Stories in the Spotlight – September 2020
Contact tracing apps are finally coming Contact tracing is a popular method to track who's been exposed to Covid-19. It's been done manually, up to this point; however, several months ago Google and Apple announced that they were joining forces to create technology that automates the process. Netform is one company that creates exposure notification technology that uses Bluetooth to track who you've come across and whether or not they've tested corona-positive. Netform's app has been successful in the UK and is coming to America next month. The Oracle of Tiktok Tiktok chose Oracle as it's "technology partner" in an attempt to avoid being banned by the Trump administration. Why Oracle? It could be because Oracle already has a large database infrastructure and a deep pedigree in software applications. It could also be because Oracle executives are ultra buddy-buddy with Trump. Either way, Tiktok sees an Oracle partnership as the best chance to not be deported (virtually speaking). The deal still has to be approved by federal regulators so we'll see what happens. Biden/Trump auto-complete controversy Google has removed autocomplete functionality for Biden and Trump. Google's auto-complete feature attempts to predict what you're going to search for based on the popularity of searches that start with similar words. They've removed this feature, exclusively for Biden and Trump, to avoid being seen as attempting to influence the election. Users can still search for whatever they want...Google just isn't going to make any suggestions through auto-complete. Portland bans facial recognition Portland became the strictest US city to ban the use of facial recognition. Facial recognition [...]