Inria releases some source code of French contact-tracing app

French research institute Inria has released a small portion of the source code that is going to power France’s contact-tracing app, StopCovid. It is available on several GitLab repositories under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. While the French government announced that everything would be open source, it’s going to be bit a more complicated than that.

As Inria wrote in the announcement, the project is now divided in three parts. Critical elements of the infrastructure are not going to be available on the GitLab repositories. Instead, Inria will only release documentation on the security implementations, as ANSSI and France’s data protection watchdog CNIL recommended some level of transparency on this front.

A second part is going to be released publicly, but Inria is not looking for external contributions or, as developers would say, pull/merge requests. You can expect front-facing work here and things that don’t interact directly with the contact-tracing protocol.

The third part consists of the contact-tracing protocol and its implementation. This time, Inria and the community of companies and research teams working on StopCovid are looking for external contributions. The idea here is to improve the protocol itself when it comes to privacy and security.

France is moving forward with its centralized contact-tracing protocol called ROBERT. I analyzed the pros and cons of the protocol when Inria and Fraunhofer released the specifications.

It’s very different from Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API, as ROBERT relies on a central server to assign a permanent ID as well as a bunch of ephemeral IDs attached to this permanent ID. Your phone collects the ephemeral IDs of other app users around you. When somebody is diagnosed COVID-19-positive, the server receives all the ephemeral IDs associated with people with whom they’ve interacted. If one or several of your ephemeral IDs get flagged, you receive a notification.

By choosing a pseudonymous system, you have to trust your government that its implementation is rock-solid. For instance, if the app sends too much information when it communicates with the server, it would become possible to put names on permanent IDs.

Inria says that StopCovid could be released in early June, if everything goes well. France’s digital minister, Cédric O, said in a TV interview that the government wanted to release StopCovid on June 2.

Hundreds of French academics sign letter asking for safeguards on contact tracing

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Top members of Google’s Pixel team have left the company

Key Pixel team members Marc Levoy and Mario Queiroz are out at Google. The departures, first reported by The Information, have been confirmed on the pages of the former Distinguished Engineer and Pixel General Manager, respectively.

Both members were key players on Google’s smartphone hardware team before exiting earlier this year. Levoy was a key member of the Pixel imaging team, with an expertise in computational photography that helped make the smartphone’s camera among the best in class. Queiroz was the number two on the Pixel team.

Pixel 4 review: Google ups its camera game

The exits come as the software giant has struggled to distinguish itself in a crowded smartphone field. The products have been generally well-received (with the exception of the Pixel 4’s dismal battery life), but the Android-maker has thus far been unable to rob much market share from the likes of Samsung and Huawei.

The Information report sheds some additional light on disquiet among the Pixel leadership. Hardware head Rick Osterloh reportedly voiced some harsh criticism during an all-hands late last year. It certainly seems possible the company saw fit to shake things up a bit, though Google declined TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Breaking into the smartphone market has been a white whale for the company for some time. Google has explored the space through its Nexus partnerships, along with its short-lived Motorola Mobility acquisition (2012-2014). The Pixel is possibly the most successful of these projects, but Google’s struggles have coincided with an overall flattening of the market.

The company did find some success with last year’s budget Pixel 3A. The followup Pixel 4A was rumored for a late May launch, though the device has reportedly been delayed.

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Instagram Lite shuts down in advance of a relaunch

Instagram Lite, the two-year-old version of the Instagram app aimed at emerging markets, has quietly disappeared. The previously highly ranked app vanished from the Google Play charts on April 13 in the countries where it was active, including Kenya, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines. Existing Instagram Lite users have been directed to the main Instagram app via a message that claimed “Instagram Lite is No Longer Supported.”

Android Police first reported the news of Instagram Lite’s shutdown. TechCrunch has since confirmed details of the app’s removal with Instagram parent, Facebook.

“We are rolling back the test of the Instagram Lite app, a Facebook spokesperson said. “You can start using the latest version of Instagram instead to connect with the people and things you love,” they noted.

Instagram Lite launched on Google Play in June 2018 without fanfare. Like other “Lite”-branded apps on the market, Instagram Lite’s goal was to offer a smaller download that takes up less space on a mobile device — a feature that specifically caters to users in emerging markets, where storage space is a concern. At launch, the “Lite” version of Instagram was 573 kilobytes, or roughly 1/55th the size of Instagram’s then 32-megabyte application.

Like Instagram, the slimmed-down Instagram Lite app allowed users to filter and post photos to a feed or to Stories, and to browse the Explore page for more content. However, it lacked the option to post videos or direct-message friends upon arrival.

On June 28, 2018, Mexico was the first market to receive Instagram Lite. It also accounted for the majority — 62% — of its total installs. To date, Instagram Lite was downloaded approximately 4.4 million times in Mexico, according to data from Sensor Tower, shared with TechCrunch. The second largest market was the Philippines, with 14% of installs. Kenya and Peru trailed, with 12.5% and 12% of installs, respectively.

Due to demand for “Lite” applications in these regions, Instagram Lite was able to climb to the top of Google Play’s charts. The app was ranked No. 8 in Kenya in the “Social” category on Google Play, as well as No. 12 in Peru, No. 15 in Mexico and No. 22 in the Philippines.

On April 15, it vanished from the charts, indicating a removal in those regions, which the company has now confirmed.

While it’s unusual to pull an app entirely when an update is planned, we understand that’s what Facebook has in store for Instagram Lite.

The company — which has always characterized the app as a “test” — is planning to take what it has learned over these past years to develop a new version of Instagram Lite. It’s unclear how far out that launch may be, but the new version is currently being built.

Instagram Lite was one of a few “Lite” apps that Facebook offers, led by the early launch of Facebook Lite in 2015, followed by Messenger Lite in April 2018. A number of major tech companies also offer apps aimed at emerging markets, often dubbed their “Lite” version, including Uber, Tinder, Spotify, Twitter and others. Google does the same under the “Go” brand.

But unlike many of these efforts, Instagram Lite had not yet reached some of the larger emerging markets these apps tend to target, like India, Indonesia, Brazil and others. That could change in the future, however.

In the meantime, Lite users are being directed to the main Instagram app. Alternately, they can use Instagram via the web from their phone.

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Google’s Android ad ID targeted in strategic GDPR tracking complaint

Now here’s an interesting GDPR complaint: Is Google illegally tracking Android users in Europe via a unique, device-assigned advertising ID?

First, what is the Android advertising ID? Per Google’s description to developers building apps for its smartphone platform it’s — [emphasis added by us]

The advertising ID is a unique, user-resettable ID for advertising, provided by Google Play services. It gives users better controls and provides developers with a simple, standard system to continue to monetize their apps. It enables users to reset their identifier or opt out of personalized ads (formerly known as interest-based ads) within Google Play apps.

Not so fast, says noyb — a European not-for-profit privacy advocacy group that campaigns to get regulators to enforce existing rules around how people’s data can be used — the problem with offering a tracking ID that can only be reset is that there’s no way for an Android user to not be tracked.

Simply put, resetting a tracker is not the same thing as being able to not be tracked at all.

noyb has now filed a formal complaint against Google under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), accusing it of tracking Android users via the ad ID without legally valid consent.

As we’ve said many, many, many times before, GDPR applies a particular standard if you’re relying on consent — as Google appears to be here, since Android users are asked to consent to its terms on device set up, yet must agree to a resettable but not disable-able advertising ID.

Yet, under the EU data protection framework, for consent to be legally valid it must be informed, purpose limited and freely given.

Freely given means there must be a choice (which must also be free).

Thus the question arises, if an Android user can’t say no to an ad ID tracker — they can merely keep resetting it (with no user control over any previously gathered data) — where’s their free choice to not be tracked by Google?

“In essence, you buy a new Android phone, but by adding a tracking ID they ship you a tracking device,” said Stefano Rossetti, privacy lawyer at noyb.eu, in a statement on the complaint.

noyb’s contention is that Google’s ‘choice’ is “between tracking or more tracking” — which isn’t, therefore, a genuine choice to not be tracked at all.

“Google claims that users can control the processing of their data, but when put to the test Android does not allow deleting the tracking ID,” it writes. “It only allows users to generate a new tracking ID to replace the existing one. This neither deletes the data that was collected before, nor stops tracking going forward.”

“It is grotesque,” continued Rossetti. “Google claims that if you want them to stop tracking you, you have to agree to new tracking. It is like cancelling a contract only under the condition that you sign a new one. Google’s system seems to structurally deny the exercise of users’ rights.”

We reached out to Google for comment on noyb’s complaint. At the time of writing the company had not responded but we’ll update this report if it provides any remarks.

The tech giant is under active GDPR investigation related to a number of other issues — including its location tracking of users; and its use of personal data for online advertising.

The latest formal complaint over its Android ad ID has been lodged with Austria’s data protection authority on behalf of an Austrian citizen. (GDPR contains provisions that allow for third parties to file complaints on behalf of individuals.)

noyb says the complaint is partially based on a recent report by the Norwegian Consumer Council — which analyzed how popular apps are rampantly sharing user data with the behavioral ad industry.

In terms of process, it notes that the Austrian DPA may involve other European data watchdogs in the case.

This is under a ‘one-stop-shop’ mechanism in the GDPR whereby interested watchdogs liaise on cross-border investigations, with one typically taking a lead investigator role (likely to be the Irish Data Protection Commission in any complaint against Google).

Under Europe’s GDPR, data regulators have major penalty powers — with fines that can scale as high as 4% of global annual turnover, which in Google’s case could amount to up to €5BN. And the ability to order data processing is suspended or stopped. (An outcome that would likely be far more expensive to a tech giant like Google.)

However there has been a dearth of major fines since the regulation began being applied, almost two years ago (exception: France’s data watchdog hit Google with a $57M fine last year). So pressure is continuing to pile up over enforcement — especially on Ireland’s Data Protection Commission which handles many cross-border complaints but has yet to issue any decisions in a raft of cross-border cases involving a number of tech giants.

Lack of big tech GDPR decisions looms large in EU watchdog’s annual report

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Emteria, maker of industrial version of Android, raises cash from HTG and Runa Capital

Emteria, is a startup that emerged out of the limitations of the official Android Open Source Project. AOSP just isn’t good enough to be used in industrial applications which means if industry wants to use it, the platform must be extended and customized. Some industries still use outdated platforms like Windows CE to power things like ticket machines, for instance.

Emteria developed emteria.OS, an adapted Android operating system for industrial settings. As a result of its work, the startup has now raised €1.5 million in funding from the German state-backed High-Tech Gründerfonds and Runa Capital, based out of San Francisco.

While Android is the most popular OS with 2.5 billion active Android devices, pure-play Android isn’t suited to an industrial environment, where you can’t access Google Play Services, vendors’ centralized updates and have to limit the user-accessible functionality.

Emteria.OS can be used to power ticket scanning devices, cashier desks, ticketing machines, smart home controllers, video conferencing and alarming systems – or whatever a customer has in mind. They also get personalized branding, security updates, and ongoing support from the emteria team. emteria.OS is now used by over 75,000 сustomers.

Dr. Igor Kalkov, founder and CEO of emteria said: “The B2B market has so far failed to maximize the Android platform even though it has reached a market share of more than 70% for mobile operating systems. In the B2B environment, this development leaves much to be desired. Our vision is to free industrial devices from their individualized software, just like the mobile revolution.”

He said currently, software service providers often offer development contracts, but generate source code which the customer can’t do anything with, outside of the contract. Development contracts are also expensive and result in 100 companies cooking 100 different Android distributions.

Daniela Bach, Investment Manager at HTGF, said: “We are very convinced of this technology’s potential in the field of industrial operating systems.”

Dmitry Galperin, Partner at Runa Capital, added: “The team has reached great success among the Raspberry Pi community by developing an important layer for device configuration and management not available from the open-source Android. We believe that emteria will continue to attract more IoT developers.”

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YouTube Music adds a transfer option ahead of Google Play Music’s shutdown this year

Google is making it easier for Google Play Music users to make the switch to the company’s now preferred music app, YouTube Music, ahead of its plans to shut down Google Play Music later this year. Starting today, Google Play Music users will be able to move their libraries, personal taste preferences and playlists to the newer YouTube Music service by way of a new “transfer” option available in the app.

The company has been steadily working to make YouTube Music its default music service, in order to eventually replace Google Play Music. Last year, for example, Google shut down the Google Play Artist Hub and began preinstalling YouTube Music on Android smartphones. It said at the time those moves were part of its broader strategy to merge the two services.

Now we have a deadline of sorts for Google Play Music’s end-of-life — sometime later this year, according to Google’s announcement.

One challenge in this transition was the ability for Google Play users to retain their personalization preferences, library and playlists from Google Play Music, when moving to the new service. Most users did not relish the idea of starting from scratch after building up years of history on Google Play Music.

That’s where today’s new “transfer” option comes in.

On YouTube Music, users will be able to now click on a “transfer” button on iOS and Android to start the transfer of their uploads, purchases, added songs and albums, personal and subscribed playlists, likes and dislikes, curated stations and personal taste preferences.

Following the transfer, users will immediately see an updated YouTube Music home screen reflecting the impact of this new data on their personalized recommendations. YouTube Music will also email users when the transfer is complete and their music has been fully added to the in-app “Library” tab.

Current customers will be alerted to the transfer option via an email that includes more detailed instructions.

Google also addressed Google Play Music user feedback by rolling out new features to YouTube Music aimed at making its newer service more compatible (in terms of feature set) with the older one.

It recently added increased playlist length (from 1,000 to 5,000 songs), support for uploads (up to 100,000 tracks — which is 50,000 more compared with Google Play Music), offline listening, lyrics and an Explore tab for discovering new music, playlists and genres.

In addition, podcast listeners are able to visit a webpage (http://podcasts.google.com/transfer) to transfer their subscriptions and episode progress to Google Podcasts with a single click. The Google Podcasts app, like YouTube Music, will serve as Google’s default podcast listening experience, similar to how Apple’s Podcasts is its own dedicated app for audio programs.

YouTube Music has yet to rival Spotify or Apple in terms of paying music subscribers. Earlier this year, the company said YouTube Music and YouTube Premium combined to have more than 20 million paid subscribers, but it didn’t break out how many users converted to paid customers to access the music subscription offering. Meanwhile, Apple announced last year its Apple Music service topped 60 million subscribers; Spotify as of Q1 2020 now has 130 million paid subscribers.

In part, YouTube Music’s struggles are due to the fact that Google is operating two separate music services, splitting its customer base. When Google Play Music fully shuts down, that could change.

YouTube Music is being offered at the same $9.99 per month subscription price as Google Play Music, which includes on-demand streaming, background listening, offline access and an ad-free experience. For $11.99 per month, users can extend that experience to YouTube by way of YouTube Premium.

Google didn’t provide an exact date for the shutdown of Google Play Music.

“For now, users will continue to have access to both services,” the company said. “We want to ensure everyone has time to transfer their content and get used to YouTube Music, so we’ll provide plenty of notice ahead of users no longer having access to Google Play Music later this year.”

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China’s smartphone shipments are reportedly up for April, following COVID-19-fueled decline

Smartphone shipments are reportedly beginning to see signs of life in China, after a sizable dip from the COVID-19 pandemic. New numbers from China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (a government-connected agency) point to a 17% rise in shipments for April, pointing to some recovery for the market.

The figure, from the China state-supported group, is virtually a mirror reflection of the 18% dip Canalys reported for Q1. COVID-19 was the primary culprit for those figures, through a combination of decreased spending among China’s phone-buying public and sizable supply chain constraints, as many Asian nations were on lockdown to slow the spread.

Both Huawei and Apple benefited from the rebound, though Reuters notes that the firm opted not to include an OS breakdown for the first time in a while, making it more difficult to parse market share.

Smartphone shipments dropped 18% in China, thanks to COVID-19

Smartphone shipments have suffered across the board, along with countless other industries. A rebound for China’s market could be a bellwether for positive numbers for the industry moving forward — especially given the country’s close ties to the global supply chain. In spite of being the first country hit, China’s official figures for COVID-19 deaths have remained low, compared to countries in Europe and North America.

That’s likely due in part to some draconian measures used to stop the spread. Other countries (the U.S. in particular) may not be so likely to rebound from the pandemic, leading to a more protracted impact on the global market. 

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