Andrew Orr

The EU’s Article 11 and Article 13 have been approved, and critics say they will be catastrophic.

The fallout from this decision will be far-reaching, and take a long time to settle. The directive itself still faces a final vote in January 2019 (although experts say it’s unlikely it will be rejected). After that it will need to be implemented by individual EU member states, who could very well vary significantly in how they choose to interpret the directive’s text.

What I find particularly concerning is something called a “link tax.”  It means there could be a fee on sharing hyperlinks to various news articles online. This is targeted at news aggregators (mainly Google News) because it links to stories with snippets. TechDirt has more information, and there’s a website called SaveTheLink to sign a petition.

I’ve been seeing reports and reading peoples’ experiences today complaining about disappearing iTunes Movies. The reason? The studio behind them is removing them from the Canadian version of the iTunes Store.

As da Silva and others have pointed out before, the “Buy” button in digital stores is, at best, mislabeled. You cannot truly buy any digital thing online; you can only rent it, and any online video store is little more than an expensive, glorified, extremely convenient Blockbuster. In conclusion, let’s go back to DVDs. We have requested comment from Apple and will update if we hear back.

The problem is that digital ownership isn’t the same as physical ownership. Despite using a “Buy” button, it can still be argued that you’re renting it. They can remove your iTunes Movies, but not your physical DVDs.

Under Tim Cook’s leadership, privacy is Apple’s best product.

In 2018, no issue is more important than user privacy–or the lack of it. We’re tracked by private industry on an unprecedented scale…If you want to be part of this world, designed by advertisers and tech giants, you must relinquish your right to privacy…Well, unless you use Apple’s products.

I’ve been Apple is pushing privacy as a feature for a while now. Privacy is the main differentiator between Apple and its competitors. Non-tech people who hold an iPhone Xs and an Android flagship aren’t going to notice differences in screen, CPU speed, camera specs, etc. But if you tell them that Apple products are more private, then you may have sold a product.

Joanna Stern writes about how iOS 12’s Screen Time feature couldn’t cure addiction, specifically smartphone addiction.

Just one little problem: For those of us who compulsively check our phones—sometimes even when watching our children on the playground, or crossing the street—Apple’s lock is like Scotch tape on a pack of cigarettes. If you’re not super addicted, though, there’s hope.

With much respect for Ms. Stern, I hope she didn’t actually set out thinking that Screen Time could cure a smartphone addiction. Apple is many things; a replacement for a licensed psychologist it is not. For more information on smartphone addiction, Psychiatry Advisor has some criteria.

The BBC reviews iOS 12 and specifically highlights features which may be beneficial to journalists, especially mobile journalists or “mojos.”

It’s surprising to note that many journalists continue to use their smartphones simply as phones – which isn’t very smart, given the power of the device they carry with them all the time. It’s also surprising that iOS 12 will run on every device that currently runs iOS 11. This will therefore include iPhone 5s from way back in 2013 – now something of a dinosaur.

Mojo-friendly features include Voice Memos, Siri Shortcuts, AR, and more.

Scientists from SETI have found 72 mysterious signals from a galaxy 3 billion light years away. They did this by using AI to examine 400 terabytes of data.

The signals they spotted – fast radio bursts (FRBs) – are bright and quick pulses which were first discovered in 2007 and are believed to come from distant galaxies, although it is not yet know what causes them.

The nature of the object emitting them is unknown. There are many theories, including that they could be the signatures of technology developed by extraterrestrial intelligent life.

Aliens are possible, but not probable. More likely candidates for these signals include pulsars, quasars, and maybe even black holes or neutron stars.

A French data regulator is asking for more powers to remove out-of-date or embarrassing content from the web. This effectively turns the ‘right to be forgotten’ rule into a censorship tool.

In the latest ECJ case to be heard in Luxembourg on Tuesday, the French data regulator is seeking to extend that power so that it applies universally. That would permit national regulators to hide articles deemed unacceptable not only from their own cyberspace such as google.fr, but also from global domains including google-com and from those of other countries.

Google of course is resisting this, saying it would create a precedent for authoritarian governments to limit free speech. We don’t need a Ministry of Truth, thanks.

Besides advertising, corporations use our data to train AI systems. And now the companies are deciding how AI will affect our future.

The ethical use of AI is a matter of public discourse but Google (and others) seem unfazed by the potential dark side of their products and practices. We know this because they keep pressing forward to implement their visions of the future – visions they may not necessarily see a need to reveal to the public.

Companies, especially those in the tech industry, move faster than governments. And we need governments to create ethical guidelines on how AI should be used. Because if we leave it up to corps like Google, every single facet of our lives will be collected for monetization, even more so than now.