Category: Region

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Europe Featured Guest Post Meta Privacy Region Tech News Uncategorized Unicorns

Irish Data Protection Commission Fines Facebook €17m For Breaching EU Data Privacy Laws in 2018

The Irish Data Protection Commission has hit Facebook with a fine of €17m after finding they did not fully comply with GDPR. The decision followed an inquiry by the commission into 12 breach notifications it received in six months period between June and December 2018, examining their compliance with GDPR requirements for personal data processing at different points during this time frame.

The Data Protection Commission found that Meta Platforms failed to put in place adequate technical and organizational measures, which would make it easy for them to demonstrate the security precautions they implemented. This is despite having 12 personal data breaches.

According to The Irish data watchdog, Meta’s platforms had “failed to have in place appropriate technical and organizational measures” in the context of the 12 personal data breaches.

Ireland has a well-established tradition in regulating the tech industry, especially with regard to internet companies that have their European Union headquarters there.

References:

  • https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9yenpgjwzo#
  • https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/15/facebook-2018-breaches-dpc-decision/
  • https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0315/1286598-facebook-fined-by-dpc/
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Featured Guest Post Language Python Tech News Uncategorized USA

PyTorch Releases PyTorch 1.11, With TorchData, and functorch

Pytorch 1.11 is out! This release includes more than 3,300 commits since version 1.10 and 434 contributors- including PyTorch developers who worked tirelessly to make this happen. Alongside the new features are beta versions of TorchData and functorch.

The TorchData library provides easy-to-use, high performance data loading primitives so you can build your own flexible and efficient pipelines.

functorch is a new library that brings compositionally useful function transforms to Pytorch. It’s currently in beta and is heavily inspired by Google JAX. 

Distributed Data Parrallel (DDP) static graph optimizations are available in a stable release.

Github: https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/releases/tag/v1.11.0

Reference: https://pytorch.org/blog/pytorch-1.11-released/

Check out the documentation and tutorials

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Europe Featured Gaming Guest Post Metaverse Region Tech News Uncategorized VR/AR

3DFLOW Releases 3DF Zephyr 6.5

Source: https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-6-5-is-out-now/

The latest update for 3DF Zephyr is out, and it’s an integration with Unity! Now you can use ArtEngine inside 3DF Zephyr.

3df zephyr 6.5 allows users to work more efficiently by integrating Unity’s material authoring tool, ‘ArtEngine’. The update also includes several other features including camera animations system which was previously unavailable in previous versions of 3d flow.

The new update to Zephyr 6.5 includes Orthophoto Editor, which lets you edit and improve regions of orthophotos that require recomputation.

With the new animation options and vertical structure presets, Zephyr 6.5 is a great update for 3DF Zephyr’s Structure From Motion system.

There are other improvements too, like the option to export scans in USD format for use in VFX or game development pipelines. Plus new tagging system.

3DF Zephyr 6.500 changelog

+ Structure from motion robustness and accuracy improvements
+ New vertical structure preset
+ Faster modular save
+ Faster edge filtering with photoconsistency
+ Improved texturing
+ Unity artengine integration
+ Orthophoto editor
+ Improved elevation profile interface
+ Improved drawing elements interface
+ Improved LoD mesh export
+ Spot height map tool
+ Video animator wizard
+ Improved multi-tile DEM viewer
+ Improved photo management and tags
+ Improved unit of measurements management
+ USD file format export support
+ LoD tiff orthophoto
+ Improved bounding box gizmo
+ Improved masking integration in Zephyr
+ Improved picking on textured meshes
+ Improved screenshot
+ Marker print center for picking clarity
+ Minor fixes

References: https://80.lv/articles/3df-zephyr-6-5-released/

Tool: https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-6-5-is-out-now/

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Featured Google Guest Post Tech News Uncategorized Unicorns USA

Google’s Jigsaw Unit is Releasing An Open-Source Tool Called ‘Harassment Manager’ to Reduce Toxicity Online for Journalists

Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.11168.pdf

When covering controversial topics or live under autocratic governments, online harassment is a constant challenge. For women, it can range from nuisances like insults and memes targeting their appearance to matters of life-threatening danger. They’ve been targeted before for reporting on stories that upset powerful groups with negative feedback who feel threatened by what you’re doing coverage-wise.

Google’s Jigsaw’s team of experts has made long-standing investments in user experience research, technology, and other initiatives to help women navigate targeted harassment online. Jigsaw unit releases the code for an open-source anti-harassment tool called Harassment Manager. The program enables journalists and other public figures to manage better abusive comments on social media platforms like Twitter with Jigsaw’s Perspective API, which sorts through potentially harmful messages.

Harassment Manager is a tool that helps users identify and document harmful posts, mute or block perpetrators of harassment on social media. It has an advanced filtering and reporting system that automatically sorts messages into queues, so you can address them all at once rather than individually through the platform’s default tools which are often not effective or well-suited for dealing with harassment issues on their own account. The interface provides insights into how much “toxicity” there was in each message while it’s being processed – this helps users decide whether they want certain replies blurred out before reading them.

Harassment Managers helps users keep track of abusive messages and downloads a standalone report containing the evidence. This creates an easy paper trail for their employer or law enforcement if necessary and gives them access to services like those provided by The Thomson Reuters Foundation which will be released soon.

Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.11168.pdf

Github: https://github.com/conversationai/harassment-manager

References:

  • https://medium.com/@JigsawTeam/5edcac127872
  • https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/8/22966204/google-jigsaw-perspective-ai-twitter-moderation-harassment-manager-journalists
  • https://www.perspectiveapi.com/
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Amazon Featured Gaming Region Tech News Uncategorized Unicorns USA

Amazon Open It’s Luna Cloud Gaming For All: Play Your Favorite Games Straight From The Cloud

Source: https://www.amazon.com/luna/landing-page

Amazon is finally ready for you to start playing games on Luna. Its cloud computing service lets users play their favorite video game from virtually any device they own – even without its dedicated controller. A new app has been released that will allow people connected via Fire TV or other tablets/phones to enjoy gaming.

Imagine being able to play your favorite games on any device without installing them? That’s possible with Luna. Once you’ve paid the monthly fee, all that needs to be done is sign into an account and start streaming! Compatible devices include Fire TV Sticks/TVs; Mac computers & laptops etc.

Amazon is expanding its Prime Gaming Channel to give gamers access to exclusive games and rotating showcases of different titles. For the month of March alone we can look forward Devil May Cry 5, Observer, System Redux and PHOGS. In addition, there will be a Flashback game available on this new channel for amazon prime members as well.

Luna gained a couple of new features, which is great for gamers. They can now stream their gaming sessions directly to Twitch and there’s also an app on iPhones and Android phones that allows them to use the phone controller with games played through Amazon Fire TV devices.

Reference:

  • https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-luna-cloud-gaming-service-is-now-available-to-everyone/
  • https://www.amazon.com/luna/landing-page
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Featured Google Region Tech News Uncategorized Unicorns USA

Google Introduces Cloud Functions (2nd gen) Into Public Preview: Google Cloud’s Next-Generation Functions-as-a-Service Product

Source: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/serverless/introducing-the-next-generation-of-cloud-functions

Google’s Cloud Functions (2nd gen) is the next generation of their popular product as Functions-as-a-Service product. It comes with an advanced feature set that gives you more powerful infrastructure, control over performance and scalability, as well as 90 event sources from which to trigger your function. The power of the second generation is in its portability. You can run your function anywhere with just one command. The new version also offers greater flexibility in terms of when it runs – all thanks to some help from Google’s cutting-edge serverless technology called Cloud Run or Eventarc.

The new capabilities of Cloud Functions include increased concurrency (up to 1,000 concurrent requests per function instance), larger instances (16 GB memory and 4 vCPUs), and longer processing time for HTTP functions (up to 60 mins).

The new Cloud Functions features an enhanced UI that lets you customize your dashboard to suit what matters most. With improved developer experience and accessibility updates, it’s easier than ever to develop functions for any device or platform without worrying about complicated installation processes! A seamless onboarding process easily makes 1st gen and 2nd gen function development in one place.

References:

  • https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/serverless/introducing-the-next-generation-of-cloud-functions
  • https://www.infoq.com/news/2022/03/google-cloud-functions/
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Cyber Security Europe Featured NVIDIA Region Tech News Uncategorized Unicorns USA

NVIDIA Bites Back At Its Recent CyberAttack Hackers

The recent cyberattacks on Nvidia may have been carried out by the South American hacker group Lapsus$. Vx-underground is reporting that Nvidia has retaliated by sneaking back into the hacker’s system and encrypting all of its stolen data.

With a market cap near 600 billion dollars, Nvidia is the most valuable chipmaker in America. It specializes in producing graphics processing units (GPU) for video game playing and advanced computer simulations to enhance user experience

The LAPSU$ hacker group in South America has illegally tapped into Nvidia’s mailing server and installed malware on the software distribution system. Last week, Lapsus$ announced that it had stolen 1 TB of Nvidia data and threatened to leak sensitive information about employees. The group also shared some screenshots as proof but they weren’t definitive; we may never know if this was true or not- there could be any number of reasons why these posts went up.

With the recent increase in ransomware attacks, it seems that Nvidia has identified these hackers. According to Vx-underground’s Twitter post and backed by screenshots they encrypted their system after being infected with malware for-profit motives which led them to theft data.

References:

  • https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-allegedly-hacks-hackers-who-stole-companys-data
  • https://www.techspot.com/news/93568-nvidia-allegedly-hacked-hackers-stole-data-back.html
  • https://www.pcmag.com/news/nvidia-investigates-potential-ransomware-incident
  • https://www.techtimes.com/articles/272350/20220227/nvidia-hackers-allegedly-hacked-back-by-nvidia-data-un-stolen.html
  • https://www.reuters.com/technology/chipmaker-nvidia-investigating-potential-cyberattack-report-2022-02-25/
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Europe Featured Region Tech News

EU Proposes New Rules on Who Can Use and Access Data Generated in The EU Across All Economic Sectors

After passing the Data Governance Act in 2020 and aimed at establishing a framework for shared information, this week, the European Commission finalized a proposal to allow businesses of all sizes in Europe to access data sent from connected devices. This is done with an aim toward creating fair and innovative use for this information that companies can collect within their industry or niche market segmentation where they see fit. It also allows consumers more control over how personal details are used online – which has become increasingly important following recent privacy breaches at major software platforms.

The European Commission has drawn attention to the state of data in Europe, which they say is underutilized. The main reason for this failure according to them are obstacles like failing on defining how you can access and use your personal information generated by connected products – especially as SMEs often fail when negotiating equitable terms with more powerful players; there’s also problems converting different competitors’ cloud services or “edge” capabilities together without any integration between fields.

The Data Act is landmark legislation that will change the landscape of digital services. For example, car owners and machine renters can share data from their connected devices to reduce traffic accidents in high-risk areas and help insurance companies offer more accurate rates for policies.

Large enterprises can help small start-ups by sharing data. This will extend the life of connected devices and promote market competition, as consumers choose which repair provider to go with based on quality service offerings rather than just price alone. Farming has always been a tough job, but now it’s getting even more difficult because unpredictable weather patterns change all over Europe every day. The use of private IoT technology in order to make sense of these problems through collecting information from various sensors embedded into crops themselves could save lives – not only ones related directly to agriculture (floods) or natural disasters such as wildfire here.

The Data Act will make it easier for users to transfer their data and applications across platforms and limit access from outside non-EU governments.

References:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_1113

https://www.ithome.com.tw/news/149527