XXongo writes: Although the problems with internet voting have been pointed out over and over again, with the arrival of COVID-19, the idea has again been brought up as a way to avoid the problems of in-person voting. If we can do banking by internet, why can't we do online voting? But, voting by an app is still a really stupid idea. If you want the government to belong to whichever hacking group can exploit a zero-day vulnerability first, this is it.

And, as Kaleigh Rogers of FiveThirtyEight points out, citing the co-founder of security consultancy firm Nordic Innovation Labs, "even if there was a completely secure system, there's currently no way to have an online vote that is both anonymous and auditable. An anonymous vote protects against voter coercion, suppression, or vote selling. An auditable vote protects against any errors or breaches, because officials can conduct a recount. But that combination, which is possible with a paper ballot, isn't yet possible online." And, even if the privacy and security issues were solved, online voting vendors would likely not be able to handle this fall's presidential election in time. "Nationwide would be a huge stretch," said Nimit Sawhney, co-founder and CEO of Voatz, one of the most prominent voting apps on the market. "We are a tiny little startup. There are about 25 people on our team. For us to be able to claim that we can do elections for 200 million people on a smartphone? That would be naive."

What the security experts are recommending a country do amidst a pandemic is to vote by mail.

"Planning needs to start now, to make sure ballots are printed off and mailed in time, and that voters know their options for casting a ballot," writes Rogers. "In-person voting will still most likely take place as well. But experts told me if we want those well-spaced lines for the ballot boxes to be less than a few miles long, we'll have to vastly ramp up mail-in voting by November."

Long time reader schwit1 shares a report: At the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2020), researchers at Yale University's Social Robotics Lab led by Brian Scassellati presented a paper taking the first step towards determining whether dogs, which are incredibly good at understanding social behaviors in humans, see human-ish robots as agents -- or more specifically, whether dogs see robots more like humans (which they obey), or more like speaker systems (which they don't). The background research on dog-robot interaction that forms the basis for this work is incredibly interesting. The paper is absolutely worth reading in its entirety, but here are a few nuggets of prior work that should help you understand how dogs interact with non-human animated objects:

"Pongracz et. al tested whether dogs followed commands from their guardians with various levels of embodiment. The guardians may be present in the same room as the dogs (i.e., 3D condition), or interacted with the dogs via live-stream life-size interactive videos (i.e., 2D condition), or interacted with the dogs with only their voices came out of a loudspeaker (i.e., 0D condition). Dogs followed the commands most reliably in the 3D condition. They followed the commands least consistently in the 0D condition, and their performances were between 3D and 0D condition in the 2D condition.

Lakatos et. al conducted a study to test how dogs responded to the pointing cues given by a PeopleBot with customized arms. The PeopleBot either exhibited human-like behaviors or no social behaviors, depending on the condition. A dog participant observed the robot interacting with the guardian either socially or mechanically for six minutes in the interaction phase. The robot then delivered a food reward for the dog. In the subsequent testing phase, the robot pointed to one of the two buckets with hidden food rewards. In the testing phase, dogs performed better in the condition with a social robot than with a nonsocial robot. However, no evidence suggested the mean performance with the social robot was significantly different from 50 percent, which is the chance level in two-choice tasks. Therefore, the dogs did not consistently follow the pointing cues provided by the social robot, even though dogs in general follow human pointing cues well."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Adobe has released security patches to resolve 36 vulnerabilities present in DNG, Reader, and Acrobat software. On Tuesday, the software giant issued two security advisories (1, 2) detailing the bugs, the worst of which can be exploited by attackers to trigger remote code execution attacks and information leaks. The first set of patches relate to Adobe Acrobat and Reader for Windows and macOS, including Acrobat / Acrobat Reader versions 2015 and 2017, as well as Acrobat and Acrobat Reader DC.

In total, 12 critical security flaws have been resolved. Six of the bugs, a single heap overflow problem (CVE-2020-9612), two out-of-bounds write errors (CVE-2020-9597, CVE-2020-9594), two buffer overflow issues (CVE-2020-9605, CVE-2020-9604), and two use-after-free vulnerabilities (CVE-2020-9607, CVE-2020-9606) can all lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. The remaining problems, now patched, include a race condition error (CVE-2020-9615) and four security bypass bugs (CVE-2020-9614, CVE-2020-9613, CVE-2020-9596, CVE-2020-9592). 12 vulnerabilities, deemed important, were also disclosed in Acrobat and Reader. Null pointer, stack exhaustion, out-of-bounds read, and invalid memory access issues have been patched. If exploited, the bugs can be weaponized for information disclosure and application denial-of-service.

Adobe's DNG Software Development Kit (SDK), versions 1.5 and earlier, is the subject of the second security advisory. The worst vulnerabilities are four heap overflow issues (CVE-2020-9589, CVE-2020-9590 , CVE-2020-9620, CVE-2020-9621) that can all lead to remote code execution attacks. In addition, eight out-of-bounds read problems in the software have also been fixed (CVE-2020-9622, CVE-2020-9623, CVE-2020-9624, CVE-2020-9625, CVE-2020-9626, CVE-2020-9627, CVE-2020-9628, CVE-2020-9629). If exploited, these issues can lead to information disclosure.

hcs_$reboot writes: The world's first trillionaire will likely be Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Projections show Bezos reaching trillionaire status by 2026. [Comparisun, a company which allows small- to medium-size firms to compare different business products] said their projection is based on taking the average percentage of yearly growth over the past five years and applying it to future years. "The projection has sparked anger on Twitter, noting how many people are financially struggling during the coronavirus pandemic as Bezos rakes in billions of dollars," reports USA Today.

Huawei has found a neat workaround to keep bundling Google apps on its smartphones: Launch new variants of old smartphones. From a report: The way the export ban has worked in practice is that Huawei devices that launched before the export ban (and some that launched even slightly after) can still be sold with Google apps. Devices that launched well after the ban, like the Mate 30 Pro, are stuck without the Google apps. So Huawei's solution, and its interpretation of the law, is that re-releases of old devices can still ship with Google apps. So meet the "New Editions" of old Huawei phones. This week, the company announced that the Huawei P30 Pro would be returning as the "Huawei P30 Pro New Edition," and earlier this year it re-launched the P30 Lite as the "P30 Lite New Edition." Both of these phones are from March 2019, so they're well over a year old now, but they both have Google app licenses, so welcome back!

Electric car maker Tesla plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in its Model 3 sedan in China later this year or early next that it expects will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid. Reuters reports: For months, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been teasing investors, and rivals, with promises to reveal significant advances in battery technology during a "Battery Day" in late May. New, low-cost batteries designed to last for a million miles of use and enable electric Teslas to sell profitably for the same price or less than a gasoline vehicle are just part of Musk's agenda.

With a global fleet of more than 1 million electric vehicles that are capable of connecting to and sharing power with the grid, Tesla's goal is to achieve the status of a power company, competing with such traditional energy providers as Pacific Gas & Electric and Tokyo Electric Power. The new "million mile" battery at the center of Tesla's strategy was jointly developed with China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd and deploys technology developed by Tesla in collaboration with a team of academic battery experts recruited by Musk. Eventually, improved versions of the battery, with greater energy density and storage capacity and even lower cost, will be introduced in additional Tesla vehicles in other markets, including North America. Tesla's plan to launch the new battery first in China and its broader strategy to reposition the company have not previously been reported. "Tesla's new batteries will rely on innovations such as low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries, and the use of chemical additives, materials and coatings that will reduce internal stress and enable batteries to store more energy for longer periods," the report adds. The company is also employing new high-speed, heavily automated battery manufacturing processes to reduce labor costs and increase production. According to the report, Tesla will produce the new batteries "in massive 'terafactories' about 30 times the size of the company's sprawling Nevada 'gigafactory.'"

Finally, in addition to improving the recycling and recovery of expensive metals, Tesla is working on new "second life" applications of electric vehicle batteries in grid storage systems. "The automaker also has said it wants to supply electricity to consumers and businesses, but has not provided details," Reuters reports.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Privacy pressure group Noyb has filed a legal complaint against Google on behalf of an Austrian citizen, claiming the Android Advertising ID on every Android device is "personal data" as defined by the EU's GDPR and that this data is illegally processed. Based in Vienna, Austria, Noyb is a nonprofit founded by Max Schrems, a lawyer and privacy advocate, to focus on "commercial privacy and data protection violations." It says that "the core task of the office is to work on our enforcement projects and to engage in the necessary research for strategic litigation."

The complaint against Google, which was filed with the Austrian Data Protection Authority, is based on the claim that Google's Android operating system generates the advertising ID without user choice as required by GDPR. "In essence, you buy a new Android phone, but by adding a tracking ID they ship you a tracking device," said Noyb lawyer Stefano Rossetti. [...] The complaint can be viewed here [PDF] and raises key questions about privacy, choice, and tracking. It states that the complainant (the name is redacted) completed a Google contact form to withdraw consent to use of the advertising ID (if consent had been given, which is disputed), and to object to its processing. Article 7 of the GDPR states that "the data subject shall have the right to withdraw his or her consent at any time." Article 21 is a "right to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her" for marketing and profiling, following which the law states that "the personal data shall no longer be processed for such purposes."

The complaint says that there is no opt-in "consent button" for the advertising ID. Although users have to agree to the general Google privacy policy, according to the complaint this consent "was neither informed, specific (the data subject has to agree to all Google services in a single step), nor free (the user cannot use a 800-euro phone without agreeing)." [...] The complaint requests that Google is ordered to "permanently delete the advertising ID", provide access to the data collected, and be fined based on various GDPR breaches.

In an investor conference call this week, new T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said that he's targeting mid-summer as the time when the T-Mobile and Sprint brand will be unified. "This was originally planned for early summer but was pushed to mid-summer due to the coronavirus pandemic," notes PhoneDog. From the report: T-Mobile actually began combining the networks for T-Mo and Sprint subscribers last month. At that time, T-Mo flipped the switch on 2.5GHz 5G coverage in Philadelphia using spectrum that it had acquired from Sprint while also enabling Sprint customers with a Galaxy S20 to jump onto T-Mobile's low-band 600MHz 5G. Additionally, Sprint customers with compatible LTE phones gained the ability to roam on T-Mobile's LTE network, giving them access to more than double the number of LTE cell sites than Sprint's network alone.

When it comes to actually integrating the two separate networks, T-Mobile has said that it expects the process to take about 3 years. What the mid-summer unification will mean is that the Sprint brand will go away and existing Sprint customers will begin visiting T-Mobile stores, getting T-Mobile bills, and contacting T-Mobile support. For now, Sprint customers are still going to Sprint stores and contacting the same support that they've been using since before the merger.

Ivan Mehta, writing for The Next Web: For years, IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) have tried to make development quicker by predicting the next part of a developer's code. Now, startups like Codota are using AI to help developers with code completion on any code editor. The Israel-based startup was found in 2015 by Dror Weiss and Eran Yahav. Codota's free-to-use autocomplete plug-in supports major languages such as Java, Python, Javascript, PHP, and Rust across major IDEs such as Eclipse and Android Studio. Yahav told me that Codota differs from other code completion AIs as it's able to predict the next token completion by leaning on an AI-based code 'dictionary.'

The Epic Games Store has been down for several hours as people flood the service to snap up GTA V for free. "We are currently experiencing high traffic on the Epic Games Store," Epic acknowledges in a tweet. "We are aware that users may be encountering slow loading times, 500 errors, or launcher crashing at this time and we are actively working to scale. We'll provide an update as soon as we can." ExtremeTech reports: The surge in traffic for the Epic Game Store has apparently been intense enough that it has actually created issues for related Epic services like Epic Battle Breakers and Fortnite.

If you can't get on the EGS to pick up your copy of the game, don't worry -- it's going to be free through May 21. It isn't clear which edition of the game Epic is giving away, however, because nobody can log in to check. Rumors ran wild on this point, with some implying Epic would give away the "latest premium edition with additional content." At the very least, the rumor is that this represents the complete title, not just a front-end for accessing either the single-player campaign or GTA Online. Epic is having something of a banner week. "First, Tim Sweeney's company wowed the internet with the new PS5 demo built on Unreal Engine 5," reports ExtremeTech. "Now the EGS has broken down under the weight of Grand Theft Auto, which puts Epic news front-and-center before PC gamers who might not have cared about the console announcement."

Also worth mentioning is the company on Wednesday launched Epic Online Services, giving developers free access to the same kinds of tools used to support Epic Games' massive Fortnite player base.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract manufacturer of silicon chips, is set to announce plans to build an advanced chip factory in Arizona (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source) as U.S. concerns grow about dependence on Asia for the critical technology. The plans come as the Trump administration has sought to jump-start development of new chip factories in the U.S. due to rising fears about the U.S.'s heavy reliance on Taiwan, China and South Korea to produce microelectronics and other key technologies.

TSMC is expected to announce the plans as soon as Friday after making the decision at a board meeting on Tuesday in Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter. The factory could be producing chips by the end of 2023 at the earliest, they said, adding that both the State and Commerce Departments are involved in the plans. TSMC's new plant would make chips branded as having 5-nanometer transistors, the tiniest, fastest and most power-efficient ones manufactured today, according to a person familiar with the plans. TSMC just started rolling out 5-nanometer chips for customers to test at a factory in Taiwan in recent months. It is unclear how much TSMC has budgeted or if it would get financial incentives from the U.S. to build. A factory capable of making the most advanced chips would almost certainly cost more than $10 billion, according to industry executives.

The Senate has voted to reauthorize the USA Freedom Act without adding an amendment that would have restricted warrantless collection of internet search and web browsing data. It did however adopt an amendment to expand oversight. The Verge reports: The USA Freedom Reauthorization Act restores government powers that expired in March with Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The [Act] lets law enforcement collect "tangible things" related to national security investigations without a warrant, requiring only approval from a secret court that has reportedly rubber-stamped many requests. It passed the House of Representatives earlier this year, but it stalled in the Senate during the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Today, senators approved it with 80 votes for and 16 votes against, according to The Hill. The House of Representatives will need to approve the amended version of the bill before sending it to the president's desk.

The USA Freedom Act was designed to reform the Patriot Act and limit large-scale phone record collection, following leaks from NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. But surveillance critics wanted to extend its limits in the reauthorized version. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) successfully passed an amendment that would expand the role of independent advisers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. Conversely, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT) failed by one vote to pass a rule prohibiting warrantless surveillance of internet search and browsing records. Wyden ultimately voted against the reauthorization.

Sony touted on Thursday the world's first image sensors with built-in artificial intelligence, promising to make data-gathering tasks much faster and more secure. Calling it the first of its kind, Sony said the technology would give "intelligent vision" to cameras for retail and industrial applications. From a report: The new sensors are akin to tiny self-contained computers, incorporating a logic processor and memory. They're capable of image recognition without generating any images, allowing them to do AI tasks like identifying, analyzing or counting objects without offloading any information to a separate chip. Sony said the method provides increased privacy while also making it possible to do near-instant analysis and object tracking. Sony joins tech giants like Huawei and Google that have been building dedicated AI silicon to help accelerate everything from image processing to machine learning.