Tech Tip – Keep Gmail Safe From Third-Party Access
If you’ve ever given your Gmail address for access to any third-party website, app, or game, there’s a way check which apps you’ve given access to, clean up any apps you no longer use, and keep your account safe. Here’s how:
– Go to myaccount.google.com.
– Click on ‘Security’.
– Scroll down to ‘third-party apps with account access’ and click on the ‘Manage third-party access’ link.
– View the list of apps and remove access to those you no longer need.
Tech News : ‘Sentient’ Human/Mouse Brain Plays Video Pong
Dr Brett Kagan, of Cortical Labs, claims not only to have grown the first ”sentient” lab-grown mini-brain in a dish, but also that it can play vintage 1970s video game’ Pong’… albeit badly.
What??
Believe it or not, as explained in the ‘Neuron’ journal, Dr Kagan and his team claim to have lab-grown a ‘DishBrain’ system, made up of human or rodent neural networks (brain cells), and hooked them up with a computer using electrodes. As if this wasn’t unusual enough, Dr Kagan’s team then used the electrodes and recording to embed the mini lab-grown brain “in a simulated game-world” which was designed to mimic the arcade game ‘Pong.’
What Happened?
It only took the DishBrain around 5 minutes to learn to play the Pong video game, although it often missed the ball with the paddle, nevertheless its success rate appeared to be greater than could be expected from random chance. During the game, the mini lab-grown brain produced its own electrical activity, and generally expended less energy as the game progressed. However, the mini-brain expended more energy and recalibrated itself each time the game restarted and it needed to be ready for the ball to come from a new random point. The mini-brain essentially displayed “synthetic biological intelligence” by showing that it could self-organise activity in a goal-directed way in response to sparse sensory information about the consequences of its actions, i.e. it was able to learn without being taught.
What Does This Show?
With this experiment, Dr Kagan’s team say that they have:
– “Demonstrated that a single layer of in vitro cortical neurons can self-organize activity to display intelligent and sentient behaviour when embodied in a simulated game-world.”
– Provided a promising demonstration of a synthetic biological intelligence (SBI) system that learns over time in a systematic manner directed by input.
– Provided the long sought-after capability for a visualised model of learning, where the actual computations being performed by biological neuronal networks (BNNs) can be assessed.
What Benefits Could This Bring?
Being able to harness the superior computational power of living neurons to create synthetic biological intelligence could provide a brilliant new way to test treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like as Alzheimer’s. Also, a DishBrain could provide a safe way to test the effects of different substances on human brains.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The successful creation and testing of the DishBrain has given some important insights and glimpses of how this method could be expanded in future to not just provide possible medical breakthroughs and cures, but also provide a way to actually link living cells and computers together. Although it has a feeling of science fiction about it, and care needs to be taken not to develop a kind of sentient being, harnessing the power of the two elements together holds the promise of innovations which could be used in multiple industries. A system grown in a dish from a few cells that learns without being taught could be powerful tool for testing, R&D, in health, and in a host of other situations. Although not the first DishBrain ever developed, this experiment is an exciting step that has demonstrated results that could perhaps lead towards a technological way of solving complex and long-running problems.
Tech News : Re-Branding Means Microsoft Office Becomes Microsoft 365
After 30 years of Microsoft Office, a major re-branding will see it being re-named as Microsoft 365 as part of Microsoft’s expansion of its productivity suite.
What, Who, And How?
Microsoft has announced that starting in November, Office.com (the Office mobile app and the Office app for Windows) will all become part of the re-branded Microsoft 365 app. These changes will apply to everyone who uses the Office app for work, school, or personal use. Office 365 subscriptions were first re-branded as Microsoft 365 two years ago.
The tech giant has stressed that the re-branding will have no impact on existing users’ accounts, profiles, subscriptions, or files. There will also be no changes to existing Microsoft 365 subscription plans. The only noticeable change will be that the app will update automatically with a new icon and name.
Going, But Not Completely
Microsoft has stressed, however, that Office is still not going away entirely because, as part of Microsoft 365, users will still have access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Microsoft will also continue to offer one-time purchases of those apps to consumers and businesses via Office 2021 and Office LTSC plans.
When?
The first changes in the re-branding will begin rolling out for Office.com in November 2022, and changes will begin rolling out for the Office app on Windows and the Office mobile app in January 2023.
Microsoft 365 App
The re-branding emphasises the moving of all the Microsoft apps into one mobile and desktop Microsoft 365 app, which the company says will be the “starting point” for accessing Microsoft’s tools, content, and suite of apps going forward. For example, the Microsoft 365 App will incorporate My Content, relevant content based on who users work with and what they work on work on, a new apps module, and the Create module (including templates). It will also be home to Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Loop, Clipchamp, and Stream.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Existing work, school, and personal users will notice the logo change of the re-branding to Microsoft 365 in the coming months although their actual accounts, profiles, subscriptions, or files won’t be otherwise affected. The re-branding marks the next step in Microsoft shifting things into one consolidated app with Office 365 for SMEs and Office 365 ProPlus under the brand. This should simplify management and cement its position as one productivity cloud that meets the needs of many groups in one place. In terms of name changes, Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus will be branded as Microsoft 365, Office 365 Business Essentials will be Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Office 365 Business Premium will be Microsoft 365 Business Standard, and Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Tech Insight : Politicised PayPal Problems
After PayPal first announcing that it would fine customers for using its services to spread misinformation and then, following a backlash, saying this had been an error, we look at what happened and why.
Policy Update – Fines For Misinformation
Just over a week ago, PayPal was reported to have published an update to its ‘Acceptable Use Policy’ which said that customers would be banned from using PayPal’s services for “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” promoting misinformation. The policy was also reported to have said that customers would have to pay damages of $2,500 for each violation, effective as of Nov 3.
Backlash
The policy changes threatening fines for misinformation led to a backlash on social media with accusations that PayPal was censoring speech. Tweets of criticism also came from former president of PayPal David Marcus, and PayPal’s founder Elon Musk.
Also, the announcement reportedly led to some users deleting their accounts and being urged to do so by some US Conservative politicians.
Back Pedal
No sooner had the backlash begun when PayPal announced that the policy update was simply an error. An email from PayPal spokesperson Justin Higgs was quoted online (The Washington Post) as saying “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”
He was also reported as saying that PayPal’s user agreement has long contained a section which says that PayPal can “take funds of up to $2,500 or local equivalent from an account for each violation of the Acceptable Use Policy.”
Politics – Anger From The Right In The US
Many commentators have highlighted how the immediacy and fury of the backlash came mostly from the right, i.e. US Conservatives / Republicans and those associated with the far-right. This can be traced back to a long-running claim by right-wing politicians that powerful tech/digital companies, especially Twitter (which banned Trump) have blocked conservative opinions.
There also remains negative sentiment among many on the political right over the US election, i.e. that their claims that President Biden didn’t win, and other related conspiracy theories were not supported by social media companies. For example, Twitter flagged many of Donald Trump’s tweets as ‘misinformation.’
COVID, Infowars & Gab
Global social media companies like Twitter and Meta also faced a challenge in removing and fact checking COVID misinformation, and faced right-wing anger as a result, e.g. many of Trump’s supporters believed COVID was a hoax.
Also, PayPal became a particular focus of right-wing conspiracist anger after it banned Infowars and Gab back in 2018. Infowars is known as a site that contains many conspiracy theories, its founder being Alex Jones who has recently been in the news for being fined $1 billion over his claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. Gab is a social network that is associated with white supremacists.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Although Twitter’s Acceptable Use Policy may have long contained details of possible fines for violations, it is strange that PayPal would publicly update a policy in such a specific way in error. Some commentators have suggested that it may have been a (high risk) way of floating an idea for tackling misinformation. However, as shown by the right-wing backlash in the US, powerful tech/digital companies still face a lot of anger and accusations of political bias and stifling free speech and right-wing views. Tech/digital companies, therefore, tread a difficult path in calling out conspiracies and misinformation which have been accepted as fact among many with right-wing views in the US. PayPal’s banning of Gab and Infowars made it a target of anger several years ago. Many accept, however, that there is a clear difference between free speech and spreading misinformation and hate speech, and eradicating these from social platforms in particular would be helpful but inevitably, in what some see as a ‘post-truth’ era, even this idea can face serious opposition.
Featured Article : WhatsApp For Business?
In this article, we look at the features, pros and cons of the business-focused version of WhatsApp.
Launched in 2018
The business-focused Android version of ‘WhatsApp Business’ was launched in January 2018 in the UK, and the iOS version was launched in early 2019. Available for free, but with pricing per message and a cost for the API, the app is specifically aimed at the needs of small businesses, which account for 99.3% of all private sector businesses in the UK (FSB).
Connect Small Businesses With Their Customers
At the time of its launch, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said that it wanted people to use WhatsApp to connect with small businesses, and that the new ‘WhatsApp Business’ would make it easier for companies to connect with customers and offer a more convenient way for the 1.3 billion WhatsApp users to chat with businesses. WhatsApp describes it as “a simple tool for businesses to talk to their customers.”
Why It Was Launched
Since Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $22 billion, the company had been looking for ways to monetise the app which, although was developed for use by individuals, was being widely used by people in business, and in large and small organisations as a collaboration tool for staff.
WhatsApp also wanted to gain a march on rivals in what had become a battle for the attention of consumers by messaging apps including Apple’s iMessage, Facebook’s Messenger, Kik, Slack for business, and others.
What Can It Do?
Some of the key features and benefits of WhatsApp Business include:
- Business Profiles: to help companies to provide useful information to customers, e.g. business description, email or store addresses, and website. This helps customers to be confident that they are communicating with the right business.
- Business Smart Messaging Tools: to enable companies to respond quickly with answers to frequently asked questions, also greeting messages to introduce customers to the business, and away messages that let them know you’re busy. Quick responses can help give the right impression, help with sales-conversion, and stop customers from going to competitors.
- Landline/Fixed Number Support: WhatsApp Business can be used with a landline (or fixed) phone number and customers can message that number. This makes communication more convenient and stops businesses missing out on enquiries.
- WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Messenger can be run on the same phone, with each app having their own unique phone number. This makes them very convenient for business owners to operate and enables quick responses and the chance to make the most of opportunities as they arise.
- Messaging Statistics: simple metrics like the number of messages read to see what’s working. This can give businesses a way of measuring and monitoring the effectiveness of the app and can give valuable marketing insights.
- WhatsApp Web: to enable the sending and receiving of messages with WhatsApp Business on the desktop (via WhatsApp Web). Again, this is a convenient feature for business owners.
- Account Type: so that customers will know that they’re talking to a business because it is listed as a Business Account. This can become a Confirmed Account later (similar feature to Twitter’s verification process), and once confirmed, the account phone number will match the business phone number. This helps with customer confidence and can, therefore, help with customer conversion.
- WhatsApp allows users to send photos, it has end-to-end encryption security (an important feature for businesses), allows for easy document sharing (up to 100 MB), and allows for seamless syncing of your chats to your computer so that you can chat on whatever device is most convenient. The security aspect of the encryption is a big attraction to businesses and, being able to send photos and other media makes it easier to conduct businesses and help with buying, selling, and customer support while on the go.
- WhatsApp Business is built on top of WhatsApp Messenger and, therefore includes all the popular features that users are already familiar with, e.g. the ability to send multimedia, free calls, and free international messaging (depending on the user’s provider), group chat, offline messages, and much more.
Business-Focused Cloud API For WhatsApp Business Too
Back in May, Meta’s WhatsApp also announced that it was opening WhatsApp to all businesses and developers with a new cloud-based API service. WhatsApp Cloud API, on the WhatsApp Business Platform, offers businesses secure cloud hosting services provided by Meta and the new API (application programming interface) allows apps to communicate with each other. This means that businesses can, for example, build-in a customised customer service chat feature to their website that uses a customised version of WhatsApp (built directly on top of WhatsApp), accessible via a dashboard, for the conversation. Previously, businesses had been set up on the non-cloud version, including Vodafone, BMW, and KLM.
Concerns And Disadvantages of WhatsApp Business
Some of the concerns and disadvantages around WhatsApp Business include:
– Secuity and privacy concerns. For, example, Kaspersky recently reported uncovering malicious versions of a WhatsApp messenger mod known as YoWhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus that were being used to spread the Triada mobile Trojan and steal WhatsApp access keys.
– Also, back in 2020, a Business Insider Report highlighted how third-party apps may be exposing some data and details of the activity of WhatsApp users. Concerns have also been expressed by some that WhatsApp Business automatically reads all a user’s saved contacts and phone numbers that are stored.
– Concerns that WhatsApp Business lacks the advanced sales and service functions of WhatsApp API.
– Limitations of employee accounts and devices. For example, one account can be linked to five devices, but the devices are all linked to the same number. This could create confusion in communications, i.e. who has answered which customer question.
Other Business-Focused Services
Other business-focused services recently announced by Meta also include:
– A ‘Recurring Notifications’ service (available on Messenger and also available for businesses on Instagram by autumn) to help businesses re-engage people in the right messaging thread, choose the topics that people can opt-in to, and how often customers can hear from the business.
– Communities on WhatsApp which will enable users to bring together separate groups (e.g., schools, local clubs, and non-profit organisations, and businesses) under one umbrella with a structure.
– Reactions – a set of six different emojis (a red heart, thumbs up, laughter, a sad face, a surprised face/wow, and a “thanks” emoji) that can be used in busy group chats, e.g., as part of ‘Communities’.
– Improved voice messaging services on WhatsApp.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Many businesspeople and their customers use WhatsApp on a regular basis anyway – WhatsApp is the most used chat app in the UK – and are already familiar with its functions and benefits. Many tech and business commentators are also saying that 1:1 messaging is the future of personalised commerce and post-purchase customer service. It makes sense, therefore, that Meta would make the step to a business version to provide a way to monetise the app and then to expand the business aspects of the app to fight powerful post-pandemic competitors and create new sources of revenue other than advertising.
Many smaller business users may already be happy using the free existing version and are aware of its benefits, i.e., wide user-base, the speed and versatility of communications and security (end-to-end encryption). However, Meta has been expanding its businesses services, and many businesses, 4 years down the line since its introduction, may still not be aware of the extra value they could get from the features of WhatsApp Business. There are many possible applications for WhatsApp Business, such as KLM’s use of the app for flight confirmations and updates, brands using the app on competitions, and WhatsApp Business could work well in industries such as hospitality. WhatsApp Business could also provide a perfect way to enable customers to book a hotel room, get customer support, and even access an on-site member of staff such as a concierge. Retail brands could use the app for many purposes in addition to just shipping confirmations, and WhatsApp is well positioned enough, and widely used enough to provide opportunities for businesses worldwide to improve their communication and relationship marketing.
More recently, Meta has tried to use WhatsApp Cloud API as something to tempt more businesses into taking the plunge with WhatsApp Business. Cloud API, for example, available through WhatsApp Business can offer businesses a fast and uncomplicated way to set up a secure and scalable direct messaging channel with customers that could boost sales in a changing environment where fast messaging responses are now expected by customers. WhatsApp Business, therefore, is still something that many smaller businesses may not have had a serious look at yet but aspects like Cloud API and other features that Meta will no doubt add may start tempting more businesses to look at how competitors are benefitting from its features, and how they could add value to their own business.
Sustainability In Tech: The Challenge Of Verifying Supply Chain Green Claims
With sustainability credentials ever more important to stakeholders, we look at how IT buyers can ensure that the green claims made by those in their supply chain can be trusted.
The Greenwashing Challenge
One of the main challenges buyers face is ‘greenwashing’ whereby supply chain companies may create a false impression about how sustainable they are in order to win business. Buying from a supplier that is found to be greenwashing will leave the buyer’s company open to questions about their own green claims, could lead to legal/regulatory problems, and reputational damage. It could also require the buyer’s company to revise their own emissions reduction or circular economy targets.
Some of the general warning signs of greenwashing in a supplier can include the use of vague or unclear terms e.g., ‘all natural’ or ‘eco,’ potentially misleading descriptions, the use of logos/labels that aren’t from accredited associations, and claims that don’t match up with sector-specific laws.
Ways That Sustainability Claims Can Bed Checked And Verified
Some of the many ways that IT buyers can check and verify the green credentials of supply chain companies include:
– Prepare and ask a series of questions e.g., what share of the energy they use is renewable? What are their lifecycle emissions figures? What verification of human rights in their supply chains do they have?
– Check claims against the UK government / Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Green Claims Code (6 key points: https://greenclaims.campaign.
– Check whether the supplier’s data is published alongside their claim.
– Look at what (if any) voluntary standards they adhere to and what these standards really mean.
– Look for labels or logos on company literature / online / on products which identify them as environmentally friendly, and check annual reports, mission statements and website corporate social responsibility pages for details of the supplier’s environmental policies and practices.
– Check whether they adhere to sustainability models and guidelines e.g., factors of sustainability.
– Check with the list of businesses with sustainable practices held by trade associations e.g., the FSB and British Chamber of Commerce.
– Look them up in relevant directories e.g., World Fair Trade Association.
– Check sustainability disclosures e.g., climate related financial disclosures.
– Look at your suppliers’ suppliers i.e., tier 2, or tier 3 suppliers.
– Look for third-party verification e.g., finding out by asking questions or looking at company reports / published content to see if they’re signed up to the UN-backed Race to Zero, or whether they’ve adopted the Human Rights or Greenhouse Gas Protocols, and many others.
– Research what green initiatives the supplier belongs to or supports.
– Look for recognised, audited accreditation e.g., ISO 14001, or whether they are a member of an accredited ethical scheme such as Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production, Green Mark, and Green Accord.
What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?
The accuracy of a company’s own green claims are important from a truly ethical, legal/regulatory, and business perspective and one of the ways IT buyers can reduce the risk of their company suffering in those areas is due diligence in checking supply chain green credentials. Greenwashing is quite common so having a well-thought-out checking procedure in place, which includes asking the right questions can help IT buyers to make good choices which protect and validate their own company’s sustainability claims.