Daily Archives: January 25, 2022

Google Drive flags single-digit files over copyright

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A funny thing happened on Google Drive overnight. Seemingly innocuous files started being flagged as violating the search behemoth’s terms of service over copyright infringement.

Dr Emily Dolson, assistant professor at Michigan State University, was one of those affected after she attempted to upload a file containing a single digit, “1”.

There wasn’t a lot of detail in the warning, only that Googles Drive’s Copyright Infringement policy had been violated and that no review could be requested for the restriction, both of which are a bit worrying for people concerned about the dead hand of AI being used as arbiter in such matters.

What had upset Google? The digit or the output04.txt filename? Certainly the number “1” does turn up in all manner of copyrighted works, although we don’t think anyone’s tried to trademark the character. Most recently, Snap made a spectacle of itself by trying to trademark the word “Spectacles”.

Could Google be trying to up the ante, and is it aware that Microsoft has its own cloud storage named OneDrive? Redmond already had to ditch SkyDrive after a well-known broadcaster took exception to it. We can’t imagine Nadella and co liking the sound of “Number Two Drive” for a variety of reasons.

More likely, the issue was more of a screw-up than conspiracy with both Google staffers and the Google Drive social media mouthpiece responding to confirm that the team was aware of the issue and working on it.

Additional users reported problems with other numbers, including “0”, while wags over on Hacker News pointed to the relevant Onion article.

Because there’s always an Onion article where automation drives swathes of the IT world beyond satire.

Things seem OK now (at least as far as our testing is concerned), although we have asked Google to explain itself. We will update this piece if it does so.

Whatever the fix was, we suspect it wasn’t this. ®

Source: Google Drive flags single-digit files over copyright

Flying car wins airworthiness certification – BBC News

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A flying car capable of hitting speeds over 100mph (160kmh) and altitudes above 8,000ft (2,500m) has been issued with a certificate of airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority.

The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.

It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.

The certification followed 70 hours of flight testing and more than 200 take-offs and landings, the company said.

Source: Flying car wins airworthiness certification – BBC News

How to Download Everything Amazon Knows About You (It’s a Lot)

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[…]To be clear, data collection is far from an Amazon-specific problem; it’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to tech companies. Even Apple, a company vocal about user privacy, has faced criticism in the past for recording Siri interactions and sharing them with third-party contractors.

The issue with Amazon, however, is the extent to which they collect and archive your data. Just about everything you do on, with, and around an Amazon product or service is logged and recorded. Sure, you might not be surprised to learn that when you visit Amazon’s website, the company logs your browsing history and shopping data. But it goes far beyond that. Since Amazon owns Whole Foods, it also saves your shopping history there. When you watch video content through its platforms, it records all of that information, too.

Things get even creepier with other Amazon products. If you read books on a Kindle, Amazon records your reading activity, including the speed of your page turns (I wonder if Bezos prefers a slow or fast page flip); if you peered into your Amazon data, you might find something similar to what a Reuter’s reporter found: On Aug. 8 2020, someone on that account read The Mitchell Sisters: A Complete Romance Series from 4:52 p.m. through 7:36 p.m., completing 428 pages. (Nice sprint.)

If you have one of Amazon’s smart speakers, you’re on the record with everything you’ve ever uttered to the device: When you ask Alexa a question or give it a command, Amazon saves the audio files for the entire interaction. If you know how to access you data, you can listen to every one of those audio files, and relive moments you may or may not have realized were recorded.

Another Reuters reporter found Amazon saved over 90,000 recordings over a three-and-a-half-year period, which included the reporter’s children asking Alexa questions, recordings of those same children apologizing to their parents, and, in some cases, extended conversations that were outside the scope of a reasonable Alexa query.

Unfortunately, while you can access this data, Amazon doesn’t make it possible to delete much of it. You can tweak your privacy settings you stop your devices from recording quite as much information. However, once logged, the main strategy to delete it is to delete the entire account it is associated with. But even if you can’t delete the data while sticking with your account, you do have a right to see what data Amazon has on you, and it’s simple to request.

How to download all of your Amazon data

To start, , or go to Amazon’s Help page. You’ll find the link under Security and Privacy > More in Security & Privacy > Privacy > How Do I Request My Data? Once there, click the “Request My Data” link.

From the dropdown menu, choose the data you want from Amazon. If you want everything, choose “Request All Your Data.” Hit “Submit Request,” then click the validation link in your email. That’s it. Amazon makes it easy to see what the have on you, probably because they know you can’t do anything about it.

[Reuters]

Source: How to Download Everything Amazon Knows About You (It’s a Lot)