Huawei says US has 'no evidence' of 5G spying allegations

France24 – AFP, 26 Feb 2019

Huawei chairman Guo Ping said there are no "backdoors" in its technology that could
be used as a vehicle for Chinese spy operations, in a keynote address at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona AFP

Barcelona (AFP) - Huawei's chairman said Tuesday that the United States has "no evidence" that its equipment to build next-generation 5G wireless networks could be used as a vehicle for Chinese spy operations.

In a keynote address at the mobile industry?s biggest annual global event in Barcelona, Guo Ping reiterated his company's position that there are no "backdoors" in its technology that could allow Beijing to spy on countries.

"The US security accusation against our 5G has no evidence. Nothing. The irony is that the US Cloud Act allow their entities to access data across borders," he said at the Mobile World Congress.

"We don't do bad things. Let me say this as clear as possible. Huawei has not and we will never use backdoors and we will never allow anyone to do so in our equipment. We take this responsibility very seriously," he added.

US President Donald Trump's administration has in recent months ramped up efforts to block Huawei, the leader in 5G, by urging allies to avoid the Chinese powerhouse, claiming that national security interests are at stake.

Washington considers the matter urgent as countries around the world prepare to roll out fifth-generation or 5G networks that will bring near-instantaneous connectivity, vast data capacity and assist futuristic technologies such as self-driving cars.

Network operators seeking to quickly deploy the new wireless networks are in a bind as Huawei's 5G equipment is seen as being considerably more advanced than that of its rivals such as Sweden's Ericsson or Finland's Nokia.

ABN Amro algorithm identifies signs of human trafficking

DutchNews, February 26, 2019 - By Robin Pascoe

Illustration: Depositphotos.com 

Social affairs ministry inspectors, the police and ABN Amro have been working on a pilot project analysing private bank account transactions to establish if people are being exploited by their employer or are the victims of human trafficking. 

So far the bank has identified 65 ‘unusual situations’ and reported them to the police financial intelligence unit FIU, an ABN Amro spokeswoman told DutchNews.nl. ABN Amro began working on the project in 2015 in the wake of a conference it had organised on human rights. 

Until recently, ministry inspectors depended on actual reports and inspections to tackle human trafficking and exploitation cases and asked banks for information if they had suspicions about certain people or companies. 

Now, however, the bank is taking the initiative to identify potential problems using an algorithm based on 30 variables. 

For example, if someone regularly withdraws their entire salary as cash shortly after it has been paid into their bank account, this could indicate that they are being ordered by someone to hand over their earnings, Trouw reported on Monday. 

The algorithm also takes whether ‘someone is from eastern Europe or Asia’ into account, Trouw said. 

The social affairs ministry told DutchNews.nl it would not comment on how many concrete cases of exploitation or trafficking the pilot project identified. The ministry also declined to answer questions about what indicators the algorithm took into account. 

According to Trouw, other Dutch banks will join the project from March 1 but the ministry also declined to say which ones. 

ABN Amro told DutchNews.nl that no individual bank accounts are being actively monitored.

Singapore Airlines denies snooping with seatback cameras

Yahoo – AFP, 21 February 2019

Singapore Airlines says the cameras on its latest inflight entertainment systems
have been disabled

Singapore Airlines insisted Thursday that cameras on its planes' entertainment systems had been disabled after an outcry online from worried passengers who spotted the tiny lenses peering at them.

Travellers took to Twitter and other social media to raise the alarm over the cameras at the bottom of seatback screens on a number of the Singapore flag carrier's newer aircraft.

"Just found this interesting sensor looking at me from the seat back on board of Singapore Airlines. Any expert opinion of whether is a camera?" passenger Vitaly Kamluk tweeted.

His tweet was accompanied by photos of the monitor with the embedded camera.

Another passenger urged the airline in a tweet to "notify all your passengers and get their consent, particularly EU residents, that you are doing this, why, what are you doing with the data and how long you keep it".

The airline confirmed that some of its latest inflight entertainment systems did have fixed cameras -- but assured passengers that they had been disabled.

"These cameras have been intended by the manufacturers for future developments. These cameras have been permanently disabled on our aircraft and cannot be activated on board," the airline said in a statement.

"We have no plans to enable or develop any features using the cameras."

US Facebook fine over privacy could be in billions: reports

Yahoo – AFP, February 15, 2019

Reports say US regulats are near an agreement on a record penalty against
Facebook for privacy violations (AFP Photo/LOIC VENANCE)

Washington (AFP) - A US investigation into privacy violations by Facebook could result in a record fine running to billions of dollars, media reports said Friday.

The Federal Trade Commission is negotiating the terms of the penalty stemming from its investigation into whether Facebook violated a 2011 settlement with the regulator on protecting user data, the Washington Post and New York Times said, citing unnamed sources.

The FTC reopened its investigation following revelations last year that personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users was hijacked by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica as it worked on Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The 2011 court-approved agreement required Facebook to notify users when it shares data with third parties and bars the social network from deceptive practices.

According to the Times, the penalty for violating the agreement could be some $41,000 per violation, and that the FTC may potentially levy that amount for each individual affected.

The Post said the settlement could be in the range of $2 billion.

A settlement would need to be negotiated by the FTC staff and then approved by the commissioners. If there is no agreement the parties could contest the matter in court.

Until now, the biggest fine imposed by the FTC was $22.5 million against Google for violations of an agreement to protect consumer data, according to the reports.

Privacy activists have pressed for a hefty penalty against Facebook to demonstrate that the regulator is serious about enforcing its consent agreements.

Facebook did not respond to an AFP query on the reports.

Tokyo strikes gold, silver and bronze with e-waste Olympic medals

Yahoo – AFP, February 8, 2019

Tokyo's organising committee in 2017 launched a project to collect assorted
electronic waste -- including old smartphones and laptops -- from the public
to collect metal for the medals.

All medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be made from metal collected by recycling electronic waste, games organisers said on Friday.

Tokyo's organising committee in 2017 launched a project to collect assorted electronic waste -- including old smartphones and laptops -- from the public to collect metal for the medals.

Recycled metal has also been collected from local Japanese businesses and industry.

In a statement issued on Friday, organisers said the collection was expected to reach its goal and will end in late March.

By November last year, municipal authorities had already collected 47,488 tonnes of discarded devices, with the public handing in another five million used phones to a local network provider.

Organisers had set a target of 2,700 kgs (about 5,950 pounds) of bronze, 30.3 kgs (67 pounds) of gold and 4,100 kg (about 9,040 pounds) of silver.

They hit the target for bronze last June, and by October had more than 90 percent of the gold and 85 percent of the silver.

"It is estimated that the remaining amounts of metal required to manufacture all Olympic and Paralympic medals can be extracted from the devices already donated," the organisers said.

Recycled metals have been used in previous years to make Olympic medals, including in Rio where some 30 percent of the silver and bronze in medals came from recycled materials.

The designs for the Tokyo 2020 medals will be unveiled later this year.

'Inkjet' solar panels poised to revolutionise green energy

Yahoo – AFP, Stanislaw WASZAK, February 3, 2019

Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz poses with
a printed solar panel (AFP Photo/Janek SKARZYNSKI)

Wroclaw (Poland) (AFP) - What if one day all buildings could be equipped with windows and facades that satisfy the structure's every energy need, whether rain or shine?

That sustainability dream is today one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz.

The 36-year-old has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites -- a new generation of cheaper solar cells -- that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs.

Indeed, perovskite technology is on track to revolutionise access to solar power for all, given its surprising physical properties, some experts say.

"In our opinion, perovskite solar cells have the potential to address the world energy poverty," said Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, a professor at Switzerland's Federal Institue of Technology Lausanne, an institution on the cutting-edge of solar energy research.

Solar panels coated with the mineral are light, flexible, efficient, inexpensive and come in varying hues and degrees of transparency.

They can easily be fixed to almost any surface -- be it laptop, car, drone, spacecraft or building -- to produce electricity, including in the shade or indoors.

Though the excitement is new, perovskite has been known to science since at least the 1830s, when it was first identified by German mineralogist Gustav Rose while prospecting in the Ural mountains and named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski.

In the following decades, synthesising the atomic structure of perovskite became easier.

But it was not until 2009 that Japanese researcher Tsutomu Miyasaka discovered that perovskites can be used to form photovoltaic solar cells.

'Bull's eye'

Initially the process was complicated and required ultra high temperatures, so only materials that could withstand extreme heat -- like glass -- could be coated with perovskite cells.

This is where Malinkiewicz comes in.

In 2013, while still a PhD student at the University of Valencia in Spain, she figured out a way to coat flexible foil with perovskites using an evaporation method.

Later, she developed an inkjet printing procedure that lowered production costs enough to make mass production economically feasible.

The panels can easily be fixed to almost any surface (AFP Photo/Janek SKARZYNSKI)

"That was a bull's eye. Now high temperatures are no longer required to coat things with a photovoltaic layer," Malinkiewicz told AFP.

Her discovery quickly earned her an article in the journal Nature and media attention, as well as the Photonics21 Student Innovation award in a competition organised by the European Commission.

The Polish edition of the MIT Technology Review also selected her as one of its Innovators Under 35 in 2015.

She went on to cofound the company Saule Technologies -- named after the Baltic goddess of the sun -- along with two Polish businessmen.

They had to assemble all their laboratory equipment from scratch, before multimillionaire Japanese investor Hideo Sawada came on board.

The company now has an ultra-modern laboratory with an international team of young experts and is building an industrial-scale production site.

"This will be the world's first production line using this technology. Its capacity will reach 40,000 square metres of panels by the end of the year and 180,000 square metres the following year," Malinkiewicz said at her lab.

"But that's just a drop in the bucket in terms of demand."

Eventually, compact production lines could easily be installed everywhere, according to demand, to manufacture perovskite solar panels that are made to measure.

Self-sufficient buildings

The Swedish construction group Skanska is testing the cutting-edge panels on the facade of one of its buildings in Warsaw.

It also inked a licencing partnership with Saule in December for the exclusive right to incorporate the company's solar cell technology in its projects in Europe, the United States and Canada.

"Perovskite technology is bringing us closer to the goal of energy self-sufficient buildings," said Adam Targowski, sustainability manager at Skanska.

"Perovskites have proven successful even on surfaces that receive little sunlight. We can apply them pretty much everywhere," he told AFP.

"More or less transparent, the panels also respond to design requirements. Thanks to their flexibility and varying tints, there's no need to add any extra architectural elements."

A standard panel of around 1.3 square metres, at a projected cost of 50 euros ($57), would supply a day's worth of energy to an office workstation, according to current estimates.

Malinkiewicz insists that the initial cost of her products will be comparable to conventional solar panels.

Perovskite technology is also being tested on a hotel in Japan, near the city of Nagasaki.

Plans are also afoot for the pilot production of perovskite panels in Valais, Switzerland and in Germany under the wings of the Oxford Photovoltaics venture.

"The potential of the technology is clearly enormous," Assaad Razzouk, the CEO of Singapore-based Sindicatum Rewable Energy, a developer and operator of clean energy projects in Asia, told AFP.

"Just think of all the buildings one could retrofit worldwide!"