Yearly Archives: 2020

The founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has launched a startup Inrupt, which allows large organisations and governments to build applications which put users in control of their personal data.

The company’s concept is to store personal information separately, and to share only what is necessary with the services accessing them. These data collections, known as Personal Online Data Stores (Pods), can be accessed using the company’s open-source data storage technology called Solid. For example, fitness data could be stored in a Pod and shared with a doctor when their app requests access.

Tim Berners-Lee co-founded the company with Chief Executive John Bruce three years ago, but this month has made its Enterprise Solid Server – the infrastructure that runs the service – available to any interested customer. Previously, Inrupt had been testing its service with the BBC, NatWest Bank and the National Health Service in the UK. Bruce stated “Fast forward to today, and we’re releasing the first significant technology as the fruits of our labor, which is an enterprise version of Solid to be deployed at scale by large organizations”.

Inrupt’s launch comes as a well-needed solution as privacy becomes a bigger concern in the tech industry. Concerns over data handling have been highlighted by Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica affair, TikTok’s alleged spying, and investigations into Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon.

If successful, Inrupt could mark a turning point for applications’ access to and the handling of personal data, by having it centrally stored rather than collected by each and every application. Perhaps prompting a move away from apps and services that harvest personal data – in order to then serve personalised ads – and giving the user back overall control.

It’s Living Wage Week this week! On Monday the new Living Wage rates were announced, which will result in over 250,000 people receiving a pay rise.

The Living Wage campaign is an independent movement of businesses, organisations
and people who believe a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. Employers choose
to pay at least the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis, which provides a universal benchmark for responsible pay.

Direction Forward are pleased to be an accredited Living Wage employer for all staff, contractors and suppliers.

The latest macOS, Big Sur, was announced last month. Release of this has been delayed until November – likely to coincide with Apple’s event on Tuesday (10th)

We recently recommended that users do not update to Big Sur quite yet. And we are continuing to recommend this, as lots of third party software is still not yet compatible.

The Big Sur update makes significant changes to the macOS operating system, and as such it requires non-Apple companies and providers to update their own software and services accordingly. The more complex the software/service, the more complex the changes that are required to be Big Sur compatible.

For example, ESET are still working on providing full functionality for their internet security solution. They have announced that their next update will be in December, which should resolve this. Please note that if you do update to Big Sur before that time, you will lose key aspects – such as the firewall – which is important for protecting your machine.

If you do need to update to Big Sur right away for a specific reason(s), please ensure that all your software and applications are up to date before then updating to Big Sur.

We are proud supporters of Listen, an app to protect for health professionals and victims of domestic abuse that is currently seeking funding.

The app features safety triggers, which can alert a chosen colleague, friend or family member that the app’s owner is in potential danger. The app will secretly record audio when initiated and/or during scheduled/set times. These sound recordings can be used in a court of law as evidence.

Saved recordings will be completely discreet and hidden from others. Listen will be camouflaged to look like a different app, for example a note taking app. There will be a false homepage and secret access into the recordings, as a failsafe in case the app is opened by someone else

Health workers who visit emotionally unstable or violent patients and those living in dangerous environments at home will be better protected and connected to others.

To view the project, please visit crowdfunder.co.uk/listen-protect.

Apple has announced its virtual event, One More Thing, for November 10th at 18:00 GMT.

Bloomberg has suggested that Apple will launch three new MacBooks at the event, a new 13-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and a new 13-inch MacBook Air. All three MacBooks are said to be powered by the new Apple-designed Arm chipsets, codenamed Apple Silicon.

The new Arm processors will be based on the A14 chip found in the latest iPhones and iPad Air. The new machines will also have Apple-designed graphics and machine-learning processors.

Early tests of these new Arm-based CPUs indicate improved power efficiency over the Intel parts they are replacing. It’s important to note that these new processors have completely different architecture to the Intel chips, and therefore software and applications run in a different way. Apple have been working closely with partners such as Adobe to emulate apps running on current Macs on the new Arm machines. How this emulation actually performs in real use cases remains to be seen.

This year we have already seen the release of the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE, Apple Fitness+, the new iPad Air and iPad, and Apple One in Apple’s September event, Time Flies. Watch One More Thing on Apple’s website.

The EU is investigating whether Instagram illegally exposed the personal details of millions of underage users. Instagram’s parent company Facebook could face a fine of up to 5% of its revenue.

The investigation is being carried out by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), as Facebook’s European headquarters are in Dublin. The investigation comes after a complaint made from US data scientist, David Stier.

Stier analysed almost 200,000 profiles within a year and estimated that at least 60 million users under the age of 18 had their contact information exposed. Anyone can change their Instagram account into a business account, which until very recently used to require phone numbers and email addresses to be shown.

Stier also highlighted that the same contact details were contained in the HTML source code of web pages accessed, which were easily accessible if inspected. Facebook has since removed contact information from the source code of Instagram pages.

The DPC has called for two investigations into Facebook. The first will examine how data is processed, the legal framework Facebook uses to process children’s data on Instagram. The second investigation will delve into Instagram’s profile and account settings, and if they are appropriate and user-friendly enough for child users.

A spokesperson for Facebook has stated that users are clearly informed that their contact information will be displayed publicly, arguing this is different to “exposing” personal information. Since the allegation, several updates to business accounts have been made and people can now opt out of including their contact information entirely.