WINDOWS 10 - Violates Privacy

"Windows 10 violates your privacy by default, here's how you can protect yourself" by Conner Forrest, TechRepublic 8/4/2015

Excerpt

Upon installation, Windows 10 defaults to some pretty serious privacy invasions.  Here are some steps you can take to keep your personal data private.

Since the July 29 release of Windows 10, the tech world has been talking about the latest OS update from Microsoft.  A mere 24 hours after its release, more than 14 million users had downloaded Windows 10.

The quick ramp up was due, in part, to Microsoft releasing the update as a free download for existing Windows users.  Windows 10 also came with a new service model as Windows will be releasing service packs every few months to users.

The model itself got some backlash, especially from organizations that don't want to upgrade their system that frequently.  More recently, though, some criticism has arisen over privacy concerns brought on by the new OS.

The first issue is that Windows 10 automatically assigns an advertising ID to each user on a device tied to the email address that's on file.  Using that ID, the company can tailor ads for web-browsing and using certain applications.

The next concern is that much of users' personal data is synced with Microsoft's servers.  Some of this information, like your WiFi password, can then be encrypted and shared with your contacts, using a feature called WiFi sense.  Although, some have argued that this isn't a security risk, because the user must choose to share the network.

Additionally, Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana, must collect data as well to provide the kind of service it does, but it is likely not better or worse than its Apple and Google contemporaries.

One of the biggest worries, though, is Microsoft's policy on disclosing or sharing your personal information.  The following is an excerpt from the privacy policy:

"We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services."

The problem is that many users want personalized services, but it's difficult to draw the line at what data should be collected.  Forrester's Tyler Shields said that instead of making these features default, Microsoft could have allowed users to opt-in later if they wanted to enable them.

"This is more of a privacy-friendly stance that may have been palatable to the general public," Shields said.  "However, Microsoft would have had less adoption to its value added services had it made them opt-in, thus lessening the potential success of the Windows 10 launch."

So, how do you protect yourself from these issues?  Here are some steps you can take to opt-on or disable some of the problematic features.

The first thing to note is that, if you haven't yet installed Windows 10 but you plan on doing so, make sure you that you do a custom install so you'll be able to pick and choose what is enabled at the onset.  But, if you installed Windows 10 using Express settings, you can still disable some of the default privacy settings.

From the start button, click "Settings" and then click "Privacy" and click the "General" tab on the left sidebar.  Under that tab you'll see a few sliders where you can toggle certain features on or off.

The top toggle button is the most important as it disables the advertising ID for each user.  But, if you want to cover your bases, you should go ahead disable the rest of the options as well.

NOTE:  Full article has screenshots of settings that need change.

TECHNOLOGY - Google's Gesture Control

"How Google's gesture control technology could revolutionize the way we use devices" by Conner Forrest, TechRepublic 6/3/2015

Soli, Google's new gesture technology, would allow users to interact with their devices without ever touching the device itself. Here's how it's poised to make an impact.

It seems like pop culture is obsessed with the idea of interacting with technology without actually touching a device to do so.  Movies such as Minority Report and Iron Man are the frontrunners in this -- the idea that the future of technology will be decidedly "hands-off."

That future could be coming sooner than we think.  Last week, at its annual I/O developer conference, Google announced Soli, a project that would allow users to interact with their devices using hand gestures performed near the device, without requiring contact with the device.

"Project Soli is the technical underpinning of human interactions with wearables, mobile devices as well as the Internet of Things," a Google ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) spokesperson said.

Soli was born out of Google's ATAP group.  It's a fingernail-sized chip that uses radar to read hand gestures and convert them to actions on the device.

So if a user was to touch his or her thumb to their forefinger, Soli would read that as a button being pressed.  Or, the user slides his or her forefinger back and forth on the pad of their thumb, that could operate a slider to adjust volume.

Unlike cameras, which are used in other motion sensing technologies, radar has a high positional accuracy, and thus works better in this context than cameras would.  It's able to pick up on slight movements better.

"Radar is a technology which transmits a radio wave towards a target, and then the receiver of the radar intercepts the reflected energy from that target," lead research engineer Jaime Lien said in a video about Soli. (below)

The radar waves bounce off of your hand and back to the receiver, allowing it to interpret changes in the shape or movement of your hand.  Radar is also important to the project, according to Soli team lead Ivan Poupyrev, because it can work through materials or be embedded into objects.

The technology is vaguely reminiscent of the theremin musical instrument developed in the 1920s by Léon Theremin, but much more intricate.  In the Soli video, Poupyrev mentioned that the technology could be used interact with "wearables, Internet of Things, and other computing devices."

The potential for Soli in wearables is perhaps the most obvious use case so far.  Small screens make it difficult to select certain apps or features, and being able to perform gestures next to the device might make navigation easier and intuitive.

According to 451 analyst Ryan Martin, it is important that a company like Google gets involved in this space because a project like Soli is important to the wearable and IoT ecosystems as a whole and it's important that it "be approached from a technology perspective, not a product perspective."

There are companies that focus solely on gesture-based interactions, but that can be risky and volatile as it will likely just be integrated as a feature.  Martin said that wrist-based wearables are actually less efficient if users actually have to touch them, and Soli could be a step forward in making them more efficient and usable.

Other potential use cases could be within connected cars or in the augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) spaces.  Imagine your Oculus Rift or Gear VR could support virtualized "hands" as another input without a third-party accessory.  Although, Martin said, it would probably work better as a complement to another input such as voice or touch.

Using Soli as an input tool is the glaring use case for now, but the project could provide value as an output technology as well.

"I think the killer application, or use case, long-term is going to be how to take this technology and have it be scanning around to provide context and enable automation that might not even necessitate gesture-based interaction, it might just happen," Martin said.

Gillette is one of many companies whose factories utilize high-speed cameras to analyze manufacturing processes and equipment to better understand when maintenance or repair is needed.  Soli could provide a similar service to advanced manufacturing facilities by consistently reading the machines and documenting their performance.

Time to market will depend on user experience.  As a device feature, Soli needs to be reliable and consistent or it will be detrimental to the partner brand or OEM that integrates it.

"Once the technology is able to meet that end, I think that's when we'll start to see it baked into products, but right now it's definitely in its development phase," Martin said.

According to the Google ATAP spokesperson, the company will be releasing a hardware and software development kit to developers soon.  If you want more information about Project Soli, you can contact the team at projectsoli@google.com.