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The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It

Addicted to A.I.

Mr. Ton-That, 31, grew up a long way from Silicon Valley. In his native Australia, he was raised on tales of his royal ancestors in Vietnam. In 2007, he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco. The iPhone had just arrived, and his goal was to get in early on what he expected would be a vibrant market for social media apps. But his early ventures never gained real traction.In 2009, Mr. Ton-That created a site that let people share links to videos with all the contacts in their instant messengers. Mr. Ton-That shut it down after it was branded a “phishing scam.” In 2015, he spun up Trump Hair, which added Mr. Trump’s distinctive coif to people in a photo, and a photo-sharing program. Both fizzled.Dispirited, Mr. Ton-That moved to New York in 2016. Tall and slender, with long black hair, he considered a modeling career, he said, but after one shoot he returned to trying to figure out the next big thing in tech. He started reading academic papers on artificial intelligence, image recognition and machine learning.Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Ton-That met in 2016 at a book event at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Mr. Schwartz, now 61, had amassed an impressive Rolodex working for Mr. Giuliani in the 1990s and serving as the editorial page editor of The New York Daily News in the early 2000s. The two soon decided to go into the facial recognition business together: Mr. Ton-That would build the app, and Mr. Schwartz would use his contacts to drum up commercial interest.Police departments have had access to facial recognition tools for almost 20 years, but they have historically been limited to searching government-provided images, such as mug shots and driver’s license photos. In recent years, facial recognition algorithms have improved in accuracy, and companies like Amazon offer products that can create a facial recognition program for any database of images.Mr. Ton-That wanted to go way beyond that. He began in 2016 by recruiting a couple of engineers. One helped design a program that can automatically collect images of people’s faces from across the internet, such as employment sites, news sites, educational sites, and social networks including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and even Venmo. Representatives of those companies said their policies prohibit such scraping, and Twitter said it explicitly banned use of its data for facial recognition. Read the full article

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Facebook Repairs Bug That Prompted Brief iOS App Outages

Popular smartphone apps including Spotify and Pinterest suffered outages Friday for a few hours due to a bug in Facebook's systems.Facebook has resolved the problem, a spokesperson said."Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS apps using the Facebook SDK," or software development kit, the spokesperson said."We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologise for any inconvenience."App users began reporting on Twitter early Friday that they were unable to open Spotify and other sites.Downdetector, which monitors for internet problems in real time, showed a rise in problems for a number of applications, including Spotify, Pinterest, Waze, and The New York Times.It reported a major spike in problems around 10:30am GMT (4pm IST), and a decline in user issues at around 1pm GMT (6:30pm IST).In 2020, will WhatsApp get the killer feature that every Indian is waiting for? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below. Read the full article

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U.S. Is Said to Plan to File Antitrust Charges Against Google

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is planning to file antitrust charges against Google as early as this summer, said two people with knowledge of the situation, in what would be one of the biggest antitrust actions by the United States since the late 1990s.The Justice Department is still investigating the internet company and has been making progress on its case, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details were confidential. The regulators are focused on Google’s dominance in the online advertising industry, and the case will also involve allegations that the company abused its dominant position in online search to harm competitors, the people said.State attorneys general are likely to file their own antitrust lawsuit against Google or join the Justice Department case sometime this year, said a person with knowledge of the state investigation.Taken together, such actions against Google, which controls around 90 percent of all web searches globally, would be one of the biggest antitrust cases in the United States since the 1990s when the Justice Department joined 20 states to sue Microsoft. The two sides reached a settlement in 2001.The moves would also set a benchmark for how regulators and lawmakers proceed with investigations into other large tech companies such as Facebook and Amazon, which the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and Congress are scrutinizing for their market power and corporate behavior. For nearly two decades, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and others have grown with little regulation from American authorities, becoming gateways to internet search, advertising, online communications, digital entertainment and e-commerce.The plans by the Justice Department and state attorneys general were earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.Google said it was continuing to engage in the various investigations. “We don’t have any updates or comments on speculation,” the company said. ”Our focus is firmly on providing services that help consumers, support thousands of businesses, and enable increased choice and competition.”The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is leading the states’ investigation, pointed to his previous comments that the states hoped the investigation would wrap up by this fall.The Justice Department began exploring whether to open a case against Google for potential antitrust violations last year. Attorney General William P. Barr has since stated publicly that he would like the department to decide by the summer whether to bring charges.As part of its inquiry, the Justice Department has spent months interviewing Google’s competitors in the areas of search, advertising technology and news publishers, seeking information about the company’s business practices.Last year, the states sent a detailed request for information, known as a civil investigative demand, asking Google to answer questions about its advertising technology business. The company and the State of Texas reached a deal earlier this year that would allow the states to gain access to key documents. In March, they discussed options to allow the states to share information with the Justice Department, according to documents obtained through a public records request.Google captures roughly one-third of every dollar spent in online advertising. Its search engine is the on-ramp to the internet and controls what information users see, while the company owns many of the critical tools and technologies used to advertise online. It also boasts seven businesses with more than one billion users.Antitrust scrutiny has been one of the prominent issues hanging over Google. But as the investigations have ramped up, the Silicon Valley company has played down the concerns about regulatory actions, noting that it has been investigated before and emphasizing how consumers are satisfied users of its products.In past investigations by U.S. regulators, Google did not end up facing charges. In 2013, the F.T.C. decided to wrap up a 19-month investigation without charging the company of violating antitrust laws. At the time, some staff members at the agency felt that there was sufficient evidence to press forward with a case, but the commissioners voted unanimously to close the matter.Cecilia Kang and David McCabe reported from Washington and Daisuke Wakabayashi from Oakland, Calif. Steve Lohr contributed reporting from New York. Read the full article

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Facebook, Telcos Plan Subsea Cable to Connect Africa, Middle East and Europe

Facebook and a team of African and global telecom majors have struck a deal to build one of the world's largest subsea cable networks, boosting internet availability across three continents, they said in a joint statement on Thursday.South Africa's MTN GlobalConnect and Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC are partners in the project, along with China Mobile International, French telecoms major Orange SA, Saudi Arabia's stc, Telecom Egypt, and Vodafone.The project, called 2Africa, aims to build 37,000 kilometres of subsea cable infrastructure which will directly connect countries around the African coast to Europe and the Middle East, according to its website.The network will have a design capacity of up to 150 terabytes per second (Tbps) on key parts of the system, the site said. The 11 new cables rolled out between 2009 and 2016 in sub-Saharan Africa provided around 70Tbps of design capacity.Subsea infrastructure provider Alcatel Submarine Networks will build the project, which is expected to be operational by 2023/24, the statement said. The companies did not reveal how much money they were investing."2Africa... will interconnect Europe, the Middle East, and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa," the partners said in the statement.Subsea cables form the backbone of the internet, carrying 99 percent of the world's data traffic.Africa's big economies have a large and fast growing population of internet users, with growth in internet use fuelled by rapidly expanding mobile broadband networks and ever more affordable phones.However, with a population of 1.3 billion, Africa is still a laggard in internet connectivity, with average internet penetration at around 39 percent against a world average of 59 percent.On completion the subsea network will deliver more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, the firms said in the statement."Improving connectivity for Africa is a significant step which lays the groundwork for increased digitalisation across the continent," said Vodacom International Business Chief Officer Diego Gutierrez.Vodacom, which is majority owned by Britain's Vodafone, is South Africa's second biggest telecom player.© Thomson Reuters 2020 Read the full article

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Aarogya Setu App Data Only Shared With Government Officials Working on COVID-19: NITI Aayog CEO

The Central government's Aarogya Setu mobile application is based on "privacy-first by design" principle keeping in mind the safety and privacy of users' data, said Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog. He added that the user data from the app would only be provided to those government officials who were directly in charge of containing the spread of the Coronavirus in India.In an exclusive interaction with ANI, Kant informed that Aarogya Setu mobile application has been built to ensure privacy and security of personal information that was collected from people. It is based on "privacy-first by design" principle."Aarogya Setu has a clearly defined protocol for access to data. National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the fiduciary of the data, and data is only shared with government officials directly involved in COVID-19 related medical and administrative interventions on a strictly need-to-know basis and limited in scope only to their direct work," said Kant.Concerns over the Aarogya Setu App were raised when a French ethical hacker claimed to have access of the users' data and had highlighted security bugs within the app which could be privacy ramifications.Clarifying apprehensions that some users may have related to data security, Kant said: "When an individual provides his/her mobile number for registration, the Aarogya Setu server assigns an anonymous, randomized unique device identity number (DiD) and associates it with their mobile device. This pair - the mobile number, DiD and other personal information is securely stored in a highly encrypted server."After registration, the app asks for your name and mobile number (any name that you want to be called by, not your legal name). In addition, it asks for your age and gender (both have a direct co-relation to COVID-19 impact), profession (to ensure people who are in essential services are proactively assisted), countries visited in last 30 days and willingness to volunteer in times of need."All contact tracing and location information that might have been uploaded to the Aarogya Setu server is permanently deleted 45 days from the date of upload if you have not tested positive for COVID-19 within that period of time. If you are infected, all contact tracing and location information pertaining to you are permanently deleted from the server 60 days after you are declared cured of COVID-19," added Kant.While the app requests users to share location, the app does not use location data for contact tracing. "The app has clearly defined and delimited how location information is used - only on an anonymous or aggregate basis and for the specific purpose of identifying hotspots so that proactive increased testing and sanitisation of these locations can be done," he said, adding that the app does not continuously monitor any user's location.According to Government data till date, Aarogya Setu app has registered about 9.6 crore users since its launch on Apri 2l. However, contact tracing data has been fetched of only 12,000 users who had tested positive for COVID-19 constituting less than 0.1 percent of all users. "Unless a person turn COVID-19 positive, this information is never accessed or pushed to the server and is permanently deleted from the phone 30 days after it is collected," he said."The central feature of the app is location history and Bluetooth-based contact tracing in the fight against the coronavirus. The Bluetooth interaction between two phones on which the app is installed is performed anonymously, using a randomised and secure Device Identification Number (DID) that has been assigned to the devices at the time of registration," added Kant.Along with the user's location history which is sampled sparingly (once every 30 minutes), this information is securely encrypted using the native key chain of the phone's operating system and is stored on the phone itself."The Aarogya Setu engine is designed to respect the privacy of COVID-19 positive patients. The back-end of the App is integrated with ICMR database through an API, and information about patients who have tested COVID-19 positive is received in real-time. It is this ICMR database which is the source from which the app receives information about all COVID-19 positive cases," added Kant."It is only in the event there is a requirement for individual medical intervention that the anonymised personal information is re-identified. The team is exploring moving from a one-time DID to dynamically generated DIDs for every user, to further enhance privacy," added Kant in an interview to ANI.Explaining significant predications made by the Aarogya Setu, Kant said, "In the last 6 weeks, Aarogya Setu App has emerged as a key technology solution aimed in combating COVID-19. Through this app, several potential emerging and hidden hotspots were identified. The engine predicted 130 hotspots across India at the sub-post office-level between April 13th to April 20th. Every forecasted hotspot has since been declared a real hotspot and acted upon by the health ministry." Read the full article

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Apple Watch Continued to Lead Global Smartwatch Shipments in Q1 With 55 Percent Share: Strategy Analytics

Apple Watch has maintained its lead in the global smartwatch market with a share of 55 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to a report by research firm Strategy Analytics. The overall smartwatch market is reported to have seen 20 percent growth annually — thanks to nearly 14 million units shipped in the first quarter of this year. After Apple, Samsung has managed to hold the second position, while Garmin, the company that is popular for its fitness-focussed wearables, rose to third. Strategy Analytics reports that Apple shipped 7.6 million units of the Apple Watch worldwide in the first quarter of this year. This shows an year-over-year (YoY) increase of 23 percent from the 6.2 million shipments record reported in the same quarter last year. With the increase in shipments, the Cupertino company managed to expand its share from 54 percent to 55 percent — its highest level for two years. “Apple Watch continues to fend off strong competition from hungry rivals like Garmin and Samsung. Apple Watch owns half the worldwide smartwatch market and remains the clear industry leader,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. Followed by Apple, Samsung continued its second position in the global smartwatch market with a shipments record of 1.9 million in the first quarter. This was slightly up from 1.7 million a year ago. However, the overall share of the company in the global smartwatch market has dipped from 15 percent to 14 percent during the past year. Strategy Analytics noticed that the company's growth was impacted by the coronavirus lockdown in South Korea and renewed competition from players such as Garmin. Garmin, on the other hand, has managed to make a comeback to the third position — overtook Fitbit — with a shipments result of 1.1 million units worldwide in the first quarter of this year. This was 38 percent increased annually from 0.8 million in the first quarter last year. Smartwatch vendor Q1 2019 shipments (in millions) Q1 2020 shipments (in millions) YoY change (in percentage) Apple 6.2 7.6 22.6 Samsung 1.7 1.9 11.8 Garmin 0.8 1.1 37.5 Others 2.7 3.1 14.8 Total 11.4 13.7 20.2   Sharp decline expected in Q2 due to COVID-19 Strategy Analytics predicts that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global smartwatch shipments will drop sharply in the second quarter. “Sales in Europe and the US have inevitably been hit by virus lockdown in recent months. However, the second half of this year and beyond will see a decent rebound, as consumers worldwide steadily regain confidence and more retail stores reopen,” said Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics. Is iPhone SE the ultimate 'affordable' iPhone for India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below. Read the full article

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to Be Read by Daniel Radcliffe, David Beckham, Others

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — the first Harry Potter book — will be read chapter-wise by several celebrities, author J.K. Rowling has announced. That includes Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, ex-footballer David Beckham, Fantastic Beasts stars Eddie Redmayne and Claudia Kim, and actors Stephen Fry, Dakota Fanning, and Noma Dumezweni. Fry has previously lent his voice to the Harry Potter audiobooks, Redmayne and Kim play Newt Scamander and Nagini in the Fantastic Beasts spin-off series, while Beckham, Fanning, and Dumezweni are new to the Harry Potter club.An official announcement says to expect “more surprises and special appearances”. The Harry Potter readings are being offered to entertain those stuck at home during the lockdown amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.Readings will be offered for free in video and audio-only form so you can choose the format you prefer. The former will be available at harrypotterathome.com, with the latter exclusive to the streaming service Spotify. The first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, “The Boy Who Lived”, has been read by Radcliffe himself. It's 25 minutes long. New chapters — there are 17 in total in the Philosopher's Stone — will be released every week starting now and until the end of June.This is the second phase of the “Harry Potter at Home” initiative launched by Rowling and her agency, The Blair Partnership, in early April, which kicked off with free audiobook and ebook versions of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone”, available for free via Audible Stories and participating libraries at the digital library supplier OverDrive, respectively.“Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” has sold over 120 million copies since its release in 1997, putting it at the top among the Harry Potter series, which has total lifetime sales of over 500 million, making it the best-selling book series of all time.Can Netflix force Bollywood to reinvent itself? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS. You can also download the episode or just hit the play button below. Read the full article

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Facebook Reports 'Signs of Stability' in Ad Spending After Coronavirus Drop

Facebook beat analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue on Wednesday and said it has seen "signs of stability" for sales in April after a plunge in March, in yet another signal that tech giants may weather the coronavirus-induced economic collapse better than other sectors. The announcement came a day after Alphabet's Google said a drop in its online ad sales similarly steadied in April. Shares of Facebook, the world's biggest social network and the owner of WhatsApp and Instagram, soared 9 percent in extended trading. Facebook said advertising revenue was roughly flat in the first three weeks of April compared with the same period last year, a tentative early sign of recovery following a "steep decrease" in revenue in March as lockdowns took effect worldwide to slow the spread of the virus. Revenue growth was 18 percent in the first quarter, Facebook's slowest ever by a wide margin, although it beat analysts' expectations for growth of 16 percent, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Ad sales, which make up nearly all of Facebook's revenue, rose 17 percent to $17.44 billion (roughly RS. 1.3 lakh crores). Some businesses took advantage of bargain pricing to run a heavier volume of ads after the pandemic wiped out Facebook ad pricing over the course of the quarter, contributing to a 39 percent increase in total ad impressions, executives said. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told analysts the company saw an increase in gaming ads and steady spending from technology and e-commerce players, which offset "significant declines" in ads from the hard-hit travel and auto sectors. Gloomy outlook Even so, analysts have a gloomy outlook for Facebook's second quarter, with advertisers across industries slashing marketing budgets in response to virus-related uncertainty, including many of the small businesses and direct-to-consumer brands that market themselves heavily on Facebook. Flat revenue in April indicates that the second quarter will be "more challenging" than the first, said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson, as countries emerge from lockdown and businesses reopen at varying rates. The company said around 3 billion users interacted with at least one of its apps each month in the quarter, up from 2.9 billion last quarter, as social networks use surged during coronavirus lockdowns. Some of that engagement is expected to slip once shelter-in-place orders are relaxed, it said. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg cautioned against a rush to end lockdowns. "I worry that re-opening certain places too quickly before infection rates have been reduced to very minimal levels will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worse longer-term health and economic outcomes," he said. He struck a markedly different tone from fellow Silicon Valley chief executive Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, who called the lockdowns "fascist" on Tesla's earnings call on Wednesday. Keep on building Executives said Facebook will move forward with plans to hire 10,000 new employees this year, largely in product and engineering roles, but will pull back on hiring plans for business departments like ad sales. Facebook lowered its guidance for total expenses in 2020 to $52 billion (roughly Rs. 3.9 lakh crores)-$56 billion (roughly Rs. 4.2 lahk crores), down from a prior range of $54 billion (roughly Rs. 4.05 lakh crores) -$59 billion (roughly Rs. 4.4 lakh crores), citing the slower headcount growth and savings from canceled travel, events and marketing. Total costs for the first quarter rose just 1 percent to $11.84 billion (roughly Rs. 89,000 crores). Zuckerberg said he accepted that profit margins will decrease this year, but said he was committed to maintaining plans for investment "rather than slamming on the brakes now, as I think a lot of companies may." He said he aimed to "keep on building and keep on investing," particularly to "make up for some of the stuff that other companies would pull back on," which in some ways was "an opportunity" for Facebook, given its deep cash reserves. Zuckerberg said he would eventually plan to moderate expenses over time, noting that the company's strong finances amid the economic pullback "has certainly reinforced for me the importance of maintaining high margins." © Thomson Reuters 2020 Read the full article

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Uber Offers Discounted Trips to 2.5 Million UK Health and Care Workers

Uber is offering discounted journeys to health and care workers in Britain from Wednesday, as it extends the scope of a service set up in Madrid last month to cover more than 4 million frontline workers fighting COVID-19 in over 20 countries.The ride-hailing service said it had worked with governments and healthcare institutions around the world to set up Uber Medics to provide workers with free and discounted rides to and from hospitals, health centres and care homes.Uber said 1.2 million National Health Service (NHS) staff and 1.3 million social care workers in Britain would receive a 25 percent discount on trips, funded by Uber, after linking their NHS email address to an account, or by their care home registering.Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber was proud to play a small part in the incredible efforts of healthcare staff to protect and treat those affected by COVID-19."We stand ready to work with governments and healthcare providers around the world to support their efforts to tackle the pandemic," he said on Monday.Uber Medics was developed last month in Madrid in response to a request made by the Madrid Health Department to support healthcare workers as an essential service, Uber said.It has since been rolled out to more than 20 countries, including France, Italy, Germany, and India.Uber said earlier this month it would provide 10 million rides and food deliveries, free of charge, to healthcare workers, seniors, and people in need globally.In Britain, it is providing 200,000 free rides and 100,000 free meals for NHS staff.Uber drivers will be able to opt into Uber Medic trips, the company said, offering them an opportunity to earn additional money during the lockdown. They will retain all of the fare.Raazma, a London-based Uber driver, said he had already signed up to the NHS Volunteer Responders."It's the least I can do in these challenging times, as we all need to pull together to help one another," he added.© Thomson Reuters 2020 Read the full article

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Cambridge Analytica: US Court Approves Record $5 Billion Fine of Facebook Over Privacy

US regulators on Friday welcomed a "historic" $5 billion (roughly Rs. 38,159 crores) settlement with Facebook over data privacy as the social network said it was already implementing the provisions of the deal. The deal between the leading social network and the US Federal Trade Commission became official with the approval Thursday of a federal judge. Along with the fine, the settlement announced last July requires Facebook to ramp up privacy protections; provide detailed quarterly reports on compliance with the deal, and have an independent oversight board.Some privacy activists had challenged the deal claiming it let off Facebook too easy after the Cambridge Analytica scandal that allowed the hijacking of personal data of millions of users ahead of the 2016 US presidential election.FTC chairman Joe Simons said in a statement he was "pleased" with the court approval, pointing out it was the largest monetary penalty ever obtained by consumer protection agency."At the same time, the court also highlights that the conduct relief included in this settlement will require Facebook 'to consider privacy at every stage of its operations and provide substantially more transparency and accountability for its executives' privacy-related decisions," Simons said.The agreement goes beyond measures required by US law and should "serve as a roadmap for more comprehensive privacy regulation," Facebook chief privacy officer Michel Protti said in a blog post."We hope this leads to further progress on developing consistent legislation in the US and elsewhere," Protti said."Ultimately, our goal is to honor people's privacy and focus on doing what's right for people."The FTC reopened its investigation of Facebook's data handling following revelations of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other missteps by the California giant.Facebook has created dozens of team devoted to privacy and has thousands of people working on privacy-related projects, according to Protti."This agreement has been a catalyst for changing the culture of our company," Protti said. Read the full article

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Germany Approves First Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Germany has authorised its first clinical test of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the country's regulatory body said Wednesday, green-lighting trials on human volunteers for an RNA vaccine developed by German firm Biontech and US giant Pfizer."The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut... has authorised the first clinical trial of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Germany," the regulatory body PEI said in a statement.The trial, which was only the fourth to have been authorised worldwide, was a "significant step" in making a vaccine "available as soon as possible", the institute added.It said that approval was the "result of a careful assessment of the potential risk/benefit profile of the vaccine candidate."The trials will see "200 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 55 years" vaccinated with variants of the RNA vaccine, while the second phase could see the inclusion of volunteers who belonged to high-risk groups.Neither PEI nor the developers specified when the trial will begin, though Biontech claimed in a statement that it would be "soon" and "ahead of our expectations".The PEI also claimed that "further clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidates will start in Germany in the next few months". Read the full article

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Facebook-Powered Virus 'Heat Map' Unveiled

Researchers on Monday unveiled a coronavirus "heat map" powered by Facebook data which is aimed at helping track the spread of the disease and plan for reopening society.The Carnegie Mellon University project offers "real-time indications of COVID-19 activity not previously available from any other source," according to a university statement.The map was developed with millions of responses to surveys of Facebook and Google users as part of an effort to monitor the spread of the virus.Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the heat map, currently available for the United States, was being expanded globally with help from University of Maryland research teams."As the world fights COVID-19 and countries develop plans to reopen their societies, it's critical to have a clear understanding of how the disease is spreading," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page and in the Washington Post."With a community of billions of people globally, Facebook can uniquely help researchers and health authorities get the information they need to respond to the outbreak and start planning for the recovery."Carnegie Mellon researchers said they are receiving about one million responses per week from Facebook users, and have also gotten some 600,000 from Google users."Using these and other unique data sources, the CMU researchers will monitor changes over time, enabling them to forecast COVID-19 activity several weeks into the future," the research team said.The research uses responses to Facebook surveys about symptoms people are experiences, with data controlled by university team and not shared with the social network.The scientists also rely on anonymized data from Google and other partners on symptoms and search queries."The survey asked people if they have symptoms such as fevers, coughing, shortness of breath or loss of smell that are associated with COVID-19," Zuckerberg said."Since experiencing symptoms is a precursor to becoming more seriously ill, this survey can help forecast how many cases hospitals will see in the days ahead and provide an early indicator of where the outbreak is growing and where the curve is being successfully flattened." Read the full article

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How to Delete Zoom Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

As citizens across the globe work from home, video conferencing app Zoom has gained popularity. The app is not only being used by families and friends to stay connected, but it has also become the new home for business meetings, online school classes, and webinars. However, recent reportage around this software has only been about security glitches, possible hacks, and password leaks. Due to these reports, Google banned its employees from using the meeting desktop app, and recently even the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declared Zoom as unsafe.  Because of these rising security concerns surrounding Zoom, users may look to delete their Zoom accounts permanently. It's important to note that there are two types of users – the Basic user and the Licensed user. The Basic or Free Zoom user can delete their Zoom account at any time easily. However, the paid Zoom user will need to cancel their subscription before they can terminate their account. Also, a Zoom user cannot delete their account via the Zoom mobile apps, they will have to do it via the Web portal only. Government Warns About Using Zoom App, Issues Advisory for Secure Use by Individuals How to Use Zoom Meeting App on Your Computer

How to delete Zoom account (Basic or Free user)?

Head to the Zoom Web portal on your browser and sign in using your account credentials.  Once signed in, Click Account Management found on the left hamburger menu. Hit Account Profile.

In the Account Profile section, you will be able to find the Terminate Your Account option As soon as you click on Terminate Your Account, Zoom will double check by asking ‘Are you sure to terminate your account?' By clicking on ‘Yes', you will be redirected to the Zoom homepage and briefly shown a message that your account termination was successful. You can also choose to select ‘No', if you have a change of heart and decide to keep it.

How to delete Zoom account (Licensed or Paid user)?

Head to the Zoom Web portal on your browser and sign in using your account credentials.  Once signed in, Click on Account Management tab found on the left hamburger menu. Hit Billing. In the first Current Plans tab, select the Cancel Subscription option to stop your automatic subscription renewal. Zoom will reconfirm whether you want to really cancel subscription. Click again on the Cancel Subscription button. It will then show a list of reasons asking the user why they no longer wish to use the paid plan or renew the subscription. Select the option that suits your logic best, and hit Submit.  Once you finish this step, your plan status will have changed to Cancelled. This doesn't mean that your current subscription is revoked. It only means that the plan will not be reactivated automatically once the subscription date ends. Zoom notes that if instead of Cancel Subscription, it says Contact Sales, the user will have to contact a sales representative from Zoom to have the plan cancelled. Once your subscription renewal is deactivated, you can click Account Management > Account Profile > Terminate Your Account. As soon as you click on Terminate Your Account, Zoom will double check by asking ‘Are you sure to terminate your account?' By clicking on ‘Yes', you will be redirected to the Zoom homepage and briefly shown a message that your account termination was successful. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Tasneem Akolawala When not expelling tech wisdom, Tasneem feeds on good stories that strike on all those emotional chords. She loves road trips, a good laugh, and interesting people. She binges on movies, sitcoms, food, books, and DIY videos. More

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Coronavirus Forces Detour for Homecoming Astronauts

NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir will take an unusual - and more exhausting - route home after safely landing in the Kazakh steppe on Friday, a Russian healthcare official said, because of lockdowns caused by the novel coronavirus.A capsule carrying Morgan, Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka touched down southeast of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan at 11:17am local time (10:47am IST), as scheduled, after nine months on the International Space Station.But because all of Kazakhstan's provinces are in coronavirus lockdown, search and rescue teams could not set up base in Dzhezkazgan or provincial centre Karaganda, said Vyacheslav Rogozhnikov, deputy head of Russia's Federal Medical Biological Agency.Instead, the Baikonur cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan and rented by Russia was used as a base and the crew of the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft will head there after being extracted from the capsule, Rogozhkin said in an interview broadcast online by Russian space agency Roscosmos.From Baikonur, US astronauts will take a 300km (186 miles) drive to the city of Kzylorda, where they will board a NASA aircraft, he said, adding hours of exhausting land travel after 205 days in space, 3,280 orbits of Earth and a trip of 86.9 million miles. Read the full article

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Apple-Google Alliance Welcomed by European Coronavirus App Platform

An Apple collaboration with Google will make it quicker to get systems for tracing coronavirus infections up and running, the prime mover behind a European effort to support the smartphone technology says. Technologists are racing to use Bluetooth short-range communications between devices as a proxy for measuring the risk that a person infected with the coronavirus can pass it on. Apple and Alphabet's Google said last week that they would launch tools to support such applications in May, with full integration of Bluetooth contact tracing functions into their operating systems to follow. Chris Boos, who is championing the Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) technology platform, says this can help shorten the path to deployment. "We need to worry less about operating system stability and device calibration," Boos, the founder of German business process automation startup Arago, said in written answers to Reuters. PEPP-PT plans a progress update on Friday. Chain of infection The coronavirus can be spread by people who show no symptoms, increasing the urgency of efforts once an individual tests positive to break the chain of infection. Digital technology can help give people targeted warnings to see their doctors or self-isolate, its backers say, reducing the need for lockdowns that have caused huge economic disruption. Bluetooth advocates say it would be a more accurate and less intrusive way of logging the closeness and duration of personal contacts than location tracking based on networks or satellites. But a divide has opened up between supporters of decentralized systems - including Apple and Google - and advocates of a centralised approach in which sensitive data is held on a server. The latter includes some governments, raising concerns that they could put citizens under surveillance. PEPP-PT, being developed in partnership with Germany's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute and technologists from other European countries, would support both models. "A centralised model offers such much better pandemic management potential without infringing privacy," Boos said. "But it should be a country's choice. You can gather the same data on top of a decentralized model - it just means more people have to move data on infected people." PEPP-PT is undergoing certification by Germany's cyber-security watchdog and has drawn support from some leaders in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. No decision has yet been made, however, to endorse an official contact-tracing app to run on PEPP-PT that experts say would need to be downloaded by at least 60 percent of the population to help achieve so-called digital herd immunity. © Thomson Reuters 2020 Read the full article

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PUBG Mobile Season 13 Reportedly Called Toy Playground, Royale Pass Details Leaked

PUBG Mobile is one of the biggest mobile games with a huge player base. It sees regular updates in the form of seasons with different themes. Season 12, which started early in March, is currently underway and now, a leak sharing details of Season 13 has surfaced online. The upcoming season is expected to be called ‘Toy Playground' and, as the name suggests, has a toy theme. There are Lego-themed colourful guns and character skins that look very similar to the live-action superhero television series Power Rangers.According to a YouTuber called ‘Mr.Ghost Gaming', Season 13 will be called ‘Toy Playground'. The skins for the items and weapons make them look like toys. The Vector gun and a pistol can be seen in a video shared by ‘Mr.Ghost Gaming' with colourful Lego/Power Ranger theme. The character skins can also be seen in the video with what looks like a Power Rangers theme. With PUBG Mobile Season 13 Royale Pass, players may also get a new AUG skin and a level 3 helmet skin. If the players purchase the Royale Pass, they will also get a choice of costume rewards which include Lava Superman and Flash Superman.The video also shows a special Tribal Set with a male sheep's skull mask and a similarly themed outfit. However, it is unclear how this can be obtained. Further, there seems to be a new character as well named Andy who is showcased with the tagline, “I can make this gun talk.” Several new voice chat options can be seen in the video as well.As of now PUBG Mobile has not confirmed any of the details for Season 13.With Season 12, PUBG Mobile brought the 2nd Year Anniversary theme with version 0.17.0. It added an Amusement Park Mode in Classic Erangel, an Arctic Mode, a new weapon, Hardcore Mode, Death Replay, and Colorblind Mode. Read the full article