Author: Robert Paterson

Quirky, geeky and charming techie. All thoughts and posts are my own.

Contact tracing must be safe

Yes, contact tracing is an important step for some countries to better manage the impact of coronavirus. However, sacrificing personal privacy at the risk of it bing shared to untrustworthy operators isn’t.

Source code analysis reveals seven security holes in UK contract tracing app

This article highlights the research performed on the source code the UK government share of its contact tracing app.

Both coronavirus and personal privacy are important, neither, regardless of perspective should outweigh the other.

NHSX, fix the app or it won’t be used by the privacy conscious.

Why won’t the UK save more lives?

This article by Ben Lovejoy highlights the bad judgement employed by the UK NHS in choosing to create its own contact tracing app for monitoring CoVid-19.

Comment: It’s no exaggeration to say UK rejection of Apple API will cost lives

Sometimes big business makes really great decisions on behalf of the community it services. Not all decisions are about making money.

The UK approach will not be accepted by all. Certainly not by me for all my usual privacy reasons.

I still don’t fully trust Google, but if they’re working in conjunction with Apple, I am happier that they are both working in our best interests.

The UK government has, like others, made some “interesting” decisions during the pandemic. This one feels like it has been politically motivated.

I will use any app that uses the Apple/Google API. That means I won’t use the NHS one.

Watch and enjoy football?

I work for a small technology company some folk might have heard about before – IBM. Yes, International Business Machines – that IBM. (That might mean I’m biased, but when you read and watch the stuff below, you might understand that!)

I’m not the world’s biggest football fan (soccer for those Americans out there). But I like the odd match. When I read something on our internal news system about IBM’s Watson technology helping Leatherhead FC, this sounded both strange and amazing at the same time.

Watch this video and see if you’re equally impressed:

Do you speak to Siri/Alexa/Google?

I often ask Siri to switch on, or off, lights around the house – yes I am that geek.

But I also find I reply back to Siri when a confirmation is made, like when I ask for a piece of music or playlist to be played, Siri will confirm, and I say thank you.

So this new idea, just sounds right up my street. And when you watch the video, you might also be thinking, “what else can this do for me”?

Apple/CMU researchers show dumb devices made smart by HomePod listening

To me, this just feels like a natural next step, and I sort of wonder why no one has done this yet anyway. Then I remember, it’s amazingly tough to make some of the things that we take for granted as natural for us, happen within or by a computer system.

I really want to see this happen sooner than later.

An interesting time

Supposedly there is an old Chinese proverb about “may you live in interesting times” and is meant to be used as a sort of insult or curse at someone who has displeased you. The idea being that “interesting times” means bad things.

Many might consider the advent and actions taken as a result of the current coronavirus also known as Covid-19 as “interesting times”.

Instead, I’d suggest what it has done is shown us the “interesting people”. I’ve seen two main types so far, but there are no doubt multiple sub-categories.

The first is the person who panic buys, who continues to do the usual things even though they should self-isolate, who believes that their needs outweigh those of any others.

The second is the antithesis, the one who goes out their way to self-isolate, who will drop off groceries for vulnerable neighbours, the good Samaritans as it were.

Look carefully at your actions and decide who you are, and who you’d rather be.

Be the person who cares, who is considerate, who thinks about others.

#letstalksafetech

I work for IBM, I should say that up front in case of any concerns that I don’t make that clear.

IBM has launched a micro-site on our IBM Volunteer Portal which has Mayim Bialik, yes Amy Farrah Fowler heself from The Big Bang Theory, sharing tips about being safe online for the younger people around the world.

Let’s start with the link: https://www.ibm.org/activities/cybersecurity/safetech

Indeed, this is information that is valuable to anyone who is online – which is pretty much the whole world these days.

Be safe, be secure, and do the right things for yourself.

I’m glad I’m not the only one…

Privacy, and security, are important. Unfortunately the vast majority of people seem oblivious and continue to use Facebook, Google and other tools which, to all intents and purposes, work hard to ignore your privacy.

I found this article refreshing reading, to know others care and have at least started to explain to others the alternatives which can maintain their privacy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50460712

Don’t be someone who falls foul of the next Cambridge Analytica.

The turkeys have voted

I’m with Lily in the overall emotional thinking about the election results.

Lily Allen blasts Tory supporters who voted for ‘kids to die with no healthcare’

Brexit will now happen, and I don’t believe those who voted Conservative fully understand the consequences.

Personally I’m numb. My immediate work colleagues and others I know are liberal, and it gave me hope that voting would reflect that.

The fact that the country is supporting anti-immigration, anti-NHS and many other negatively social policies suggests strongly that this was the “me first” style voting.

I cannot see that history will see this as anything other than Little Britain leading to the eventual dissolution of the United Kingdom. Why say that?

Sinn Fein took a key DUP seat, which shows how Ireland feels about Boris’ deal. Thin end of the reuniting edge for Ireland. The strength of vote for the SNP is another indicator of the regional perspective on what was ultimately a white English-driven view.

Trump, Johnson and who’s next?

The right-wing lead a terrible period of human history in the 20th century. Let’s hope this is not the prelude to an equivalent in the 21st.

Anyone else now ready to emigrate to the moon or Mars? Count me in. I want nothing to do with the humans who clearly feel no passion for others.

I want to be a sardine…

What is he on about? Have you been following the rise of the far right across Europe?

Many countries are affected, not least the UK, but perhaps a surprising one has been Italy, given that many feel that it is one of those countries with a mish mash of politics always resulting in hung parliaments.

Like other countries, the rise of the far right has come to Italy and their way to fight back? Declare yourself as a sardine.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50631217