TikTok skirted a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system to collect unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found. The tactic, which experts in mobile-phone security said was concealed through an unusual added layer of encryption, appears to have violated Google policies limiting how apps track people and wasn’t disclosed to TikTok users. TikTok ended the practice in November, the Journal’s testing showed.

 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tiktok-collected-android-user-data-using-tactic-banned-by-google-2020-08-11

Why the US ban on WeChat is a much bigger deal than TikTok

 https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/why-the-us-ban-on-wechat-is-a-much-bigger-deal-than-tiktok-20200807-p55jk0.html

The world's biggest site for software developers is abandoning decades-old coding terms to remove references to slavery. GitHub Chief Executive Nat Friedman said the firm is working on changing the term "master" - for the main version of code - to a neutral term.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53050955

The U.S. video-conferencing company Zoom closed the account of a group of prominent U.S.-based Chinese activists after they held a Zoom event commemorating the 31st anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre

https://www.axios.com/zoom-closes-chinese-user-account-tiananmen-square-f218fed1-69af-4bdd-aac4-7eaf67f34084.html

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Wednesday said it was implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, halting a business it long defended as many protested law enforcement brutality against people of color. The decision culminates a two-year battle between Amazon and civil liberties activists, who have voiced concern that inaccurate matches could lead to unjust arrests.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-facial-recognition/amazon-pauses-police-use-of-facial-recognition-tech-for-a-year-idUSKBN23H3EO

Last year, UNSW responded to falling enrolments with a proposal to lower entry requirements. With an estimated 80 per cent of teaching now casualised, academics have become itinerant workers. Students have become customers. Teachers report widespread pressure to pass low-grade students but cannot speak of it, fearing reprisal.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-decline-of-universities-where-students-are-customers-and-academics-itinerant-workers-20200528-p54xbd.html

The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet At 22, he single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story.

https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-marcus-hutchins-hacker-who-saved-the-internet/

Turn on your webcam, enable your microphone and share your computer screen, an anonymous voice told university student Emily Johnston as she sat her first online exam from her bedroom. Don't look away from your screen for too long, in case artificial intelligence scans your face and registers suspicious behaviour. Any noise or movement you make will be recorded, reviewed and stored for two years. Many university students have been unsettled by proctoring software being used to invigilate their online exams during the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/you-re-being-watched-and-recorded-every-breath-students-unsettled-by-exam-software-20200519-p54ucb.html

Nvidia’s GameGAN AI Creates Pac-Man Without an Underlying Game Engine. The reason advances like GameGAN strike me as significant is because they don’t just represent an AI learning how to play a game. The AI is actually learning something about how the game is implemented purely from watching someone else play it. That’s closer, conceptually, to how humans learn

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/310886-level-up-nvidias-gamegan-ai-creates-pac-man-without-an-underlying-game-engine

Microsoft: We Were on ‘The Wrong Side of History’ With Open Source

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/310688-microsoft-we-were-on-the-wrong-side-of-history-with-open-source

'Greatest peril': study finds Australia most dependent on China among the Five Eyes. The report did not recommend an immediate economic decoupling from China as that would be “painful and expensive” but said the Five Eyes countries should work together to prevent China dominating the nine industries that it identified would dominate the future economy. They are: artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomous robotics, computing hardware, cryptographic technology, materials and manufacturing science, nano-technologies, networking and data communication, quantum technology and synthetic biology.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/greatest-peril-study-finds-australia-most-dependent-on-china-among-the-five-eyes-20200514-p54ssg.html

Warning Over Chinese Mobile Giant Xiaomi Recording Millions Of People’s ‘Private’ Web And Phone Use

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/30/exclusive-warning-over-chinese-mobile-giant-xiaomi-recording-millions-of-peoples-private-web-and-phone-use/#333f931a1b2a

Half-baked: The COVIDSafe app is not fit for purpose on iPhones

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-covidsafe-app-is-not-fit-for-purpose-on-iphones-20200506-p54qjk.html

Calling All Makers With 3D Printers: Join Critical Mission To Make Face Masks And Shields For 2020 Healthcare Workers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/24/calling-all-makers-with-3d-printers-join-critical-mission-to-make-face-masks-and-shields-for-2020-healthcare-workers/#79ded0475006

POPE FRANCIS ON SUNDAY advocated for a form of universal basic income that would "dignify the noble, essential tasks" carried out by street vendors, small farmers, construction workers and caregivers around the world. The message turned heads in the U.S., coming just weeks after lawmakers finalized a plan to distribute direct cash transfers to many Americans – and just months after entrepreneur Andrew Yang made waves in the Democratic presidential primaries on a policy platform based around the adoption of a universal basic income.

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-04-12/pope-ponders-universal-basic-income-as-boris-johnson-is-discharged-opec-strikes-deal

This Open-Source Program Deepfakes You During Zoom Meetings, in Real Time Avatarify runs on Skype and Zoom, and face-swaps your own face with a celebrity in live video calls.

https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/g5xagy/this-open-source-program-deepfakes-you-during-zoom-meetings-in-real-time

Chinese internet users who uploaded coronavirus memories to GitHub have been arrested

https://qz.com/1846277/china-arrests-users-behind-github-coronavirus-memories-page/

Covid safe: Australian government launches coronavirus tracing app amid lingering privacy concerns

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/26/australias-coronavirus-tracing-app-set-to-launch-today-despite-lingering-privacy-concerns

China Launches National Blockchain Network in 100 Cities

https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/china-launches-national-blockchain-network-100-cities

TikTok 'tried to filter out videos from ugly, poor or disabled users' Documents from the Incercept show social media app put pressure on moderators

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/17/tiktok-tried-to-filter-out-videos-from-ugly-poor-or-disabled-users