A dozen Ford Motor Co. workers are experimenting with wearable social-distancing devices that could be deployed more widely once the carmaker reopens idled manufacturing plants.

The small group of volunteers at a Ford factory in Plymouth, Michigan, are trying out watch-like wearables that vibrate when employees come within six feet of each other, said Kelli Felker, a company spokeswoman. The aim is to keep workers from breaching the distance that health experts recommend to avoid spreading the coronavirus.

The social-distancing device could be part of a broader array of new safety protocols Ford deploys as it resumes production as early as next month after at least a roughly six-week shutdown. The automaker is also expected to subject all workers entering a facility to a thermal-imaging scan to detect a fever. And it will provide staff with masks and, in some cases, plastic face shields, Felker said. The company is devising the measures along with the United Auto Workers union.

“Ford and the UAW are working closely to identify different ways to keep our people safe while they are at work,” Felker said.

The Samsung Electronics Co. smartwatches Ford is piloting use software from closely held technology firm Radiant RFID, according to a spokesman for the Austin, Texas-based company. The devices utilize Bluetooth short-wave and low-power technology to detect proximity and clustering of workers.

In near real-time, workers receive a vibration and a color-coded warning on the watch to let them know when they are closer than six feet to another person. Supervisors also receive alerts and reports that can be used to monitor social distancing and clustering in the workplace, according to Radiant.

Ford has been piloting the new safety procedures at factories where it’s now producing ventilators and respirators to supply hospitals fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Those practices – which include requiring workers to complete a daily online survey on their health and those they’re in contact with – are expected to be rolled out to the company’s traditional auto factories as they reopen.
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The automaker hasn’t set a date for when it plans to resume production.

Given the level of concern many users have had with Zoom’s security and privacy, the company has been hard at work during the first two weeks of April to bring better control to its video conferencing software. The first changes transformed the safety profile of using its service, albeit with additional overhead for hosts and people joining meetings. On April 8, Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, told NPR, “When it comes to a conflict between usability and privacy and security, privacy and security [are] more important–even at the cost of multiple clicks.”

Here is a synopsis of the recent changes.

Passwords required. All free-tier accounts, free upgraded education accounts, and single-host paid accounts now need a password. It’s generated automatically and may be changed but cannot be removed. This blocks access by those who obtain the meeting ID but not the password, and it prevents access through bots trying to join randomly generated meeting IDs in the reasonable hope of connecting to a password-free session.

Meeting ID hidden. The meeting ID no longer appears in the title bar of Zoom apps to prevent it from appearing in screen captures posted on social media or elsewhere.

Waiting Room enabled. By default, the Waiting Room feature is now enabled for all accounts, even those that previously had the option turned off. The Waiting Room puts participants who attempt to join the meeting into a holding position. The host must admit them. It’s fussy, and if it’s unnecessary in your environment, you can override the default on a per-meeting or per-host basis.

Meeting locks. With a click of the new Security button, hosts can lock a meeting at any point to prevent new participants from being added to the Waiting Room or joining directly. Another click unlocks the meeting.

Name change prevention. Hosts can prevent participants from changing the name that appears when they join or request to join a meeting. Some people—both unwanted visitors and students who thought it was funny—were changing their names to derogatory or abusive forms during meetings.

Domain contacts visibility. Zoom no longer treats every user with the same domain in their email address as belonging to the same organization. Previously, anyone with a given address could view account information or add everyone to their contacts who had the same domain, excluding some significant ISPs and mail hosts, like Gmail and iCloud. That feature is now disabled for free tier and paid single-host accounts, and must be enabled on higher-tier paid accounts.
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Traffic routed through China. The paths that data travels is a political, regulatory, and business question, not just a technical one. Citizen Lab’s report revealed that Zoom was routing some traffic that didn’t involve any participants in China through servers in that country. Zoom explained that it was an error in load balancing, which seemed plausible given the quick scaling of operations it needed to have. The company said it made permanent changes to prevent data passing through Chinese servers from outside the country. A new feature for paid users starts April 18, and those users will be able to select which of several regions data may pass through. Free users are locked to data centers in the region from which they subscribed. Apart from concerns about China, some people outside the United States don’t trust the National Security Agency or other US intelligence groups.

Dear Rick:

I wanted to reach out to tell you how much I appreciate your blog. I especially loved the open source resources you mention there.

One thing that I found out about was an article on open source on the Google blog page. The article on your blog page really provided some interesting insight.

Digging into it a bit more, I found this helpful guide to open source.  
It really helped me better understand open source software as a whole.
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Thanks again for the great resource! 
All the best, 
Emma T.

Microsoft reorganized its Windows + Devices team last month, placing Surface chief Panos Panay in charge of both Windows and hardware. While it’s still early days for Panay, we’re starting to get an idea of how things might change with Windows. That begins with a new Windows Insider leader, Microsoft’s beta program that sees millions of people testing Windows 10.

“In my first 30 days as the Windows leader, as I’ve been spending time listening, learning, and working with the team to build a vision for the next era of Windows, I’ve been in awe of the Insiders group and the level of dedication and depth of knowledge they have,” explains Panay in a new blog post today. “To keep this momentum going and continue to grow and innovate in Windows, it’s clear we need the right person to lead this powerful community into the next era, which is why I’m excited to announce Amanda Langowski as the new lead for the Windows Insider Program.”

Langowski is a Microsoft and Windows veteran, having worked at the company for more than 20 years. Langowski previously worked on Windows beta programs, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and the all-important flighting team that makes sure builds of Windows are available for engineers inside and outside of Microsoft.

Langowski will now take over as the face of Windows 10 testing and lead a critical feedback loop, a role that Dona Sarkar previously led for the past few years. Sarkar has taken a new position in the Microsoft Developer Relations team and remains at the company, at the same time, the previous Insider chief, Gabe Aul, left Microsoft last year for a virtual and augmented reality engineering role at Facebook.

As Panay says, Microsoft is now getting ready to build a vision for where Windows goes next. The software maker has tried a variety of ways to entice creators to Windows over the past five years, but it has walked back some of those changes. The pace of Windows 10 updates has certainly slowed over the past 12 months, leaving testers and Windows fans wondering what’s coming next.

Microsoft is focused on Windows 10X for dual-screen devices right now, but there will be plenty of changes coming to the desktop version, too. Panay hasn’t finalized his vision for the direction of Windows, but you can expect to see a renewed focus on the OS at Microsoft. That will no doubt include some of the pumped energy Panay is famous for, but also a focus on simplifying the operating system and cleaning up some areas that haven’t been looked at for quite some time.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s bold goal was “we want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows, to loving Windows,” five years ago. It’s fair to say Windows 10 has undoubtedly improved over the past five years, but a fresh vision for where it needs to go and a face for Windows is very much needed.

I expect, and certainly hope, to see a more significant focus on Microsoft adapting the OS to the people who truly use it every day and rely on Windows. That’s not to say there won’t be some significant new features that the company will develop, but PowerToys for Windows 10 and the Windows Terminal have been some great additions.

We’re starting to see some of the simplifications for Windows show up, with new icons and even some tweaks to the Start menu. Panay celebrated a billion Windows 10 users with a teaser video last week, and it’s clear the Windows team is looking at cleaning up parts of the UI. 
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Microsoft is ready to listen again, with new leadership involved at the top of Windows, and how the company receives feedback. We’re now waiting to hear what the next era of Windows will bring. Some of those answers might not be too far away.

The outbreak of coronavirus is pushing Americans to buy their groceries online, a development that could have a lasting effect on the supermarket industry.

While shopping for books and electronics online and ordering dinner through delivery apps have become staples of American life, most customers still prefer to purchase their meat and vegetables at the store. Last year, just 4% of grocery sales in the United States came online, according to Nielsen.

However, with shoppers stuck in their homes in the wake of the virus, online grocery shopping is exploding. Downloads of Instacart, Walmart's grocery app, and Shipt increased 218%, 160%, and 124%, respectively, last Sunday compared with a year prior.

"We are seeing a larger percentage of customers over the age of 60 that are coming online," said JJ Fleeman, chief e-commerce officer for Ahold Delhaize in the United States, which owns brands like Stop & Shop, Food Lion and the online delivery service Peapod. "We're seeing a lot of new customers coming into the channel."

A third of consumers said Sunday that they had purchased groceries for online pick up or delivery in the past seven days, according to a survey by analysts at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. Around 41% said they were buying groceries online for the first time.

"Consumer behaviors always shift in times of disaster," said Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations at FMI, a trade group for food retailers. "People are learning new skills and how to shop online as a result of what we're experiencing today."

Maria Alvarado in Phoenix usually shops in person for groceries at Walmart or Safeway. Still, she tried ordering online last week for the first time through Walmart's in-store pickup option. She plans to keep using the service.

"Once things go back to normal, I will probably use online again," she said. "It was really easy."

Big grocers like Walmart, Albertsons, Stop & Shop, Meijer, Hy-Vee, and others have been experimenting with new ways to fulfill online orders in recent years. They have increasingly looked to technology to reduce costs and keep aisles from jamming up with shoppers and workers picking customers' orders.

Grocers have been building automated mini-warehouses inside their stores and opening up "dark stores" – locations that look like supermarkets but are closed to customers – to make deliveries and prepare pickup orders.

Yet the crush of demand in the wake of coronavirus has overwhelmed grocers' delivery and pickup networks, causing long waits, cancellations, and outages in some parts of the country. 

"The surge in online grocery orders is causing operational difficulties," said Bill Bishop, CEO of grocery consulting firm Brick Meets Click. 

Grocers are scrambling to adjust and hiring workers to keep up. 

Fleeman from Ahold Delhaize said the company was adding "web servers to help us process the increased demand" and offering more windows for customers to pick up their orders or get delivery.

This shift online during the crisis may reshape the supermarket industry by helping large grocers consolidate their grip, experts predict.

"We see this unfortunate period accelerating structural changes in consumer shopping," possibly by five years, said Seth Sigman, an analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a report. "This is driving significant growth in new customers" to Walmart.

Coronavirus "may hasten the adoption" of online delivery and pickup, touching off long-term challenges for smaller chains earlier than expected, Kelly Bania, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets, said in a research report this week. These smaller chains don't have as much capital to invest in building out their delivery infrastructure. And delivery is less profitable for grocers than traditional purchases in stores.

Apple on Friday released a COVID-19 website and app with a screening tool and other information about the coronavirus outbreak. Apple said the app and site are meant to "make it easy for people across the country to get trusted information and guidance at a time when the US is feeling the heavy burden of COVID-19." 

They were developed in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House coronavirus task force, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

The COVID-19 app and website include a screening tool that asks users to answer a series of questions around risk factors, recent exposure, and symptoms, Apple said in a release. Based on their responses, users will receive CDC recommendations on the next steps, including "guidance on social distancing and self-isolating, how to closely monitor symptoms, whether or not a test is recommended at this time, and when to contact a medical provider." 

Apple said the screening tool doesn't replace instructions from doctors and health care providers or guidance from state and local health authorities. 

"To help you stay informed, understand symptoms, and take proper steps to protect your health, Apple has created a COVID-19 website and a US app in partnership with the CDC," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a tweet Friday. "As always, the data is yours, and your privacy is protected. Stay safe and healthy."

In addition to the screening tool, Apple said the app and website would offer answers to frequently asked questions about the coronavirus as well as up-to-date information from the CDC, including best practices for washing hands and how to monitor symptoms.
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Earlier this week, Apple updated its digital assistant Siri to help guide those worried about coronavirus symptoms. Summoned by asking Siri, "do I have coronavirus," the assistant will respond with the survey that uses yes and no answers to try to guide people on potential next steps.

A company that makes internet-connected thermometers has followed the flu more closely than the C.D.C. can. Now the devices may be turning up cases of COVID-19.

A company that uses internet-connected thermometers to predict the spread of the flu says it is tracking the coronavirus in real-time – something that had been impossible, given the lack of testing for the disease.

Kinsa Healthhas sold or given away more than a million smart thermometers to households in which two million people reside, and thus can record fevers almost as soon as consumers experience them.

For the last few years, Kinsa’s interactive maps have accurately predicted the spread of flu around the United States about two weeks before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s surveillance tool, the weekly FluView tracker.

The thermometer data “acts as an early warning system for illness spreading,” said Inder Singh, the company’s founder. The C.D.C.’s system lags because it relies on weekly reports from hundreds of doctors’ offices and hospital emergency rooms about what symptoms they are seeing in patients.

Company scientists are uniquely positioned to identify unusual clusters of fever because they have years of data for expected flu cases in each ZIP code. A sudden spike that far exceeds estimates for flu for a given date may well indicate the coronavirus has arrived.

Medical experts were enthusiastic about the possibility that smart thermometers could be used to track the virus in the United States. Having millions of data points allows Kinsa to produce daily maps showing which counties are seeing spiking fevers.

The most common symptoms of infection with the coronavirus is a fever – about 90% of patients suffer from it, according to the World Health Organization.

“This is very, very exciting,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University. “This is 21st-century disease surveillance, and we’ve been rooted in the mid-20th century with something very labor-intensive.”

Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said: “If this tells you where there are new major clusters of fever, it tells you where to swoop in with your test kits.”

Kinsa’s latest map of fever spikes shows areas that are known to have many cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. But the data also point to spots in Florida, Michigan, Arizona, and eastern Texas, where not as many cases have been reported.

Just last Saturday, Kinsa’s data indicated an unusual rise in fevers in South Florida, even though it was not known to be a COVID-19 epicenter. Within days, testing showed that South Florida had indeed become an epicenter.

Dr. Nirav Shah, a former New York State health commissioner who is an adviser to Kinsa, said real-time fever data “could speed up public health the way Twitter sped up the news cycle.”

Demand for Kinsa’s smart thermometers has skyrocketed since the coronavirus pandemic began, Mr. Singh said, and the company is now selling 10,000 a day, which is creating production problems but also multiplying the amount of data coming in each day.

The thermometers connect to a cellphone app that instantly transmits their readings to the company. Users can also enter other symptoms they feel. The app then gives them general advice on when to seek medical attention.
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Because influenza usually produces higher, more protracted fevers than common colds do, the company’s software estimates which ZIP codes appear to be hit by flu rather than by other, milder cold viruses.

With the incredible increase in concern about COVID-19, it’s prudent that we think about not just washing our hands frequently but also sanitizing the electronics we handle all day. Think about it. Everything we touch throughout the day comes back to our phones. We might take public transportation, press elevator buttons and open doors all while texting and scrolling (and that's all before our workday even begins). Then, you sit down at your desk and get down to business on equipment that probably hasn't been sanitized in weeks or months, if ever. 

So how can you effectively "wash" the germs off of the things around you? Well, one of the easiest and most effective ways to sanitize and disinfect your phone and other gadgets is with UV light technology.

How Does UV Light Sanitization Work? The UV light spectrum consists of UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C lights. It's the UV-C light that can kill germs, so that's what you want to look for when searching for a sanitizing product. When aimed at dirty surfaces, UV-C light permanently destroys the DNA or RNA of bacteria and viruses, so they no longer pose a threat. 

But Does It Really Work? Because UV-C sanitization works best on smooth surfaces, it is likely to be most effective on phones and cases without a lot of crevices for germs to hide. Some products, however, are designed to hit objects with UV-C light from multiple angles to try and cover as much surface area as possible.

Sure, you could just use antibacterial wipes — if you can find them these days — but UV light sanitizers have the added environmental benefit of producing less waste. So that's another tick in the "pro" column. Plus, they bring great peace of mind to back up your good hygiene habits, especially during cold and flu season – not to mention when we're in a global pandemic.

Two UV-C Sanitizers.Here are two Homedics products – one specifically for smartphones and one that’s a larger pouch design for not only phones, but also keys, glasses, earbuds, and other small items.

HoMedics UV-Clean Phone Sanitizer ($80).With this perfectly portable pop-up sanitizer, you'll just place your phone inside, and two germicidal LEDs get to work on disinfecting your device in only one minute. That gives you the perfect opportunity to wash your hands thoroughly, and your phone will be all good to go by the time you get back. Then, you just collapse the case flat and slide it back into your bag or laptop case for patented UV-C LED sanitization on-the-go.
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HoMedics UV-Clean Portable Sanitizer ($100).Another excellent option for portable protection is this generously-sized pouch. It harnesses the power of four UV-C germicidal LEDs to sanitize and disinfect your phone and other gadgets from every angle. It even includes interchangeable phone and platform clips to ensure that your items sit perfectly inside for optimal germ-killing effect. Aside from blasting bacteria from your phone, you can use it to clean your keys, glasses, remotes, and whatever else you can fit inside.

For more than a decade, security experts have had discussions about what's the best way of choosing passwords for online accounts.

There's one camp that argues for password complexity by adding numbers, uppercase letters, and special characters, and then there's the other camp, arguing for password length by making passwords longer.

This week, in its weekly tech advice column known as Tech Tuesday, the FBI Portland office positioned itself on the side of longer passwords.

"Instead of using a short, complex password that is hard to remember, consider using a longer passphrase," the FBI said.

"This involves combining multiple words into a long string of at least 15 characters," it added. "The extra length of a passphrase makes it harder to crack while also making it easier for you to remember."

The idea behind the FBI's advice is that a longer password, even if relying on simpler words and no special characters, will take longer to crack and require more computational resources.

Even if hackers steal your encrypted password from a hacked company, they won't have the computing power and time needed to crack the password encryption.

Academic research published in 2015 supports this argument, explaining that "the effect of increasing the length dwarfs the effect of extending the alphabet [adding complexity]."

The FBI's advice echoes a now-infamous XKCD webcomic that made the concept of passphrases-over-passwords widely known among internet users.

Furthermore, NIST password recommendations issued in 2017 have also urged websites and web services to accommodate more extended password fields of up to 64 characters for this same reason – to let users choose passphrases instead of short passwords.
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The same NIST guideline also recommended using passphrases over passwords when possible, a recommendation also picked up in a DHS security tip issued in November 2019, also urging users to give passphrases a try.

Apple’s new credit card has a curious security feature that will make it much more challenging to carry out credit card fraud.

The aptly-named Apple Card is a new credit card, built into your iPhone Wallet app, which the company says will help customers live a “healthier” financial lifestyle. The card is designed to replace your traditional credit card and give you perks, such as daily cash. Chief among the benefits is a range of security and privacy features, which Apple says – unlike traditional credit card providers – the company doesn’t know where a customer shopped, what they bought, or how much they paid.

But there’s one feature – a one-time unique dynamic security code – that will make it nearly impossible for anyone to use the credit card to make fraudulent purchases.

That three-digit card verification value – or a CVV – on the back of your credit card is usually your last line of defense if someone steals your credit card number, such as if your card is cloned or skimmed by a dodgy ATM or taken from a website through a phishing attack.

But rotating the security code will increase the difficulty for an attacker to use your card without your permission.

The idea of a dynamic credit card number first came about a few years ago with the Motion Code credit card concept, built by Oberthur Technologies, which included a randomly generating number built into a tiny display on the back of the card. The only downside is if someone steals your physical card.

Since then, other credit card makers – including Mastercard, the issuing payment provider for Apple Card – have worked to integrate biometric solutions instead. By enabling a fingerprint sensor on the card, powered by the card machine into which it is inserted, it was hoped that fraudulent purchases would be impossible. Other credit cards have worked to roll out biometric-powered credit cards. Again – a big letdown was online fraud, which still accounts for a vast proportion of fraud.

Apple Card seems to meld the two things: a virtual credit card with a rotating security code, protected by a biometric, like Touch ID or Face ID in newer devices. Better yet, the company’s debut physical titanium credit card won’t even have a credit card number.
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Now, if someone wants to commit fraud, they need to steal your phone and your face or fingerprint.
Like other sensitive data – such as health, financial, and biometric data – any banking and credit card data is stored on the device’s security chip, known as the secure enclave.