The CLOUD Act and Google: How it affects your data

What is the CLOUD Act and what does it mean when it comes to my privacy as a Google customer?

The CLOUD Act — Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data — is a set of regulations handling how data stored in one country can be accessed by an entity in a different country. It was signed into law on March 23, 2018 as part of the Omnibus Spending Bill.

It’s been praised by technology companies and a joint letter from Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Oath (Yahoo!) lending support to the bill was published on February 6, 2018. it states, in part:

The new Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act reflects a growing consensus in favor of protecting Internet users around the world and provides a logical solution for governing cross-border access to data. Introduction of this bipartisan legislation is an important step toward enhancing and protecting individual privacy rights, reducing international conflicts of law and keeping us all safer.

But privacy and civil rights organizations have a different opinion of the legislation. The ACLU had this to say:

The CLOUD Act represents a major change in the law — and a major threat to our freedoms. Congress should not try to sneak it by the American people by hiding it inside of a giant spending bill. There has not been even one minute devoted to considering amendments to this proposal. Congress should robustly debate this bill and take steps to fix its many flaws, instead of trying to pull a fast one on the American people.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a list of objections as well:

• Includes a weak standard for review that does not rise to the protections of the warrant requirement under the 4th Amendment.
• Fails to require foreign law enforcement to seek individualized and prior judicial review.
• Grants real-time access and interception to foreign law enforcement without requiring the heightened warrant standards that U.S. police have to adhere to under the Wiretap Act.
• Fails to place adequate limits on the category and severity of crimes for this type of agreement.
• Fails to require notice on any level – to the person targeted, to the country where the person resides, and to the country where the data is stored. (Under a separate provision regarding U.S. law enforcement extraterritorial orders, the bill allows companies to give notice to the foreign countries where data is stored, but there is no parallel provision for company-to-country notice when foreign police seek data stored in the United States.)
• The CLOUD Act also creates an unfair two-tier system. Foreign nations operating under executive agreements are subject to minimization and sharing rules when handling data belonging to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and corporations. But these privacy rules do not extend to someone born in another country and living in the United States on a temporary visa or without documentation.

The two sides seem to take the language in the CLOUD Act very differently. That’s to be expected with almost any legal document, and most bills introduced to Congress are written in the same type of language. It purposefully leaves things open to the interpretation of the reader, and in the case of laws, the enforcing body. We all will have our own opinion on the bill, and that’s a healthy discussion to have. But it’s important to know what this means for your data stored on Google’s servers.

Why would Google support this?

It’s important to remember that organizations like the ACLU and EFF exist to examine the worst-case scenario surrounding any rules or laws that govern our personal data. They help create a balance so that courts and legislators can make informed rulings and seeing their objection to the CLOUD Act isn’t a surprise because it makes some major changes to the existing laws. It’s very difficult for a foreign government to gain access to data saved on a U.S. server and for the U.S. government to obtain data stored on a foreign server because the laws vary from country to country.

An example of this in action is currently happening, as the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding if Microsoft needs to turn over data stored on an Irish server that the Department of Justice wants as evidence in a case that dates back to 2013.

Companies like Google would rather see a single set of rules adopted by the U.S. and many other countries that they do business in that might prevent this sort of costly hearings and procedures. They feel the language in the CLOUD Act serves to provide access to our data when a genuine need arises but also protects our privacy against requests that don’t show a legitimate need.

A set of universal laws that protect our privacy is a great idea as long as the laws are sound and enforced.

Civil rights organizations would also like to see a single set of rules adopted around the world, but do not think the CLOUD Act sufficiently protects our information from foreign governments. They take issue with how it changes the judicial review process and the ways it may circumvent the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as how the bill was introduced and packaged into a larger spending bill which won’t have the scrutiny and publicity a change like this deserves before it’s written as law.

Taken at face value, both sides here seem to be correct. That’s because both sides are fulfilling their intended purposes. Google’s legal team and privacy experts want a simple set of rules that apply in every country it operates in and thinks that circumventing a court hearing or obtaining multiple individual warrants can be done in a way that still protects it’s users personal data under the CLOUD act. The ACLU and EFF are against anything that circumvents a judicial process for each individual request and they feel that the current system provides better privacy standards. It’s important for lawmakers to hear both arguments.

What does this mean for me and my data?

There is no language in the CLOUD act that changes the way Google stores your data or the data it can collect. Nothing there strips away the protections of encryption nor does it prevent you from deleting your data from Google’s servers at any time. The only thing the CLOUD act affects is how your data stored on a server in your country, can be shared with another nation’s government. But that is something we all should be concerned about, too, so let’s look at some specifics.

Are my civil liberties being protected?

The CLOUD act requires the Secretary of State and the Attorney General of the United States to certify that any country entering into the CLOUD ACT “affords robust substantive and procedural protections for privacy and civil liberties.” Some specifics are mentioned in the bill to protect our rights as Americans. They include:

• Protection from arbitrary and unlawful interference with privacy
• Fair trial rights
• Freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly
• Prohibitions on arbitrary arrest and detention
• Prohibitions against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

This means any country that participates in the CLOUD act can’t trample the basic civil rights afforded to us as citizens of the U.S. — and that rights of citizens in other countries can’t be trampled by the U.S. government. Protections against a foreign government requiring Google to place a backdoor into Android or Chrome are also in place under the CLOUD act and that Google can’t be asked by any government to perform surveillance on us while we use their products.

Does the CLOUD act give the executive branch complete control over our data rights?

No. While it does allow the State Department and Attorney General’s office to make agreements with foreign nations there is some Congressional oversight built in. Congress will have the power to:

• Review new bilateral agreements for up to 180 days.
• Review changes to existing agreements for up to 90 days.
• Require written certification and explanation for how countries pass certification.
• Fast-track disapproval of bilateral agreements.

It also states that a surveillance order issued by any member country be individually based and “subject to review or oversight by a court, judge, magistrate, or other independent authority,” and that this review must be “prior to, or in proceedings regarding, enforcement of the order.”

It would be better to have these protections in place as part of the way agreements between participating countries are made, but they are there, and in language that’s surely enforceable should a country be found to be overstepping its bounds.

Does the CLOUD act make it easier for foreign nations to access my U.S.-based data?

Yes. The CLOUD act removes many of the obstacles currently in place when another country wants your data stored on a Google server inside the United States. This is where civil rights organizations and Google disagree on the merits of the law.

Because of how any data requests must go through the court system, then be subject to appeal or approval from a higher court, countries are forming their own laws that try and force companies like Google to hand over data without any court involvement if the company wants to do business there out of frustration with the process. The U.S. also tries to claim that U.S. law requires a U.S. company to hand over data even when it’s hosted outside the country like we’re seeing in the Microsoft case presented to the Supreme Court.

Some countries provide civil liberties that are equal or better than what the Constitution offers, but others do not.

The CLOUD act is designed to stop these laws from being enacted and enforced by building a process all countries can agree on and adhere to when it comes to requests for our private data. This is where Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech companies see the benefit of it. They will know what the laws are and how to follow them in all the countries that participate instead of being subject to individual laws or fighting them in courts.

Civil rights organizations take issue that the CLOUD act can force data hosted inside the U.S. to be handed to another nation without being subject to our existing privacy laws. Some countries provide civil liberties that are equal or better than what the Constitution offers, but others do not. They feel that your data hosted in the U.S. should be protected by your rights as a U.S. citizen and not subject to laws and rights another country observes no matter what the review or admittance process entails.

Does the CLOUD act give foreign countries more power to surveil U.S. citizens and target their data for collection?

No, and yes. Broader power is granted for intelligence gathering but there are restrictions and rules in place that cover any wiretapping or surveillance.

• Foreign governments are “explicitly forbidden from surveilling a U.S. person directly or indirectly”.
• Surveillance orders must be of a fixed and of limited duration.
• Surveillance can only happen when it has been shown to be “reasonably necessary” and there is no other way to get the information.

When collecting data for approved cases, there are rules in place that aim to protect our individual rights:

• Direct targeting of a U.S. citizen’s data by non-U.S. governments is prohibited.
• Asking a CLOUD Act certified country to target a U.S. persons’ data is prohibited.
• The targeting a non-U.S. persons’ data for the purpose of collecting a U.S. persons’ data is prohibited. (A country can’t target me to see the conversations you and I have in Facebook Messenger, for example.)
• The “dissemination of a U.S. persons’ data” is prohibited unless there is evidence of a serious crime presented.

There is a lot of room for legal maneuvering in these regulations, which leads us to the biggest question — how will this be enforced? Who will be there to make sure France (for example) follows the laws and regulations about collecting my data inside the U.S.? That’s worrisome. Even more so when you replace France with Afghanistan, or if you live in Europe and replace France with the United States. Current laws are in place to protect our data and we’ve grown accustomed to having them. the CLOUD act would replace many of those protections.

Do I need to worry, and should I delete all of my data and go dark?

I’m not a legal expert so I can’t form an opinion on the legality of the CLOUD act. That’s what we elect officials to do. But I can express a few thoughts on it all. I’m of the opinion that my data stored in the U.S. is protected under the laws of the U.S. and secured with my rights as a U.S. citizen regardless of what France (or Afghanistan) thinks of those protections.

Guaranteed liberties like the 4th amendment (the protection against unreasonable search and seizure defined as an individual right of every U.S. citizen) or its equivalent in other countries should always apply and supersede any type of unilateral act between governments. Every instance where my privacy is to be breached is deserving of its own review in the U.S. courts, especially if I’m not proven guilty of any serious crimes.

My data is deserving of a review process every time a person or nation requests access. So is yours.

But I also see the value that Google sees in the CLOUD act. A legitimate set of rules that apply across the board for all member nations could be a great thing; not only to save money and time in courts but so that I know in advance how my data is protected both inside and outside of the U.S.

We should be able to trust our elected officials to make the right choices, and if you do then there isn’t much to be concerned about here. It seems that Google trusts the “right” way to guarantee our privacy will be put in place, as does Apple and Microsoft. These three companies may have a very different set of offerings to present to us, but one thing they all have in common is the willingness to fight to protect our data. That’s a good reason to assume the sky isn’t falling.

The ACLU and EFF, as well as other privacy and civil rights groups, have also done a great job of making sure we know when our rights may be subject to abuse. We should pay attention to their warnings even if we think they are reaching the worst conclusion. This is a good reason to be against the CLOUD act in any form.

Right now, all we can do is watch the process in action and hope everyone involved is thinking about our individual rights when they make their decision. Once that decision is reached, we can decide how to react. What’s most important is that we know and understand when the laws surrounding our personal data are going to be changed, and what the consequences may be.

Ask Engadget: What’s the best way to clean my touchscreen?

The support shared among readers in the comments section is one of the things we love most about the Engadget community. Over the years, we’ve known you to offer sage advice on everything from Chromecasts and cameras to drones and smartphones. In fact, our community’s knowledge and insights are a reason why many of you participate in the comments.

We truly value the time and detail you all spend in responding to questions from your fellow tech-obsessed commenters, which is why we’ve decided to bring back the much-missed “Ask Engadget” column. This week’s question is straightforward and concerns touchscreens. Weigh in with your advice in the comments — and feel free to send your own questions along to ask@engadget.com!

What’s the best way to clean a smartphone screen (or touchscreen)?

Devindra Hardawar
Senior Editor

Use a microfiber cloth. If there’s dirt, spray a bit of water on the cloth first, then rub until clean. That’s it!

OK, maybe it’s a bit more complicated than that, but those are the key concepts to keep in mind. When cleaning any piece of electronics, you never want to spray water or a cleaning solution on it directly. Water and a bit of elbow grease are usually enough. For stubborn stains, you can also cut the water solution a bit with vinegar. If you don’t have a microfiber cloth around, a soft piece of moistened paper towel will do as well.

The process is a bit tougher if you want to truly sanitize your phone’s screen. For traditional LCD screens, you should never use an alcohol-based cleaner. But with glass touchscreens, you can get away with a bit on a microfiber cloth. Even Apple doesn’t recommend using an alcohol-based cleaner, but if you step into an Apple store, you’ll find workers using pre-moistened alcohol wipes left and right. Go figure, right? While I wouldn’t recommend doing this daily, a quick wipedown with an alcohol-based solution is the best way to kill all the germs nesting on your phone.

Cherlynn Low
Reviews Editor

I totally agree with Devindra: Microfiber cloth is the way to go. If you don’t have one, a wet wipe from Grime Boss or similar designed-for-touchscreen napkin works as well. And if you’re on the go and need something quickly, I find that most fabrics work well, as long as they are at least slightly textured. Ribbed sweaters or rougher napkins are good examples, and your shirt sleeve can work in a jiffy too. Not ideal, but good in a pinch!

Huawei MateBook X Pro review: A polished yet quirky laptop

Laptops are exercises in compromise, with companies sacrificing what they deem to be unnecessary features on the twin altars of portability and longevity. The decisions on what to keep and what to ditch will ultimately be how the hardware is judged in the real world. Huawei’s fourth traditional laptop, the MateBook X Pro, manages to avoid most of the pitfalls around cramming decent hardware in a slender, good-looking body. In fact, it might even be good enough to make laptop buyers think twice about simply running back to the usual cluster of brands.

Hardware

Huawei’s MateBook X Pro illustrates the curious way that we talk about laptop sizes (and other screens), defining them by their display measure. It’s 11.97 inches wide but packs a screen that measures 13 inches from corner-to-corner, making it a 13-inch laptop. Huawei has further compounded the confusion by inserting a 13.9-inch display into a chassis that measures just 11.96-inches wide. So, basically, it’s a 14-inch laptop in a 13-inch body.

Huawei has never paid attention to the critics who say that its devices crib too many design features from Apple. Last year’s MateBook X was a, uh, loving homage to Apple’s suffix-less MacBook, and the Pro clearly draws plenty of inspiration from its Californian namesake. But Huawei wasn’t content to simply rip off Jonathan Ive’s work and pass it off as its own: The company has also done its best to improve upon it.

On the left-hand side, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack and a pair of USB-C ports; one for power, the other Lightning-compatible. Down the right side, however, is a traditional USB-A port that just about fits without breaking the device’s clean lines. It’s a wonderful little addition for all of us who don’t want to spend big on replacing all of their existing USB accessories.

Bigger laptops, like Lenovo’s new X1 Carbon still come with USB-A and HDMI-out ports, for sure, but it’s a testament to Huawei that it included the port on a device measuring just 14.6mm thick. And it’s one in the eye for Dell’s new XPS 13, which is surely the first machine people think about for a 13-inch ultraportable. Sure, there are different trade-offs to consider with that machine, because at 11.6mm, it’s so much thinner. But we still live in a USB A world, so I like having at least one port on my work machine.

Weighing in at 2.9 pounds means that you’ll just about feel its weight when carrying it around, but it’s certainly not the heaviest machine you’ll ever use. Build-quality, too, seems about right for a machine that’s expected to be taken on the road — and while I’d try not to drop it, it feels solid enough that it can take some punishment.

Display and sound

It won’t be long before all laptops ship with bezels so thin that they are no longer worthy of comment, thanks to companies like Dell and, now, Huawei. The skinny bezels around the MateBook X Pro are how the company has crammed a 14-inch display into such a small space. And it does make a difference. It feels like you’re basically gazing at your work (or TV show) rather than something in a bulky frame.

The X Pro’s 3K touchscreen is very, very pretty, with eye-popping colors and crisp font reproduction that you’ll enjoy staring into for hours at a time. The 450 nit backlight is very strong, although the reflective coating on the screen means that you’ll struggle to use it in very bright sunlight. But then, the same could be said for pretty much any laptop at this price.

In the sound and vision stakes, the Huawei MateBook X Pro really does punch well above its weight. The laptop’s stereo speakers have been tuned with Dolby Atmos 2.0 and it really does make a huge difference compared to other small laptops. Close your eyes and you could easily believe that you were listening to a dedicated soundbar rather than tinny laptop speakers. At higher volumes, you’ll get the odd rattle when the bass (or low-talking dialogue) gets too much, but otherwise, I’m impressed.

The laptop does ship with a touchscreen, but since you can’t flip it into either a stand or tablet mode, its utility is limited. Unless you’re really, really into getting smeary fingerprints all over a glossy laptop screen when you’re trying to work and can’t be bothered to use the touchpad.

Keyboard and trackpad (and camera)

If there’s one thing that a laptop like this needs, it’s a rock solid keyboard — especially if you spend your days typing and editing documents for a living. Huawei chose not to reinvent the wheel here, opting for a chiclet keyboard that is generously-sized and spaced with short, but decent, amounts of travel. There’s a satisfying click at the bottom of each keypress that lets your fingers know you’ve successfully typed each letter. Coming from a 2013 MacBook Air, there was precisely zero learning curve to getting on this keyboard, and that’s a good thing. Nestled above the delete key on the right-hand side is a fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello that worked pretty well most of the time.

I have fewer kind things to say about the trackpad, which is generously-proportioned but more than a little bit frustrating. No matter how much I messed with the sensitivity settings, I couldn’t get the damn thing to work as well as I wanted. Switching between browser tabs often saw the pad misinterpret my drags as taps, meaning that I wound up dragging tabs out of windows. Palm rejection is another issue, and grazing my (admittedly meaty) hand across the pad often sent the cursor lurching up my documents. The company is concerned that it may be a production issue on this early hardware, and so will be sending over a replacement. If the problems go away, I’ll update this section accordingly.

Ordinarily, discussions of a laptop’s built-in webcam would be placed in the hardware section for good and obvious reasons — or ignored entirely. But if the MateBook X Pro is known for one thing, it’s for a pop-up webcam sited in the middle of the keyboard’s function row. Placed between the F6 and F7 keys, users have to push the dedicated key down to see the one-megapixel unit pop up into view.

The webcam is small and pleasingly dinky, with the usual green light to warn you when the lens is in use. Unfortunately, the lens is fixed in one place, and you can’t even make small angle adjustments to its placement or position. That means it’s still less useful than Dell’s implementation, which embedded the webcam in the bottom bezel of its display.

Armchair commenters have already said that the camera’s angle, which is low and pointed toward your face, is inevitably going to be unflattering. This is true, but only in part, because you can avoid showing the world your double (and triple) chin by sitting a bit further back. Although you won’t be able to do some sneaky typing, midcall, without the person on the other end of the line seeing it.

If you’re used to seeing your paranoid colleagues sullying their laptops with stickers to block their built-in webcams, then the pop-up camera is a welcome development. Even if it’s activated without your consent, the worst thing it’ll be able to see is the black darkness inside its own housing. On one hand, that should make it harder for hackers, and the feds, to spy upon you. On the other, if you’re paranoid about the CIA and FBI, you’re probably also nervous about the supposed close relationship between Huawei and China’s government.

Performance and battery life

PCMark 7
PCMark 8 (Creative Accelerated)
3DMark 11
3DMark (Sky Diver)
ATTO (top reads/writes)

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2018, Core i7-8550U, 16GB RAM, GeForce MX150)
6,167
4,147
E5,622 / P3,670 / X1,235
8,289
2.96 GB/s / 4.60 GB/s

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2018, Core i5-8250U, Intel HD 620)
6,298
5,002
E3,701 / P2,062 / X493
4,706
2.96 GB/s / 1.97 GB/s

Dell XPS 13 (2018, Core i7-8550U, Intel UHD 620)
6,438
4,918
E3,875 / P2,166 / X526
4,901
3.1 GB/s / 527 MB/s

Surface Laptop (Core i5, Intel HD 620)
5,075
4,279
E2,974 / P1,702 / X429
3,630
658 MB/s / 238 MB/s

Lenovo Yoga 910 (2.7GHz Core i7-7500U, 8GB, Intel HD 620)
5,822
4,108
E2,927 / P1,651 / X438
3,869
1.59 GB/s / 313 MB/s

Razer Blade (Fall 2016) (2.7GHz Intel Core-i7-7500U, Intel HD 620)
5,462
3,889
E3,022 / P1,768
4,008
1.05 GB/s / 281 MB/s

ASUS ZenBook 3 (2.7GHz Intel Core-i7-7500U, Intel HD 620)
5,448
3,911
E2,791 / P1,560
3,013
1.67 GB/s / 1.44 GB/s

Razer Blade Stealth (2.5GHz Intel Core i7-6500U, Intel HD 520)
5,131
3,445
E2,788 / P1,599 / X426
3,442
1.5 GB/s / 307 MB/s

My MateBook X Pro review unit is the top-of-the-line model, with a Core i7-8550U clocked at 1.8GHz, 16GB RAM and a GeForce MX150 graphics. It cold boots in about 10 seconds and was able to handle pretty much everything I threw at it without stuttering or slowing down. Running Edge and writing in Google Docs with only a couple of other tabs open was, however, enough to make the machine run a little warm. Not so much that it would burn you, but warm enough that you’d struggle to use this on your lap for long periods of time.

Benchmark-wise, the device certainly stands toe-to-toe with its peers and packs enough of a punch, although it’s worth remembering that this isn’t really designed for intensive video editing or high-end games. I did fire up Steam and play a few titles and, in a pinch, the unit would do for a quick game of Arkham Origins (don’t judge me) or Overwatch, so long as you weren’t maxing out the settings.

Huawei claims that the MateBook X Pro can get up to 12 hours of video playback in a single session, and that’s almost true. In our battery-rundown test, which involves looping a local HD video, the laptop lasted for a very impressive 11 hours and 7 minutes. That puts it well ahead of Dell’s XPS 13, and close to the 2016 MacBook Pro, making it ideal for long-haul flights where you need to keep yourself amused. When I used the laptop as my work machine during a trade show, doing tasks like image editing, its life fell to closer to the eight-hour mark.

Pricing and the competition

Huawei hasn’t spoken about US pricing or availability for the MateBook X Pro, probably because America’s political community is waging a war of words against the company. Right now, we have vague assurances that we’ll learn more at some point soon. And even if the X Pro does make it to the US, it may not be sold in many places, thanks to several retailers cutting ties with the brand.

Consequently, we only have European pricing for the base model, which is €1,499 ($1,840) for a MateBook X Pro with a Core i5 CPU and 256GB storage. Whatever the internal options, however, the machine is available in two colors: silver and dark gray.

If the machine ever arrives in the US, its price will likely be much lower thanks to the differences in sales tax compared to Europe. But if we use that figure as a rough benchmark, what are the alternatives?

If you’re looking for a premium ultraportable with a good display and weirdly-placed webcam, then our old friend the Dell XPS 13 is the natural choice. For $1,199.99 you can get a Core i7 with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD that has been paired with that skinny-bezel display. If you have a little more cash, however, you can push those specs to 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 4K version of the InfinityEdge screen for $1,999.99.

Another alternative, especially if you’re looking for a laptop from a stronger PC brand, would be Razer’s Blade Stealth. For $1,649.99, you can snag a 13-inch Stealth with a 3,200 x 1,800 display, 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD and a Core i7 CPU. The Stealth, unfortunately, doesn’t have the option to add graphics options beyond Intel’s integrated system — you need to upgrade to the $1,659.99 Blade to get NVIDIA add-ons.

And, of course, for those users who aren’t tethered to Windows as a platform, you can also pick up Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro. The $1,499 model ships packing a Core i5, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD, not to mention a webcam that sits where all webcams normally sit.

Wrap-up

Because Huawei has been so reticent to talk about US pricing and availability, it’s hard to offer definitive recommendations. After all, it may be hard to find over here and may be available only in limited quantities in Europe, making it an import-only job for hardcore devotees. This is a shame because it really is a nice piece of kit, and one that deserves to be taken seriously as an alternative to other business laptops.

It has a pretty display and, thanks to its small-bezel design, one that’s far larger than you would expect on a device of this size. It solves, at least for now, the issues of backward compatibility as we transition to a new USB standard without being clunky. And, of course, there’s the pop-up webcam, a smart, if weird, solution to the privacy concerns people have regarding their computers.

There’s still the issue with that fussy trackpad, which may be a one-off or a total dealbreaker for some of you. And even if it did come to the US, even with a flawless trackpad, it still needs to be competitively priced. Only when we have firm answers to those questions can we say for sure if it’s worth splashing the cash on.

A live-action ‘Street Fighter’ TV show is in development

According to Deadline, Street Fighter fans should keep an eye out for a new TV series currently in development from Entertainment One. The producers of the new show were previously involved with the web series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, and now we’ll find out what they can do for TV. Capcom’s Street Fighter executive producer Yoshinori Ono said: “After a long search, guided by the team behind Assassin’s Fist, we are delighted to be partnering with a company with the outstanding TV experience of Mark Gordon and eOne. They have the credentials to help us launch a faithful adaptation of Street Fighter as a major TV series.”

Stuntman Joey Ansah has come a long way from 2010’s Street Fighter Legacy short, and is one of the executive producers on this project. The new show is based on the plot of the Street Fighter II game, as Ryu, Ken, Guile and Chun-Li chase down M. Bison and become involved in the World Warrior fighting tournament. Fortunately, the team’s track record suggests they’ll be able to give this project the treatment it deserves, so we don’t end up with a Street Fighter: The Movie (The Game) situation.

Source: Deadline

The OnePlus 5T is no longer for sale in North America, making way for the OnePlus 6

OnePlus has stopped selling the 5T to North American customers.

OnePlus has a certain pattern with its phone releases: there is a new release about every six months, and it stops selling the current model before the new one is announced. To that end, OnePlus has stopped sales of the 5T before announcing the OnePlus 6.

Engadget reports that the stock shortage is due to higher-than-expected demand, and the company does not intend to manufacture any more of the current model. This isn’t bad news for the company though: the North American market accounts for 25% of the company’s total online sales, after a 139% growth in North American sales compared to the previous year.

OnePlus has long kept lean stock of its phones, which lead to the invite system in early years. Less inventory on the shelf means less costs to OnePlus, which is part of why its phones are cheaper than comparable devices. Still, it’s unfortunate for potential customers that need a device in the next couple months. For those that really want a OnePlus 5T, Amazon does have them in stock, but for $50 over MSRP and without a warranty. If you can wait a couple more months, we expect the OnePlus 6 will ship in June of this year.

Are you going to wait for the OnePlus 6, or just purchase a different device? Let us know down below!

OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5

• OnePlus 5T review: Come for the value, not the excitement
• OnePlus 5T specs
• Should you upgrade from the OnePlus 3T?
• OnePlus 5T vs. Galaxy S8: Beast mode
• All of the latest OnePlus 5T news
• Join the discussion in the forums

OnePlus
Amazon

Spielberg doesn’t think Netflix should win Oscars

In an interview, Steven Spielberg stated that content on Netflix should be considered television…and ineligible for Oscars. “Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie,” he said on while chatting to ITV news during a tour promoting his upcoming film Ready Player One.

Spielberg responded to a direct question about Netflix’s threat to the cinematic form by criticizing studios for preferring tentpole blockbusters to making smaller movies, which have been subsequently driven to streaming services. Television (presumably including streaming content) is thriving with quality and art, he said, but it endangers film as a form because creators won’t brave the indie awards scene and just go to SVOD providers instead. But once you do, the creation crosses a Rubicon to become television, and shouldn’t be considered for an Academy Award.

Others in the old guard of the film world similarly reject content on streaming services. Cannes banned Netflix from competition this year after last year’s uproar over allowing Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories to run for awards. The festival head Theirry Fremaux changed the rules to require entering films to be screened in theaters, which Netflix refused to do. In his ITV interview, Spielberg likewise said films shouldn’t qualify for Oscars if they only run in cinemas for a limited time. Ire for Netflix rose in the weeks leading up to this year’s Academy Awards as members complained about whether streaming movies should be considered films — and up for competition against traditionally-released fare.

Via: io9

Source: ITV News (YouTube)

Yet another security vulnerability afflicts India’s citizen database

India’s Aadhaar database is a national system that contains personal data and biometric information on over 1.1 billion Indian citizens. While joining is technically voluntary (for now, at least), enrollment has become necessary for things like opening bank accounts and applying for loans, filing tax returns and buying or selling property. But Aadhaar has been rife with security issues and ZDNet reports that another, currently unaddressed, problem is exposing Indian citizens’ information.

ZDNet is withholding details about the security lapse because it says Indian officials haven’t done anything about it. Karan Saini, a New Delhi-based security researcher, spotted the vulnerability and says a data leak in a state-owned utility company’s system is letting anyone retrieve information on any Aadhaar member. Names, Aadhaar identity numbers and bank information are all exposed.

ZDNet spent over a month trying to get in touch with Indian authorities and after receiving no replies, it contacted the Indian Consulate in New York. ZDNet spent two weeks describing the problem, but it remained unaddressed. It said the vulnerability was still accessible at the time of publication.

Aadhaar has experienced a number of other security issues in the past. Earlier this year, reporters at Indian publication The Tribune were able to buy an Aadhaar administrator ID and password from an individual through WhatsApp. It cost less than $8, took 20 minutes and they were able to enter any Aadhaar ID number and access that person’s name, address, photo, phone number and email.

Aadhaar has attracted a lot of criticism for the repeated security lapses it has suffered over the years and the country’s Supreme Court is currently assessing Aadhaar’s constitutional validity.

Source: ZDNet

Proposed law would insist on work-life balance for New Yorkers

With all of us connected to our phones day and night, it’s pretty easy to respond to work requests after official office hours are over. European countries like France have passed laws allowing employees to ignore employers after hours, giving citizens the right to disconnect. Now New Yorkers may have a similar freedom if a new bill proposed by the city council passes.

The New York Times notes that the average New Yorker works more than 49 hours per week, which is longer than those in other large cities across the US. In addition, the Times reports that workers spend an extra eight hours per week managing email after work, according to a 2017 survey.

The new bill won’t make it illegal to ask employees to check email or other electronic communications after work hours, but would allow employees to ignore such missives with no threat of retaliation. “This bill would make it unlawful for private employees in the city of New York to require employees to check and respond to email and other electronic communications during non-work hours,” says the bill’s abstract. The law would apply to any business with 10 or more employees doing business in the municipality. If it passes, other cities could potentially look at similar legislation, freeing us all up from having to stay connected, even after the workday is over.

Via: The New York Times

Source: The New York City Council

Huawei is reportedly in talks with Sirin Labs to build a ‘blockchain smartphone’

It looks like Huawei may soon embrace the blockchain trend. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the company is considering building a phone using Sirin OS, a mobile operating system developed by Sirin Labs that’s capable of running blockchain applications. The report notes that the operating system would run alongside Android.

While no agreement is in place just yet between the new companies, Huawei could be the first major smartphone manufacturer to adopt blockchain technology if a deal is made.

There are a few advantages to using blockchain. It’s basically a ledger that records every single transaction chronologically. This ledger is decentralized, meaning that there’s no one corporation or organization that holds all of its information. Instead, the information is stored across all devices. The technology has been mostly adopted in the cryptocurrency world — but it could easily be applied to other areas. It has also has yet to become a mainstream concept — though adoption by companies like Huawei could help change that.

Sirin Labs has been developing its blockchain-based operating system for about a year now, and it’s aimed at allowing users to access blockchain-based apps, such as cryptocurrency wallets. It has even built its own phone, called the Finney phone, which it plans to sell for $1,000 in the second half of the year. The phone will offer features such as an embedded cold storage cryptocurrency wallet, which allows for the storage of cryptocurrency offline.

Huawei and Sirin Labs have reportedly been in talks for about two months. As reported by Bloomberg, a caption under an image posted by Sirin Labs in a Telegram group chat reads: “Amazing meeting just concluded between Sirin Labs and Huawei. Among other things discussed was the possibility of cooperating together to bring blockchain technology to the masses in a secure way.”

It will be very interesting to see what comes of the talks between the two companies, if anything. Either way, we’re likely to see blockchain technology start bleeding into consumer consciousness, though whether it’s in the form of a phone or something else remains to be seen. For now, blockchain technology is largely limited to cryptocurrencies.

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Instagram is messing with the news feed again, and more changes are coming

Instagram

Instagram may not be going back to chronological order but the network is working to keep those weeks-old images from popping up in your feed. On Thursday, March 22, Instagram shared a news feed update that will boost newer posts, along with testing a button that will allow users to choose when to refresh the feed. The changes are the first in what Instagram says are some news feed improvements that will happen “over the next few months,” and follow an update allowing linked hashtags and profiles in the bio.

The date on the post has always played a role in Instagram’s feed, becoming part of the algorithm when Instagram moved away from the chronological feed. While the date was always factored in, Instagram is moving the date higher up the ranks in how the algorithm decides what to include where, which means newer posts will start popping up earlier in the feed.

Instagram says the change is based on user feedback. “With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about,” the official blog post reads.

The second potential change is a refresh button — but so far, the tool is just a test. A “new posts” button will allow users to choose when to refresh the feed, avoiding losing your spot with an automatic refresh when, say, you move out of the app to send a text and come back a few minutes later. Doing nothing will save the spot in the feed, while hitting the new post button will take users back to the top of the feed.

That is not all the changes coming to the Instagram news feed, however. “Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more about improvements we’re making to feed,” the post says. “Our goal is to be the best place to share and connect with the people and interests that matter most to you.”

The change comes one day after Instagram announced the ability to created linked hashtags and mentions inside bios. The update allows you to create clickable hashtags or links to other profiles. Users will be notified if a link to their profile pops up in another users bio and will have the option to remove the link, which still leaves the text intact.

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