Researchers Discover Microsoft Azure Account Takeover VulnerabilityAfter the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting fiasco Facebook Ceo Mark Zuckerberg was summoned to testify to a thick binder of notes highlighting some relevant issues and to instruct him on how to address these issues. Of course the notes were not released freely but we now have access to two pages of these notes thanks to photojournalists in the house. .155 Figure 1 Photo Courtesy of Ap photographer Andrew Harnik Ap photographer Andrew Harnik took the best shot of Zuckerberg’s notes from which to see clearly how Zuckerberg practiced for the hearing. As you can see from the picture too, the notes are divided into sections and the Ceo will keep in mind any section consisting of bullet points of items. After that there are many more parts heading as Transparency Data Security Business Model(s) [ … ] /wellbeing Defend Facebook Tim Cook on biz model Disturbing content Diversity Election Competition (Russia) and finally at the end of the second page we get a few points on Gdpr. Here’s a quick peek at the two pages of notes found from the photograph. Cambridge Analytica Confidence breach; sorry we let that happen; took steps in 2014 to stop it from happening again. Quiz app designed by researcher at the University of Cambridge named Aleksandr Kogan. In violation of our terms Kogan sold to Ca; when we found out he told them to delete data. Thought they had but seems to be untrue. Should have done more to tell people to audit +. Didn’t consider violence enough; rethinking any aspect of our relationship with people. Compensation Important issue but no credit card details or shared Ssn. Changes to 2014 mean that it could not happen now; limited access to data by apps even more. Reverse lookup (scraping) Shut it down two weeks ago, finding out about the violence. Useful for identifying someone by email / phone number; if people have the same name. Malicious actors linked public info (name profile photo gender user I d) with phone numbers they already had; shut down. Need to do more to discourage misconduct. Ca fire people? : It’s about how the platform was built. It was my duty to do so. Not tossing people under the bus. Always shoot somebody? : Yes; still hold people accountable; not go into details. Resign? : Facebook was created. My options. I am making mistakes. Big challenge, but before going to solve this one, we solved problems. Already to take action. No reckoning for Mz? : Workers accountable to you for people using Fb. Security Data:People know [ … ] they need ads; tell us if ads need to be seen they want them to be important. [ … ] /well-being Facebook [ … ] not spending time; spending time dropped by 5 per cent Q4; pivoting to Msi. [ … ] ssesm [ .. ] interacts with children; Mk gives control to the parents. [ … ] like N …… have advertising commercials. We do not have any plans to do so. [ If attacked: I ignore that respectfully. Not who we are. ] Billions of people use Fb every day globally to connect with the people who matter. Reconnected families met and got married movements mobilized tens of millions of Smbs now have better tools for increasing and creating jobs. More work to do but not be able to lose sight of all the ways people use Fb for good. Tim Cook on model biz At Fb we are trying hard to charge you less. Actually we are safe. [ We’re similar on numbers. When you’re downloading an app on your iPhone you’re giving it access to some details just like logging in to Fb. Lots of stories about Apple data abuse that Apple never saw are notifying people. Important to hold everyone to the same standard. ] Offensive content There should be no room in our service; community standards prohibit hate terror bullying. Working to be more proactive; Ai recruiting more people like fear, for instance suicide. Is never going to be perfect; but make huge investments. Integrity of elections (Russia) Too slow progress. France Alabama Germany. Has announced academics committee commissioning independent social media study into democracy. Silicon Valley Diversity has a problem and Facebook is part of that problem. Actually, care is taken to make progress; long way to go [ 5 percent Hispanics of African American 3 percent ]. Google Competition has done a terrific job of providing developers with ways to integrate their services with Google Assistant. The digital assistant currently supports 30 + languages, and will be available by the end of 2018 in 80 countries. Google Assistant currently supports 5000 home devices and is already installed on 500 million devices. And thanks to Android Auto more than 40 car manufacturers use Android and Google Assistant to provide a hands-free user experience for individuals. It could be said that Google has a huge advantage here because this offers a relatively easy way for third-party developers to rely on Google’s services and promote the creation of apps and services. .. 163.163 Let’s look at Amazon now. The company claims that there are 12,000 products operating with Alexa which also includes car manufacturers such as Bmw pick Mini vehicles and Ford automobiles. But Amazon has no Android Auto counterpart, which is why it’s very restricted. The company also markets Alexa mainly first-time devices such as Echo smart speakers and this system operates only in three languages: English Japanese and German. That means third-party developers need to work harder to incorporate Amazon’s Alexa into their apps than Google’s digital assistant.
Conversational Qualities We spoke about quantity in the previous chapter. What really matters though is how usable and user-friendly either of these virtual assistants are. It would have been very different a few days ago before the announcements for Google I / O 2018. Now, Google Assistant is able to understand a series of questions. This form of continued conversation can be done at any time by saying “Hey Google.” In the same paragraph, you can even ask multiple questions and get answers to whatever you want to say. The bottom line is, you can chat really easily with Google Assistant. To wake up the assistant, you still have to say “Hi Google” or “Ok Google” After that though it is all smooth sailing. .164 Alexa offers something similar to Google when it comes to Amazon. You can ask multiple questions called “Follow-up Mode” but you need to ask them within 5 seconds of the initial wake-up order. This mode is available to all Amazon smart speakers but is currently only available in English. There is also another drawback as the Follow-Up Mode doesn’t work if Alexa is used for other ongoing tasks, such as listening to music.
If you have babies, you probably worry about using digital assistants. After all, the Web can be a scary place if you don’t have the experience to deal with potential hazards. That is why Google and Amazon have created their own child-friendly experiences. A ‘ Pretty Please ‘ mode was revealed during Google’s I / O 2018 Developers ‘ Conference. The assistant will encourage children to be respectful due to this style and will thank children for saying “Yes” and “Thank you.” This is in fact a continuation of a feature that was introduced back in 2017 called ‘ Family Fun. ‘ This collection of features includes games and stories which are child friendly activities. Finally, you can set up your child’s Google account and use it to track their use and set time limits. .165.165 These two tech giants are in constant battle as we can see by now. So it’s not as shocking to learn that Amazon is selling the Echo Dot Kids Edition that comes with FreeTime features from the service. Thanks to this option some of Alexa’s ‘ normal ‘ features are blocked, such as shopping news and third party skills. You are also free to interrupt access to Alexa and set time limits. And naturally there’s a feature called ‘ Magic Wand ‘ which encourages children to be polite. Voice Variety
This doesn’t guarantee that your digital assistant can understand you every single time even if you’re a native English speaker. This is why their digital assistants are diversified by both Google and Amazon, and even include different voices. You can now try six new Google Assistant voices as announced a few days back. One, based on the singer John Legend, is coming our way. We’ll most likely have to wait before Android P is out to use this one though. Apart from the new voices, there are two familiar female and male voices that we have all used for some time now. .166.166
Interfaces
Digital assistants are used on smartphones and tablets as well as on smart speakers. Now, we’re going to look at their interfaces. Google wants to reconsider how the smartphone app of its Assistant looks like. It seems likely that Google Now and the Assistant will see a convergence that will provide a lot of useful information about a single place. The Assistant will play content from YouTube when it comes to smart displays, which is something that is not available on Echo devices.Amazon Alexa has no similar offerings to Google Duplex. You can however buy an Echo Connect to make phone calls from other Echo products. You can also call other Alexa users on their phone via tablets or the Alexa app. Although we can see that Amazon and Google are competing over very similar features, it seems that when it comes to phone calls Amazon won’t be able to compete. After all, this wasn’t Alexa’s primary role which means there’s a lot of work to do to make this happen.
Last Thoughts
Google seems to be on the right track at the moment. Although both of these solutions are incredibly interesting and useful, Alexa is a few steps ahead of the assistant. This all all comes down to your needs. You should be more than pleased with what Amazon has to offer if you don’t need a virtual assistant for very complex tasks. If you want the best of today’s technology you need to count on Google. After all that tech giant has the money needed to come up with advanced features to introduce.Amazon Alexa has no similar offerings to Google Duplex. You can however buy an Echo Connect to make phone calls from other Echo products. You can also call other Alexa users on their phone via tablets or the Alexa app. Although we can see that Amazon and Google are competing over very similar features, it seems that when it comes to phone calls Amazon won’t be able to compete. After all, this wasn’t Alexa’s primary role which means there’s a lot of work to do to make this happen.
Last Thoughts
Google seems to be on the right track at the moment. Although both of these solutions are incredibly interesting and useful, Alexa is a few steps ahead of the assistant. This all all comes down to your needs. You should be more than pleased with what Amazon has to offer if you don’t need a virtual assistant for very complex tasks. If you want the best of today’s technology you need to count on Google. After all that tech giant has the money needed to come up with advanced features to introduce.