Kiwi’s food delivery bots are rolling out to 12 new colleges

If you’re a student at UC Berkeley, the diminutive rolling robots from Kiwi are probably a familiar sight by now, trundling along with a burrito inside to deliver to a dorm or apartment building. Now students at a dozen more campuses will be able to join this great, lazy future of robotic delivery as Kiwi expands to them with a clever student-run model.

Speaking at TechCrunch’s Robotics/AI Session at the Berkeley campus, Kiwi’s Felipe Chavez and Sasha Iatsenia discussed the success of their burgeoning business and the way they planned to take it national.

In case you’re not aware of the Kiwi model, it’s basically this: When you place an order online with a participating restaurant, you have the option of delivery via Kiwi. If you so choose, one of the company’s fleet of knee-high robots with insulated, locking storage compartments will swing by the place, your order is put within, and it brings it to your front door (or as close as it can reasonably get). You can even watch the last bit live from the robot’s perspective as it rolls up to your place.

The robots are what Kiwi calls “semi-autonomous.” This means that although they can navigate most sidewalks and avoid pedestrians, each has a human monitoring it and setting waypoints for it to follow, on average every five seconds. Iatsenia told me that they’d tried going full autonomous and that it worked… most of the time. But most of the time isn’t good enough for a commercial service, so they’ve got humans in the loop. They’re working on improving autonomy but for now this is how it is.

That the robots are being controlled in some fashion by a team of people in Colombia (where the co-founders hail from) does take a considerable amount of the futurism out of this endeavor, but on reflection it’s kind of a natural evolution of the existing delivery infrastructure. After all, someone has to drive the car that brings you your food as well. And in reality most AI is operated or informed directly or indirectly by actual people.

That those drivers are in South America operating multiple vehicles at a time is a technological advance over your average delivery vehicle — though it must be said that there is an unsavory air of offshoring labor to save money on wages. That said, few people shed tears over the wages earned by the Chinese assemblers who put together our smartphones and laptops, or the garbage pickers who separate your poorly sorted recycling. The global labor economy is a complicated one, and the company is making jobs in the place it was at least partly born.

Whatever the method, Kiwi has traction: it’s done more than 50,000 deliveries and the model seems to have proven itself. Customers are happy, they get stuff delivered more than ever once they get the app, and there are fewer and fewer incidents where a robot is kicked over or, you know, catches on fire. Notably, the founders said on stage, the community has really adopted the little vehicles, and should one overturn or be otherwise interfered with, it’s often set on its way soon after by a passerby.

Iatsenia and Chavez think the model is ready to push out to other campuses, where a similar effort will have to take place — but rather than do it themselves by raising millions and hiring staff all over the country, they’re trusting the robotics-loving student groups at other universities to help out.

For a small and low-cash startup like Kiwi, it would be risky to overextend by taking on a major round and using that to scale up. They started as robotics enthusiasts looking to bring something like this to their campus, so why can’t they help others do the same?

So the team looked at dozens of universities, narrowing them down by factors important to robotic delivery: layout, density, commercial corridors, demographics, and so on. Ultimately they arrived at the following list:

• Northern Illinois University
• University of Oklahoma
• Purdue University
• Texas A&M
• Parsons
• Cornell
• East Tennessee State University
• Nebraska University-Lincoln
• Stanford
• Harvard
• NYU
• Rutgers

What they’re doing is reaching out to robotics clubs and student groups at those colleges to see who wants to take partial ownership of Kiwi administration out there. Maintenance and deployment would still be handled by Berkeley students, but the student clubs would go through a certification process and then do the local work, like a capsized bot and on-site issues with customers and restaurants.

“We are exploring several options to work with students down the road including rev share,” Iatsenia told me. “It depends on the campus.”

So far they’ve sent out 40 robots to the 12 campuses listed and will be rolling out operations as the programs move forward on their own time. If you’re not one of the unis listed, don’t worry — if this goes the way Kiwi plans, it sounds like you can expect further expansion soon.

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Mark Zuckerberg Launches His Own Podcast

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has launched a podcast. It’s titled Tech and Society, and as the name suggests it features Zuckerberg exploring the effects technology is having on society. Unsurprisingly, Facebook features heavily.

Tech and Society With Mark Zuckerberg

The Tech and Society Podcast with Mark Zuckerberg podcast sees the Facebook CEO in conversation with experts in the field. Facebook is obviously a big player when it comes to how technology is affecting society, so the subject matter makes perfect sense.

In the first episode he talks to Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain about legal issues. And in the second episode he talks to Axel Springer CEO Mathias Dopfner about journalism. Facebook has stated new episodes will be released “every few weeks”.

The Tech and Society podcast is all to do with Zuckerberg’s personal challenge for 2019, which was to “host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties.”

New podcast alert ? This year Mark Zuckerberg is hosting discussions on the future of tech and society. Listen along: https://t.co/5rIBdrbsb5

— Facebook (@facebook) April 24, 2019

So, these podcasts aren’t actually offering anything new or original. Instead, they’re just audio versions of the videos Zuckerberg is posting on Facebook. Still, it’s a way of spreading the gospel according to Zuckerberg to a wider audience.

Tech and Society with Mark Zuckerberg is now available to stream on Spotify. However, Facebook told Engadget that the podcast will be released on other platforms in the “coming days”. And if you can’t wait that long you can always watch the videos instead.

Is Mark Zuckerberg a Hero or a Villain?

Mark Zuckerberg is a divisive character. Some people see him as an extraordinary entrepreneur capable of greatness, while others see him as the architect of the modern world that’s obsessed with social media. Either way, he’s an important person.

Whether Zuckerberg’s importance means you’ll want to hear him talk about technology for hours is up for debate. After all, Zuckerberg is likely to have a myopic view on these issues. Suffice to say, Tech and Society didn’t make our list of the best podcasts on Spotify.

Image Credit: Christoph Scholz/Flickr

Read the full article: Mark Zuckerberg Launches His Own Podcast

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Behind the Mask: 4 Companies That Don’t Really Care About Your Security

Before the internet, if we didn’t trust a company or business, we could choose not to trade with them. It was easier to evaluate the trustworthiness of local companies too.

These days, our digital lives are spread among many online apps and services, all of which capture personal and confidential data about who we are. We expect them to value our security, but not all of them do.

Here are four examples of companies that don’t really care about your security.

1. Facebook

In the early days of Facebook, most of us would share our thoughts, ideas, events, and photos on the social network. It gained users at a phenomenal rate, eventually claiming an estimated 2.3 billion users as of December 2018. However, as we’ve come to find, that growth has been at our expense.

The company had a terrible 2018, filled with privacy scandals, regulation, criticism, and security flaws.

The first story that opened the floodgates was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where your supposedly private Facebook data was made available to political research groups around the world. The company was heavily implicated in interference with both the 2016 US Presidential election and the UK’s European Union membership referendum.

Since that revelation, there has been an almost endless stream of issues emanating from the world’s largest social network. In October 2018, we found out that over 50 million Facebook accounts were  hacked. Then there was the bug that exposed your private Facebook photos. The company was later caught using immoral tactics to harvest data from young people using a questionable VPN app. The backlash led to Facebook axing the Onavo VPN app in early 2019.

Throughout this spate of bad press, Mark Zuckerberg maintained that Facebook was a positive force in the world. Evidently, he didn’t communicate this to the rest of the company, as in March 2019, it was reported that Facebook had stored user passwords in plaintext for years.

2. Intel

Intel, founded in 1968, was one of the first major technology companies of Silicon Valley. The company’s main trade is in computer processors. However, as the years passed by, the company diversified into many different areas.

In 2015, they released several consumer-focused mini-PCs, like the Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC) and the Intel Compute Stick. These mini computers focused on their space-saving hardware and didn’t include additional peripherals like keyboards. So instead, the company released smartphone apps to control them remotely.

Experience has taught us that niche apps don’t receive regular updates, as budgets get reduced, or the developer moves onto other projects. The Intel Remote Keyboard app for Android devices was no different. In mid-2018, security researchers disclosed three security bugs they had found in the app.

Two of these flaws received high severity ratings, while the third was deemed critical. The researchers found that these bugs could allow attackers to inject keystrokes and even compromise the user’s device.

Instead of promising to fix these severe and critical flaws in the app, Intel instead opted to remove it from the Google Play Store entirely. Existing users were left with the choice between a flawed device or consigning their Intel mini-PCs to the past.

3. Amazon

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, has mostly avoided any high-profile data breaches. However, in November 2018, some customers received an email from the company alerting them to accidental disclosure of their data.

Amazon blamed this disclosure on a technical error with the website. The email was brief and contained very little information.

“We’re contacting you to let you know that our website inadvertently disclosed your name and email address due to a technical error. The issue has been fixed. This is not a result of anything you have done, and there is no need for you to change your password or take any other action.”

Understandably, the affected customers were not reassured by Amazon’s communications. The company refused to give any further updates, so customers were left in the dark as to what data was disclosed and how long for. The tight-lipped nature of the response left many feeling that the company had something to hide.

Unsurprisingly, this did nothing to improve people’s trust in the retailer.

Amazon has also been subject to much criticism for its use of facial recognition technology. While maintaining a public opposition to its use, Amazon was selling a facial recognition product called Rekognition to various US law enforcement agencies.

The product’s marketing materials made it clear that one of the most likely uses was for law enforcement, and that it could identify up to 100 people in a single image in real time.

4. Companies That Use the Phrase “We Take Your Privacy and Security Seriously”

Data breaches are happening more often than ever before. No matter how security conscious you try to be, these hacks ultimately end up affecting us all. The diverse range of business and companies targeted over recent years show that the attackers don’t discriminate.

Despite all their best attempts, sometimes a company can’t hold back the attack. The next steps, then, should be to alert their users responsibly, and tell them how they intend to remedy the situation.

In our media-heavy world, we’ve become well-versed at detecting corporate PR, and the stock phrases they use to deflect blame. You’ve probably seen a recently-breached company say something to the effect of “we take your privacy and security seriously.” This is a significant indicator that they don’t take your security seriously.

The problem has become so widespread, that TechCrunch even reported on the use of this stock phrase. They analyzed all 285 data breach notifications submitted to the California attorney general and found that over a third used this phrase.

The TechCrunch analysis also noted that many of these multi-national, cash-rich companies would rather pay the fines issued them for the breach than make improvements to their cybersecurity. In 2017, Equifax was subject to an enormous breach that affected 200 million people worldwide.

The company’s response was messy, took very little responsibility for the breach, and left most people affected without any real support. To date, Equifax has not faced any repercussions for their lack of security measures although there have been a few individual lawsuits which have resulted in awards of up to $10,000.

Who Can You Trust?

We live our lives online, disclosing personal and confidential information across the internet. We often believe that the companies we entrust with it will protect us. However, that isn’t always the case. Data breaches, and the responses to them, highlight how little we can really trust that our data is secure.

Fortunately, we can take steps to protect ourselves. You can use open-source tools to keep your data secure. Additionally, if you find yourself losing faith in the mainstream social networks, you could switch to the Facebook alternatives that don’t steal your data.

Read the full article: Behind the Mask: 4 Companies That Don’t Really Care About Your Security

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10 Reasons to Use Godot Engine for Developing Your Next Game

Game development is more accessible than ever. Many tools are free, and an explosion of online tutorials make game creation something anyone can do.

Unity and Unreal Engine are the big names in game development. They are both free to use, but they are not the end of the story. Godot is a free, open-source game development platform. Here are ten reasons Godot might be perfect for your next game

1. Godot Is Good for Programmers

Almost all game development environments rely on some programming knowledge, but some are more suited to those coming from a programming background. Godot is a perfect example of a tool built for programmers.

The Godot API exposes almost every element of the engine, and it’s rare to find features which are not directly accessible by code. Godot receives praise for its fantastic documentation and ease of use from a coding perspective.

2. Godot Has a Dedicated Language

The Godot engine comes with a programming language called GDScript. To some, this is an immediate turnoff. Frequently, in-house languages are either unnecessary or poorly thought-out.

GDScript came as a result of in-house testing by the Godot team. Rather than creating a new language for the sake of it, GDScript came through iterating through other languages such as Python and Lua. None of these languages work quite how they want, so the team created GDScript to be as readable as Python, yet retaining essential elements for development like strict typing, better editor integration, and more straightforward optimizations for speed.

Many developers who start with Godot find themselves pleasantly surprised by how quick the language is to pick up. However, if learning a new language isn’t on your list, there is an alternative.

3. Godot Supports Multiple Languages

Choosing a game development environment frequently means choosing a programming language. No matter how comfortable you are in your preferred language, if the development tools you require are not supported, then you are left with little choice.

Godot currently directly supports C++, C#, and GDScript. They are also working on VisualScript, a code-free node based programming system similar to Unreal Engine’s Blueprint system.

4. Godot Supports Language Binding

If the officially-supported languages still don’t fit, you still have options. The GDNative API allows other languages to be bound directly to the Godot engine. This provides access to the Godot API in a language of your choice.

Currently, there are experimental bindings for Go, R, Nim, Rust, and Ruby. Given Godot’s reputation among programmers and the demand for more languages to be added, you can expect this list to grow fast!

5. The Node System

Most game engines employ scenes, usually to represent a level in a game. Objects exist within this scene. In Unity these are GameObjects, in Unreal Engine they are Actors.

In Godot, a scene is a collection of nodes. Each node is a single object, and each node can inherit from any other. A group of nodes is called a scene. Scenes can also inherit from each other, so long as they have a common root node.

Godot’s node system provides a different approach to working with objects, which can take some time to understand (and is beyond the scope of this article to explain in detail here). Those who master it, value it as an intuitive and extendible design tool.

6. Godot Supports 2D and 3D Game Development

Godot supports the creation of both 2D and 3D games. Indie developers making 2D games love the work-flow Godot provides. Rather than pseudo 2D (a 3D world represented in two dimensions), Godot works in an actual 2D space expressed in pixels. This hugely simplifies 2D game creation and optimization.

3D support is newer and still lags behind Unreal Engine and Unity. Nevertheless, unless you are building a AAA game with top of the line graphics you are not going to run into any limitations using Godot.

Godot has specialized nodes for both 2D and 3D, with some designed to work in both, and support for 2.5D is coming soon.

7. Godot Is Open Source

Godot is open source software. The editor and all tools attached to it fall under the MIT license. Godot is free of charge, and you own everything created with it.

The open source nature of the Godot project also makes it highly extendable. If you are a programmer working with the platform and find something that isn’t implemented or doesn’t work the way you like, you can change it!

Godot is full of community developed tools, and many users add unique elements to the engine as part of the development of their games.

8. Godot Has Its Own IDE

Godot has a built-in IDE. While it might not come with some of the cooler functions of other IDEs like VSCode’s Live Share feature, it is ideal for use with Godot.

Of course, you are not bound to using the in-engine IDE and can use your favorite IDE or text editor for programming in Godot.

9. Godot Is Lightweight

The standard Godot executable is just over 60MB and does not require installation. Just download, unzip, and go. Alongside its tiny file size, the engine itself is comfortable on lower-powered systems.

One mind-bending but awesome fact is that the Godot engine is a Godot game. This means that any in-engine performance reflects the performance of finished projects made with it.

10. Godot Is Cross Platform

Godot is truly cross-platform, with developers on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Many alternative tools are designed with one operating system (OS) in mind and suffer problems when ported to others.

While it is unknown if Godot is cross-platform by design, users on every platform report a similar experience, and all Godot games build for multiple environments. Godot also has a server build, specifically for hosting multiplayer games.

There is even a Raspberry Pi version in the works, which needless to say excites us!

What Is Godot Not Good For?

So far you’ve seen a lot of good reasons to use Godot, but who isn’t it for? Well, Godot isn’t going to be producing the next AAA blockbuster, but then again that is not who the engine targets.

Perhaps more critical to Indie developers is the fact that at present there is no direct way to produce Godot games for consoles. This lies in the fact that the tools to publish to consoles are closed source and fly in the face of Godot’s commitment to open source.

That said, there are third-party tools in development to allow publishing onto consoles, and given Godot’s growing use it seems likely console possibilities will continue to grow.

Freedom to Create Games With Godot

Godot is free and open source, and to some people this is key. An open-source game development tool is a perfect pairing for those who care about open source games and software in general.

Godot is a wonderful option, but it might not be for you. Luckily there are many options out there for those wanting to create their own games!

Read the full article: 10 Reasons to Use Godot Engine for Developing Your Next Game

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UK health minister leans on social media platforms to delete anti-vax content

Social media-fuelled anti-vaxxer propaganda is the latest online harm the U.K. government is targeting.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program this morning health secretary Matt Hancock said he will meet with representatives from social media platforms on Monday to pressure them into doing more to prevent false information about the safety of vaccinations from being amplified by their platforms.

“I’m seeing them on Monday to require that they do more to take down wrong — well lies essentially — that are promoted on social media about the impact of vaccination,” he said, when asked about a warning by a U.K. public health body about the risk of a public health emergency being caused by an increase in the number of British children who have not received the measles vaccination.

“Vaccination is safe; it’s very, very important for the public health, for everybody’s health and we’re going to tackle it.”

The head of NHS England also warned last month about anti-vaccination messages gaining traction on social media.

“We need to tackle this risk in people not vaccinating,” Hancock added. “One of the things I’m particularly worried about is the spread of anti-vaccination messages online. I’ve called in the social media companies like we had to for self-harming imagery a couple of months ago.”

Vaccines protect us and our children from awful diseases – Social Media companies must act to stop dangerous anti-vax messages spreading online pic.twitter.com/TkFUgab1us

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) April 25, 2019

Hancock, who between 2016 and 2018 served as the U.K.’s digital minister, prior to taking over the health brief, held a similar meeting with the boss of Instagram earlier this year.

That followed a public outcry over suicide content spreading on Instagram after a British schoolgirl was reported to have been encouraged to killed herself by viewing graphic content on the Facebook-owned platform.

Instagram subsequently announced a policy change saying it would remove graphic images of self harm and demote non-graphic self-harm images so they don’t show up in searches, relevant hashtags or the explore tab.

But it remains to be seen whether platforms will be as immediately responsive to amped up political pressure to scrub anti-vaccination content entirely given the level of support this kind of misinformation can attract among social media users.

Earlier this year Facebook said it would downrank anti-vax content in the News Feed and hide it on Instagram in an effort to minimize the spread of vaccination misinformation.

It also said it would point users toward “authoritative” vaccine-related information — i.e. information that’s been corroborated by the health and scientific establishment.

But deleting such content entirely was not part of Facebook’s announced strategy.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for any response to Hancock’s comments.

In the longer term social media platforms operating in the U.K. could face laws that require them to remove content deemed to pose a risk to public health if ordered to by a dedicated regulator, as a result of a wide-ranging government plan to tackle a range of online harms.

Earlier this month the U.K. government set out a broad policy plan for regulating online harms.

The Online Harms Whitepaper proposes to put a mandatory duty of care on platforms to take reasonable steps to protect users from a range of harms — including those linked to the spread of disinformation.

It also proposes a dedicated, overarching regulator to oversee internet companies to ensure they meet their responsibilities.

The government is currently running a public consultation on the proposals, which ends July 1, after which it says it will set out any next actions as it works on developing draft legislation.

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Daily Crunch: Facebook is still growing

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Facebook reserves $3B for FTC fine, but keeps growing with 2.38B users in Q1

A massive penalty hangs over Facebook’s head, but it otherwise had a very strong Q1 earnings report. The company reached 2.38 billion monthly users, up 2.5 percent from the previous quarter, and it pulled in $15.08 billion in revenue.

Facebook recorded earnings per share were significantly lower than expected, but that’s because it set aside $3 billion to cover a potential FTC fine that it’s still resolving.

2. Scientists pull speech directly from the brain

In a feat that could eventually unlock the possibility of speech for people with severe medical conditions, scientists have successfully recreated the speech of healthy subjects by tapping directly into their brains.

3. Verizon announces 20 5G markets for 2019, as Samsung Galaxy S10 5G preorders open

Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) just revealed a one-two punch: opening up preorders for the Galaxy S10 5G and announcing a list of 20 cities that will be getting the technology before year’s end.

4. Microsoft beats expectations with $30.6B in revenue as Azure’s growth continues

Microsoft Azure had a pretty good quarter, with revenue growing 73 percent. That’s a bit lower than last quarter’s results, but only by a fraction.

5. Slack to extend collaboration to folks who don’t want to give up email

The company announced a new email and calendar bridge that enables team members who might not have made the leap to Slack to still be kept in the loop.

6. NASA and FEMA are contingency planning for a potential asteroid Armageddon

Alongside international partners, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office will participate in a “tabletop exercise” that will simulate a scenario for how to respond to an asteroid on an impact trajectory with Earth.

7. How to source hard-to-fill programming positions

Zack Burt’s recruiting strategy is surprisingly simple, and boils down to optimizing various segments of the sourcing funnel: awareness, page views and application submits. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Facebook broke Canadian privacy law, joint probe finds

The latest damning assessment of Facebook’s trampling of user privacy comes from the Canadian and Columbia privacy commissioners — which have just published the results of an investigation kicked off in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal last year.

They found the social network company committed serious contraventions of local laws and failed generally to take responsibility for protecting the personal information of Canadians.

Facebook has disputed the findings and refused to implement the watchdogs’ recommendations — including refusing to voluntarily submit to audits of its privacy policies and practices over the next five years.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said it therefore plans to take Facebook to Federal Court to seek an order to force it the company to correct its deficient privacy practices.

Both watchdogs have also called for local privacy laws to be beefed up so that regulators have stronger sanctioning powers to protect the public’s interest.

“Facebook’s refusal to act responsibly is deeply troubling given the vast amount of sensitive personal information users have entrusted to this company,” said Daniel Therrien, privacy commissioner of Canada, in a statement. “Their privacy framework was empty, and their vague terms were so elastic that they were not meaningful for privacy protection.

“The stark contradiction between Facebook’s public promises to mend its ways on privacy and its refusal to address the serious problems we’ve identified – or even acknowledge that it broke the law – is extremely concerning.”

“Facebook has spent more than a decade expressing contrition for its actions and avowing its commitment to people’s privacy. But when it comes to taking concrete actions needed to fix transgressions they demonstrate disregard,” added B.C. information and privacy commissioner, Michael McEvoy, in another supporting statement. “The ability to levy meaningful fines would be an important starting point.”

“It is untenable that organizations are allowed to reject my office’s legal findings as mere opinions,” added Therrien.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment.

The privacy watchdogs combined their efforts to investigate Facebook and Cambridge Analytica-linked data company Aggregate IQ last year — setting out to determine whether the companies had complied with local privacy laws.

More than 600,000 Canadians had their data extracted from Facebook via an app whose developer was working with Cambridge Analytica to try to build profiles of U.S. voters.

Among the privacy-related deficiencies the two watchdogs are attaching to Facebook’s business are what they dub “superficial and ineffective safeguards” of user data that enabled unauthorized access by third party apps on its platform; a failure to obtain meaningful consent for the use of users’ friends’ data; a lack of proper oversight of the privacy practices of apps using Facebook’s platform, with a reliance on contractual terms and “wholly inadequate” monitoring of compliance.

All familiar stuff if you were following the twists and turns of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse saga last year. (Aleksandr Kogan, the third party app developer at the centre of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal also accused Facebook of not having a valid developer policy.)

The full report can be found here.

“A basic principle of privacy laws is that organizations are responsible for the personal information under their control. Instead, Facebook attempted to shift responsibility for protecting personal information to the apps on its platform, as well as to users themselves,” the watchdogs write, further accusing Facebook of an overall lack of responsibility for the personal data of users.

They also point out that their findings are of particular concern given an earlier 2009 investigation of Facebook by the federal commissioner’s office — which found similar contraventions with respect to Facebook seeking overly broad, uninformed consent for disclosures of personal information to third-party apps, as well as inadequate monitoring to protect against unauthorized data access by apps.

“If Facebook had implemented the 2009 investigation’s recommendations meaningfully, the risk of unauthorized access and use of Canadians’ personal information by third party apps could have been avoided or significantly mitigated,” they add.

(Oh hai, deja vu… )

The commissioners are calling for not only the power to levy financial penalties on companies that break privacy laws — as equivalent watchdogs in Europe already can — but also broader authority to inspect the practices of organizations to independently confirm privacy laws are being respected.

“This measure would be in alignment with the powers that exist in the U.K. and several other countries,” they note.

“Giving the federal Commissioner order-making powers would also ensure that his findings and remedial measures are binding on organizations that refuse to comply with the law,” they add.

The UK’s data protection watchdog levied the maximum possible fine on Facebook last year — although it’s ‘just’ £500,000 (and Facebook is appealing, claiming there’s no evidence that UK users’ data was misused).

But an updated pan-EU privacy framework, GDPR, which came into force after the Cambridge Analytica-related data misuse occurred, has massively upgraded the maximum possible fines that European data watchdogs can hand down for privacy violations. (And the Irish DPC, the lead privacy regulator for Facebook’s European business, has a very long list of open probes against Facebook and Facebook-owned platforms. So watch that space.)

Earlier this year a U.K. parliamentary committee which spend multiple months last year investigating Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, as part of a wider inquiry into online disinformation, called for Facebook’s use of user data to be investigated by the privacy watchdog.

The committee also urged the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to undertake an antitrust probe Facebook’s business practices, and recommended that the social media ad market face a comprehensive audit to address concerns about its lack of transparency.

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Waymo CTO Dmitri Dolgov at TC Sessions: Mobility on July 10

Long before there was an autonomous vehicle industry, there was Project Chauffeur — a secret endeavor staffed by about a dozen engineers and housed under Google’s moonshot factory X.

That venture, popularly known as the Google self-driving car project, would eventually graduate from its project status to become a standalone company called Waymo in 2016 — along the way helping launch an entire industry and numerous careers.

And Waymo’s CTO and VP of engineering Dmitri Dolgov has been there for the entire ride.

We’re excited to announce that Dolgov will participate in TechCrunch’s inaugural TC Sessions: Mobility, a one-day event on July 10, 2019 in San Jose, Calif., that is centered around the future of mobility and transportation.

We’ll talk to Dolgov about those early days, how the company has evolved and where it’s headed next as well as dig into the tech behind self-driving cars.

TC Sessions: Mobility will present a day of programming with the best and brightest founders, investors and technologists who are determined to invent a future Henry Ford might never have imagined. In case you missed it some of our recently announced speakers include, Nuro co-founder and CEO Dave Ferguson, Scoot SVP of Product Katie DeWitt, Co-founder and CEO of Voyage Oliver Cameron and co-founder, president and CEO of Mobileye Amnon Shashua — who also is a senior vice president at Intel. And there are more.

TC Sessions: Mobility aims to do more than highlight the next new thing. We’ll dig into the how and why, the cost and impact to cities, people and companies, as well as the numerous challenges that lie along the way, from technological and regulatory to capital and consumer pressures.

Early-Bird tickets are now on sale — save $100 on tickets before prices go up.

Students, you can grab your tickets for just $45.

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The Google Assistant can now tell you a story on your phone

For the last year or so, you could ask the Google Assistant on your Google Home device to read your kids a story. Today, just in time for National Tell a Story Day, Google is bringing this feature to Android and iOS phones, too. It’ll be available in English in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and India.

When you asked the Assistant on your phone to tell you a story before, you’d get a short inspirational quote or maybe a bad joke. Having two different experiences for the same command never really made much sense, so it’s good to see Google consolidate this.

The available stories range from tales about Blaze and the Monster Machines to more classic bedtime stories like ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’

That’s in addition to other story features like ‘read along,’ which automatically plays sound effects as you read from a number of Disney Little Golden Books. That’s obviously the cooler feature overall, but the selection of supported books remains limited. For longer stories, there’s obviously audiobook support.

Or you could just sit down with your kids and read them a book. That’s also an option.

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Snapchat is bringing its Bitmoji avatars into video games

Want your video game character to look just like you? Soon you’ll be able to scan an in-game code with Snapchat to play as your personalized Bitmoji avatar on PC, console, and mobile games. Today Snapchat announced is new Bitmoji For Games SDK that will let hand-selected partners integrate 3D Bitmoji as a replacement for their character skins. With support for Unity, Unreal, and the Play Canvas engine behind Snap’s new Bitmoji Party game inside Snapchat, the SDK should make it easy for developers to pipe in life-like avatars that give people a stronger emotional connection to the game.

“It’s kind of a no-brainer to bring Bitmoji into games. Games can be so much more engaging with you…in the game” Bitmoji co-founder Ba Blackstock tells me. “We’re adding an identity layer to gaming that has the potential to have a transformational effect on the industry.”

Snapchat has a massive opportunity to colonize the web — and the games ecosystem — with its Bitmoji instead of waiting for developers to make half-assed clones. Bitmoji is perhaps Snapchat’s most popular and enduring feature now that Stories and ephemeral messaging have been widely copied. As I wrote in my feature piece on Snapchat’s new platform strategy, “To stop copycats, Snapchat shares itself”, every distributed instance of the company drives attention back to its original apps, and each partnership it establishes is one more ally in the fight against Facebook.

As Snapchat moves into this new era of marketing itself through Bitmoji, today it also announced it’s hired a new CMO, Kenny Mitchell. He was formerly the VP of marketing at McDonald’s and the head of consumer engagement at Gatorade. Mitchell oversaw the sports drink’s Serena Wlliams tennis game that lived inside a Snapchat ad and saw an average of over 200 seconds of play time, and its viral Super Bowl augmented reality lens that let you dump a cooler of Gatorade on yourself.

“Kenny’s consumer marketing expertise and his deep understanding of our products will be a great combination for Snap” writes Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. The company has seen many senior execs depart over the years due to clashes with Spiegel over leadership, so we’ll see if Mitchel sticks around. He’ll be spearheading Snap’s new marketing campaign to reactivate Android users frustrated by its buggy app and bring them back to its newly reengineered version. “I look forward to helping Evan and Snap continue to tell their story to people around the world, and working with my new colleagues as we define the future of the camera and self-expression” Mitchell writes.

Bitmoji, The Visual Identity Layer

Snap acquired Bitmoji parent Bitstrips in 2016 for just $64 million, propelling it to become a staple top 10 app. Snap launched its Snap Kit platform in June 2018, allowing developers to integrate Bitmoji into the keyboards of their apps like Tinder for use as chat stickers or 2D profile pics. And this month at Snap’s first Partner Summit, it launched partnerships to bring Bitmoji to the Venmo feed, Fitbit watch faces, and more. But now it will let 3D Bitmoji replace your in-game character head-to-toe.

For now, the SDK will be free to top developers chosen for the program from PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android and other platforms. Surprisingly, most game devs just build their own avatar customization feature from scratch, but it’s typically focused on clothes and crazy hairstyles than fine-tuning a face that looks like your own.

Bitmoji For games won’t be an open platform to ensure the brand isn’t misused. Blackstock explains that “You can look at what we’re doing with Bitmoji Kit where we have guidelines of best practices of how to use Bitmoji and not use Bitmoji. We’ll apply the same kinds of guidelines to gaming.” That might mean no extra graphically violent games, or anything in which players might revel in inflicting pain on a personalized avatar. But Fortnite, with its cartoony violence might be an ideal Bitmoji partner.

Snap’s global head of gaming partnerships John Imah says he could imagine using his Bitmoji in titles from Star Wars, Lego, Mario Kart, or Warcraft. Depending on how their models for characters, landscapes, and items work, developers may have to do some work to make BItmoji work gracefully. But Imah says when it can “There will be some modification on our end to make sure this works within their engine so we can make this process as seamless as possible for these developers.”

Users will design their avatar in the Bitmoji or Snapchat app, though there may be in-game customization options down the line. If users ask to import their Bitmoji, the game will show a QR Snapcode on screen that users can scan with the Snapchat camera. That authentication unlocks their Bitmoji to use as an avatar skin in the game. Suddenly, every quest, battle, and cutscene becomes about them, not some generic character.

Given Fortnite is earning hundreds of millions of dollars selling cosmetic upgrades, the inevitable question is whether Snap will start selling bonus outfits, items, or face options for Bitmoji. “It’s really early days for Bitmoji For Games. It’s something we’ll explore later down the road” Imah tells me. That could be a lucrative new business for Snap that’s strengthened by each Bitmoji partnership, and at a time when it’s eager to boost revenue and cut losses as it aims for profitability.

Bitmoji For Games could cement Snapchat as the best way to visually represent yourself online without a photograph. As the darker sides of the Internet and human nature come into focus for the tech industry, we need more ways to both be ourselves while retaining privacy. Bitmoji could deliver the emotional connection of seeing yourself as the hero without the risks of exposing your true face.

To stop copycats, Snapchat shares itself

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Snapchat is bringing its Bitmoji avatars into video games

Want your video game character to look just like you? Soon you’ll be able to scan an in-game code with Snapchat to play as your personalized Bitmoji avatar on PC, console, and mobile games. Today Snapchat announced is new Bitmoji For Games SDK that will let hand-selected partners integrate 3D Bitmoji as a replacement for their character skins. With support for Unity, Unreal, and the Play Canvas engine behind Snap’s new Bitmoji Party game inside Snapchat, the SDK should make it easy for developers to pipe in life-like avatars that give people a stronger emotional connection to the game.

“It’s kind of a no-brainer to bring Bitmoji into games. Games can be so much more engaging with you…in the game” Bitmoji co-founder Ba Blackstock tells me. “We’re adding an identity layer to gaming that has the potential to have a transformational effect on the industry.”

Snapchat has a massive opportunity to colonize the web — and the games ecosystem — with its Bitmoji instead of waiting for developers to make half-assed clones. Bitmoji is perhaps Snapchat’s most popular and enduring feature now that Stories and ephemeral messaging have been widely copied. As I wrote in my feature piece on Snapchat’s new platform strategy, “To stop copycats, Snapchat shares itself”, every distributed instance of the company drives attention back to its original apps, and each partnership it establishes is one more ally in the fight against Facebook.

Snap acquired Bitmoji parent Bitstrips in 2016 for just $64 million, propelling it to become a staple top 10 app. Snap launched its Snap Kit platform in June 2018, allowing developers to integrate Bitmoji into the keyboards of their apps like Tinder for use as chat stickers or 2D profile pics. And this month at Snap’s first Partner Summit, it launched partnerships to bring Bitmoji to the Venmo feed, Fitbit watch faces, and more. But now it will let 3D Bitmoji replace your in-game character head-to-toe.

For now, the SDK will be free to top developers chosen for the program from PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android and other platforms. Surprisingly, most game devs just build their own avatar customization feature from scratch, but it’s typically focused on clothes and crazy hairstyles than fine-tuning a face that looks like your own.

Bitmoji For games won’t be an open platform to ensure the brand isn’t misused. Blackstock explains that “You can look at what we’re doing with Bitmoji Kit where we have guidelines of best practices of how to use Bitmoji and not use Bitmoji. We’ll apply the same kinds of guidelines to gaming.” That might mean no extra graphically violent games, or anything in which players might revel in inflicting pain on a personalized avatar. But Fortnite, with its cartoony violence might be an ideal Bitmoji partner.

Snap’s global head of gaming partnerships John Imah says he could imagine using his Bitmoji in titles from Star Wars, Lego, Mario Kart, or Warcraft. Depending on how their models for characters, landscapes, and items work, developers may have to do some work to make BItmoji work gracefully. But Imah says when it can “There will be some modification on our end to make sure this works within their engine so we can make this process as seamless as possible for these developers.”

Users will design their avatar in the Bitmoji or Snapchat app, though there may be in-game customization options down the line. If users ask to import their Bitmoji, the game will show a QR Snapcode on screen that users can scan with the Snapchat camera. That authentication unlocks their Bitmoji to use as an avatar skin in the game. Suddenly, every quest, battle, and cutscene becomes about them, not some generic character.

Given Fortnite is earning hundreds of millions of dollars selling cosmetic upgrades, the inevitable question is whether Snap will start selling bonus outfits, items, or face options for Bitmoji. “It’s really early days for Bitmoji For Games. It’s something we’ll explore later down the road” Imah tells me. That could be a lucrative new business for Snap that’s strengthened by each Bitmoji partnership, and at a time when it’s eager to boost revenue and cut losses as it aims for profitability.

Bitmoji For Games could cement Snapchat as the best way to visually represent yourself online without a photograph. As the darker sides of the Internet and human nature come into focus for the tech industry, we need more ways to both be ourselves while retaining privacy. Bitmoji could deliver the emotional connection of seeing yourself as the hero without the risks of exposing your true face.

To stop copycats, Snapchat shares itself

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The 5 Best Smartphones With Physical Keyboards

Start a Career in Cloud Computing With This Microsoft Azure Training, Now $19

Every big social app, multiplayer game, and business workflow relies on the cloud. That’s why cloud developers are in demand, with established pros earning six figures. The Complete Microsoft Azure Certification Prep Bundle 2019 can help you build a career in this lucrative area, with four courses and over 23 hours of training working towards official Microsoft exams. You can grab the training now for only $19 at MakeUseOf Deals.

Cloud Computing

One of the leading cloud computing platforms at an enterprise level is Microsoft Azure. In fact, 85% of Fortune 500 companies use Azure. If you want to get started as a cloud computing expert, it makes sense to master this cloud platform.

The Prep Bundle 2019 helps you do just that and prepares you for the official Azure Architect certification exams. Through concise video lessons, you learn how to configure, manage and migrate between Azure accounts. The training also looks at serverless computing, load balancing, virtual machines, and many other core cloud skills.

Just as importantly, each course includes full prep for a specific Azure exam. The videos cover everything you need to know in order to sail through the exams at your first attempt. As a new cloud engineer, this should help you catch the eye of tech recruiters.

Full Prep for $19

This training is worth $387, but you can grab the full bundle now for just $19 with lifetime access included.

Read the full article: Start a Career in Cloud Computing With This Microsoft Azure Training, Now $19

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Internet connectivity projects unite as Alphabet spinout Loon grabs $125M from SoftBank’s HAPSMobile

Two futuristic projects are coming together to help increase global internet access after Loon, the Google spinout that uses a collection of floating balloons to bring connectivity to remote areas, announced it has raised money from a SoftBank initiative.

HAPSMobile, a SoftBank project that is also focused on increasing global connectivity, is investing $125 million into Loon, according to an announcement from SoftBank made this morning. The agreement includes an option for Loon to make a reciprocal $125 million investment in HAPSMobile and it includes co-operation plans, details of which are below.

HAPSMobile is a one-year-old joint venture between SoftBank and U.S. company AeroVironment. The company has developed a solar-powered drone that’s designed to deliver 5G connectivity in the same way Facebook has tried in the past. The social network canceled its Aquila drone last year, although it is reported to have teamed up with Airbus for new trials in Australia.

Where Facebook has stumbled, HAPSMobile has made promising progress. The company said that its HAWK 30 drone — pictured below in an impression — has completed its initial development and the first trials are reportedly set to begin this year.

Loon, meanwhile, was one of the first projects to go after the idea of air-based connectivity with a launch in 2013. The business was spun out of X, the ‘moonshot’ division of Alphabet, last year and, though it is still a work in progress, it has certainly developed from an initial crazy idea conceived within Google.

Loon played a role in connecting those affected by flooding in Peru in 2017 and it assisted those devastated by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year. Loon claims its balloons have flown more than 30 million kms and provided internet access for “hundreds of thousands” of people across the world.

In addition to the capital investment, the two companies have announced a set of initiatives that will help them leverage their collective work and technology.

For starters, they say they will make their crafts/balloons open to use for the other — so HAPSMobile can tap Loon balloons for connectivity and vice-versa — while, connected to that, they will jointly develop a communication payload across both services. They also plan to develop a common ground station that could work with each side’s tech and develop shared connectivity that their airborne hardware can tap.

Loon has already developed fleet management technology because of the nature of its service, which is delivered by a collection of balloons, and that will be optimized for HAPSMobile.

The premise of HAPSMobile is very much like Loon

Outside of tech, the duo said they will create an alliance “to promote the use of high altitude communications solution with regulators and officials worldwide.”

The investment is another signal that shows SoftBank’s appetite in tech investing is not limited to up-and-coming startups via its Vision Fund, more established ventures are indeed also in play. Just yesterday, the Vision Fund announced plans to invest $1 billion in German payment firm Wirecard and its past investments include ARM and Nvidia, although SoftBank has sold its stake in the latter.

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Reddit Launches New Events and Collections Tools

Reddit has launched two new tools to make it easier to follow what’s happening. The tools, called Events and Collections, are designed to make Reddit more user-friendly, and particularly for new users who aren’t familiar with how Reddit works.

Reddit has established itself as one of the cornerstones of the web. It’s a vibrant place full of diverse discussions. However, it isn’t always easy to know where to go, what to click, and how to get involved in conversations. Which is where Events and Collections come in.

How Reddit’s New Events and Collections Work

As explained in this post on /r/modnews, Events are “posts with time/date metadata associated with them,” and Collections are “mod-curated groups of posts”. Both tools are designed to help moderators help users follow events as they happen.

Events “help bring awareness about upcoming events in your community that users can also follow to get a reminder when they start”. Collections “make it simple to put together related content in one place so that users can quickly navigate between […] posts”.

Helping Reddit Make Sense of Game of Thrones

The most obvious example of how these new tools could be useful is Game of Thrones. When a new episode airs, Reddit is awash with posts talking about the show. There are in-depth discussions of particular scenes, overarching theories, and more besides.

Monday mornings are for #GameOfThrones hot takes. See what redditors have to say about everything that happened on last night's episode: https://t.co/csiE6x2MgN pic.twitter.com/D9FfLSebv7

— Reddit (@reddit) April 22, 2019

Using Events, Reddit mods will be able to raise awareness of when an episode is airing. And using Collections, Reddit mods will be able to curate this content into a collection. Thus making it easier for users to get involved and keep track of what’s happening.

Events and Collections have been in beta since September 2018. And during testing, Reddit has made a number of improvements to the way they work. This includes the ability to turn existing posts into events, different layouts for collections, and mobile support.

Lapsed Users Should Give Reddit Another Try

Reddit is continually improving, whether that’s through changing how it looks or by removing subreddits spreading hate. So if you haven’t been on Reddit for a while it’s worth taking a second look. And to help you out here’s a quick guide to the new Reddit.

Read the full article: Reddit Launches New Events and Collections Tools

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The 12 Most Trusted News Sites You Should Bookmark

Fake news is a big issue right now. News companies are in the pockets of mega-billionaires. Media bias, inaccurate reporting, and sensationalism are on everyone’s mind. We are in an age where we don’t trust the people reporting the news.

Despite all this, there are some trustworthy news sources out there. You just have to know where to look.

What We Mean When We Say “Trustworthy”

Okay, let’s be candid here.

This is going to be a controversial article, no matter which news sites we suggest. Some people will disagree with the ones we choose. Others will be offended that we didn’t include their favorite media outlets.

Unfortunately, there’s no objective metric of trustworthiness. Most of the sites you’ll see listed made their way onto this list because they’ve developed a solid reputation for unbiased news, not-politically-motivated reporting. Yes, you can contest a reputation as it is also in flux always. It can’t be easily quantified (though we’ve cited sources where we can) and people will always have different opinions.

That being said, we stand by the assertions we make here. If you disagree, take to the comments and (civilly) tell us why. Also, note that we are presenting these credible news websites in alphabetical order and not ranking by trustworthiness.

A Note About AllSides

In many of the entries below, we mention AllSides ratings. The ratings are from AllSides.com, which dedicates itself to exposing bias and providing multiple perspectives on issues. The site determines its ratings in a number of ways—you can read about them here.

AllSides is itself a great place to get news, as it clearly labels each story as left-leaning, center, or right-leaning. We highly recommend it when you want to see what different people are saying about the same issue. It’s eye-opening and can help you learn to pick out news bias elsewhere.

1. Associated Press News

If you read a lot of news, you’ll see the AP credited all over the place. They often report stories first, and other outlets pick up those stories and run them for their own readers. AP is a non-profit, has no corporate sponsorship, and is not government-funded. The crowd-sourced bias rating at AllSides is “center,” so it generally doesn’t favor a left- or right-leaning view of the world.

While you’ll most often see AP cited in other news outlets, you can get news directly from the source.

2. BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is the largest broadcaster in the world. The British government funds the organization and so it is not beholden to corporate interests. BBC has a history of over 90 years with a well-earned reputation for accurate, unbiased reporting. AllSides classifies it as a center news source—meaning if you want balance, it’s one of the best news sites.

Despite being center, U.S. citizens may find that “center” in the U.K. is notably to the left of what they’re used to.

The BBC’s reputation, however, is a strong one. It was one of the most highly rated in the Pew Research Center’s 2014 trustworthiness study, with all groups except the consistently conservative rating is as more trusted than distrusted. And even that group was relatively neutral about it.

3. C-SPAN

Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) has been around since 1979. The channel provides unbiased news coverage of the United States federal government, U.S. political events, and limited coverage from the governments of the U.K., Canada, and Australia.

C-SPAN is a private, nonprofit organization that has never failed a single fact check from mediabiasfactcheck.com.

4. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Though it has a focus on politics, the Bureau’s stories will likely be of interest to people even outside the British political beat. As a non-profit, independent media organization, it has few ties to groups that might influence its political leanings. The Bureau publishes its stories in conjunction with other outlets—from both sides of the spectrum.

Like Brief.news, the Bureau isn’t listed on AllSides. But van Zandt, again, calls it among the most unbiased news outlets. Their stated mission is to “hold power to account,” and their goal certainly comes through in their journalism.

Note: A look at their major investigations does show that many of their stories focus on issues that are generally of more interest to the left. The group prides itself on fact-based reporting, however, and does pull together a lot of data to support their claims.

5. The Christian Science Monitor

Because it’s a news magazine, the format of the Christian Science Monitor is a little different from other best news sources on this list. They run fewer stories, but those stories tend to be very in-depth. It was founded in response to the sensationalist press of the early 1900s, and it’s maintained a strong reputation over 100 years later, maintaining its independence from mainstream media corporations.

There are two ways you can get news from CSM: through the daily edition (which gives you five daily stories each evening, along with an explanation of why they’re important) or the weekly version (which is also available in print). Unfortunately, neither are free. The daily will run you $11/month and the weekly is about $30/year. You can also grab it on your Kindle.

6. The Economist

Although AllSides states that the Economist tends to lean left, it does have a reputation for high-quality reporting. The publication “considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity, and predictability.” (Though one has to wonder, if it considers itself the enemy of privilege and pomposity, why “Which MBA” and “Executive Education Navigator” are prominently featured in the main navigation.)

Throughout its history, the Economist has championed issues on both sides of the political spectrum. Today, it does tend to have a bit more of a left lean. That being said, they’re not afraid to align themselves with the party they believe best supports their ideals, which focus on free trade and free markets.

7. NPR

This is likely to be a controversial one, as public broadcasting is strongly associated with liberal political views in the United States. However, NPR has a reputation for journalistic excellence. They’re invested in continued government funding, but they remain free of corporate bias. AllSides rates them as center, with a blind survey, third-party data, community feedback, and secondary research supporting their classification.

The Pew survey shows that conservatives tend to mistrust NPR, but its journalistic acumen is high. It’s known for rejecting sensationalism, issuing corrections when necessary, and fair reporting.

8. ProPublica

If you get your news from NPR, you’ve probably heard ProPublica mentioned. Like the AP, ProPublica is a non-profit, non-government-funded news organization. The fact that it was the first online news organization to win a Pulitzer Prize also gives it some credence (it’s gone on to win several more since then).

This is a smaller organization than some of the others mentioned on this list, but it’s absolutely worth checking out. We have a feeling they’re going to continue to grow, both in size and reputation.

9. Reuters

Like the AP, other news outlets often cite Reuters—and that’s largely because it has a long and solid reputation for good reporting. The organization is owned by Thomson Reuters. This gives it added resistance to corporate influence. Reuters strives to use a “value-neutral approach” to guard against bias in its reporting (so much so that it has courted controversy, especially after refusing to use the word “terrorist” after the September 11 attacks in New York).

While you may not be as familiar with Reuters as some of the other outlets listed here, they have a long-standing reputation for good journalism. Their Handbook of Journalism is a great resource for anyone reporting the news, and Reuters editors hold their journalists to its tenets.

10. USA Today

In 2016, USA Today shared the crown of widest circulation in the United States with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It’s read all over the world and is a major source of news for millions of people every day. The op-eds in USA Today are clearly labeled and present a range of viewpoints (a refreshing change from the opinion pieces in some other publications).

AllSides gives the publication a center rating, although it notes that there’s been some disagreement. The fact that two blind surveys supported this rating adds weight, however. You might be used to seeing USA Today in front of your hotel room door, but if you’re looking for good news, do check their site regularly.

11. The Wall Street Journal

This is likely to be another controversial inclusion on the list, due to the ownership of WSJ by News Corporation, the mega-media conglomeration helmed by the Murdoch family. Rupert Murdoch has developed a reputation for being ruthlessly conservative and using his considerable media power for political influence. Some of his news outlets also have a deservedly terrible reputation.

The Journal, however, has consistently ranked as highly trusted in the United States, even after its takeover by News Corp. AllSides gives it a strong center rating, and it was the only outlet more trusted than distrusted by all groups in the 2014 Pew survey. It’s important to note that the news and opinions section of WSJ has a strictly enforced separation and that op-eds tend to have a very strong right-leaning bias. Despite that, the news (especially financial news) published by the outlet is of high quality.

12. FAIR

If you’re interested in media bias—beyond finding media that’s minimally biased—you should definitely check out FAIR. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is a watchdog group that writes about media bias. They publish a number of remarkably stinging critiques of current news practices.

AllSides gives them a provisional center rating. On their homepage at the time of this writing are articles that critique CNN, the AP, and Roger Ailes (founder of Fox News). They don’t hold back, and no one is safe from their rhetoric.

Your Most Trusted News Outlets

These thirteen news sites have earned themselves reputations for being trustworthy. That said, news, in general, tends to have a negativity bias, which you can counteract by seeking out positive news.

Reporters and editors also have their own biases, so it’s impossible to find 100 percent unbiased news—and that probably wouldn’t be very fun to read anyway. But, in general, you can trust what you read from these outlets.

The key is to read multiple publications that include a few credible news sources from the other side of the fence. Installing some of the best free news apps on your phone might help.

Read the full article: The 12 Most Trusted News Sites You Should Bookmark

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What Is Data Corruption? How to Fix a Corrupted Hard Drive

When someone discusses preserving sensitive data, you’ll probably hear the term “data corruption” used a few times. But what is data corruption exactly, and how can you fix your files if things go wrong?

Let’s break down data corruption and how you can avoid losing your data.

What Is Data Corruption?

Imagine you work in a hospital which uses filing cabinets to store patient details. Every patient has a folder with all of their personal information within it, and every folder has a set place in a drawer that covers names in a specific range.

This hospital is particularly busy, so drawers are continually opened and closed, and folders are being extracted and put back. From this, you can imagine how information can be scrambled using this system.

Some flaws include:

• As people remove and replace folders, the individual papers inside are replaced out of order, damaged, or even lost altogether.
• When transferring a file from one hospital to another, some papers could go missing from folders.
• A doctor may fill out a prescription form wrong and put incorrect information into a folder.
• A doctor can take a folder home to study it, only to forget to bring it back. If he does remember, the folder may return with all the pages in an incorrect order.
• A patient called Tony Smith may have their details jumbled up with another patient with the same name, so Tony Smith’s folder contains the records of two unrelated people.
• A drawer may jam up, so every patient with names between J-L can’t have their records accessed.
• In an absolute worst-case scenario, vandals or natural disasters can destroy entire cabinets!

While a hard drive isn’t a filing cabinet, it does store information and data like one. Hard drives store data as magnetized or demagnetized areas, which represent a 1 or a 0 respectively. In case you’re wondering; yes, this is what makes up binary code!

What Is a Corrupted File?

When a file becomes corrupted, it’s akin to a damaged folder in the example above. When doctors scramble up, damage, or lose pages within a folder, it makes a patient’s records unreadable.

Similarly, digital corruption occurs when a file’s data becomes scrambled. This is when the 1s and 0s that make up the file are messed with, which then damages the integrity of the file.

For example, if you open a text document that suffered corruption, you may see odd ASCII characters and words within the document If the file suffers severe corruption, the computer won’t be able to open it at all. Instead, it displays an error message saying it can’t read the file.

Causes of Data Corruption

Data can become corrupted during writing, editing, or transfer to another drive. When a program writes incorrect data, or when something interrupts a write process, the data can mess up and cause a corrupted file.

A virus can corrupt files as well. Typically, this is done intentionally to damage essential system files. By corrupting a few critical files in the operating system, a virus can create a ripple effect that prevents the computer from booting correctly.

A hard drive contains a spinning disk called a “platter”, where it stores all the 1s and 0s that make up your files. Sometimes, parts of the hard drive become “locked away” due to an accidental software error, which is called a “soft bad sector.” This prevents access to data within that sector. You can repair soft bad sectors by doing a disk scan, which untangles the problem causing the lock.

Unfortunately, you can physically damage the platter via impact damage or overheating. This creates a “hard bad sector,” where a section of the drive becomes permanently unreadable. This destroys the data in that sector.

Even if you take good care of your drive and install a good antivirus, hard drives are mechanical devices that naturally deteriorate over time. As such, old drives will slowly decay and corrupt its data as its lifespan dwindles.

How to Check a Hard Drive’s Health

If you want to monitor the health of your hard drive, you can analyze it using special tools. These tools check your hard drive’s Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.).

Hard drives can monitor their health and inform the computer if problems arise, but you can manually check it yourself to see if anything is going wrong. That way, you can prepare for the worst before it actually happens.

CrystalDisk Info is a great tool to do this. Once you’ve downloaded it and opened it up, you’ll see all the statistics of your hard drive, along with a grade of its overall health. You can use this information to see if your hard drive is staying strong or is ready to kick the bucket.

How to Fix a Corrupted Hard Drive

Fixing a Hard Drive Using Windows

For a Windows-based machine, use the Checkdisk command to scan the hard drive for flaws. You can perform a disk check by pressing Win + X, clicking on Windows Powershell (Admin), and entering chkdsk c: /f /r /x. You may need to change the “c:” if your Windows 10 is on a different drive.

This command tells the chkdsk process to scan your system, with a few added parameters. The /f tells it to hunt down and fix errors. The /r tells it to recover data trapped in a bad sector. Finally, the /x tells chkdisk to unmount the drive so it can do its job.

A word of warning, however; this disk check can take a few hours (if not a full day!) to complete, so be sure you don’t want to use the machine for an extended period while you do this.

Chkdsk is a very useful tool, and there are even more chkdsk commands for Windows 10 beyond repairing corrupted files.

Fixing a Hard Drive Using macOS

If you’re using macOS, you can do a similar action by clicking the Apple menu button, then Restart. Hold down Command+R until the Apple logo appears. Select Disk Utility, then Continue. On View, click Show All Devices, click on your drive, then click the First Aid button—it looks like a stethoscope.

The operating system will then scan your disk and attempt to fix any corruption it finds.

Extracting Data From an Unrecoverable Drive

If you’ve tried your best to fix the corruption, but nothing seems to work, you can recover the drive by doing a full hard drive format. This trick clears the slate of the corrupted data and refreshes your PC back to normal, but if you’re doing a full format, you’ll end up losing all of your data.

Thankfully, there are ways to save your data. For one, you can transfer the data to another hard drive, so you can keep your files before the wipe. This method requires connecting the corrupted drive to a healthy one, then telling the healthy drive to copy the files over onto it.

You can also use data recovery tools to rescue some files before the formatting occurs. The success rate depends on how severe the corruption is, but hopefully, you’ll be able to recover some files before the wipe!

The Importance of Backups for Data Corruption

Of course, there’s no need to do any of this if you keep a regular back-up of your data. You don’t need to store away your entire computer; just the sensitive documents that would be highly damaging if they vanished for good.

If you want to make a backup of your files, various backup methods are available to you. The key is to find the one that suits your needs and budget, so you can keep your files safe with minimal hassle.

Keeping Your Data Safe

Data corruption can do severe damage to your important files. That’s why it’s important to keep backups and treat your hard drive with care to avoid losing irreplaceable files and folders.

Want to protect your data further? Be sure to know the signs of a failing hard drive.

Read the full article: What Is Data Corruption? How to Fix a Corrupted Hard Drive

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