Black Girls Code
One national study determined that black females comprise only 3.1% of computing jobs in 2019. Kimberly Bryant formed the organization Black Girls Code to teach 1 million girls to code by 2040. The organization was founded in 2011. CNET
dis-rup-shun: Among the many great promises that Bryant’s organization provides, one is to fix the problem of facial recognition. The potentially highly useful technology has been scuttled by major tech companies due to the inherent racial bias determined to be a part of the technology. In short, a technology developed by mostly white programmers has been tested by mostly white testers, resulting in code that works mostly well on white populations, but not well with other races.
Examining evidence against Big Tech
CNBC does a great deal of digging through the more than one million documents collected by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on antitrust. The excerpts provide direct evidence of BigTech execs making defensive and offensive moves to thwart smaller competitors, such as Diapers.com, WeChat and Yelp, to name a few.
dis-rup-shun: Despite the revealing documents, drawing the line between operating a competitive business and using unfair advantage may, in some cases be difficult. Amazon looks more guilty than Facebook. And Google looks more guilty than Apple. Nonetheless, it is clear that these giants need a big babysitter to remind them of the rules of commerce and when they are stepping over the lines.
EU puts Google’s acquisition of Fitbit on hold
In other antitrust news, the EU commission on competition is investigating the proposed $2.1 billion merger of Fitbit with Google, expressing concerns of data privacy. TechCrunch
dis-rup-shun: The EU has long been very aggressive in protecting the data privacy of its citizens, having created the GDPR standards for data privacy over a year ago. Google will likely make some assurances on how and where Fitbit user data is stored, and will likely satisfy the EU commission and move forward with the merger, and continuing its efforts to catch up with the Apple Watch, which is dominating the wearables market.
Sorting out the home security confusion
Our friends at CNET have done a nice job of explaining the growing confusion that is home security. There are DIY systems that are self-monitored, those that include pro-monitoring and there are professionally installed pro-monitored systems, and drawing the line between the categories is more difficult. In a pair of reviews, the CNET team lists the best DIY systems as SimpliSafe, Abode, Nest Secure, Ring Alarm. Other mentions include Honeywell Smart Home Security System, Scout Alarm and ADT/SmarThings Starter Kit. The editors also list the best pro-installed systems, and Comcast Xfinity wins that race.
dis-rup-shun: I will be discussing the differences in home security and smart home buyer segments in a presentation next week to the Security Industry Associations webinar. Anyone is welcome to attend if they register here.