Amazon is reported to have sacked three employees, two of whom had recently made public statements questioning Amazon’s pandemic safety measures and one who had tried to organise better working conditions.

User Experience Designers

The two ‘user experience designers’ who were sacked by Amazon this week, Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham, had already been the subject of news coverage, back at the end of 2019, as alleged leading members of a group known as ‘Amazon Employees for Climate Justice’ which expressed concerns about Amazon’s carbon footprint.  In January, both employees were reported to have been told that they had violated Amazon’s external communications policy, and Amazon’s reason for finally sacking them is reported to be repeated violations of internal policies.

Warehouse Worker Sacked

The other employee recently sacked is (former) warehouse worker Bashir Mohamed, who Amazon is reported to have dismissed for “inappropriate language, behaviour, and violating social distancing guidelines.”  Mr Mohammed (in Minnesota) is reported to have been pushing for better site cleaning and protective measures for Amazon employees during the pandemic.

Earlier

Back in March, Christian Smalls, a worker who organised a strike over safety conditions and joined a demonstration at Amazon’s New York fulfilment centre was also sacked. Those involved in the strike were pushing for Amazon to offer sick pay to all warehouse workers and to temporarily close and give a deep clean to all warehouses where there had been COVID-19 cases.  Amazon allegedly claims that it sacked Mr Small because he had close contact with an associate who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and that Mr Small didn’t comply with a request to say at home (with pay) for 14 days.

Blog

Some would say coincidentally, as of 14 April, Amazon’s blog (‘about Amazon’), is running daily updates about how it is supporting employees, helping its customers and community relief, and contributing to research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A previous post (2nd April) focuses on how Amazon is working to protect its employees with measures such as temperature checks, providing disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizers and PPE, plus daily audits of its new health and safety measures.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Amazon appears to have made the news many times now over employees who publicly criticise safety and/or working conditions in company premises, and who end up being sacked for violations of one of many internal policies. Large companies with well-known billionaire owners are often the subject of news stories, not all of which are good, but the theme of how worker relations is handled appears to be a common one for Amazon recently and has drawn questions and concerns from several U.S. senators. The pandemic has put many companies in the spotlight over how well employees are being protected, and sackings now could lead to lawsuits and more bad publicity further down the line.

The value of drone delivery services appears to have been realised now that the world’s population centres are in lockdown, with Alphabet’s (Google’s) drone deliveries doubling in test areas in the U.S. and Australia.

What Drone Delivery Service?

Alphabet Inc.’s Wing service offers parcel delivery by special drone aircraft.  In the U.S. the service was approved by the federal government last October but is being operated in a limited test area around Christiansburg, Virginia.  It is operating using partnerships with FedEx Corp. , the Walgreens store chain (for medicine, toilet roll and similar deliveries), and with a local bakery and a coffee shop. Wing is also working as part of an approved program with Virginia Tech.

Alphabet’s Wing also has a drone delivery service in the Vuosaari district of Helsinki in Finland and in Canberra, Australia where it delivers goods from a variety of vendors including Mitchell Supermarket, Krofne Donuts and even Drummond Golf (golf balls, tees and gloves).

It is the drone deliveries in the Christiansburg, Virginia area of the U.S. and in Canberra, Australia that are reported to have doubled their deliveries in response to demand from customers who are staying at home.

Other Drone Delivery Services

Wing is, of course, not the only drone delivery service.  Amazon’s Prime Air delivery service, which made test deliveries as far back as 2016 and 2017 still exists but is described by Amazon as “a future delivery system” which has “great potential”, but does seem to have gone somewhat quiet since the much-publicised tests.

In The UK

Drone services are already in operation in the UK, offering a variety of services and performing a number of duties.  In addition to drones used in the promotions and film industries, UK agencies also use drones.  For example, back in 2017, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service and multi-agency partners (Fire and Rescue, Constabulary, County Council and others) launched a shared drone service to provide a range of aerial surveillance options in support of emergency services and voluntary organisations.

Drones In The Pandemic and Beyond

Reports of other uses of drones in the pandemic and beyond include:

– Reports from Jerusalem that Israeli police have been using drones outside apartment buildings to check whether people who have been ordered to self-isolate are doing so.

– Spanish police and the French police using drones with speakers around public places to warn people to go home.

– The University of South Australia (UniSA) and Canada-based drone technology specialist ‘Draganfly’ teaming up to create a drone that can use sensors and computer vision to spot people with infectious respiratory diseases.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Clearly, drone delivery options are still a long way off for most of us, but the pandemic has highlighted more elements of value in them that are being applied in the test areas for local shop deliveries during the pandemic, and for use in disease control on the post-pandemic modern world that we now find ourselves entering.  Drones have also been used for medical purposes (live organ delivery) and could prove valuable again for moving medical and other help into closed-off areas where there is disease in future.

For now, and in the near future, we are still waiting for the tech giants in conjunction with business partners to expand the scale and scope of drone delivery so that it can begin to add value and provide a competitive edge for all kinds of businesses and organisations.

YouTube has launched YouTube Video Builder, a free tool that enables businesses to easily make short video adverts.

Easy To Use

The new free (beta) Video Builder tool enables users to create video animations from static elements such as images, text and logos, and to enhance those videos with music from YouTube’s (Google’s) library. Users can choose from a variety of layouts, depending on the message and goals, and can customise colours and fonts to quickly generate a short YouTube video of 6 seconds or 15 seconds duration.

Why?

YouTube says that the new tool will be of particular value because businesses of all sizes have limited time and resources and that in-person video shoots “are no longer practical in many countries”.  The YouTube Video Builder may also be of use to brands or agencies who may want to experiment and create supplemental, lightweight videos, and to smaller businesses and businesses with less creative experience, who need an efficient, low-resource way to create videos.

YouTube suggests that the completed videos can be used for advertising campaigns, on websites or in emails.

How It Works & How To Sign Up

You can see how Video Builder works by watching this video or by reading this guide.  YouTube says that you can sign up for access to Video Builder here, but you may have to wait for your application to be processed and to be granted access.

Banning Conspiracy Videos

This is the second positive news announcement in a week from YouTube (Google) after it announced that it is banning all conspiracy videos that promote the idea of a link between 5G and the emergence of the COVID-19 virus.

Good News From Microsoft Too

Microsoft is also promoting some of its own good news this week as it has announced help for UK school students who are working at home in the form of helping the UK’s 27,000 schools run lessons remotely using Microsoft Teams, Office 365, and other software like Minecraft: Education Edition, Flip grid, Skype in the Classroom and InTune.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Even though it’s still in the beta stage, a free, easy-to-use video ad-making tool could be a useful, value-adding addition to the promotional tools used by mainly smaller businesses.  Many of these businesses are likely to be under considerable strain with the COVID-19 lockdown and its effects, and there may be many ways in which short, professional-looking video announcements and adverts could come in useful to those businesses in the coming months.  For YouTube (Google), this is another way that they can remind users of the value of its suite of business services at a time when businesses may be spending a lot of time on other competing platforms.

Following recent Wall Street Journal reports that phone data from tech companies and data providers is being used to track the movements of Americans in order to better understand the spread of COVID-19, here’s a look at how data and apps are being used worldwide in the common fight against the virus.

Americans Tracked By Phone Location Data

As has recently been reported in the Wall Street Journal, phone data from tech companies and data providers is being used to track the movements of Americans in order to better understand the spread of COVID-19.

The phone data, which is reported not to have any personally identifiable elements, thereby retaining privacy, has been analysed (according to the WSJ) and compiled into reports which have been sent to the ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ as well as other offices.  The data will also be added to a portal for official use.

500 Cities

The reported goal of making a portal available to officials which contains the analysed phone data from 500 U.S. cities is to be able to help improve America’s response to the unfolding COVID-19 crisis.

Privacy Concerns

Although it could be argued that these are unusual times when all manner of methods of tracking and controlling the virus are likely to be considered, the fact that phone data is being used this way has led to concern among privacy groups and activists.

Not Using Phone Data

However, a spokesperson for ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ is reported to have said that phone data is not being used but public health surveillance data from sources such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) is being used to help track the spread of COVID-19.

Letter

Back on March 19, Senator Edward J. Markey wrote to Michael Kratsios, the Chief Technology Officer of the United States, asking him to “balance privacy with any data-driven solutions to the current public health crisis”.  Also, in the letter, Sen. Markey pointed out that “a person’s location information can reveal other sensitive details, such as a place of employment, religious affiliation, or political preferences” and, therefore, Sen. Markey asked for assurances that collection and processing of phone location information, even if aggregated and anonymised, would not pose safety and privacy risks to individuals.

Location Tracking in Other Countries

In his letter, Sen. Markey also noted how America should be guided by the experience of other countries that have turned to technology to combat COVID-19 and that,  the use of location data without careful limitations could harm the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.

Singapore

The countries and methods highlighted by Sen. Markey included Singapore, where he alleges that the government publishes personal details of coronavirus, such as their age, nationalities, length of stay in hospital, where they live, and even their connections to one another.

It is likely that he may have been referring to several technological measures being used in Singapore,  such as the TraceTogether app.  The app uses location data and Bluetooth to help stop the spread of COVID-19.  Once on a user’s phone, the app records when that user goes near another person who has the TraceTogether app.  This proximity data is stored on the user’s phone and can be requested for analysis with the user’s permission – which many are willing to give to help stop the spread of the disease.  The TraceTogether app is also used by the Singapore government to send out updates to citizens via WhatsApp twice a day containing information such as the number of cases, suspected locations of outbreaks, and advice for avoiding infection.

South Korea

Another Country referred to by Sen. Markey was South Korea where he suggested that data shared about patients who were being admitted to hospital led to them being stigmatised.

This may have been a reference to the “self-quarantine safety protection” app from the country’s ‘Ministry of the Interior and Safety’ via which the central and local governments send out real-time alerts via text message, apps and online giving details of the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) and of the travel histories of those infected.

Another app in popular use in South Korea is the “Corona 100m app” which has been downloaded more than 1 million times and alerts users if they breach a 100-metre (328 ft) radius of the latest tracked whereabouts of a coronavirus patient.

South Korea is also reported to be deploying a system that uses data including surveillance camera footage and even the credit card transactions of confirmed coronavirus patients to recreate their movements.

The UK

Following the example of other countries, such as South Korea, using technology to significantly ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19, the UK government is reported to be about to launch its own app to warn users if they are in close proximity to anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus. The app will use short-range Bluetooth to detect phones in the vicinity and store a record of those contacts and, if a person tests positive for COVID-19, they can upload the contacts and alert them via the app.  The idea behind it appears to be that, if people test positive for coronavirus, those people that they may have been in contact with can be quickly informed and can self-isolate.

It has also been reported that the data from the app won’t be shared with central authorities, thereby helping to reduce fears of possible privacy breaches.

Large Numbers Needed

For the UK app to be effective, however, it is (somewhat optimistically) thought that more than 50% of the population would need to download it.

Ethics Board To Be Appointed

Considering that the app will be collecting such sensitive information, and assuming that it does achieve a very large number of downloads, it appears likely that UK’s National Health Service ‘NHSX’ (a new unit driving forward the digital transformation of health and social care) will need to appoint its own ethics board to oversee the app’s development.

Social Media and Tech Giants

As well as whole countries and governments looking at ways to collect and use location data to help fight the spread of COVID-19, tech giants like Facebook and Google are also offering to use their collected data to help.

Facebook

Facebook is reported to be using its unique perspective as a company with access to data from 2.5 billion monthly active users to:

– Provide (anonymised) location information to feed into analysis and forecasts that could help tackle the spread of the virus.

– Produce three disease prevention maps on population movement, as part of its, ‘Data for Good’ program, to help inform disease forecasting efforts and protective measures.

– Send out a prompt on Facebook aimed at encouraging people in the U.S. to sign-up to a voluntary survey from Carnegie Mellon University Delphi Research Center that’s been designed to help health researchers identify COVID-19 hotspots.

Google

Google is also releasing ‘COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports’ to health officials, based on its own collected, anonymised data from phones, to show movement trends and insights and thereby help to tackle the spread of COVID-19.

Looking Ahead

Most people would probably agree that using what data is available, if it really is in an anonymised form that will not impact on privacy, and if it is used just to help tackle the spread of the virus is a reasonable idea.  It is a good thing that some countries appear to have been able to use apps to help gather data and inform people in a way that may save lives, and it appears that the UK will also be using the power of technology (an app) to help in the fight.

The challenge is to be able to use data from consenting people i.e. people who have downloaded the apps and agreed to have their location data used, in an ethical way, in a way that protects privacy,  and in a way that doesn’t lead to stigmatising or prejudice or is carried on for other purposes beyond tackling this particular outbreak.

After a recent live-streamed interview with David Icke linked the introduction of 5G technology to the emergence of the COVID-19 the pandemic, Google’s YouTube has now banned all 5G conspiracy videos.

5G Theory Far-Fetched

Mr Icke’s interview, which was watched by a reported 65,000 people and in which he alleged a possible link between 5G and the COVID-19 health crisis, appears to have been the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ for YouTube.

Among the many controversial elements of the broadcast, Mr Icke appeared to say that a continuation of 5G would lead to the end of human life, and alleged that when a vaccine is developed, it will somehow contain small microchips that will allow those who have been injected with it to be controlled.

Mr Icke’s interview and the resulting questions to YouTube about why the video was allowed on the platform appear to have had a strong influence on YouTube deciding to tighten its policies to the point where other videos with similar claims will now be banned from the platform.

Unsubstantiated Medical Claim Worries

YouTube is now very keen to point out that it will not tolerate videos on its platform that deny/dispute the existence or transmission of COVID-19 as defined by the respected medical authorities i.e. the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local health authorities. YouTube includes in this definition, any videos relating to the 5G and COVID-19 conspiracy theory.

For conspiracy theorists, of course, the banning of their videos is likely to feed even more into their beliefs.

Masts Set Ablaze

The 5G and COVID-19 conspiracy theory is very likely to have been the reason why a number of 5G masts were set on fire recently in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside.

This led to the UK’s Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, to arrange meetings with the representatives of the big tech companies and to ask social media companies to try and increase their efforts to tackle the spread on their platforms, of 5G and Coronavirus conspiracy theory.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

There will always be those who are more likely to believe and share conspiracy theories and to try to feel in control of complicated situations and ideas by finding an apparently simple solution and apportioning blame.  It must be frustrating and expensive for phone companies to have their masts attacked and many businesses are looking forward to having the benefits of 5G, even though those seem some way off.

Also, it is good to see that Google is prepared to take action quickly in matters which could pose a risk to public health.