo.

"DFS continues to work in support of a vibrant and competitive virtual currency market that connects and empowers New Yorkers in a global marketplace while ensuring strong state-regulatory oversight is in place."

The Square Cash app is battling Venmo and PayPal for finance app supremacy, shooting to the top of the App Store rankings recently. In addition to payments between friends or colleagues, the app will now allow customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

They are sure to gain more users following this recent announcement. Square, founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has been a big backer of cryptocurrencies and announced back in January that the Cash App would soon be able to handle cryptocurrency transfers.

"The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be Bitcoin," Dorsey told a newspaper in March.

Last fall, a Square spokesperson told Forbes that the company was looking into expanding access to cryptocurrencies and wanted to be able to facilitate all financial transactions, including those using digital currencies.

"We're always listening to our customers and we've found that they are interested in using the Cash App to buy Bitcoin. We're exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out this feature to a small number of Cash App customers," the spokesperson said. "We believe cryptocurrency can greatly impact the ability of individuals to participate in the global financial system and we're excited to learn more here."

Dorsey then officially announced the move in January, writing on Twitter, "Instant buying (and selling, if you don't want to hold) Bitcoin is now available to most Cash App customers. We support Bitcoin because we see it as a long-term path towards greater financial access for all. This is a small step." He also added in a link to a website explaining Bitcoin and its history.

The New York Department of Financial Services lauded the company for its efforts to help users "start, run, and grow their businesses." In addition to managing transactions, the company has both hardware and software that "manage inventory, locations, and employees; provide powerful business analytics; access financing; and utilize tools to engage with their customers."

"We are thrilled to now provide New Yorkers with Cash App's quick and simple way to buy and sell bitcoin," Head of Cash App Brian Grassadonia said.

"Square and the New York State DFS share a vision of empowering people with greater access to the financial system and today's news is an important step in realizing that goal."

*This article was featured on Download.com on June 21, 2018: https://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/you-can-now-trade-bitcoin-with-square-cash-app-in-new-york/

Here's why Apple is banning cryptocurrency mining on iPhones and iPads →

Apple has joined Google, Facebook and many other tech giants in banning stealthy cryptojackers from secretly using your device.

Despite its continued popularity, cryptocurrency continues to have a rough 2018, with multiple websites and platforms banning ads and apps that secretly use your device to mine for a variety of cryptocurrencies.

Apple quietly updated its App Store review guidelines, banning apps from running "unrelated background processes, such as cryptocurrency mining."

"Apps may facilitate virtual currency storage, provided they are offered by developers enrolled as an organization. In addition, apps may not mine directly for cryptocurrencies, unless the mining is performed in the cloud or otherwise off-device," the new rules say, adding that any apps offering initial coin offerings (ICOs) must "originate from established banks, securities firms, futures commission merchants, or other approved financial institutions."

Developers are still allowed to create apps that run cryptocurrency trades but they cannot "offer currency for completing tasks, such as downloading other apps, encouraging other users to download, posting to social networks."

As noted by Ars Technica, one of the reasons for the ban may be to keep the miners from depleting a user's battery life while running in the background. Apple has put a heavy focus on iPhone battery life lately, with iOS 12 offering even more insight into battery use.

Another reason could be the controversial nature of cryptocurrencies in general.

Cryptocurrencies were largely unregulated until last year, when the SEC began to sniff around following a number of obvious scams that cost investors millions. They took particular aim at ICOs, and warned investors that these cryptocurrency marketplaces were not regulated by the SEC.

The SEC shut down PlexCoin in December, calling it a "a full-fledged cyber scam" and released a statement in March reminding investors that while cryptocurrency is a vital source of innovation, it needs to be scrutinized more closely because the SEC has little regulatory power over them.

"The SEC staff has concerns that many online trading platforms appear to investors as SEC-registered and regulated marketplaces when they are not. Many platforms refer to themselves as 'exchanges' which can give the misimpression to investors that they are regulated or meet the regulatory standards of a national securities exchange," they said in a March 7 press release. 

"Although some of these platforms claim to use strict standards to pick only high-quality digital assets to trade, the SEC does not review these standards or the digital assets that the platforms select, and the so-called standards should not be equated to the listing standards of national securities exchanges."

Days after the statement, co-director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, Stephanie Avakian, announced that dozens of cryptocurrencies were under investigation. In January, Facebook banned all ads promoting cryptocurrencies and Google did the same in June 2018. Google also banned cryptocurrency mining extensions on the Chrome web store, which had been rife with crypto apps that plagued users by mining coins secretly and selling their data.

Google found that despite their rules allowing cryptomining as long as users were informed, "approximately 90% of all extensions with mining scripts that developers have attempted to upload to Chrome Web Store have failed to comply." Users also pilloried YouTube for pages overrun by cryptojacking mining code.

LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, and Snapchat have all banned ads featuring ICOs and more continue to look for ways to stop cryptojacking, which is ruining devices and jacking up energy bills. In November, a researcher found nearly 2,500 websites running some form of cryptojacking software designed to use your device to mine for a variety of coins‚but typically the cryptocurrency Monero.

Apps on iPhones, iPads, and MacOS found in the App Store are not allowed to use a device's processor to mine for cryptocurrency. Apple made security a key facet of their Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) presentation, highlighting a new feature called 'Intelligent Tracking Prevention' that is designed to stop websites from monitoring you as you browse the web.

Apple dealt with an issue earlier this year involving the Calendar 2 app, which was found to have been using people's devices to mine for Monero. One user reported the app using 200% of their device's CPU.

Critics have been divided on whether the constant stream of bad news about cryptocurrency has affected their price on the market. The price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin all fell in March after news about potential SEC investigations broke and Google, as well as Facebook, announced their bans. But some say the prices have not fluctuated much and the scrutiny may help the more established cryptocurrencies over any new offerings.

*this article was featured on TechRepublic.com on June 12, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/heres-why-apple-is-banning-cryptocurrency-mining-on-iphones-and-ipads/

EU copyright reform proposal: 3 things businesses need to know →

The controversial copyright measure is making its way through the European Parliament ahead of a committee vote on June 20 and parliamentary vote in July or September.

Members of the European Parliament are trading barbs over a proposed measure that could have drastic effects on the internet in Europe. The update to the EU Copyright Directive does a number of things, but the significant changes come to how information is shared and copyright infringement, specifically noted in Article 13 of the proposal.

The European Parliament described the law as creating "a new ancillary right for news publishers, often dubbed 'the link tax', and second, it places a new general obligation on internet platforms and websites to pre-monitor user content on their website for copyright infringements."

This has sent shockwaves through the internet and has pitted major news outlets and media companies against internet giants like Google and Wikipedia, which would suffer most under the new rules.

Jan Gerlach, Public Policy Manager for the Wikimedia Foundation, said the new rule "threatens freedom of expression, collaboration, and diversity online." She takes aim squarely at the Commission's suggestion that all websites needed to "implement upload filters, or, as they call them, 'effective content recognition technologies'."

"As currently written, Art. 13 would harm freedom of expression online by inducing large-scale implementation of content detection systems," Gerlach said. "People's ability to express themselves online shouldn't depend on their skill at navigating opaque and capricious filtering algorithms. Automatic content filtering based on rightsholders' interpretation of the law would—without a doubt—run counter to these principles of human collaboration that have made the Wikimedia projects so effective and successful."

The rule change is currently under debate and the European Parliament's legal affairs committee will vote on it on June 20. It will then move to a parliamentary vote in either July or September.

Here are the three things businesses need to know.

1. News sites to get extra copyrights

The law will require everyone to get a license from news outlets before they publish links to stories. The short snippet and photo you see when you share a story on Facebook and Twitter would now be considered copyright infringement.

Other countries like Germany and Spain have tried link taxes before to no avail, and news publishers quickly soured on them as well. The only place to manage it effectively is China, where they have much stricter controls on the news that is published.

German politician and Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda said the measure would be nearly impossible for some websites to contend with and would place an unnecessary burden on the wrong people.

"Reciting a headline from the cold war era would suddenly require permission from the original publisher, who may have long since gone out of business. Where the Commission wants to apply this right to press publishers only, Mr. Arimont explicitly includes academic publishers, a move that would spell disaster for any open access initiatives," Reda said.

2. Copyright infringement checks

All internet platforms would be required to scan all user content for any potential copyright infringement. They do not say how websites should accomplish this task, and presumably assume they should either develop their own mechanism for checking user content or hire third-party companies to manage it for them, a costly endeavor for any business.

Dutch intellectual property professor Dr Martin Senftlebens said the rule would lead to "further market concentration and less information diversity."

"It will be much more difficult to find investors for new start-up platforms," Senftlebens said.

Some European parliament members backed the measure, questioning why websites can filter for racist or offensive content but cannot make exceptions for copyrighted material.

"There are filters in terms of sensitive content, fighting terrorism and racism and incitement to hatred - so why should it be so hard to extend filtering to copyrighted content? We have the mechanisms already," said French MEP Jean-Marie Cavada.

3. Review process

Websites will also be forced to create a review process to allow rightsholders to update this database of copyrighted works with more copyrighted works. This process will be costly for smaller websites and presents a host of problems that have yet to be addressed by parliament.

Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote that the rule will fall apart because copyright infringement software is still not good enough. YouTube developed its own and is still continuously criticized by media companies for failing to stop more people from stealing work.

But at its core, Doctorow said, the law goes after the wrong people.

"Article 13 punishes any site that fails to block copyright infringement, but it won't punish people who abuse the system. There are no penalties for falsely claiming copyright over someone else's work. It will be a lot easier to make these false claims that it will be to figure out which of the hundreds of millions of copyrighted claims are real and which ones are pranks or hoaxes or censorship attempts," Doctorow said.

"Article 13 also leaves you out in the cold when your own work is censored thanks to a malfunctioning copyright bot. Your only option when you get censored is to raise an objection with the platform and hope they see it your way—but if they fail to give real consideration to your petition, you have to go to court to plead your case."

*this article was featured on TechRepublic.com on June 8, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/eu-copyright-reform-proposal-3-things-businesses-need-to-know/

Here's why Microsoft is building a massive data center underwater →

The tech giant is hoping to run data centers on renewable energy and bring them closer to the people.

Data centers have long been criticized by environmental groups for their egregious energy use across the globe. A 2016 US government study found that data centers in the United States consumed 70 billion kWh of electricity in 2014, equal to 1.8% of the country's total energy consumption for that year.

In 2014, researchers estimated that data centers were responsible for about 2% of total global greenhouse emissions annually and that number continues to rise as more of the world's population gains access to the internet, cloud computing continues to expand, and artificial intelligence (AI) gets embedded in more and more devices. Many companies are now looking for ways to tackle this problem with low-cost, environment-friendly solutions.

Microsoft is hoping to address this issue from a number of different angles with the first-ever underwater data center. The initiative, known as Project Natick, began in July 2014 and officially moved into phase two on Tuesday, according to a Microsoft press release.

"When you are in this kind of exponential growth curve, it tells you that most of the datacenters that we'll ever build we haven't built yet," said Ben Cutler, leader of the Project Natick team in the release.

According to the release, their goal is to create "self-sufficient underwater data centers that can deliver lightning-quick cloud services to coastal cities" using "experimental, shipping-container-sized" prototypes. The first one has been deployed in Scotland near the Orkney Islands, and phase two will consist of watching the data center process workloads for the next 12 months to see if it is economically and environmentally viable.

"The deployment of the Northern Isles datacenter at the European Marine Energy Centre marks a milestone in Microsoft's Project Natick, a years-long research effort to investigate manufacturing and operating environmentally sustainable, prepackaged datacenter units that can be ordered to size, rapidly deployed and left to operate lights out on the seafloor for years," researchers noted in the release.

Microsoft was also quick to highlight that much of the world's population lives within 120 miles of a coast, and as populations continue to increase, demand for fast web surfing and video streaming will rise exponentially. They believe that placing data centers, which Microsoft calls the "physical clouds of cloud computing," in bodies of water near cities would lessen the need for lengthy cables and cut costs.

"If we can be within one internet hop of everyone, then it not only benefits our products, but also the products our customers serve," Peter Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft AI and Research, said in the release.

The European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland is an ideal locale to test the idea because it already serves as a test site for experimental tidal turbines and wave energy converters that generate electricity from the movement of seawater, according to Microsoft. The entire town runs on renewable energy, making the data centers right at home.

The 40-foot structure carries 864 servers on 12 tall racks on the inside and now sits on the seafloor. The researchers believe it will last up to five years without maintenance, the release noted.

Microsoft worked with the 400-year-old Naval Group from France to create the submarine container for the data center, and said the ocean water provided a number of benefits for sustainable energy use.

"The world's oceans at depth are consistently cold, offering ready and free access to cooling, which is one of the biggest costs for land-based datacenters," the release said. "Underwater data centers could also serve as anchor tenants for marine renewable energy such as offshore wind farms or banks of tidal turbines, allowing the two industries to evolve in lockstep."

Christian Belady, general manager of cloud infrastructure strategy and architecture, said their hope is to one day have a fleet of data centers with their own sustainable power supply that can be sent anywhere.

"Energy self-sufficient data centers could be deployed anywhere within reach of a data pipe, bringing Azure cloud services, for example, to regions of the world with unreliable electricity, and eliminate the need for costly backup generators in case of power grid failures," the release said.

*this article was featured on TechRepublic.com on June 7, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/heres-why-microsoft-is-building-a-massive-data-center-underwater/

Microsoft extending GDPR protections to all global customers, here's how →

The tech giant now gives users the ability to transfer or delete all of the data it has collected through its programs, apps, and search engines.

Microsoft said it will give all of its users across the world many of the same protections enshrined in the EU's impending General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect on May 25.

The passing and enforcement of the GDPR has become somewhat of a watershed moment for privacy as consumers gain a fuller picture of the data tech companies collect on a daily basis. In a statement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella laid out the plethora of ways they gather information and either use it themselves or offer it to other companies.

Nadella said Microsoft collects data on your web browsing and online searchers, places you go using map apps, Windows 10 and any of your online services, fitness and health apps, any ads you click on, sign-in, and payment data. The firm also leverages any connected device sensors you may have in your home or car, according to the statement.

But users now have access to a privacy dashboard that allows you to easily regulate or opt out of any data collection. You can delete all of your search history and data or move it somewhere else.

"We believe privacy is a fundamental human right. As people live more of their lives online and depend more on technology to operate their businesses, engage with friends and family, pursue opportunities, and manage their health and finances, the protection of this right is becoming more important than ever," Julie Brill, corporate vice president of Microsoft, said in a blog post. "Today we are announcing that we will extend the rights that are at the heart of GDPR to all of our consumer customers worldwide. Known as Data Subject Rights, they include the right to know what data we collect about you, to correct that data, to delete it and even to take it somewhere else."

Other tech giants have struggled to comply with the regulations soon to take effect, and have waffled on whether their users worldwide will be given the same rights and options as those in the EU.

Just last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was criticized for demurring when asked whether US users would get access to GDPR rights. In response to an uproar after his comments, he said, "We intend to make all the same controls and settings available everywhere, not just in Europe. Is it going to be exactly the same format? Probably not."

Analysts and journalists have noted that despite some cosmetic changes, Facebook still makes it very difficult for users to opt out of its robust data collection efforts. In their review of Facebook's privacy changes, TechCrunch noted that "the fact that the button to reject the new Terms Of Service isn't even a button, it's a tiny 'see your options' hyperlink shows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account."

"It seems obvious that Facebook is trying to minimize the visibility of the path to account deletion rather than making it an obvious course of action if you don't agree to its terms," TechCrunch later added.

Microsoft is also gaining business through their GDPR compliance services, which are available for businesses of all sizes.

Many tech companies will likely release new service agreements on Friday and have already made changes to how they notify you of what data they collect and share with third parties.

*this article was featured on TechRepublic.com on May 22, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-extending-gdpr-protections-to-all-global-customers-heres-how/

Microsoft trumps Google, Dropbox in business cloud storage wars →

A Spiceworks survey highlighted the overwhelming demand for better cloud security, and showed that most companies were turning to the tried and true option of Microsoft.

As more information moves online, a significant number of companies have moved their data storage to the web as well, opting for cloud storage and data management services like DropBox and Google Drive. But with news of hacks and digital break-ins hitting headlines each day, companies are not just choosing the cheaper option, but the option that they believe will keep them, and their information, the safest.

Digital IT platform Spiceworks conducted a survey published Monday on cloud storage services, speaking to 544 business technology professionals across North America and Europe on a wide variety of topics related to cloud-based data management. Of those surveyed, 80% said their companies were using some form of cloud storage system, while another 16% said their companies would do so within the next two years. Comparatively, in 2016, only 53% of organizations were using cloud services.

But a number of companies have already been burned by poor cloud security, with 16% of respondents saying their businesses' cloud service had been hit by security incidents, generally involving "unauthorized access, stolen credentials, or data theft," in the last 12 months.

"It's evident organizations are putting more trust into cloud storage services, but some are still hesitant despite the recent growth in adoption," Peter Tsai, a senior technology analyst at Spiceworks, said in a press release. "Although cloud storage services often include features that help secure sensitive corporate information, there will always be risks involved when entrusting your data to a third party."

And one in four businesses agree. The survey found that 97% of businesses believe security is the most important factor in choosing a cloud service, and 25% of companies did not believe there was anything they could do to truly secure their cloud data.

That is where Microsoft OneDrive has an edge, according to IT professionals. Even though Dropbox was ahead of OneDrive in 2016 according to usage rates, revelations that year about a 2012 hack prompted many businesses to move over to the Microsoft service. Nearly 69 million Dropbox accounts were compromised by the hack in 2012, with passwords and login information showing up on hacker websites. Dropbox says that technically, the login information was encrypted, making it harder to use, and claims that once they discovered the hack, they forced all of their users to immediately change all passwords, rendering the stolen ones useless.

In this year's survey, 51% of organizations reported using OneDrive, up from 31% in 2016. Dropbox is now tied with Google Drive at 34% each, up only one percentage point compared to 2016, when it led the field. Another 10% of organizations said they would either be switching over to or starting to use OneDrive within the next two years.

OneDrive was particularly popular with larger companies, being used in businesses with over 1,000 employees 59% of the time. It also led the way at 54% among medium-sized businesses with under 1,000 employees.

Much of this adoption is due to how OneDrive is viewed amongst IT professionals. Tsai said in the release that 39% of IT workers identified OneDrive with security. But businesses also value ease of use, and despite high rankings for Dropbox in that category, many companies were already using other Windows services, which made OneDrive a more seamless fit.

"What can explain this shift, especially OneDrive's rise to the top (which is expected to continue over the next two years)? If you follow the dollars, the answer is clear. According to a separate Spiceworks data snapshot on productivity suites, more than 50 percent of organizations already pay for Office 365, and an additional 17 percent of organizations plan to within the next two years," Tsai wrote.

"Because 1TB of OneDrive storage is included per user with each Office 365 subscription, it makes sense that OneDrive usage tracks very closely with Office 365 adoption. As organizations want to do more with less, it makes financial sense for companies to go with OneDrive if they're already paying for Office 365."

Tsai said that as "bundling" becomes more common, OneDrive and Google's G Suite will be easier options for businesses, and standalone cloud storage systems like Dropbox may struggle to innovate and differentiate themselves.

*this article was featured on Tech Republic on May 21, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-onedrive-most-used-cloud-storage-service-for-businesses-report/

AI-powered autonomous drone could bring new capabilities to agriculture, logistics, more →

The nano drone can move without human assistance and is considered the first of its kind.

Scientists have created the first nano drone capable of flying itself without a human operator, breaking ground on new ways to miniaturize artificial intelligence (AI) and limit processing power.

Six researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Bologna figured out a way to maximize the drone's bite-sized power and memory limitations using DroNet, "a lightweight residual convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture," according to a paper they released earlier this month.

Antonio Loquercio, one of the lead scientists on the project, told The Register that the machine's computation and navigation controls were created fully onboard the device.

"This means, nano-drones are completely autonomous. This is the first time such a small quadrotor can be controlled this way, without any need of external sensing and computing. The methodology remains however almost unchanged using steering angle and the collision probability prediction [in DroNet]," Loquercio said.

The scientists said their work could be instrumental in a number of different ways. Drones are already being proposed for a number of different uses, with Amazon's Prime Air service keen to start operations once more regulatory work is finished. These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are already in use in farming, industrial inspections, natural disaster assistance, and hazardous area management, as well as in surveillance and security, the paper noted.

"To expand the class of activities that can be performed by UAVs, a recent trend of their evolution is their miniaturization. Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) quadrotors have already started to enter the nano-scale, featuring only few centimeters in diameter and few tens of grams in weight," they wrote in their study.

However, these nano-drones still lack the autonomous navigation capabilities of their larger counterparts, the paper noted, since their computational power is constrained by their small form factor.

The researchers provided detailed designs and explanations on how they got around size constraints using a platform developed by both universities called PULP. The platform functions by using GAP8, a chip that is nearly the size of a quarter.

"The authors estimate the power breakdown for small-size UAVs; they show that the maximum power budget for on-board computation is 5% of the total, the rest being used by the propellers (86%) and the low-level control parts (9%)," they wrote.

"The problem of bringing state-of-the-art navigation capabilities on the challenging classes of nano and pico-size UAVs is therefore strictly dependent on the development of energy-efficient computing architectures, highly optimized software and new classes of algorithms."

The tiny tech will no doubt have an effect and the burgeoning drone expansion. Just last month, US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the specifics of a pilot program where companies like FedEx, Alphabet and Uber can test the use of unmanned aircrafts across the country. President Donald Trump's Integration Pilot Program was inaugurated last year.

"Our country is on the verge of the most significant new development in aviation since the emergence of the jet age," Chao said at a press conference in April. "We've got to create a path forward for the safe integration of drones if our country is to remain a global aviation leader and reap the safety and economic benefits drones have to offer."

The programs will involve drones in everything from infrastructure inspections to pest control and emergency services. According to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the use of unmanned aircrafts could lead to nearly $82 billion in potential economic benefit as well as the creation of 100,000 jobs in the next decade.

Loquercio and the other scientists said the popularization of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is also having an effect on demand for drones and other machines of this size.

"Full autonomy of nano-scale UAVs is extremely desirable as it would make them the perfect 'smart sensors' in the Internet-of-Things era," according to the paper. "The development of the IoT is fueling a trend toward edge computing, to improve scalability, robustness, and security. While today's IoT edge nodes are usually stationary, autonomous nano-UAVs can be seen as perfect examples of next-generation IoT end-nodes, with high mobility and requiring an unprecedented level of on-board intelligence."

The researchers are still testing the drone, and its flying capabilities are still limited due to the type of information its AI is getting about the surrounding environment. It can only fly horizontally, and not up or down.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on May 16, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/scientists-create-miniature-drone-that-can-fly-itself-with-ai/

Google's AI pact with Pentagon sparks resignations, highlighting leadership disconnect →

Nearly a dozen employees have quit to protest the tech giant's work for the Defense Department's 'Project Maven,' where AI is used to analyze drone footage.

Since its inception, Google has promoted an employee-inclusive decision making process and popularized their internal motto of "don't be evil." But Monday, about a dozen Google employees resigned in protest of Google's involvement in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) software for a Defense Department drone program called Project Maven.

The employees told Gizmodo that since news of Google's involvement broke earlier this year, senior management has been less than forthcoming with the decision-making process on the issue and believed it had been addressed sufficiently through their statement and a few employee listening sessions.

More than 4,000 employees of the company signed a letter last monthcondemning Google's work with Project Maven and demanding more accountability with how the company deploys its products.

"Google is implementing Project Maven, a customized AI surveillance engine that uses 'Wide Area Motion Imagery' data captured by US Government drones to detect vehicles and other objects, track their motions, and provide results to the Department of Defense," the employees wrote in the letter. "We cannot outsource the moral responsibility of our technologies to third parties. Building this technology to assist the US Government in military surveillance - and potentially lethal outcomes - is not acceptable."

The issue has only gained more steam as technology scholars, academics, and researchers chimed in on the larger implications of AI being weaponized by the US military. A petition signed by 90 academics calls for major technology companies to sign onto an international treaty that would ban autonomous weapons systems.

"With Project Maven, Google becomes implicated in the questionable practice of targeted killings. These include so-called signature strikes and pattern-of-life strikes that target people based not on known activities but on probabilities drawn from long range surveillance footage. The legality of these operations has come into question under international and U.S. law," the academics wrote in the petition. "These operations also have raised significant questions of racial and gender bias (most notoriously, the blanket categorization of adult males as militants) in target identification and strike analysis. These problems cannot be reduced to the accuracy of image analysis algorithms, but can only be addressed through greater accountability to international institutions and deeper understanding of geopolitical situations on the ground."

Google has defended their involvement in the program, saying their technology will handle tedious tasks that waste soldiers' time, while also making drone surveillance more accurate.

"An important part of our culture is having employees who are actively engaged in the work that we do. We know that there are many open questions involved in the use of new technologies, so these conversations—with employees and outside experts—are hugely important and beneficial," a Google spokesperson said in a statement after news of Project Maven became publicized last month.

The spokesperson added in the statement that their work was "intended to save lives" and that they were working on internal policies to govern complicated decisions involving AI technology and defense contracts.

Both the Defense Department and Google have adamantly denied that AI will be used in combat situations, but Marine Corps Col. Drew Cukor was quick to add the phrase "any time soon," during a defense-tech conference speech last year.

Google's response to the situation was not enough, according to the former employees who spoke to Gizmodo, who said in the interview that "the strongest possible statement [they] could take against this was to leave."

In addition to the letter released by nearly 4,000 employees and the petition signed by academics, the Tech Workers Coalition created their own petition criticizing Google not just for Project Maven but for doubling down on the controversy by bidding heavily on a contract to work on the Pentagon's JEDI program, an effort by the military to integrate cloud computing into their work.

Google is in competition with Microsoft and other tech giants for a number of Defense Department contracts, and US military officials have repeatedly said publicly that they are in an "AI arms race" with the rest of the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Defense Department spent $7.4 billion on technology involving AI last year alone.

But industry stakeholders are already ramping up calls for tech companies to be more transparent about their military work and at least have policies in place to adjudicate decisions of this magnitude.

"According to Defense One, the DoD already plans to install image analysis technologies on-board the drones themselves, including armed drones. We are then just a short step away from authorizing autonomous drones to kill automatically, without human supervision or meaningful human control," the International Committee for Robot Arms Control wrote in their open letter to Google's leaders.

For other tech leaders, the resignations sparked by Google's work with Project Maven is a warning sign of the potential unrest that can come from such a huge disconnect between employees and leadership. Company leaders must work to be transparent about their goals with employees, so as to avoid the issues that come from holding opposing goals.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on May 15, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/googles-ai-pact-with-pentagon-sparks-resignations-highlighting-leadership-disconnect/

De Beers tracks first diamonds with blockchain, potentially limiting fraud →

The Tracr program will use blockchain technology to source and monitor diamonds throughout the supply chain.

Diamond conglomerate De Beers announced the success of their new blockchain-backed platform Tracr, which helped track 100 high-value diamonds throughout their journey from mines to stores, according to a report from Mining Review Africa.

Tracr's unveiling comes only weeks after precious jewel and mineral companies joined forces with IBM to create TrustChain, a similar effort using blockchain technology to determine not just the provenance of their gems, but whether they were mined and processed in an ethical way.

With Tracr, diamonds will be given a "Global Diamond ID" that records carat, color, clarity, and other attributes, the report said. The ID number is used to track the diamond through the supply chain and verify both its source and end destination.

De Beers joined with five other major diamond companies on the groundbreaking project, including KGK Group, Rosy Blue NV, Diacore, Diarough, and Venus Jewel, using BCG Digital Ventures to create the platform itself.

As noted in the report, the hope of De Beers is that the platform will give consumers confidence that the diamonds they are purchasing are real and did not come from conflict mines. Similar to TrustChain, De Beers believes Tracr's industry-wide systems will clean up the supply chain and certify a diamond's origins.

Jewelry conglomerates and mining companies have long kept their own records to prove their goods were real, but much of it was kept internally and relegated to paper, which made it difficult to search through.

In a statement, De Beers explained that Tracr would create an "immutable and secure digital trail...for a selection of rough diamonds mined by De Beers as they moved from the mine to cutter and polisher, then through to a jeweler."

The initial project began in January and has been in testing since then. De Beers believes the platform will be ready by the end of the year and will be open to any diamond companies interested in the project.

"The Tracr project team has demonstrated that it can successfully track a diamond through the value chain, providing asset-traceability assurance in a way that was not possible before," De Beers Group CEO Bruce Cleaver said in the statement. "This is a significant breakthrough made achievable by the close engagement of the pilot participants who share our commitment to industry progress and innovation. We look forward to sharing the platform with more partners in the coming months and capturing their insights before ultimately making this technology available to the broader industry."

More and more industries are turning to blockchain technology to track and source their products, with logistics companies and even livestock conglomerates buying into it in recent months.

But blockchain has gained steam in the precious jewel industry specifically because of overwhelming consumer demand for diamonds and gems that have not contributed to political violence, child labor, or environmental destruction.

"Consumers care deeply about the quality and source of the jewelry they purchase," Bridget van Kralingen, IBM Senior Vice President of Global Industries, Platforms and Blockchain, said in a release on another jewel and gem-related blockchain project. "This is evidenced by the fact that 66 percent of consumers globally are willing to spend more to support sustainable brands."

IBM's TrustChain and this latest effort from De Beers showcase how much of an impact that blockchain could stand to have on global supply chains.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on May 10, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/de-beers-tracks-first-diamonds-with-blockchain-potentially-limiting-fraud/

You can catch a self-driving taxi in 2018, if you're traveling to Phoenix, AZ

The Alphabet subsidiary will begin operating a self-driving car service akin to Uber or Lyft by the end of the year, with no driver present.

The CEO of self-driving car company Waymo told attendees of the 2018 Google I/O conference Tuesday that their self-driving car service will begin operations by the end of the year in Phoenix, Arizona.

At the I/O developers conference, Google invited Waymo head John Krafcik onstage to make the big announcement. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and Krafcik said engineers at both companies were hard at work on the AI backing their self-driving cars.

People will be able to download a Waymo app and secure rides on autonomous vehicles through it, with no driver present, Krafcik said.

Waymo has been operating autonomous vehicles on the roads of Phoenix since October, and is one of the first companies to do so in the US. Originally, Waymo was a part of Google before it was spun off into its own company under the Alphabet umbrella. Despite the separation, members of Google's Brain team have helped Waymo engineers by beefing up the neural networks underpinning the AI operating the vehicles.

Waymo engineers have been testing the cars' autonomous driving skills but they have left an engineer in most vehicles as a safety precaution in the past. But in a speech last year, Krafcik said Waymo vehicles are designed and built for "full autonomy."

"Our combination of powerful sensors gives our vehicles a 360 degree view of the world. The lasers can see objects in three dimensions, up to 300 meters away. We also have short range lasers that stay focused close-up to the side of the vehicle. Our radars can see underneath and around vehicles, tracking moving objects usually hidden from the human eye," he told a conference in Madrid.

Waymo said their cars have driven more than 6 million miles on the road and 5 billion miles through simulations. Part of what helps the cars improve their driving is practice. The more time the vehicles spend outside learning and accumulating data on specific situations, the better equipped they'll be to handle tough problems in real time. Waymo believes their cars are ready for public use after hours of testing in Arizona as well as Michigan, Washington, Arizona, California and Georgia.

"People will get to use our fleet of on-demand vehicles, to do anything from commute to work, get home from a night out, or run errands," Krafcik said at the conference last year. For business travelers, the autonomous vehicles offer a unique way to get to a conference or meeting as well.

Waymo has also secured deals with Jaguar, Fiat-Chrysler, Lyft, and Avis to provide fleets of autonomous vehicles.

But the plan to fill the roads with driverless cars has had its fair share of speed bumps. Legislation, both locally and federally, has been slow to keep up with the rapid pace of advancement, and there have been a number of accidents involving autonomous vehicles.

One of Uber's autonomous vehicles struck and killed a Tempe, Arizona woman in March as she crossed the street and only a few weeks after that incident, a Tesla driver died while using their self-driving system "Autopilot."

*This article was featured on the Tech Republic website on May 9, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/business-travelers-self-driving-waymo-service-will-be-available-in-phoenix-in-2018/

Welsh police facial recognition software has 92% fail rate, showing dangers of early AI →

Data released by the UK police force confirmed claims from watchdog groups that the software is inaccurate.

Police officials in South Wales are battling criticism of their new facial recognition technology after it was revealed that the program had a 92% fail rate when it was used at the June 2017 UEFA Champions League Final in Cardiff, meaning only 8% of the people "identified" were actual matches with names and faces in the criminal database.

According to statistics released by the South Wales Police, their Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) 'Locate' system found 2,470 potential matches out of 170,000 attendees and a database of 500,000 images of persons of interest at the event last summer. Only 173 were correctly identified and actually matched someone in the database.

Overall, the program has been used at 15 events and flagged 2,685 people, only 234 of whom were truly persons of interest, according to the statistics.

The South Wales Police countered the troubling fail rate with their own statistics: 2,000 positive matches and 450 arrests in the last nine months since the program was put into use. They add that no one has ever been mistakenly arrested after being flagged and the officers in charge can, and often do, dismiss matches if they believe it is an obvious misidentification. If there is a match, an "intervention team" is sent to question and possibly arrest the person.

"Officers can quickly establish if the person has been correctly or incorrectly matched by traditional policing methods i.e. normally a dialogue between the officer/s and the individual," a police spokeswoman told Wired.

In addition to never erroneously arresting anyone, the South Wales Police claimed in a press release that "no members of the public have complained."

But some members of the public have, in fact, complained. Tony Porter, the UK's Surveillance Camera Commissioner, wrote in a 2017 report that the facial recognition program needed oversight to stop it from becoming "obtrusive."

"The public will be more amenable to surveillance when there is justification, legitimacy and proportionality to its intent," Porter told Wired. "Currently there are gaps and overlaps in regulatory oversight."

In a February report submitted to the House of Lords by watchdog group Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, the group's director, wrote that there is "no law, no oversight, and no policy regulating the police's use of automated facial recognition." The UK government, he said, had not even set a target fail rate, allowing the system to continue flagging thousands of people erroneously at wildly high rates.

Carlo's report also added that facial recognition algorithms are known to be inaccurate, citing statistics from the US Government Accountability Office that showed "facial recognition algorithms used by the FBI are inaccurate almost 15% of the time and are more likely to misidentify female and black people."

In the report, Carlo also criticizes the database of photos taken from events and stored on police hard drives. At large events, CCTV cameras are set up in specific spots near the venue and are fed into a computer, which takes the video and scans every face to match it against the police database of 500,000 people they're looking for, Carlo wrote. But concerns have been raised about the CCTV footage and how long it is kept by police.

"The custody image database, which provides the basis for both facial matching and automated facial recognition, unnecessarily contains a significant proportion of photos of innocent people under what is likely to be an unlawful retention policy," Carlo wrote.

The South Wales Police have released multiple reports addressing this, writing that they are "very cognisant of concerns about privacy and we have built in checks and balances into our methodology to make sure our approach is justified and balanced. We have had detailed discussions and consultation with all interested regulatory partners."

The report later adds that: "Watchlists and the associated metadata are manually added to the system and will be reviewed regularly to ensure accuracy and currency and will be deleted at the conclusion of the respective deployment."

Matt Jukes, the chief constable of the South Wales Police, told the BBC that they needed to use the technology to protect large events like concerts and games from terrorist threats but "don't take the use of it lightly" and were attempting to make "sure it is accurate."

Facial recognition technology is being used by a number of countries, most notably Australia and China, which has a particularly robust algorithm that they use extensively.

NEC, the company that created the software being used by the South Wales Police, admitted to ZDNet in October that the program does not do well when working against a database as large as the one used in Cardiff and said the system was more accurate when used in smaller pools of people.

Chris de Silva, Europe head of Global Face Recognition Solutions, said, "You're going to find false alarms, and you are going to get answers, but they are not going to be always correct, and the more of that you get, the less likely people are going to be happy about using the system."

Being that the system has likely encountered EU citizens, questions could be raised about how its capabilities, and the underlying database, fit into the upcoming GDPR guidelines. Additionally, the high failure rate of such a program could be evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) used in tools like this may not be ready for primetime, especially when it comes to a contentious use case such as predictive policing.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on May 8, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/welsh-police-facial-recognition-has-92-fail-rate-showing-dangers-of-early-ai/

These 3 industries are kickstarting the 3D printing revolution →

Industry in 3D, hosted by GE, showed off how additive manufacturing is on the cusp of redefining how some companies do business at every level.

3D printing took over the headlines a few years ago as the next big craze, mesmerizing users with a visually stunning creation process. But while its popularity with consumers has started to wane, companies have only started to embrace the technology and are already seeing ways it can drastically change their industries. According to Gartner, the global 3D printing market will be worth $17.7 billion by 2020.

At GE's inaugural "Industry in 3D" event in New York, the company, its partners, and even some of its competitors joined together to show the world how 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is upending supply chains and forcing them to retrain engineers to think about production without the constraints of the normal manufacturing process.

"It's not about making the same thing differently," said John Flannery of GE. "It's about rethinking the entire process to create higher quality products."

Representatives from GE, Boeing, Bombardier, Launcher, Stryker, Adidas, GM, and BMW illustrated how 3D printing is being used to print highly specific, expertly-designed parts for airplanes, cars, and spaceships as well as joint replacements, dentures, bicycles, and much more.

Jason Oliver, president and CEO of GE Additive, stressed that 3D printing was not about replacing workers with robots, but about remaking the manufacturing process for a modern society.

"This is not about substitution. This is about redesigning processes and rethinking production lines," he said. "This is the digitalization of manufacturing. Right now, additive is used mainly for high value, low volume products like aircrafts and engines."

Over $13 billion was spent on 3D printing over the last four years, but GE estimates that $280 billion will be spent on it in the next 10 years. But Oliver said a number of industry leaders are only dipping their toes into the 3D printing pool, wary of trying to integrate something that may be disruptive to how manufacturing has been done for hundreds of years. Every industry, he said, should be looking into ways they can augment their manufacturing model to prepare it for the near future.

Here are the three industries kickstarting the 3D printing revolution,

This helicopter engine is made of 40% 3D printed parts. Using additive technology, its creators were able to cut the weight down and increase the power of it. They also reduced the number of parts from 455 to 16.

1. Aviation/aerospace

Of all of the industries, the aviation industry is taking advantage of 3D printing the most, incorporating the technology in the creation of new, customizable parts that were arguably impossible to create before this.

Forty percent of a helicopter engine designed by a company using GE's 3D printing services was created with 3D printed parts and they were able to reduce the number of parts from 400 to 16. Another engine piece had been reduced from 855 parts to 12, which helped reduce the weight by 5 pounds and resulted in an 80% cost reduction. The ability to manufacture miniature parts that are specifically designed for each plane or spacecraft is changing what these modes of transport are capable of.

On the show floor, one company displayed a plane propeller that had been 3D printed and showed how the new process allowed them to monitor changes in the propeller over time. They could even be digitally notified of when the propeller had changed too much, something which previously required constant security and quality checks at a number of different levels. This is the concept of preventative maintenance so prevalent in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.

Max Haut, founder and CEO of satellite company Launcher, said 3D printing was allowing them to compete with major companies and governments in a way that was impossible less than five years ago.

2. Healthcare

One of the most eye-opening parts of the event was the section on how 3D printing is affecting the medical industry. Some patients already have a number of 3D printed parts inside them, mostly knee and shoulder joint replacements, but the field is progressing rapidly by the year. Medical professionals are now able to make 3D printed parts that can mesh and grow with bone to create a more sturdy joint than before.

Specifically, the dental industry has taken 3D printing by the horns, adopting the process widely to create dentures and other mouth-specific designs that cannot be created en masse.

SEE: Photos: 3D printed dentures, bike, surgical tools, and more (TechRepublic)

Some companies are even hard at work on 3D printed organs, which is not as far away as one would think. A representative from Materialise, a 3D printed medical parts company, said they have already 3D printed a kidney.

Companies like Stryker are already pioneering new designs for casts and joint replacements and working with hospitals to widen the use of 3D printing. They have even designed a tool for doctors to suture wounds faster than ever before.

3. Energy

This drill bit is more durable and reliable than its regularly-manufactured counterparts and is used for gas and oil exploration.

GE is well known for its role in energy production across the world, and the firm is incorporating 3D printing into many stages of the production process. Drill bits that were previously costly and broke often are now 3D printed and tougher than ever, officials noted at the event.

For oil, gas, and renewable energy, GE and other companies are using 3D printing to cut down on the cost of materials and speed up production times. They are able to print replaceable parts on the spot instead of waiting weeks for new pieces, as noted at the event. Additionally, 3D printing with metals is used for both wind turbines and mining equipment, and is being adopted for more uses as we speak.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on May 4, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/these-3-industries-are-kickstarting-the-3d-printing-revolution/

IBM's blockchain for jewelry highlights ledger's potential in supply chain, logistics →

TrustChain is a new initiative aiming to help customers determine whether gems and minerals have been ethically mined and manufactured.

Diamond and precious stone buyers have longed for a fool-proof method of determining not just the provenance of their gems, but whether they were mined and processed in an ethical way. Due to the murky nature of the supply chain, consumer demand for a transparent jewelry supply network has largely fallen on deaf ears, save for efforts concerning conflict diamonds.

IBM is hoping to change that with TrustChain, a collaboration with global jewelry industry leaders seeking to use cloud-based blockchain technology to provide "one immutable and continuously updated record of transactions that is shared to all network participants."

The key to the effort is the full-throated buy-in from a consortium of gold and diamond industry players across the world, including Asahi Refining, Helzberg Diamonds, LeachGarner, The Richline Group, and UL, as noted in Thursday press release.

"This initiative is important for our industry as we seek to raise the collective responsibility and provenance practices to new heights," Richline Group CMP Mark Hanna said in the release. "TrustChain is the first blockchain of its kind within our industry, designed as a solution that marries IBM's leading blockchain technology with responsible sourcing, verification and governance by third party organizations, led by UL as the administrator."

TrustChain's website says they want to use blockchain to track "the jewelry supply chain from the mines of origin of the diamond and precious metals, through to the refining, polishing, jewelry manufacturing and shipping the final product to the retail store." By creating one central database with third-party administrators, the technology addresses a major consumer demand and forces companies to be open about where their goods came from.

"TrustChain uses distributed ledger technology that establishes a shared, immutable record of transactions that take place within a network and then enables permissioned parties access to trusted data in real time," IBM said in its press release. "By applying the technology to digitize processes, a new form of command and consent is introduced into the flow of information, empowering those in the blockchain network to collaborate and establish a single shared view of information without compromising details, privacy or confidentiality."

The blockchain allows for stones and metals to be digitally verified and checked by a third party, ensuring that all parts of the supply chain are being honest. Jewelry conglomerates and mining companies have long kept their own records to prove their goods were real, but much of it was kept internally and relegated to paper, which made it difficult to search through.

But surveys over the years have repeatedly shown that a majority of consumers care about whether their purchases are sourced in an ethically and environmentally sound way.

"Consumers care deeply about the quality and source of the jewelry they purchase," Bridget van Kralingen, IBM Senior Vice President of Global Industries, Platforms and Blockchain, said in the release. "This is evidenced by the fact that 66 percent of consumers globally are willing to spend more to support sustainable brands. TrustChain is an example of how blockchain is transforming industries through transparency and viable new business models that specifically benefit the consumer."

The project is still in the development phase, but by the end of the year, six different kinds of diamond and gold rings will be tracked by TrustChain, and consumers in stores will be given digital records of the value chain, the release said.. The gold will come from Couer's Wharf Mine in South Dakota and the diamonds will be sourced from Rio Tinto's diamond mines in Australia and Canada.

Many other industries are turning to blockchain to straighten out supply chain problems and organize haphazard, paper-based record systems. Infamous mining corporation De Beers said earlier this year that it, too, wanted to create an industry blockchain to source and track gems.

Catherine Malkova, IBM's Client Immersion Program Leader, wrote in a blog post that the size and scale of the jewelry industry made it necessary for all of the disparate players to come together and find a solution to a persistent problem affecting employees and customers.

"Whether or not your company follows ethical practices affects both its reputation and consumer trust. In the jewelry industry, this is especially important," Malkova wrote in the post. "Consumers should be able to easily determine whether the gold, diamonds and gems in their jewelry are mined and manufactured ethically and responsibly."

Blockchain is also used to track supply chains in livestock—specifically pork. On top of supply chain, logistics are another key use for the ledger technology, as evidenced by IBM's partnership with Maersk in the Port of Rotterdam.

*this article was featured on Tech Republic’s website on April 27, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ibms-blockchain-for-jewelry-highlights-ledgers-potential-in-supply-chain-logistics/

Hackers' hotel 'master key' could be big risk for business travelers →

Cybersecurity researchers have worked on cracking the code to hotel room keys since 2003.

Two intrepid cybersecurity researchers have figured out a way to crack the security systems of hotel rooms around the world, exploiting lapses in the electronic lock systems made by Swedish lock manufacturer Assa Abloy, according to a Wednesday press release.

Assay Abloy, which created VingCard's "Vision" system, has deployed it at 42,000 properties in 166 countries, including everything from hotel rooms to garages and secure spaces, as noted by our sister site ZDNet.

Tomi Tuominen and Timo Hirvonen, researchers from F-Secure, discovered a way to breach the system after nearly a decade of research following a strange occurrence at a Berlin security conference in 2003. A friend of theirs had a laptop stolen from his hotel room with no signs of forced entry, leading the two men on a decade-long journey to prove their theory that someone had figured out how to manipulate the RFID card reader.

The specific RFID card reader they were looking into was a typical kind sold by VingCard and created by Assay Abloy for mass use at hotels across the world, as noted by Wired. What Tuominen and Hirvonen have discovered, and will exhibit at a conference in Miami this week, is a program that can not only create cards for certain rooms but a master key for every room, giving potential thieves access to any part of any hotel they choose, the release said.

The main instruments needed are a $300 Proxmark RFID card reading and writing tool and any card, either old or new, from a hotel, according to Wired. From there, Tuominen and Hirvonen only need one minute to steal data from the used card and create a master card that can open any door on the same system.

Both men have tried to downplay any fears hotels and customers may have about the loophole and have actively worked with Assay Abloy to fix their system. Although it took them more than a decade, they said if someone worked full time, they could create a similar system in far less time.

"We don't know of anyone else performing this particular attack in the wild right now," they told ZDNet in an email.

They later added: "Developing [the] attack took considerable amount of time and effort. We built a RFID demo environment in 2015 and were able to create our first master key for a real hotel in March 2017. If somebody was to do this full time, it would probably take considerably less time."

Assay Abloy has since created a new line of locks and released a patch update earlier this year to address the issue, the release said. But the patch has to be installed manually by each hotel in each lock, leading both men to wonder whether the updates had actually been implemented.

There was also a discrepancy in the number of hotel rooms that are vulnerable. According to Wired, Assay Abloy told Tuominen and Hirvonen privately that "the problem affects millions of locks in total," while publicly they have said the problem would only affect close to 500,000 rooms locks.

A spokeswoman for Assay Abloy told the BBC that any electronic device is vulnerable to hacking and that a breach of this kind would require large teams and copious amounts of time.

"Vision Software is a 20-year-old product, which has been compromised after 12 years and thousands of hours of intensive work by two employees at F-Secure," the spokeswoman told the BBC. "These old locks represent only a small fraction [of the those in use] and are being rapidly replaced with new technology."

Tuominen and Hirvonen have said they will not release information on how their device works and will only give a broad overview of their method at the conference in Miami this week, the release noted.

A similar situation six years ago led to a US-wide robbery spree of hotel rooms following the release of a list of possible lock system vulnerabilities by a security researcher. Wired noted in their article that a number of government intelligence agencies, including those in the US and Israel, claim to already have ways to hack into hotel room key systems.

The ACLU noted as far back as 2012 that some security companies were even marketing themselves by advertising their ability to teach people how to crack VingCard locks.

Many major international hotels, including the Intercontinental, Hyatt, Radisson and Sheraton, use VingCard's system and are in the process of updating the locks now that the system's vulnerabilities have been made public.

Being that a stolen laptop was the impetus for this research, it goes without saying that business travelers should use extra caution when traveling and staying at a hotel. Check with management to see if the locks have been updated and, if worried, be sure to bring your valuables with you when you leave the room.

*This article was featured on the Tech Republic website on April 25, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/hackers-hotel-master-key-could-be-big-risk-for-business-travelers/

iPod recycling program revives love of music for the elderly and dementia patients →

Nursing home patients saw noticeable changes in activity, mood, and memory when they started listening to their favorite music using recycled iPods.

Dozens of tech companies have recycling programs, offering users a way to put their old, discarded hardware back into the system for good use. Apple, Google, and Amazon, for example, all have pages dedicated to accepting any old gadgets you might have lying around.

But few of these recycling programs resemble Music & Memory, a non-profit dedicated to providing those in nursing homes or facilities with personalized music playlists on donated iPods or mp3 players.

Dan Cohen, a tech-focused social worker from Long Island, NY started the program in 2006 with just a laptop and two iPods, initially hoping to address the technology gap that disproportionately affects the elderly.

"iPods were ubiquitous for young people but not for the elderly, who love music just as much as anyone," Cohen said. "Alzheimer's and dementia robbed many of these people of their memory. But their emotional systems are intact. Music can tap into that emotion and bring back certain feelings."

After a decade of hard work, the organization now gets endorsements from famous musicians like Elvis Costello, has its own well-regarded documentary, and collects 200 donated iPods/mp3 players per month that they recycle for nursing home use. Apple discontinued the last traditional iPod models in 2017, yet Music & Memory has managed to scrounge up over 16,000 iPods and mp3 players and distribute them to nursing homes and hospitals across the country.

The program has grown due in no small part to the very noticeable effect it has on nursing home patients. Nursing homes have almost always struggled to keep patients happy, engaged, social, and active, often using live musical performances to keep the elderly involved and aware.

"It has been absolutely amazing to see someone's face light up when they hear their own personalized music. We have seen a decrease in adverse resident behaviors, less wandering, more social interaction, and the residents are more upbeat and happy after listening to their music," said Kim Martinson, a nurse at Morseland Nursing Home in Wisconsin.

According to Cohen, less than half of all nursing home residents get regular visitors, and it isn't because they do not have relatives or friends. The program has allowed many families to reconnect with their older loved ones by helping them create playlists for them and tapping into a shared love of certain songs and artists. Access to their favorite music improves their sociability and makes visits more enjoyable for everyone.

"For me, Music & Memory is a weapon in the arsenal to fight for dignity, hope, and fulfillment in the lives of our elders," said Tom Davis, a director at Signature HealthCARE in Memphis. "This program, more than any other form of therapy, reconnects the resident to a sense of self and well-being."

Although elderly patients in nursing homes had always responded positively to live music, before Music & Memory, no one had thought to give them music players with personalized playlists. That has changed over the last decade, with at least 400 nursing homes per state adopting Music & Memory's program.

There are now nearly 5,000 facilities across the world that have added Music & Memory's program to their services, and it is becoming a codified public policy goal in a number of US states. More than 75,000 people currently take part in the program, spending about five hours per week listening to music. Their end goal is to have their program in at least 60,000 facilities across the world, and they are well on their way as they expand globally.

It is now a policy program at the largest hospital network in New York City and has branched out to 10 other countries including Israel, Australia, Argentina, Canada, and many places in Europe. The program is also moving beyond elderly patients, as science has shown that music therapy can help those in rehab or detox programs as well as those struggling with mental disorders.

"Technology like this can help people who are digitally isolated, and so much of our mission is figuring out what people need and how we can get it to them," Cohen said.

Families are encouraged to do this on their own by following an easy-to-use PDF on creating playlists for loved ones. Dan hopes to expand the program into helping the elderly use Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as those powered by Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which he thinks can be useful to those who either can't use their hands or cannot see well enough to type on a screen.

"Technology makes them feel that they can still do things, and when you can still do things, you can still learn things, your mind is still stimulated," Oneida County Long Term Care Facility nurse Cindy Dawson said. "When you're stimulated, you start taking control of your life. You have initiative. This feels like their home, which is what it's supposed to be."

Music & Memory has secured partnerships and funding from a number of organizations, including two headphone companies. Praise from nursing homes, patients, and families has been effusive for the recycling program.

"You can see the value of this program as being not just a casual activity, but almost a necessity for daily care, because of the promise and potential that it has for enhancing quality of life," said Dr. Concetta Tomaino, executive director of Institute for Music and Neurologic Function.

In the US, Cohen said the program is only reaching 2% of the estimated 2.5 million individuals in long-term care nationwide, and even less of the 4 million at home with some form of dementia. Eventually, he wants every nursing home to have music available 24/7, and with a steady stream of recycled iPods and mp3 players making their way into his coffers, he is ready for the challenge.

"The music that we love is tied in with our emotional system, and our emotional system is still very much intact even with dementia and Alzheimer's," Cohen said. "That's what we're connecting and that's what still works."

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on April 20, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ipod-recycling-program-revives-love-of-music-for-the-elderly-and-dementia-patients/

Going green? Here are the easiest ways to recycle your old tech devices →

Apple, Amazon, and other tech companies offer a host of programs that will help give your device a second life.

We all have a shoebox stashed away somewhere full of fraying cords and ancient hardware from a different era. As tech companies pump out newer, sleeker, and faster devices on a year-to-year basis, it's only natural for certain devices to lose their luster or fall into disrepair.

By 2020, Greenpeace estimates there will be 6 billion smartphone users, each replacing their phones every two years, on average. The waste from smartphones, as well as obsolete desktops and laptops, is already straining the environment in a number of different ways.

E-waste is growing out of control, with the United Nations finding in 2014 that over 40 million metric tons of devices and parts found their way into landfills. They estimate a 21% increase in 2018. However, tech companies have started to step up to the challenge, expanding recycling programs and offering more refurbished devices for sale.

Amazon offers gift cards for any old devices that still work and provides clear directions for sending in any items that no longer function. They have an easy-to-follow portal that prints a UPS shipping label for you to quickly send your device back. Smartphones, tablets, Kindles, and games are accepted for return.

The company supports "the responsible disposal and recycling of electronics products" and has over 30,000 collection sites for rechargeable batteries, it says on its website. You can even recycle the boxes your Amazon purchase comes in. Amazon also allows you to donate any other non-electronic items you may have by putting them in your used boxes and printing a free UPS label from their Give Back Box program. Donations go to your local participating charity.

Similarly, Apple has a robust recycling effort, dangling the prospect of Apple Gift Cards for any prospective refurbishers.

"No matter the model or condition, we can turn it into something good for you and good for the planet. And through April 30, we'll make a donation to Conservation International for every device we receive — getting us even closer to leaving the world better than we found it," Apple wrote on its website.

After only a few questions, users can figure out how much their old device is worth, or if it's worth anything at all, and instantly get Apple Store credit or Apple Store Gift Cards. Apple claims to disassemble at least 200 iPhones an hour using Daisy, a robot designed specifically for the recycling process. They have been eager to take on the recycling challenge and continue to push for more and more ways to reuse minerals and parts in old devices.

In an April press release, CEO Tim Cook said that Apple would continue to push "the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it."

Apple has lead the way in publicly condemning the environmentally-costly lifecycle of most devices on the market, writing in their environmental responsibility report last year that they needed to move toward "a closed-loop supply chain, where products are built using only renewable resources or recycled material."

Google has its own recycling program, offering both mail-in services and collection sites. Both Google products and other electronics can get you something from the Google Store.

Sony established one of the first recycling programs for their televisions and electronics in 2007. In 2016, they collected 9,749 tons of used consumer electronics and aim to have a collection center within 20 miles of 95% of the homes in North America.

As of March last year, Sony cumulatively collected approximately 222,727 tons of electronic devices. You can also contact them online with any questions about how and where to recycle any old devices or electronics. Although they don't offer payment or credit for any non-Sony devices, they do recycle everything for free and have a special program for rechargeable batteries.

Samsung, now the world's largest smartphone producer, organizes a number of different recycling programs for their devices. They have collection sites across the US for devices, batteries, and printer toner, but do not offer mail-in services. Depending on the state, Samsung is required to recycle their devices at no cost to you. They do not say whether credit or gift cards are offered in exchange for old devices.

LG has programs similar to other tech giants, allowing mail-in recycling in the US at no cost. They also have drop-off sites where you can bring in anything from a TV to a smartphone. It is unclear from their website whether they offer any reward for products that still work.

There are also many charities and non-profit organizations collecting electronics and putting them to good use. Music & Memory collects old iPods and mp3 players and refurbishes them for use in nursing homes. Other organizations offer home pick-ups of old electronics and devices that you no longer need.

Before letting that shoebox overflow with old devices, cords, and batteries, check an organization's website to see if you can be rewarded for recycling.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on April 20, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/going-green-here-are-the-easiest-ways-to-recycle-your-old-tech-devices/

The 5 greenest tech companies in 2018 →

Tech giants are rethinking their reliance on 19th-century energy sources and hazardous chemicals.

The environmental movement has shown no signs of slowing down nearly half way through 2018. In advance of Earth Day, Apple announced that it was going full clean energy, powering all of its offices, data centers, and stores with a variety of environmentally-friendly power sources. Apple also wrangled some of its suppliers into committing to 100% clean energy, too.

Apple and other tech companies have gone to great lengths to project an awareness of the environmental impact of their business models. Many now release yearly "Environmental Impact" reports and one-up each other with admirable strides toward cleaner technology use.

But the reality, as a number of environmental organizations continue to point out, is that most of these companies are reliant on a business model that requires consumers to buy new phones, laptops, and tablets frequently. And that creates a lot of waste.

The problem has little to do with how we use a device and more to do with how we acquire it and get rid of it. There are more than 65 million metric tons of e-waste worldwide now, yet 70-80% of the energy footprint of a device occurs during manufacturing, according to Greenpeace.

The manufacturing of these devices, which occurs mostly in China and Southeast Asia using products mined in dangerous conditions across the globe, requires extensive waste and coal burning. Some companies are beginning to address this, with new recycling programs and energy-conscious supply chains. Here are the five greenest tech giants, as ranked by Greenpeace.

1. Apple

When it comes to going green, Apple has had a very successful year so far, after facing heavy criticism last fall following allegations that it may have intentionally degraded the batteries in their phones. Apple has been more transparent than many companies about its supply chain and the need to make it more energy conscious. They have invested more in recycling programs that can harness some of the materials needed for devices outside of the mining process.

Their massive data centers are powered 100% by renewable energy, according to a press release. They have come out in support of the Paris Climate Agreement and have worked to root out child labor issues amongst larger efforts to move to a closed-loop supply chain.

2. HP

HP is one of the few companies striving to do the opposite of most other tech companies. Oversaturated markets have forced some companies to make products that degrade quickly. According to Greenpeace, the average smartphone lasts only two years now, forcing users to buy new models with increasing frequency. But HP, along with Dell and a few others have moved in the opposite direction, making products that do stand the test of time and are upgradeable.

HP set concrete goals on reducing emissions throughout their supply chain and actually publish a list of materials that they restrict during the manufacturing process. The company claims to have seen a 21% reduction in greenhouse gas intensity in its supply chain since 2010, and has been able to strong arm more than 90% of its suppliers into setting emissions targets.

In addition to their internal efforts, HP also backed the Paris Climate Agreement. According to their Sustainability report in 2016, HP has worked hard to bring their consumption down to 900,000 tons of materials used in 2016 for products and packaging and 119,900 tons of equipment collected for recycling.

3. Dell

Dell is one of the only major tech companies that openly provides a detailed and extensive list of suppliers in addition to what kind of services were rendered for each deal. Like HP, they are bucking the trend and making devices that are lasting longer and easily upgradeable. When it comes to their plastic use, its on a closed-loop, so anything used is recycled and reused. They claim to reuse more than one third of the plastic involved in their manufacturing process.

The firm heavily markets their refurbished devices and laptops, designing them specifically with repair in mind. Dell also sells spare parts widely, and releases extensive manuals on how to repair their laptops and tablets. Due to a reliance on cobalt, they have worked with authorities to clear their suppliers of child labor. Transparency has been one of Dell's major focuses, and they worked to identify, contain, and limit the use of dangerous chemicals necessary for their devices.

4. Microsoft

Although it has been on the receiving end of criticism for the short lifespan of its devices, Microsoft has been public about its support for green initiatives, backing the Paris Climate Agreement and the Clean Power Plan. The company also supported environmental efforts in Japan.

The repairability of their devices can range widely, but they have a robust offering of refurbished devices and do report some of the materials used in the manufacturing process. They have also been working to make their data centers more environmentally conscious as they expand across the globe, as noted in a blog post. The targets for emissions they have set are lower than those of Apple, but they are one of few companies to actually set any goal at all.

Many of the company's products and suppliers are listed in an effort to combat trafficking or child labor within their supply chain.

5. Lenovo

Lenovo has worked hard to surpass its Chinese peers by presenting clear plans demonstrating how it will cut its emissions, which are growing steadily each year. They provide a detailed snapshot of their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint, according to a recent sustainability report.

Lenovo has also committed to ending its use of certain hazardous chemicals and recycles some of the plastic used in its manufacturing process, the report said. The company has worked to sell lines of refurbished devices and controls nearly 20% of the global laptop market.

As noted in the report, Lenovo made a commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions in their own operations by 40% before the year 2020. When it comes to their suppliers, they have forced most to set some emissions goals, but could do more.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on April 20, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-5-greenest-tech-companies-in-2018/

Google's Dialogflow Enterprise helps businesses create AI-powered chatbots →

A beta version of the product was released in November, and thousands of developers currently use it to create AI-based conversational experiences.

Google's Dialogflow Enterprise Edition was officially released on Tuesday after months in beta, continuing the internet giant's foray into the ever-widening conversational interface field.

The move comes only a week after Google updated its Cloud Speech-to-Text technology, and introduced its Cloud Text-to-Speech software, to make it easier for businesses use.

According to a Google blog post, Dialogflow (which was named API.AI before it was bought by Google in 2016) is used by developers to "build voice- and text-based conversational experiences powered by machine learning and natural language understanding."

The tech is specifically designed for people without expertise in the field, so that companies can take advantage of it in a variety of ways. Dialogflow released a beta version of the software in November 2017, and said that companies are already using it to enhance their services.

"I remember how excited I was the first time I saw Dialogflow; my mind started racing with ideas about how Ticketmaster could benefit from a cloud-based natural language processing provider," Tariq El-Khatib, product manager at Ticketmaster, said in the post. "Now with the launch of Dialogflow Enterprise Edition, I can start turning those ideas into reality. With higher transaction quotas and support levels, we can integrate Dialogflow with our Customer Service IVR to increase our rate of caller intent recognition and improve customer experience."

Dialogflow also allows users to create services that work on a multitude of websites, apps and platforms, including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Facebook Messenger.

According to Google, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Domino's, Ubisoft, and Best Buy are patrons of Dialogflow, and "hundreds of thousands" of developers are already using it to improve customer service and gaming experiences.

"Dialogflow made it easy to build a AI-powered conversational experience that delights consumers using the resources and skill sets we already have. We estimate that Dialogflow helped us get our conversational interface to market 12 months sooner than planned," Max Glaisher, product innovation manager at DPD, one of the UK's leading parcel delivery companies, said in the post.

Ubisoft said it was using Dialogflow in conjunction with its "Sam" personal gaming assistant program.

"The team needed tools that let them iterate quickly and make modifications immediately, and Dialogflow Enterprise Edition was the best choice for those needs," Thomas Belmont, a producer at Ubisoft, said in the post.

The enterprise edition of Dialogflow has additional features not seen in the beta version, including a total of 30 available languages and ways to integrate features of Google Assistant into your project. It also comes with support interfaces and Service Level Agreements.

Businesses are in a race to automate many of the services they offer, and Dialogflow's release will accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in customer service and many other fields.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on April 17, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-officially-unveils-chatbot-dialogflow-enterprise/

Credit card companies will ditch purchase signatures by end of month →

Credit card transactions will no longer require signatures due in part to the rise of chip-based EMV cards, highlighting the digital transformation of retail.

Your signature will no longer be needed for credit card purchases now that the four major card companies have agreed to end the practice later this month.

Mastercard, Discover, Visa, and American Express have all decided to ditch pen strokes now that many retailers and restaurants accept chip-based Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) cards around the world. Europe and Asia have used chip-based cards with most transactions for more than a decade, but the United States has struggled to shed old habits, only adopting the practice fully three years ago, according to the New York Times.

The growth of online shopping and microchips, which are specific to each card and make it easier to stop fraud, made signing receipts obsolete and led to the switch, the New York Times noted. A number of companies backed the move and said requiring signatures held up lines and served little purpose outside of stopping the occasional scammer from claiming they did not make a purchase.

Tim Thomas, of complianceguide.org, told TechRepublic in 2015 that EMV cards were safer and better at stopping fraud than magnetic stripe cards.

"If someone steals a credit card number, they cannot use that number to manufacture a fraudulent EMV card," Thomas said. "In other words, the EMV technology ensures that the card being presented is not a fraudulent card."

Consumers have been using their signature to verify purchases since the 1950s, and many companies have been wary of the move out of fear that smaller retailers will not be able to keep up.

"Visa is committed to delivering secure, fast and convenient payments at the point of sale," Dan Sanford, vice president of consumer products for Visa, said in January after they announced the move. "Our focus is on continually evolving the market towards dynamic authentication methods such as EMV chip, as well as investing in emerging capabilities that leverage advanced analytics and biometrics. We believe making the signature requirement optional for EMV chip-enabled merchants is the responsible next step to enhance security and convenience at the point of sale."

The New York Times said each of the credit card companies will have different rules on when the changes will take affect and how.

"American Express is dropping its signature requirement globally, on all of its cards. Mastercard is ending the requirement only in the United States and Canada. Discover's change applies in those countries plus Mexico and the Caribbean. Visa is making signatures optional in all of North America, but only for retailers with payment systems that read chip cards," the New York Times reported.

Many countries are slowly transitioning into cashless economies, prioritizing speed and efficiency while turning to apps like Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Wallet to manage transactions. Tech companies like Amazon are also in the process of revolutionizing the retail experience through digital transformation, attempting to make the entire checkout process obsolete.

*this article was featured on the Tech Republic website on April 10, 2018: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/credit-card-companies-will-ditch-purchase-signatures-by-end-of-month/