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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 17 OcTOber 2019
Google touts privacy options, but still depends on your data

By RACHEL LERMAN build user-specific profiles it
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — uses to target digital adver-
Google's latest phone and tising, which produces the
smart-home devices came vast majority of its income.
packaged with a not-so- The Assistant, akin in basic
subtle message: Google function to Apple's Siri and
cares about your privacy. Amazon's Alexa , is emerg-
Does it? ing as Google's latest digi-
The tech company has tal data collector. It can
had a complicated rela- learn more about you from
tionship with user informa- your queries and can di-
tion in the past. Google's rect you to other Google
latest steps offer consumers services such as maps and
some additional protec- search, which also feed
tions, although it's unclear into Google's multi-billion
how much more secure us- dollar advertising business.
ers will feel. "Their end game is trying to
Google unveiled a new collect all this data and tar-
Pixel smartphone and oth- get you with advertising,"
er hardware devices on said Victoria Petrock, prin-
Tuesday, all aimed at get- ciple analyst at eMarketer.
ting people more hooked In this Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, photo New Pixel 4 phones are displayed at Google in Mountain "The voice is a whole new
on services powered by View, Calif. way to capture people's
the company's Google As- Associated Press behaviors."
sistant and other artificial- The more helpful the As-
intelligence technology. terpreting voice requests instance, and its Assistant for computing and privacy sistant becomes, the more
But privacy has emerged to answering questions to can also handle many que- becomes more important likely people are to use it.
as a bigger issue with turning on your lights, takes ries directly on the phone. A than ever." On the hardware front,
these products thanks to place in the cloud, not on new recording transcription Apple and Amazon have Google's new Pixel 4 fea-
the growing popularity your device. Users have feature and radar technol- also emphasized their pri- tures a fancier camera
of always-listening "smart very little control of what ogy that recognizes ges- vacy commitments at re- that will recognize people
speakers" and similar de- happens to their data in tures are also done on the cent product launches. who've appeared previ-
vices. Google, Microsoft, the cloud. device. The goal is to give people ously in your photos in order
Amazon and Apple have On Tuesday, though, "You need to know what more choice over privacy to automatically focus on
all recently acknowledged Google emphasized that your data is safe," Rick Os- settings, Osterloh said. Nest them in new shots.
employing human con- much of what you do on terloh, Google senior vice speakers and cameras now The new phone also comes
tractors to listen to and its new phones will stay president of hardware, come with physical switch- with motion-sensing tech-
transcribe some voice re- there. Its new facial recog- said at the company's New es to turn off cameras and nology that allows people
cordings captured by AI nition unlock feature won't York launch event Tuesday. mics, for example. to skip songs or switch
software. transmit details to Google "When computing is al- Still, Google relies heavily apps by gesturing near the
Most such AI work, from in- servers for processing, for ways available, designing on customer information to phone.q

German 5G rules avoid Huawei

ban; U.S. warns on intel sharing

Huawei said it welcomed technology and trade. ing, though he added he
the German government's The top U.S. cybersecu- hadn't yet reviewed the
move to "create a level rity diplomat, Rob Strayer, German rules, which are
playing field" for 5G sup- said that along with testing open for consultation and
pliers, in which "all vendors equipment and software could become law by the
are equally and fairly wel- for vulnerabilities, govern- end of the year.
come to participate in the ments should also take into Strayer also praised a Euro-
construction of 5G net- account the background pean Union assessment of
works if they fulfill the secu- of the manufacturer's home 5G security risks last week
rity requirements." The U.S. country, including whether that warned about a range
In this March 6, 2019, photo, a 5G logo is displayed on a screen
outside the showroom at Huawei campus in Shenzhen city, Chi- has been lobbying allies it has independent courts of cyber threats includ-
na's Guangdong province. in Europe to shun Huawei, and the rule of law. ing from hostile countries
Associated Press the world's biggest maker U.S. officials worry that and "state-backed actors,"
of networking equipment, companies in China are even though it avoided sin-
LONDON (AP) — Germa- pany's equipment. over worries its equipment required to cooperate with gling out China or Huawei.
ny released draft security The Federal Network Agen- might aid Chinese elec- intelligence requests under New 5G networks promise
guidelines on Tuesday for cy catalog of conditions tronic spying, claims the a national intelligence law. superfast download speeds
next generation wireless for suppliers of new 5G company has repeatedly "If there's technology that's and reduced signal delay
networks that stopped networks include requir- denied. The Trump admin- untrusted deployed in their that can power a wave of
short of banning Huawei, ing certification of critical istration cut off its access networks, then we have innovations such as factory
as the U.S. warned again components and ensuring to U.S. technology in May, to reassess how we share robots and remote surgery,
it would reconsider intel- trustworthiness of manufac- part of a broader geopo- information with countries but their increased reliance
ligence sharing with allies turers, without singling out litical feud between Wash- like Germany," Strayer told on software raises the risks
that use the Chinese com- Huawei for exclusion. ington and Beijing over in a telephone media brief- of cyberattacks.q