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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and a love of

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Speaker 1: all things tech. It is time for the Tech News

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Speaker 1: per Tuesday, September twenty eight, twenty twenty one. And first,

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Speaker 1: let's follow up on one of the recent Facebook stories,

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Speaker 1: specifically the one about how Facebook researchers conducted an internal

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Speaker 1: study that linked Instagram use with potential negative effects on

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Speaker 1: mental health, particularly for teenage girls. Now, the head of

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Speaker 1: Facebook's research department has posted on Facebook Newsroom that the

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Speaker 1: conclusions that were drawn by the Wall Street Journal, which

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Speaker 1: reported on all this, are inaccurate and do not reflect

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Speaker 1: a proper interpretation of Facebook data. But really, the post

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Speaker 1: mostly is an indictment against her own department's research practices.

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Speaker 1: Because she stated that the study in question only had

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Speaker 1: forty participants. That means that that sample size was way

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Speaker 1: too small to allow for any kind of broad generalizations. Now,

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Speaker 1: I actually agree with that, because forty is an incredibly

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Speaker 1: small sample size for any kind of study. One might

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Speaker 1: even argue that it really doesn't make any sense to

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Speaker 1: conduct a study that has that small of a sample size,

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Speaker 1: particularly if you are a company that has a platform

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Speaker 1: with more than a billion users, more than two billion users. Now,

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Speaker 1: that does not mean that the findings are necessarily inaccurate, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean those findings might be accurate, But rather than that,

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Speaker 1: you can say, well, you can't be sure of that

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Speaker 1: because a sample size is way too small. It may

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Speaker 1: be that you just happen to have outliers and that

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Speaker 1: if you did a larger sample size, any effect would disappear.

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Speaker 1: And you know, you just can't really say for sure

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Speaker 1: to what if any degree Instagram contributes to negative mental

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Speaker 1: health outcomes based on a study like that. But I

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Speaker 1: will also say that her post feels a lot like

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Speaker 1: Facebook is doing kind of a tight rope routine of

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Speaker 1: saying the data doesn't show that, but also saying the

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Speaker 1: study isn't sufficient to draw conclusions from, like unless there's

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Speaker 1: other data that Facebook has, and there may well be,

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Speaker 1: but they haven't shared it, then it's impossible to say.

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Speaker 1: And because Facebook hasn't shared any extra information, there's no

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Speaker 1: way to validate whether or not you know, the arguments

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Speaker 1: that this is inaccurate are true. This Thursday and Tigany Davis,

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Speaker 1: the head of safety at Facebook, will appear before the

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Speaker 1: Senate Commerce Subcommittee to answer questions about the company and

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Speaker 1: its research on Instagram's effects. And I am sure that

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Speaker 1: there will be some senators with some pretty pointed questions.

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Speaker 1: We will have to see if Davis answers those in

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Speaker 1: a straightforward way or if we get more of what

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Speaker 1: we've seen in the past, where Facebook kind of dances

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Speaker 1: around answering things when it comes to accountability. In related news,

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Speaker 1: Facebook has announced that has put a temporary hold on

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Speaker 1: its plans to launch an Instagram app aimed at kids

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Speaker 1: under the age of thirteen. According to the head of Instagram,

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Speaker 1: Adam Massari, the decision to do this was in response

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Speaker 1: to the public backlash that the company has faced, particularly

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Speaker 1: in light of those Wall Street Journal stories I mentioned.

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Speaker 1: He also took the time to lament that you know,

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Speaker 1: we all just have it all wrong. This new Instagram

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Speaker 1: app isn't meant for little kids, he explained. It's meant

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Speaker 1: for kids that are between the ages of ten and twelve.

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Speaker 1: Now I'm going to spare you my personal reaction to

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Speaker 1: that particular response, because I think you could probably guess

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Speaker 1: what it is. But he also tweeted out that kids

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Speaker 1: are getting smart folks like younger ages, and then they

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Speaker 1: go around and download apps and they misrepresent their ages

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Speaker 1: in order to use those apps. So clearly it would

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Speaker 1: be better to make apps for the kids. I would say,

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Speaker 1: this doesn't explain how that stops kids from just continuing

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Speaker 1: to download adult apps and to misrepresent their ages. Like

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Speaker 1: that doesn't seem to solve that problem. It's really just saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: they're already on there, so what harm could we do

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Speaker 1: by introducing more of what they're already on. If anything,

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Speaker 1: this is really a call both to companies and to

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Speaker 1: parents to take more steps to protect kids. And I

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Speaker 1: think parents need to have a lot of that responsibility.

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Speaker 1: But how you know, we can't give companies a get

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Speaker 1: out of jail free card just because they have a

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Speaker 1: token age verification system that doesn't actually verify ages. In

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Speaker 1: my mind, that's just a type of se purity theater, Right,

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Speaker 1: You've got the appearance of security, but it's not actually

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Speaker 1: making anything more secure. Now that's my own personal opinion.

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Speaker 1: I could be way off base. Mossi argues that the

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Speaker 1: app that was planned for younger users would give parents

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Speaker 1: more oversight into what their kids are doing. But I

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Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, with every story that I cover

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Speaker 1: in this vein, I am tempted to just go move

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Speaker 1: into the woods and become a hermit, except I know me,

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Speaker 1: I would die of exposure within like two days. I'm

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Speaker 1: a soft city boy, but the urge to retreat is

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Speaker 1: definitely there. The Chinese government is taking some pretty extreme

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Speaker 1: steps to curb energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions within

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Speaker 1: the country. More than half of all China's electricity comes

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Speaker 1: from coal power plants, something like sixty three percent of

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Speaker 1: it does, and while the country has committed to never

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Speaker 1: building another coal power plant, it doesn't change the fact

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Speaker 1: that right now China largely runs on coal. The price

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Speaker 1: of coal in China has been on the rise lately,

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Speaker 1: and so energy costs have subsequently been going up, and

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Speaker 1: of course we have the carbon dioxide emissions issue. So

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Speaker 1: to deal with these problems, China has started to cut

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Speaker 1: off power to some major manufacturing centers in certain regions

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Speaker 1: of the country, with the plan to potentially have a

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Speaker 1: schedule in place for when those regions will be allowed

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Speaker 1: to power these manufacturing centers and when those centers are

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Speaker 1: going to go without power. Now, the hope is that

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Speaker 1: doing all this will allow energy companies to get hold

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Speaker 1: of some more commodities to offset production and stabilize prices,

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Speaker 1: though there are some analysts who say that at best

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Speaker 1: that would be like a temporary band aid. But in

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Speaker 1: the meantime, it means that it's not always going to

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Speaker 1: be business as usual in China's manufacturing centers, and since

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Speaker 1: a lot of the world's leading electronics companies depend upon

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Speaker 1: Chinese factories, this could mean that some companies experience some

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Speaker 1: production lays. Coupled with the ongoing semiconductor shortage, this could

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Speaker 1: mean that we're in for some tough times when it

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Speaker 1: comes to consumer electronics. However, I should add that the

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Speaker 1: semiconductor industry in particular will be allowed to continue to

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Speaker 1: operate throughout this process, so China's not going to shut

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Speaker 1: off power to facilities that are making semiconductor chips. Also,

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Speaker 1: a lot of companies have facilities in different regions of China,

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Speaker 1: and some regions are not affected by this. Some regions

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Speaker 1: will continue and not be cutting off power to manufacturing centers,

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Speaker 1: so those companies might just shift operations around as much

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Speaker 1: as they can to offset any delays they would face

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Speaker 1: due to the downtime. This next story needs a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a lead in, all right, So have you

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Speaker 1: ever tried to log into a service but you couldn't

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Speaker 1: remember which password you used for it? So you try

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Speaker 1: a few of your old standbys, and after three or

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Speaker 1: so attempts, you get shut out and told that you

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Speaker 1: can't try and log in again for several minutes. Well,

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Speaker 1: that kind of system is in place to protect against

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Speaker 1: a type of password attack called brute force, and with

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Speaker 1: that name you probably have a pretty good idea of

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Speaker 1: how this works. Someone trying to access a system you

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Speaker 1: know they don't have authorization will end up submitting guests

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Speaker 1: after guests in the password field, perhaps using a dictionary

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Speaker 1: of common passwords to start off, and then moving beyond

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Speaker 1: that to other guesses should the dictionary fail to score

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Speaker 1: any hits. This is all done automatically. By the way,

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Speaker 1: There are computer programs that are just meant to do

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Speaker 1: this kind of attack. This is not a quick way

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Speaker 1: to gain access to a system, but with a sufficiently

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Speaker 1: powerful computer system behind it, you can get it done.

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Speaker 1: It just takes time. So these protection systems are in

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Speaker 1: place in order to prevent that. Right, the brute force

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Speaker 1: attack would take a lot longer to do because the

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Speaker 1: attacker would regularly get shut out after giving a few

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Speaker 1: incorrect passwords. Another way that you can protect systems is

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Speaker 1: to require two factor authentication. So a password is one factor,

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Speaker 1: it represents something you know. A two factor authentication process

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Speaker 1: would require either that you also submit something that you own,

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Speaker 1: like your phone. So this is like when you try

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Speaker 1: and log into something and a system sends you a

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Speaker 1: text message with an access code that you need to

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Speaker 1: put in an addition to your password, or maybe it

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Speaker 1: requires something that you are like your biometric data like

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Speaker 1: a fingerprint scan, and it's used in connection with the password.

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Speaker 1: These systems also protect against brute force because the attacker

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Speaker 1: needs more than just the password in order to access

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Speaker 1: the system. All right, now we've got all that. Other

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Speaker 1: way we can get to the actual story. Microsoft has

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Speaker 1: a product called Azure Active Directory or Azure a D,

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Speaker 1: and apparently it has neither of those protections in place.

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Speaker 1: It is a single factor authentication system, so you just

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Speaker 1: need a password and you can submit password to your

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Speaker 1: heart's content, and apparently, in at least some versions, the

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Speaker 1: system doesn't log the password attempts, so there's no record

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Speaker 1: kept that someone is trying and failing to submit a password. Now,

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Speaker 1: consider for a moment that Azure Active Directory is a

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Speaker 1: way for corporate users to sign into a corporate account

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Speaker 1: and then connect to all integrated corporate systems and devices.

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Speaker 1: It's a one login solution in other words, so you

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Speaker 1: might use it to log into your corporate email, but

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Speaker 1: then it also logs you into the corporate HR system

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Speaker 1: or maybe like a project management system that all of

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Speaker 1: these different things. Because they have the one login approach,

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Speaker 1: you already have authorization, so you're not frustrated by the

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Speaker 1: fact that you have to authenticate every single time you

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Speaker 1: try to access any company system. It's meant to make

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Speaker 1: things more streamlined. Right, As long as you were able

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Speaker 1: to authenticate that one gateway, you can access everything. So

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Speaker 1: that means that this is a potential huge security vulnerability,

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Speaker 1: right if a hacker targets and Azure ad log in

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Speaker 1: and they have a user name and they're just submitting passwords,

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Speaker 1: and those failed passwords aren't getting logged, So no system

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Speaker 1: administrators are aware of this because there's no you know,

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Speaker 1: notification popping up saying hey, so and so has submitted

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Speaker 1: five seven eighty three incorrect guesses for their password. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you need to look into this. Then you could just

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Speaker 1: keep on attacking until you got a hit and managed

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Speaker 1: to get into the system. If you would like to

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Speaker 1: learn more about what scenarios this would work in and

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Speaker 1: what you need to be on the lookout for, I

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Speaker 1: really recommend reading As Sharma's post on Ours Technica. It

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Speaker 1: is titled new Azure Active Directory password brute forcing flaw

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Speaker 1: has no fix. That headline kind of as it all.

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Speaker 1: All right, We've got some more news stories to cover,

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Speaker 1: but before we get to that, let's take a quick break.

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Speaker 1: If you are in the United States, you might remember

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Speaker 1: that a couple of years ago, the Chinese telecommunications company

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Speaker 1: Huawei fell under a lot of scrutiny here in America,

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Speaker 1: and in part this was because then President Trump had

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Speaker 1: engaged in a trade war with China, and so at

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Speaker 1: least some of that motivation for the pressure on Huawei

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Speaker 1: was political trade pressure, but there was also a growing

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Speaker 1: concern that a Chinese company, one that presumably has important

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Speaker 1: and tight connections with China's communist government, might not be

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Speaker 1: the best fit when it comes to building out telecommunications infrastructure. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, if you're worried about potential Chinese spies.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's better not to hire a Chinese communications company

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Speaker 1: to install critical infrastructure components within your own communications network.

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Speaker 1: It's like opening the door for potential spies. In other words,

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Speaker 1: so the US moved to push American communications companies to

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Speaker 1: scuttle Huawei systems and to replace them with other systems. Now,

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Speaker 1: the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, says it has created

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Speaker 1: a nearly two billion dollar program to reimburse telecom carriers

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Speaker 1: that are going through the process of removing and replacing

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Speaker 1: Huawei network hardware from their systems. These telecom companies are

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Speaker 1: largely in rural areas in the United States, and I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that that relief is a literal relief to them.

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Speaker 1: These are not necessarily your gigantic coast to coast companies.

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Speaker 1: In other words, video game company Activision Blizzard has entered

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Speaker 1: into a settlement agreement with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Speaker 1: This was in response to a lawsuit that the EOC

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Speaker 1: from a hostile work environment to sexual harassment, to pay

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Speaker 1: disparity and discrimination. As part of the settlement, activision. Blizzard

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Speaker 1: will create a fund that will compensate employees who claim damages.

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Speaker 1: So it Plays will submit a claim, it will be

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Speaker 1: evaluated and then determined whether or not that employee merits

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Speaker 1: that fund is in the neighborhood of eighteen million dollars.

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Speaker 1: Any unclaimed funds after a certain period of time end

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Speaker 1: up going to nonprofit organizations dedicated to attracting more women

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Speaker 1: to enter into the video game development industry. Bobby Kodik,

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Speaker 1: the CEO of the company, says that he and the

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Speaker 1: executive team are dedicated to putting an end too the

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Speaker 1: toxic work environment, which I really hope is a sincere statement.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the cynical part of me says, well, of

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Speaker 1: course you want to bring an end to that, because

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Speaker 1: it's costing you money. As long as it wasn't costing

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Speaker 1: you money, there was no real incentive. But the hopeful

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Speaker 1: part of me says, we're trying to get better, and

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Speaker 1: people genuinely want to make workplaces a more positive environment.

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Speaker 1: So the optimist will continue to hope and the cynic

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Speaker 1: will continue to mistrust. A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation

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Speaker 1: named Virgil Griffith has pled guilty to charges that he

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Speaker 1: helped the country of North Korea get around US sanctions

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Speaker 1: that aimed to prevent North Korea from using blockchain technology.

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Speaker 1: And that needs some explanation. So, first of all, Ethereum

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Speaker 1: is a type of cryptocurrency, and when we talk about cryptocurrency,

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Speaker 1: a lot of people just think Bitcoin, or maybe if

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Speaker 1: they're in it for the means, they might think dogecoin.

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Speaker 1: Ethereum is another big popular cryptocurrency that is currently trying

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Speaker 1: to switch from a proof of work approach, which is

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Speaker 1: what Bitcoin uses. That's where you're using very fast computers

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Speaker 1: to try and solve a very hard computer problem before

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Speaker 1: anyone else can, and it's the reason why these systems

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Speaker 1: end up consuming so much energy and as a result,

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Speaker 1: contribute to things like carbon emissions and energy spikes and

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Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Ethereum is trying to move

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Speaker 1: to a proof of stake approach, which does not require

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Speaker 1: that kind of computational processing power in order to mine

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Speaker 1: new coins. However, it does mean that you have to

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Speaker 1: have a sufficient stake in ethereum in order to earn

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Speaker 1: interest more ethereum. And so some people point out that

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Speaker 1: that approach means that you already have to be wealthy

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Speaker 1: in order to even enjoy that potential payout, so upside

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Speaker 1: and downsides anyway, Like bitcoin, Ethereum uses blockchain to track

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Speaker 1: transactions and to prevent people from spending the same ethereum

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Speaker 1: unit twice. You know, if you have something that's digital,

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Speaker 1: then arguably you could just copy it a billion times,

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Speaker 1: so now instead of having one dollar bill, you have

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Speaker 1: a billion dollar bills. Block Chain prevents that kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff from happening. Well. Back in twenty nineteen, Virgil Griffith

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Speaker 1: attended a blockchain conference in Pyongyang, and the US government

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Speaker 1: alleges that Griffith's presentation at the conference was in effect

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Speaker 1: an instruction manual for how North Korea could make use

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Speaker 1: of blockchain technologies, despite US sanctions meant to prevent that

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Speaker 1: very thing from happening. Griffith was arrested upon returning from

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Speaker 1: the conference, and his trial was set to begin next week,

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Speaker 1: but he decided to plead guilty to the charges, which

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Speaker 1: could mean he could face up to twenty years in prison.

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Speaker 1: We'll have to follow up on this as we learn more.

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Speaker 1: No once we get to sentencing, Tesla has started to

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Speaker 1: open up its full self driving or FSD program to

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Speaker 1: a larger number of Tesla drivers, prompting them with a

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Speaker 1: request feature that appears on the dashboard touchscreen, so you

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Speaker 1: select it and then you can put in your request

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Speaker 1: to be part of the program. So now if you

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Speaker 1: have a Tesla that's capable of supporting FSD, you can

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Speaker 1: ask to have that feature enabled on your Tesla. Except

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Speaker 1: there is a catch. The company will run a safety

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Speaker 1: check on each driver, checking their driving against five criteria

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Speaker 1: to be certain that the drivers are responsible and safe.

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Speaker 1: Those criteria include instances in which the driver prompted a

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Speaker 1: forced autopilot disengagement. So autopilot is a driver assist feature

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Speaker 1: that some Tesla owners have famously abused by treating it

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Speaker 1: more as like a fully autonomous vehicle mode. And this

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Speaker 1: particular feature asks drivers that they keep their hands on

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Speaker 1: the wheel and they maintain their attention on the road,

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Speaker 1: and if a driver does not do this, then the

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Speaker 1: mode is supposed to alert the driver and disengage and

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Speaker 1: thus force the driver to take over manual control of

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Speaker 1: the car. So if that had happened, that would be

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Speaker 1: a strike against you, would that would knock points off

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Speaker 1: your safety score, but other criteria include stuff like how

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Speaker 1: frequently the car had to engage features like a forward

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Speaker 1: collision warning, which might indicate that you're following too closely

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Speaker 1: or not paying enough attention, or how frequently the driver

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Speaker 1: had to use hard breaking. Again, maybe you were traveling

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Speaker 1: too fast or you break too late when you're coming

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Speaker 1: up two stops. So you have to accrue a sufficient

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Speaker 1: safety score before you will be given access to subscribe

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Speaker 1: to FSD, But Tesla is not actually saying what that

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Speaker 1: score threshold is. Only the drivers will be judged out

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Speaker 1: of a total possible one hundred points, and most folks

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Speaker 1: will land somewhere around eighty points. The FSD product requires

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Speaker 1: a monthly subscription of one hundred ninety nine dollars a month,

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Speaker 1: which is a princely sum. Tesla also offered a version

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Speaker 1: where you could just buy it outright for the life

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Speaker 1: of the car for ten thousand dollars. And I've got

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Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts about this, and one of those

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Speaker 1: is that the name of it full self driving is

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Speaker 1: just as misleading as the name autopilot is, because it's

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Speaker 1: really just more features that augment autopilot, so it can

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Speaker 1: do stuff like in at least some cases have a

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Speaker 1: car navigate out of a parking space on its own,

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Speaker 1: so you can have it pull out of a space

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Speaker 1: and then you get into the car. You don't have

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Speaker 1: to squeeze by and that kind of stuff. But it

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Speaker 1: doesn't always work in every situation, and it can also

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Speaker 1: do things like obey traffic signals and stop signs, so

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Speaker 1: it can travel on surface streets in this mode, and

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Speaker 1: not just on highways. It can navigate from one highway

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Speaker 1: to another. But it is not true self driving, or

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Speaker 1: at least it's not truly fully self driving. It can't

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Speaker 1: autonomously operate the car in all situations and scenarios, and

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Speaker 1: many critics, including myself, have argued that the name doesn't

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Speaker 1: reflect what the product actually does. Also, I find it

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Speaker 1: somewhat telling that the company refers to the system as

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Speaker 1: full self driving, but it is requiring drivers who are

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Speaker 1: applying for this to pass a safety test before they

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Speaker 1: get access to the features, because if it were really

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Speaker 1: a full self driving feature, you would want bad drivers

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Speaker 1: to get that, right, I mean, if the vehicle is

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Speaker 1: capable of driving itself, which I argue full self driving

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Speaker 1: at least heavily implies, presumably it will do so safely

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Speaker 1: without the risk of an accident, and it makes more

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Speaker 1: sense to give bad drivers that service and thus remove

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Speaker 1: their human error from the road. But the fact that

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Speaker 1: Tesla requires drivers to meet a minimum safety requirement tells

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Speaker 1: me that that's not really what FSD does, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: if it really did that, then you wouldn't need the

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Speaker 1: safety check. If you need a safety check, you need

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Speaker 1: to make sure that the person who's driving the car

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Speaker 1: is going to be responsible, which tells you that FSD

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Speaker 1: is not really FSD. It's an augmentation system, not a

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Speaker 1: truly autonomous system. And I've got a lot of really

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Speaker 1: critical thoughts about Tesla doing this kind of stuff because

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Speaker 1: I feel that they set an unrealistic expectation in their

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Speaker 1: customer base, and then people have an overreliance on technology

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Speaker 1: that is not able to measure up to what the

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Speaker 1: people are putting it to, Like they're putting way too

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Speaker 1: much responsibility on the tech, and the tech just isn't

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Speaker 1: up to the challenge, and part of that is fueled

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Speaker 1: by the way Tesla markets it's technology. So yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think it's reprehensible. If I'm being you know, blunt, all right,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna take a break and I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: find a way down off this high horse. But we'll

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Speaker 1: be back with some more news in just a second. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we're back now. By the time you hear this episode,

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Speaker 1: Amazon will have held a hardware event and revealed some

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Speaker 1: new products, potentially a bunch of new ones. The event

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Speaker 1: was invitation only. I did not get an invite. It's hurtful,

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Speaker 1: so I have no idea what it is that they revealed.

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Speaker 1: In fact, as I record this, the event has not

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Speaker 1: yet happened, but it will within like twenty five minutes

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Speaker 1: of me saying the sentence. The Verge has made some

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Speaker 1: guesses as to what could be revealed, so I thought

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Speaker 1: I would share with you what the Verge is guessing,

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Speaker 1: and then you can compare and see if the Verge

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Speaker 1: got it right. And I hope they did because I really, actually,

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Speaker 1: I really like that site a lot. Anyway, the Verge

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Speaker 1: predicts that Amazon will likely have a wall mounted echo device,

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Speaker 1: so you know, another smart speaker screen device that you

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Speaker 1: could actually mount on your wall. They also are predicting

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Speaker 1: that there's probably going to be a sound bar system

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Speaker 1: with Alexa integration in it. I mean We're already seeing

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Speaker 1: sound bars that have Alexa integration incorporated into them, but

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Speaker 1: this would be an official, like Echo soundbar type thing.

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Speaker 1: There's also the possibility that the company will have a

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Speaker 1: dash cam for cars that has Alexa integration built into it.

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Speaker 1: That seems to be, you know, a pretty safe bet.

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Speaker 1: But one thing that the Verge says we probably will

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Speaker 1: not see is more information about a robot that Amazon

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Speaker 1: has had in development for several years. It's a home

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Speaker 1: assistant robot that was called Vesta, but apparently there have

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Speaker 1: been some concerns within the company that there might not

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Speaker 1: be sufficient demand for Vesta and that if Amazon released

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Speaker 1: it as a product, it could just be a total flop,

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Speaker 1: and that they would end up costing the company more

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Speaker 1: because not enough people would buy it. So it's possible

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Speaker 1: that the company is actually backing away from that project.

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Speaker 1: We will have to wait and see what it is,

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Speaker 1: they said, or you won't have to wait and see, because,

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Speaker 1: like I said, by the time you hear this, they've

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Speaker 1: already had that event. Anyway. Amazon is also facing some

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Speaker 1: opposition in the state of California, and it's not the

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Speaker 1: only one. Governor Knewsome signed a bill into law last

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Speaker 1: week that will require companies that employ more than one

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Speaker 1: thousand warehouse workers that they will have to disclose how

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Speaker 1: they judge worker productivity, including how they set productivity quotas.

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Speaker 1: Amazon and other companies that meet that criteria will then

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Speaker 1: have thirty days after the bill becomes an actual law,

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Speaker 1: which will happen on January first, twenty twenty two. At

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Speaker 1: that point, they will have to disclose how they measure

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Speaker 1: productivity and how they collect that information. And this law

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Speaker 1: gives employees the right to sue their employers for unsafe quotas.

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Speaker 1: So if a company is like working people beyond reason,

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Speaker 1: if the quotas are so stringent and so restrictive that

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Speaker 1: people can't you go to the bathroom, or they can't

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Speaker 1: take a reasonable number of breaks, or they run the

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Speaker 1: risk of injuring themselves because they have to work so

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Speaker 1: hard in order to meet very high quotas. Well, now

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Speaker 1: those employees could potentially sue their employers, and the employers

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Speaker 1: would be held accountable for that in a court of law,

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Speaker 1: at least in California. Now it will take quite a

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Speaker 1: bit of effort on the part of workers in this process.

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Speaker 1: It's not like a worker can just step forward and

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Speaker 1: say I don't like working here and I'm going to

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Speaker 1: sue the company. The law will demand that workers who

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Speaker 1: assert that the company they work for has unsafe quotas,

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Speaker 1: they will be required to provide ninety days so three

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Speaker 1: months worth of documentation on productivity quotas that they have

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00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: to meet in order to be considered you know, successful

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00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:38,200
Speaker 1: or failing at their job. In addition, California regulators will

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00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: also be authorized to investigate work sites that have an

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00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: injury rate that is one and a half times or

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00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,400
Speaker 1: greater than the industry average. If you remember from a

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00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: previous Tech News episode, I talked about how Amazon delivery

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00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: centers have an unusually high injury rate compared to other

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00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 1: Amazon facilities and others within the delivery and warehouse industries.

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00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 1: That might be a case where a state regulator would

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00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: have the authorization to go in and conduct a full

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00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 1: investigation to get to the bottom of why is that

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00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: happening and to hold the company accountable for it down

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00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:19,479
Speaker 1: UNDA in Australia, and I apologize for that. I know

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00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,000
Speaker 1: I can never do an Australian accent. Australian and Scottish

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00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: are two that I will never ever ever be able

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00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: to do anyway down in Australia, citizens can rest assured

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00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: that nature, which as I understand it is eighty percent

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00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: more deadly in Australia, is prepared to fight the robot uprising.

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00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: Now I say that because the drone company Wing, which

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00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: is part of Google's parent company Alphabet, so this is

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00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 1: like Google and Weymo, part of the Alphabet family, Wing

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00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: has put its delivery service, which uses drones to deliver packages,

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00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 1: on pause following a few cases of bird attacks on

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00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,400
Speaker 1: their drones. Google has been conduct tests of home delivery

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00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 1: via drone in Canberra, Australia, which has been particularly useful

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00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 1: during the pandemic where a lot of Australia is on

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00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: lockdown and there are very stiff restrictions on when, if

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00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,119
Speaker 1: at all, people are allowed to leave their homes. But

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00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,919
Speaker 1: ravens have taken to attacking the drones, presumably out of

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00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: concern that the drones are a predator. It is nesting

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00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 1: season and so there's a fear from these ravens apparently

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00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: that the drones are predators. Not predator drones, those are different.

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00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,479
Speaker 1: That's kind of a pun. So the ravens are just

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00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 1: sort of protecting their nests. In other words, at least

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00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 1: one of the attacks has downed a drone. So I'm

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00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 1: very glad to hear this news because I would worry

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00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 1: that the drones could potentially cause harm to the birds.

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00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: And obviously I also worry that the birds could cause

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00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 1: some packages to go undelivered, and if those packages are

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00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: like critical, like maybe it's medication or something, that could

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00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: be a really bad thing. And also, I bet it's

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00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 1: weird to fill out a port saying you never got

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00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 1: your package because birds were roughing up the delivery person. Anyway,

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00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: Wing is studying ways to work around this issue, including

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00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: learning more about bird behavior and any measures that the

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00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 1: company could take to make certain their drones cause no

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00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: environmental harm. And finally, on Monday, TikTok said it had

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00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: passed the one billion monthly user mark that would be

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00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,800
Speaker 1: active users. The installed base is actually quite a bit

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00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: larger than that. Of course, some people have TikTok installed

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00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: on more than one of their own devices, so it's

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00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 1: not apples to apples thing. TikTok launched in August twenty eighteen,

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00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: so it took a little more than three years to

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00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: reach one billion monthly users. Let's Compare that to Facebook,

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00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: the king of social network platforms, reached one billion users

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00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 1: eight years after the company launched. TikTok did it in

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00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:54,120
Speaker 1: less than half that time. TikTok is really a true

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00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: beast of a player in the social networking space. Its

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00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 1: parent company byte Dance reported it's revenue doubled in size

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00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 1: from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty thanks largely to TikTok.

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00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: Now I'm behind the times on TikTok. I am thankful

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00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: that the app reminded me of that great Mika song

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00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: Grace Kelly. You know, it's the one where everyone's going

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00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 1: to I could be Brown, I could be blue, I

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00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: could be Violet Sky. Great song, great album. Actually went

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00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: out and bought that album on vinyl after being reminded

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00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,080
Speaker 1: of that song that I hadn't thought about in years.

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00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 1: So thank you TikTok. I appreciate it. As for myself,

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00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: I have only ever done one TikTok video. It is terrible.

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00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: That's all I have to say about that. But you know,

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00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:41,280
Speaker 1: I'm also old, so there are other old people who

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00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: are way better at TikTok than I am. I just

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00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:46,920
Speaker 1: don't think I'm ever gonna get there. Maybe I'll give

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00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: it another try at some point. Anyway, that's it. That's

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00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: the tech news that I have for you on Tuesday,

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00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: September twenty eight, twenty twenty one. I hope you are

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00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: all well. If you have anything you would like to

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00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: share with me, maybe a topic you would like me

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00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: to cover on tech Stuff, then reach out to me

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00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: on Twitter. The handle for the show is tech stuff

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00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: HSW and I'll talk to you again and really soon.

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Speaker 1: Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

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00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows