Cloud

France Says ‘Non’ To Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency

Posted on by Andy Miller

France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire has said that the development of Facebook’s new Libra cryptocurrency will be blocked in Europe unless concerns over risks to consumers and to the monetary systems of countries can be addressed.

Libra – Announced in June

Announced in June this year and due to be launched in 2020, Libra is Facebook’s cryptocurrency which will enable payments to be made by a special phone app and by messaging services such as WhatsApp so that spending the new currency could be as easy and fast as texting.  Management of the currency, units of which can be purchased via Libra’s platforms and stored it in a digital wallet called “Calibra”.

In addition to Facebook, the Association has 27 other members/partners, all of whom will most likely have to accept Libra, including Mastercard, PayPal, eBay, Spotify, Uber, Vodafone, and a variety of charities such as Women’s World Banking.

For Use By The ‘Unbanked’

Facebook has promoted Libra as being targeted mainly at the 1.7 billion adults worldwide who do not have a bank account, and who use services such as payday loans although 1 million plus of these already have a smartphone, thereby enabling them to use the apps through which Libra can be operated.  This “unbanked” segment of the potential market contains mainly people from developing countries, a large proportion of which are women.

Why Does France Object?

In Bruno Le Maire’s speech at the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum 2019 he identified several reasons why France would consider blocking Libra in Europe, the main one being that monetary sovereignty of countries may be at stake from a possible privatisation of money e.g. because Facebook is a sole actor (company) with more than 2 billion users on the planet. Mr Le Maire also expressed concern that Libra’s digital credits could facilitate money laundering and terrorism.

Other concerns about Libra’s introduction include:

  • Possible risks to consumers (their personal data) in the light of Facebook’s sharing of user data with Cambridge Analytica.
  • Consumers may turn to cryptocurrencies like Libra during a time of national crisis, which could make it more difficult for governments to stabilise their economies, thereby making matters worse.
  • The need for Libra to meet regulations for consumer protection, money laundering and financing terrorism.
  • Libra uses blockchain, which many banks still consider to be an emerging technology that should be approached with caution.

Highlights The Need To Work Together

According to the head of policy and communications at the Libra Association, the concerns expressed by Bruno Le Maire highlight the need for the project’s backers to work together with regulators to make the implementation of the Libra project safe, transparent and consumer focused.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Facebook, Libra is an opportunity to monetise another of its services, and an opportunity to diversify.  Even though Facebook has promoted Libra as a currency for use by the 1.7 billion people without bank accounts, it is more likely that Libra will gain more users with bank accounts in developed countries more quickly.  Also, some more sceptical commentators have noted that Libra may be less about money and blockchain but more about gathering more information about the identity of clients.

Even though Libra users are not intended to be businesses, if Libra does help the ‘unbanked’ this could have a knock-on effect in helping that segment of society to buy more goods and services, thereby helping businesses and the economy.

Libra looks set to face more scrutiny and attempts to make sure that it meets the regulation of countries that are worried by the possible shift in control from governments and central banks to big business that Libra could bring. This shift in control could have a number of effects on the business environment and the economies of countries if Libra proves to be popular.

Audible’s ‘Captions’ Subtitles Feature Attracts Lawsuit From Publishers

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Amazon-owned producer of spoken audio entertainment ‘Audible’ is facing a lawsuit from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) on the grounds that its new “Audible Captions” speech-to-text subtitles feature may violate copyright law.

Audible Captions 

Audible Captions, which was announced by the largest producer of audiobooks via a YouTube video back in July, is a feature that allows text captions to appear on-screen and progressively highlights the words as a novel is narrated. The feature also highlights and gives definitions for certain words in the captions and allows the user to translate text into other languages.

Objections – Lawsuit 

Audible’s plans to roll-out the Captions feature attracted almost immediate complaints and concerns by authors, publishers and literary agents on social media over possible copyright law violations, along with accusations that Captions appears to make quite a few mistakes per book. Eventually, a lawsuit was filed at the District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) which includes seven of the top US publishing companies, such as Penguin Random House, and HarperCollins Publishers.

Injunction

The lawsuit, which seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the September launch of Audible Captions argues that the feature could give Audible a competitive advantage over other audio-book providers who aren’t in a position to utilise speech-to-text technology, and that displaying the text of Audible books may amount to illegal reproduction and distribution of those books, thereby potentially breaching copyright laws and adversely affecting publishers’ profits. The AAP members also appear to be angry that the mistakes (transcription errors) made by the AI aspect of Captions could add up to the equivalent of 18 pages of inaccuracies in 300-page book. The AAP’s legal action has also attracted the support of the US Authors Guild. Executive Director, Mary Rasenberger, makes the point that “Text and audio are different book markets, and Audible is licensed only for audio. It has chosen to use its market power to force publishers’ hands by proceeding without permission in clear violation of copyright in the titles.”

What Does Audible Say? 

Amazon-owned Audible has argued that Audible Captions are an educational and accessibility innovation, and that the Captions, which allow listeners to simply follow along with a few lines of machine-generated text as they listen to the audio are not and were never intended to be a book, and therefore, can’t be judged like one (with copyright law).

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

In addition to their anger over allegedly not being consulted by Audible about using the feature, the big publishers and Authors Guild appear to see Captions as a competitive advantage that represents a threat to their existing benefits, profits, and market positions. For Amazon, a company that has grown and diversified and made major inroads into multiple markets, the lawsuit is not only another dose of bad publicity e.g. following recent concerns by China Labour Watch (CLW) about possible child labour being used in the manufacture of the Amazon Echo, but it’s a reminder that there are still other powerful players in the publishing market and that laws regarding copyright need to be studied and adhered to, no matter how big the market player. It is not clear when Captions will be released but it is unlikely that Amazon’s Audible would want to be delayed too long in releasing a value-adding feature that could provide a competitive advantage.

Grammar Correction Capabilities For Gmail and G Suite

Posted on by Andy Miller

Google has announced that it is rolling out new real-time, AI-powered spelling and grammar correction capabilities for G Suite users and personal Gmail accounts.

Real-Time, As-You-Type

The real-time, as-you-type spelling autocorrection is now available to all G Suite users and personal Gmail accounts, but the Grammar suggestion feature is only available to G Suite users.

Autocorrection Spelling

The new features use AI to spot and highlight mistakes with spelling and grammar, and even the use of tenses.

The autocorrection spelling feature uses coloured (red) squiggly underlines to highlight spelling mistakes, the mistakes can be auto-corrected, and the changes are temporarily underlined in grey so that you can see the difference between the two.

Grammar

The AI-powered grammar correction feature, which has previously been available in Google Docs, uses a squiggly blue line to highlight errors in grammar, and pop-ups appear to help make changes to the grammar and allow the user to mark them as correct or switch them back to how they were.

Default

The autocorrect spell-check feature has been added as a default and if users want to turn it off, they can do so by going to Gmail’s Settings > General and then turn off Grammar, Spelling, and Autocorrect.

Benefits

The benefits to users could be the ability to work smarter and faster, make a better impression with their communications, and learn more about correct spelling and grammar and use the knowledge to feel more confident in their writing over time.

Competition

These new features are, however, in competition with, and could affect profits for other third-party spelling and grammar services e.g. Grammarly which relies upon users opting to use an upgrade to a freemium service.

Texting To Blame?

Ofcom figures showing that teenagers, young adults and adults chose text-based communications as their preferred way of communication highlight one of the reasons why many people believe that mobile phone usage, with its reliance on auto-correct, is partly to blame for a decline in the standards of spelling and grammar that has necessitated a further need for more sophisticated AI-based tools.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For third-party spelling and grammar apps such as Grammarly, this move by Google could reduce the value of (and the perceived need for) their services.

For business users of Google’s services (G Suite and Gmail) these kinds of tools could help save time and improve the quality and consistency of their communications which in turn could positively reflect on their brands.

For Google, these new features could provide an improved experience for their users and add more loyalty and perceived value to Google’s range of services.

Some critics have, however, noted that these features could homogenise the way that we write, could raise privacy concerns, and that the AI technology could also be subject to bias in its suggestions.

Scientists Discover How To Store Data On Matter Smaller Than DNA

Posted on by Andy Miller

Scientists from Brown University are reported to have discovered how to store data on metabolic molecules, which are pieces of matter that are even smaller than DNA.

Storage In Artificial Metabolomes  

The results of the recent research announced on the Brown University website and published in the PLOS ONE journal describe how researchers have discovered a way to store/encode and retrieve kilobyte-scale image files from artificial metabolomes which are arrays of liquid mixtures containing sugars, amino acids and other types of small molecules.  Some of these small molecules are smaller and have greater information density than DNA.

According to the researchers, although DNA is best for encoding larger datasets, the small molecule metabolite data method has low latency so that data sets can be written and read quickly.  The small molecule method is, however, still slower than traditional computers.

DNA Storage Research Not New

Research into storing data in DNA is not new.  For example, back in 2013 scientists in Cambridge spelt out a collection of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets in DNA.

Also, last September UK scientists developed a technique to enable them to store computer files on DNA.  Scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute developed a method whereby the basis of digital data, which is made up of ones and zeros, is changed into their own code as Cs, Gs, and Ts.

This converted code was sent to a US laboratory, which turned the letter code into physical DNA so that it could act like an incredibly small hard drive. The laboratory used DNA synthesis machines to transform the code into physical material in a similar way to how an inkjet printer lays down ink on paper. The physical result was a tiny piece of dust with the vital digital data stored inside. An estimated 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) of data could be stored in a single gram of DNA.

Why?

The reasons for developing ways to store data in DNA and even smaller molecules are that we are generating vast quantities of data with no practical and cost-effective way to store it for the future.  For example, it is estimated that there are now 3 zettabytes (3000 billion bytes) of digital data, with more being generated all the time. Storage media such as hard disks are expensive and require a constant supply of expensive electricity, and even the best ‘no-power’ archiving materials e.g. magnetic tape degrade within a decade.

The advantages of DNA and smaller molecules for storage are that:

  • Sensitive data stored in DNA and other small molecules won’t be vulnerable to hacking.
  • Data stored in this way could survive in harsher climates and environments where traditional hardware can’t.
  • DNA provides a highly effective, ultra-compact space-saving solution, that doesn’t require large amounts of costly electricity.
  • DNA can keep for hundreds of thousands of years if kept in a cool, dry place. Data stored in DNA won’t degrade over time, and it can be decoded relatively easily.
  • DNA won’t become obsolete, and unlike other high-density approaches, new technologies can write and read large amounts of DNA in one go.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The incredible science involved in this could give businesses a way to store and back up vast amounts of data in a very convenient and secure way (safe from hackers) with dramatically reduced space, equipment, and electricity costs, and with the assurance that the data could be stored, without decay, for many thousands of years.  Some tech commentators have estimated that commercial DNA storage devices may be on shelves in the next few years.

You could be forgiven for thinking, however, that DNA storage of data sounds (and probably will be) expensive, and it may be the case that most businesses will be sticking to cloud storage for quite some time yet.

Salesforce Adding Blockchain Platform To CRM

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Salesforce cloud-based CRM platform is adding a low code, blockchain-powered service that will allow users to share data with third parties in a secure, transparent, and auditable way.

Blockchain

Blockchain, the technology that was famously behind the bitcoin cryptocurrency, has been described by its Co-Founder Nic Carey as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”.  Blockchain is an open-source, free technology that acts as an incorruptible peer-to-peer network / a kind of ledger that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way.

Salesforce Blockchain Platform

Salesforce is positioning its Blockchain platform as a low-code system that has been customised to fit with Salesforce’s flagship Lightning CRM product.  The Blockchain platform has been built on the open source technology developed by Hyperledger Sawtooth. Salesforce Blockchain is currently only available to select design partners but will have its general release in 2020.

Why Blockchain?

Many businesses and organisations are now finding that they need to harness and share large amounts of data with a growing network of partners and third parties.  This sharing needs to be accomplished, however, in a way that is secure and incorruptible, and transparent and with a clear audit trail.  There is, of course, also the need to save costs, reduce inefficiencies, and make the process of sharing data as fast and easy as possible.

Also, in terms of the broader function of a CRM system, companies and organisations need the most up-to-date and effective way to verify and maintain contracts, send transactions, and essentially “automate trust”. Blockchain offers all these benefits.

Blockchain-as-a-Service

Salesforce is one of a growing number of tech brands getting in the rapidly growing BaaS market which offers enterprises the chance to deploy distributed ledgers without the cost or risk of deploying it in-house, and without needing to find in-house developers.

Tech commentators have noted, for example, that Microsoft and many other big tech companies, including Amazon and Oracle, are now looking to make the most of the growing blockchain as a service (BaaS) market. Microsoft was one of the first software vendors to offer BaaS on its Azure cloud platform as far back as 2015, but the predictions are that from the end of this year onwards, the market (estimated to be worth $7billion) will start to grow rapidly.

Real World Examples

Salesforce is already reporting ways that its new Blockchain platform is making a positive difference, such as at S&P Global Ratings which is using the service to reduce the time it takes to review and approve new business bank accounts.

There are now plenty of other examples of how Blockchain technology is being used (and is about to be used) in the real business world to add value, increase efficiencies, create opportunities and provide innovative ways of meeting old business challenges.  These include:

  • Using the data on a blockchain ledger to record the temperature of sensitive medicines being transported from manufacturer to hospital in hot climates. The ‘incorruptible’ aspect of the blockchain data gives a clear record of care and responsibility along the whole supply chain.
  • Using an IBM-based blockchain ledger to record data about wine certification, ownership and storage history. This has helped to combat fraud in the industry and has provided provenance and re-assurance to buyers.
  • Shipping Company Maersk using a blockchain-based system for tracking consignments thereby offering visibility and efficiency i.e. digitising a formerly paper-based process that involved multiple interactions.
  • Start-up company ‘Electron’ building a blockchain-based system for sharing information between those involved in supplying energy which could speed up and simplify the supplier switching process. It may also be used for smart grid processes, such as local load-balancing of supply and demand.
  • Data storage solutions company Seagate Technology (Seagate), and IBM working together and using Blockchain and advanced cryptographic product identification technology to reduce disk-drive product counterfeiting.
  • Facebook is reported to be developing its own blockchain-based cryptocurrency that will enable its users to have a PayPal-like experience when purchasing advertised products, as well as providing authentication and an audit trail.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Salesforce customers, particularly the smaller customers, having Blockchain-as-a-Service as part of their CRM should enable them to solve some of their biggest data-sharing challenges (security, trust, and transparency) in a way that doesn’t require lots of code, and in a way that doesn’t require the considerable cost or risk of trying to develop and deploy it in-house.

The benefits of blockchain technology are just starting to be realised and exploited by many different companies around the world, and the BaaS market looks set to grow rapidly with the big tech companies and brands all looking to compete by offering different Blockchain-based services to businesses and organisations of all sizes.

Blockchain has already proven itself to be a technology that can save time and costs, provide fast and secure traceability, visibility and efficiency, and provide a real competitive advantage for companies that are willing to investigate how it could be used to add value to their particular business.

Even governments and cities around the world have realised the benefits and are committing considerable resources to Blockchain. For example, Dubai has committed to putting all of its documents on blockchain in the next few years and has founded a public-private initiative called the Global Blockchain Council to foster the development and use of blockchain technology in and between local government teams, local businesses and international start-ups.

Google AR Glasses Enterprise Edition For Workers

Posted on by Andy Miller

Six years on from the launch of the first Google glasses, Google has announced the introduction of Google Glass 2 Enterprise Edition, glasses incorporating a wraparound camera and AR and designed to help workers by providing instant hands-free access to key information.

Improved

Following on from the original introduction of Google’s ‘Glass’, followed by the last Enterprise Edition back in 2017 which suffered from poor take-up due to an apparent lack of applications, Glass 2 Enterprise Edition is an upgraded version with a clearer target market, and a marketplace more educated to its benefits.

Who?

Google’s shorthand definition of its target market for Google 2 is those working in manufacturing, field service and healthcare, primarily because it has development experience, success stories, and easy to transmit benefits in these areas.  For example, Google has worked with several partners in the marketplace to develop Glass 2 and to help hone the glasses and give them maximum value in Enterprise settings in the target markets and beyond.  For example, Google has worked with partners including AGCO, Deutsche Post DHL Group, Sutter Health, and H.B. Fuller.

What and How?

Glass 2 is essentially a hands-free, wearable device for “smarter and faster” hands-on work that provides the information that an employee needs in the periphery of their line of sight.  This means that workers, all of whom have limited time and resources, only one pair of hands, and need to be in one particular place to complete their work can get immediate, safe access to expert advice around the world.

In this way, Google Glass can:

  • Help improve efficiency and client relationships e.g. health care professionals don’t have to spend as much time in front of a computer screen and can spend more time in front of their patients. For example, the technology reportedly saves (on average) two hours of doctors’ time per day.
  • Help reduce processing and training time e.g. in manufacturing and field servicing.  For example, DHL is reported to have seen a 15% jump in operational efficiency in item picking because employees can use Google Glass (2) to receive real-time item picking instructions while on the warehouse floor.

Upgrades

The upgrades in Glass 2 compared to the last Enterprise Edition include:

  • A more powerful multicore CPU (central processing unit) and a new artificial intelligence engine to improve performance and support for vision.
  • Glass-compatible safety frames to help in different types of demanding work environments.
  • Improved camera performance and quality.
  • The inclusion of an SB-C port that supports faster charging and increased overall battery life.
  • The fact that it’s built on Android, so it’s easier to deploy, develop and improve.

Price

The price tag for Glass 2 is reported to be $999.

Criticism

Google’s Glass products have suffered criticism in the past over concerns about privacy, functionality and safety e.g. possibly reducing peripheral vision while driving.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Wearables and AR are both finding many value-adding real-world applications in multiple industries, and with Google’s Glass 2 being a combination of the two it has the huge potential that it always had, but this time with some technical improvements, a clearer marketing focus, and some real business world success stories to help back it up and provide the social proof and ROI information that businesses may be looking for.  The high price tag could, therefore, be offset by the potential efficiency savings, and added employee and customer benefits that could result from enterprise adoption of Glass 2.

3D AR Shopping Via Google Search

Posted on by Andy Miller

Later this month, Google will be rolling out 3D Augmented Reality (AR) in its search results, a change which could allow retailers to show their products online in a way that enables customers to a virtually ‘try’ those products and see them in situ before buying them.

Shown At Phone Launch

Google showed how 3D AR could work in search results to attendees of the launch of its Pixel 3 smartphone at its annual developer’s conference. At the phone launch, Google’s Vice President, Aparna Chennapragada, used a superimposed animation of a shark and a 3D exploration of a pair of New Balance running shoes to illustrate how potential customers could superimpose a 3D AR image of a product on their own chosen backdrop (‘you space’).  This would allow customers to see just how a product would look in situ if they were to purchase it.

Brands

Examples of the brands that Google is reported to have been working with in order to develop optimised links to 3D AR versions of their products in Google’s search results include New Balance, Samsung and Volvo.

Other Uses of AR

Google users may already be used to seeing AR in action as part of Google Maps, where users can switch from map to an AR representation with directional arrows by clicking on the ‘satellite’ link and then by clicking on the route. This feature allows users to follow arrows along a drivers-eye route, change direction, and zoom in and out.

AR and VR

Back in October 2017 Ordinance survey introduced AR to its mobile app so that users could point their smartphone at the world around and see labels about places of interest and get a reading of how far away they are.

In February this year, breakfast cereal manufacturer Kellogg’s announced that it had been working with third-party VR companies to help it determine the best way to display its new products in stores. The pilot scheme used VR to give test subjects an immersive and 360-degree experience of a simulated store environment in which they were able to ‘virtually’ pick products, place items in shopping trolleys and make purchases.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Using AR to show 3D AR versions of products in the search results will enable companies to get their product instantly in front of consumers in a way that allows them to engage with those products on-demand, have a good look around the products, and virtually try them out and see how they could fit in with their lives.  This may be particularly important for products linked to self-image and lifestyle perceptions.  This could prove to be a valuable sales tool considerable potential for all manner of products.

New AI Feature For Microsoft Word Online To Improve Your Writing

Posted on by Andy Miller

The new ‘Ideas’ feature, an AI-powered editor in the cloud for Microsoft Word is intended to provide intelligent suggestions to make your writing more concise, readable, and inclusive.

Ideas

The new ‘Ideas’ feature, which is already being used with PowerPoint and Excel, is likely to be a value-adding improvement on traditional grammar and spelling checks because it is designed to help with the reading and writing of (online) Word documents.

The feature announced at Microsoft 2019 and scheduled for testing in June, will be able to follow along as you write, offer familiar fixes for spelling and grammatical errors, suggest improvements, be able to detect nuances in language and even suggest rewrites for tricky phrases or clunky paragraphs.

The Ideas feature will also be able to help with the reading of Word documents by, for example, providing estimated reading times, extracting key points, and decoding acronyms using data from the Microsoft Graph.

British Company Wins Google Money For AI

It’s not just Microsoft that’s making the news this week for its ongoing pursuit of augmenting its products and services with AI and machine learning.

British fact checking company Full Fact has just been named among the 20 winners of Google’s AI Impact Challenge.  The award will mean that they will receive a share of 19.1 million dollars worth of Google investment as well as consultation help and mentoring from Google.  The AI Impact Challenge from Google asked for organisations to submit ideas on how to use AI to help address societal challenges.  For Full Fact, this involved ideas about how to use AI to combat the kind of misinformation that affects millions of people’s health, safety and ability to participate in society, and is considered by many to be a threat to democracy in many countries.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The addition of an AI-powered, cloud-based enhancement to Microsoft’s online version of Word is considered to be the next, more intelligent step onwards from enhancements like predictive text.  It also offers Microsoft a way to compete with popular grammar programs such as Grammarly, and it will be interesting to see how such companies respond to Microsoft’s ‘Ideas’ feature.

The ‘Ideas’ feature is likely to be particularly good news for journalists and other writers as it will presumably be able to make the low-level composing work a little easier and may be able to save time and add value to their work.  It may even help Microsoft reach its aim of enabling people to design documents for maximum readability, and in doing so, make the workday more productive for many people.

One area where AI is predicted to offer some real promise in the near future is in the (cloud-based) cyber security market.  For example, the Visiongain ‘Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security Market Report’ for 2019-2029 values the 2019 AI in cyber security market at $4.94bn.  Cloud-based cyber security that incorporates AI could prove to a cost-effective and affordable source of protection for SMEs and large enterprises.

Google Offers Auto-Delete of History After Three Months

Posted on by Andy Miller

Google is joining tech giants Facebook and Microsoft by offering users greater privacy of their data which for Google will give its users the option to automatically delete their search and location history after three or eighteen months.

What’s The Problem?

According to Google, feedback has shown that users want simpler ways to manage or delete their data, and web users have been more concerned about matters of their data privacy after several high profile data breaches, most notably that of Facebook sharing 50 million profiles of its users data with analytics company, Cambridge Analytica back in 2014.

The Change

Google already offers tools to help users manually delete all or part of their location history or web and app activity.  The addition of the new tool, which is scheduled to happen “in the coming weeks” will enable users to set up auto-delete settings for their location history, web browsing and app activity.

With the new tool, users will be able to select how long they want their activity data to be saved for – three months or eighteen months – after which time Google says the data will automatically be deleted from the user’s account.

The new automatic deletion will be optional, and the manual deletion tools will remain.

Facebook and Microsoft

At the beginning of May, Microsoft announced several new features intended to improve privacy controls for its Microsoft 365 users, with a view to simplifying its data privacy policies.

Also, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently announced a privacy-focused road map for the social network.

Google’s Tracking Questioned

Back in 2018, the ‘Deceived By Design’ report by the government-funded Norwegian Consumer Council accused tech giants Microsoft, Facebook and Google of being unethical by leading users into selecting settings that do not benefit their privacy.

In November 2018, Google’s tracking practices for user locations were questioned by a coalition of seven consumer organisations who were reported to have filed complaints with local data protection regulators. Although Google says that tracking is turned off by default and can be paused at any time by users, the complaints focused on research by a coalition member who claimed that people are forced to use the location system.

Furthermore, research by internet privacy company DuckDuckGo in December 2018 led to a claim that even in Incognito mode, users of Google Chrome can still be tracked, and searches are still personalised accordingly.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The introduction of GDPR and high-profile data breach and privacy incidents such as the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal have made us all much more aware about (and more protective of) our personal data and how it is collected, stored and used by companies and other organisations. It is no surprise, therefore, that feedback to Google showed a need for greater control and privacy by users, and the announcement of the new (optional) automatic deletion tool also provides a way for Google to get some good data privacy PR at a time when other tech giants like Facebook and Microsoft have also been seen to make data privacy improvements for their users.

Current details about how to manually delete your Google data can be found here https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/465?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en and the ‘My Activity’ centre for your Google account, where you will most likely be able to make your automatic settings can be found here: https://myactivity.google.com/.

GDPR Says HMRC Must Delete Five Million Voice Records

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has concluded that HMRC has breached GDPR in the way that it collected the biometric voice records of users and now must delete five million biometric voice files.

What Voice Files?

Back in January 2017, HMRC introduced a system whereby customers calling the tax credits and Self-Assessment helpline could enrol for voice identification (Voice ID) as a means of speeding up the security steps. The system uses 100 different characteristics to recognise the voice of an individual and can create a voiceprint that is unique to that individual.

When customers call HMRC for the first time, they are asked to repeat the vocal passphrase “my voice is my password” to up to five times to register before speaking to a human adviser.  The recorded passphrase is stored in an HMRC database and can be used as a means of verification/authentication in future calls.

It was reported that in the 18 months following the introduction of the system, HMRC acquired 5 million peoples’ voiceprints this way.

What’s The Problem?

Privacy campaigners questioned the lawfulness of the system and in June 2018, privacy campaigning group ‘Big Brother Watch’ reported that its own investigation had revealed that HMRC had (allegedly) taken the five million taxpayers’ biometric voiceprints without their consent.

Big Brother Watch alleged that the automated system offered callers no choice but to do as instructed and create a biometric voice ID for a Government database.  The only way to avoid creating the voice ID on calling, as identified by Big Brother Watch, was to say “no” three times to the automated questions, whereupon the system still resolved to offer a voice ID next time.

Big Brother Watch highlighted the fact that GDPR prohibits the processing of biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a person, unless there is a lawful basis under Article 6, and that because voiceprints are sensitive data but are not strictly necessary for dealing with tax issues, HMRC should request the explicit consent of each taxpayer to enrol them in the scheme (Article 9 of GDPR).

This led to Big Brother Watch registering a formal complaint with the ICO.

Decision

The ICO has now concluded that HMRC’s voice system was not adhering to the data protection rules and effectively pushed people into the system without explicit consent.

The decision from the ICO is that HMRC now must delete the five million records taken prior to October 2018, the date when the system was changed to make it compliant with GDPR.  HMRC has until 5th June to delete the five million voice records, which the state’s tax authority says it is confident it can do long before that deadline.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Big Brother Watch believes this to be the biggest ever deletion of biometric IDs from a state database, and privacy campaigners have hailed the ICO’s decision as setting an important precedent that restores data rights for millions of ordinary people.

Many businesses and organisations are now switching/planning to switch to using biometric identification/verification systems instead of password-based systems, and this story is an important reminder that these are subject to GDPR. For example, images and unique Voiceprint IDs are personal data that require explicit consent to be given, and that people should have the right to opt out as well as to opt-in.