data
‘Worst in Show’ CES products put users' data at risk, cause waste: Privacy advocates
So much of the technology showcased at CES includes gadgets made to improve consumers' lives — whether by leveraging AI to make devices that help people become more efficient, by creating companions to cure loneliness or by providing tools that help people with mental and physical health.
But not all innovation is good, according to a panel of self-described dystopia experts that has judged some products as “Worst in Show." The award that no company wants to win calls out the “least repairable, least private, and least sustainable products on display."
“We’re seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them, and it enables some cool things,” Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability at the e-commerce site iFixit told The Associated Press. “But it also means that now we’ve got microphones and cameras in our washing machines, refrigerators and that really is an industry-wide problem.”
The fourth annual contest announced its decisions Thursday.
A new smart ring every few years?
Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, awarded the Ultrahuman Rare Luxury Smart Ring the title of “least repairable.”
The rings, which come in colors like dune and desert sand, cost $2,200. Wiens said the jewelry “looks sleek but hides a major flaw: its battery only lasts 500 charges.” Worse, he said, is the fact that replacing the battery is impossible without destroying the device entirely.
“Luxury items may be fleeting, but two years of use for $2,200 is a new low,” he said.
Ultrahuman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An AI-powered smart crib?
Bosch’s “Revol” crib uses sensors, cameras and AI that the company says can help monitor vital signs like how an infant is sleeping, their heart and respiratory rates and more. The crib can also rock gently if the baby needs help falling asleep and signal to parents if a blanket or other object is interfering with breathing.
EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn said the crib preys on parents' fears and “collects excessive data about babies via a camera, microphone, and even a radar sensor.”
“Parents expect safety and comfort — not surveillance and privacy risks — in their children’s cribs,” she said in the report.
Read: Japan links Chinese hacker MirrorFace to dozens of cyberattacks targeting tech data
A spokesperson for Bosch told The Associated Press that all data is encrypted end-to-end and stored on Bosch-administered servers, “while all data at rest is secured locally with individual data encryption keys.”
“Caregivers have the final say on whether data is transmitted at all. The Revol has an offline mode, which keeps data local if preferred,” the spokesperson said, adding that the smart crib helps keep children safe.
Too much waste?
Although AI is everywhere at CES, Stacey Higginbotham, a policy Fellow at Consumer Reports, felt that SoundHound AI’s In-Car Commerce Ecosystem, powered by its Automotive AI, pushes it to unnecessary extremes.
The feature “increases energy consumption, encourages wasteful takeout consumption and distracts drivers—all while adding little value,” Higginbotham said. That landed the in-car system as “least sustainable” on the list.
Soundhound AI's platform allows drivers and passengers to order takeout for pick-up directly from the car’s infotainment system. The company did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement Tuesday, Keyvan Mohajer, CEO of SoundHound AI, said the product's launch marks an moment “decades in the making.”
“What begins here with food and restaurants will ultimately open up a whole new commercial ecosystem for vehicle and device manufacturers everywhere,” he said.
Vulnerable to hacking
TP-Link's Archer BE900 router won for “least secure” of CES. The company is a top-selling router brand in the U.S. But its products are vulnerable to hacking, said Paul Roberts, founder of The Security Ledger.
"By Chinese law, TP-Link must report security flaws to the government before alerting the public, creating a significant national security risk," he said. “Yet TP-Link showcased its Archer BE900 router at CES without addressing these vulnerabilities.”
In an email response, TP-Link Systems contested the report.
“TP-Link Systems Inc. is a U.S.-headquartered company and does not provide any such security reporting to China as referenced by iFixit,” the company said. “TP-Link Systems has a secure, vertically-integrated, and U.S.-owned international supply chain. Nearly all products sold in the United States are manufactured in Vietnam.”
TP-Link said it controls its own supply chains, and “is constantly assessing potential risks to its U.S. operations, customers, and supply chain," adding that it acknowledges that vulnerabilities exist across the industry.
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“However, contrary to claims of widespread vulnerabilities, comparative data places TP-Link on par with, or in some cases ahead of, other major industry players in terms of security outcomes,” the company said.
Who asked for this?
The awards also feature a category called “who asked for this?” Top of that list was Samsung's Bespoke AI Washing Machine, which Nathan Proctor, senior director of U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy group, said is filled “with features no one needs,” including the ability to make phone calls.
“These add-ons only make the appliance more expensive, fragile, and harder to repair,” he said.
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.
At a press conference at CES Tuesday, Jong-Hee Han, vice chairman of Samsung’s device experience division, said that he was “proud of how we have introduced new technologies and intelligence to the home, connected key devices and set the standard for the home of the future.”
“We are reinforcing our commitment to delivering personalized experiences through our widespread implementation of AI and we will continue this journey of AI leadership in the home and beyond, not just for the next decade, but for the next century,” he said.
The worst overall
Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association called the LG “AI Home Inside 2.0 Refrigerator with ThinkQ” the worst product overall. The fridge adds “flashy features,” Gordon-Byrne said, including a screen and internet connection.
“But these come at a cost,” Gordon-Byrne said. “Shorter software support, higher energy consumption, and expensive repairs reduce the fridge’s practical lifespan, leaving consumers with an expensive, wasteful gadget.”
Christopher De Maria, director of public relations at LG Electronics, disagreed with Gordan-Byrne's assessment of their new product.
“Of course, like any new innovation, there will be naysayers, but we believe that when we launch this product, consumers who are looking to elevate their kitchen experience will appreciate its innovative features, convenience and performance. We have not announced pricing or availability or shared any information regarding energy consumption, so these comments are respectfully without factual merit.”
3 days ago
WHO 'continues to urge' China to share more data amid Covid surge
The UN health agency has "continued to urge China" to share more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalisations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing in the wake of a Covid surge in the East Asian country.
"The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the risk to life in the world's most populous country and reiterated the importance of stepping up vaccination coverage, including booster doses," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said recently in his first online briefing for the year.
"With circulation in China so high and comprehensive data not forthcoming – as I said last week it is understandable that some countries are taking steps they believe will protect their citizens," he added.
Several countries, including the US, have announced new Covid testing requirements for travellers from China to gain domestic entry, amid concerns over the spread of the latest variants.
WHO Emergencies Director Dr Mike Ryan said: "We know there are difficulties in all countries very often in recording hospital releases, admissions and use of ICU (intensive care unit) facilities."
"We believe that the current numbers being published from China underrepresents the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths."
Also Read: Is China sharing enough COVID-19 information?
WHO has held high-level meetings with Chinese authorities over the past week to discuss the rise in cases and hospitalisations.
The UN agency's Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) also met with Chinese experts to discuss the situation.
During that meeting, scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention presented data from what they described as imported and locally acquired coronavirus infections.
The analysis showed that most of the viruses circulating in the country are of two Omicron lineages, BA.5.2 and BF.7, which accounted for 97.5 percent of all local infections, as well as a few other known Omicron sublineages.
"These variants are known and have been circulating in other countries, and at present no new variant has been reported by the China CDC," the TAG-VE said in a statement on Wednesday.
So far, 773 sequences from mainland China have been submitted to the virus database operated by the global science initiative, GISAID.
Most, 564, were collected after December 1. Of this number, only 95 are labelled as locally acquired cases, while 187 are imported and 261 "do not have this information provided."
The majority of the locally acquired cases, 95 percent, belong to the two Omicron lineages.
"This is in line with genomes from travellers from China submitted to the GISAID EpiCoV database by other countries. No new variant or mutation of known significance is noted in the publicly available sequence data," the statement said.
Tedros said the pandemic is now in its fourth year, and despite progress, it is still a threat to health, economies, and societies.
"We are really concerned about the current Covid-19 epidemiological picture, with both intense transmission in several parts of the world and a recombinant sub-variant spreading quickly," he said.
Covid was on the decline for most of 2021, Tedros added, citing factors such as increased vaccinations worldwide and the identification of new lifesaving antivirals.
However, there are still major inequities in access to testing, treatment and vaccination.
"Every week, approximately 10,000 people die of Covid-19, that we are aware of. The true toll is likely much higher," he said.
Also, the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is on the rise in the US and Europe and has been identified in nearly 30 countries.
XBB.1.5 was initially detected in October 2022. It is the most transmissible subvariant yet, according to Dr Maria Van Kherkove, the WHO technical lead for Covid.
"We do expect further waves of infection around the world, but that doesn't have to translate into further waves of death because our countermeasures continue to work," she said.
Meanwhile, the TAG-VE experts are also working on a related risk assessment that should be published in the coming days.
Dr Van Kherkove emphasised the importance of continued Covid surveillance around the world to track known subvariants that are in circulation.
Last month, more than 13 million cases of the disease were reported, though the WHO believes the toll is higher.
"But more concerning, we've had a 15 percent increase in deaths in the last month and again, we know that that is an underestimate because there are delays in reporting, and with the holiday period and with mixing, those trends are expected to continue," Dr Van Kherkove said.
2 years ago
Australian judge rules Google misled Android users on data
Google broke Australian law by misleading users about personal location data collected through Android mobile devices, a judge found Friday.
The Federal Court decision was a partial win for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the nation’s fair trade watchdog, which has been prosecuting Google for broader alleged breaches of consumer law since October 2019.
Justice Thomas Thawley found that Google misled Android mobile device users about personal location data collected between January 2017 and December 2018.
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“This is an important victory for consumers, especially anyone concerned about their privacy online, as the court’s decision sends a strong message to Google and others that big businesses must not mislead their customers,” Commission Chair Rod Sims said in a statement.
“We are extremely pleased with the outcome in this world-first case,” he added.
Google is considering an appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court.
“The court rejected many of the ACCC’s broad claims,” a Google statement said.
“We disagree with the remaining findings and are currently reviewing our options, including a possible appeal,” Google added.
The judge ruled that when users created a new Google account during the initial set-up process of their Android device, Google misrepresented that the “Location History” setting was the only Google account setting that affected whether Google collected, kept or used personally identifiable data about their location.
But another Google account setting titled “Web & App Activity” also enabled Google to collect, store and use personally identifiable location data when it was turned on, and that setting was turned on by default.
The judge also found that when users later accessed the “Location History” setting on their Android device during the same time period to turn that setting off, they were also misled because Google did not inform them that by leaving the “Web & App Activity” setting switched on, Google would continue to collect, store and use their personally identifiable location data.
Similarly, between March 2017 and Nov. 29, 2018, when users later accessed the “Web & App Activity” setting on their Android device, they were misled because Google did not inform them that the setting was relevant to the collection of personal location data.
Also read: Google gets into sleep surveillance with new Nest Hub screen
Google said the digital platform provides “robust controls for location data and are always looking to do more.”
The commission is seeking court orders and financial penalties against Google to be determined later.
The Australia Institute Center for Responsible Technology, a Canberra-based think tank, said the case “highlights the complexity of Big Tech terms and conditions.”
“The reality is most people have little to no idea on how much of their data is being used by Google and online platforms,” the Center’s Director Peter Lewis said in a statement.
Lewis said reading most terms and conditions takes an average of 74 minutes and requires a university education, according to the institute’s research, and more comprehensive consumer data protection was needed.
3 years ago