The big music labels, led by Sony and Universal, are filing a lawsuit against the Internet Archive to stop the non-profit’s Great 78 Project. It’s an effort to digitize and preserve recordings on old 78 RPM records, a format discontinued in 1959. The labels feel the Archive, the closest thing the web has to a public library, is infringing its copyrights after digitizing tracks from big names like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. And the labels are asking for damages of $150,000 per still-copyrighted recording – the better part of $372 million in total.
The project’s aim is to preserve “underrepresented artists and genres” that might otherwise languish in obscurity. For all the songs of yore that still linger in the public’s consciousness, there are countless more now consigned to the dustbin of history. For them, the best-case scenario is their publisher properly stores the masters in case there’s ever a need to reproduce them. But given how easy it is for a company to junk material for a tax write-off, like in the recent case of Warner Bros., we can no longer rely on companies to treat their own history with the proper respect.
It doesn’t help that 78s are notoriously fragile, and if work to digitize them isn’t handled properly, their material could be lost forever. If we’re being honest, most of it is probably now only of interest to historians as a snapshot of what culture was really like. But, as weird as listening to Conrad Veidt’s When the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay is to our modern ears, we all deserve a chance to listen to what was pop music in 1933.
– Dan Cooper
You can get these reports delivered daily, direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Pro tip: Don’t use a paper of record to harass witnesses. People might notice.
Sam Bankman-Fried had his bail revoked after a court accused the disgraced FTX founder of tampering with witnesses. Last month, Bankman-Fried showed a New York Times reporter a selection of personal writings from his former partner, Caroline Ellison. Ellison pleaded guilty to criminal charges in December and has since been cooperating with the FTX investigation. Prosecutors said Fried’s sharing of those materials was a fairly blatant attempt to undermine her reputation with prospective jurors.
And, you know, it makes you look like you can do magic.
There’s a small subset of techie types who love nothing more than to get an RFID implant to make their life easier. A small chip inserted into the skin of their hand can help them access buildings, pay for the subway or share their contact details. If you’re curious, you should check out Katie Malone’s new story covering the benefits and burdens of getting one.
It’s the first step on a long road for easier detection.
CATCH is a new experimental technique using genetically modified bacteria to detect cancer cells in otherwise hard-to-reach areas. An international coalition of researchers found positive results while testing for colorectal cancer tumors in mice, but it’s early days. There’s still much more testing required before we can talk about using this for detection in human subjects, and plenty more work to see if the same technique could be used for treatment.
Shock: People will pay to see the world’s biggest footballer.
Apple’s decision to go all in on Major League Soccer and Lionel Messi has already started to pay off. Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas tweeted that, since the World Cup winner came to the US, Apple has seen MLS Season Pass subscriptions more than double. That his missive was retweeted by Apple CEO Tim Cook suggests the otherwise notoriously secretive company is happy to brag about the virtuous cycle Messi has had on football’s impact in the US and Apple’s bottom line.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-music-industry-battles-the-internet-archive-111517932.html?src=rss
There is something so great about when a device you really want — but don't want to fork up the money for — goes on sale. If you've been eyeing an Amazon Kindle Scribe, then, for you, that time is now. Currently, the 16GB Kindle Scribe is 18 percent off, with its price dropping from $340 to $280 — the best deal for it we've seen outside of Prime Day.
Amazon's Kindle Scribe is the most premium option of the series, providing the benefits of its counterparts while also allowing you to read and write on a 10.2-inch screen with 35 front-light LEDs. It includes a basic pen for note-taking or marking up one of the millions of books available on Kindle. Plus, you can send notes to friends or yourself through email or text.
Adults aren't the only ones who can benefit from Amazon's current Kindle sales. The Kindle Kids is 29 percent off right now, dropping from $120 to $85, and comes with one year of Amazon Kids+, a two-year warranty and parental control. It features a 6-inch screen, 300 ppi resolution, four front-light LEDs and Audible via Bluetooth. Plus, it comes with a cover and 16GB of storage.
If you're looking for a few more features for the child in your life, the 16GB Kindle Paperwhite Kids is also 29 percent off, in this case dropping from $170 to $120. It has many of the same features as the Kindle Kids but with a 6.8-inch screen, 17 front light LEDs, an adjustable warm light and — potentially most importantly — a waterproof design.
Since its 2015 release, a new model of the Apple Watch has made its way into stores every year — often with minimal upgrades. Well, that might change when the Apple Watch X rolls around as the company is reportedly working on more substantial changes for its tenth-anniversary model, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The Apple Watch X upgrades could include a magnetic band attachment, replacing the slide-in design currently in use and allowing space for a larger battery. It might also have a thinner watch case and a microLED display, providing a better picture than current OLED screens. On the health front, the Apple Watch X will reportedly include a blood pressure sensor alongside the heart rate monitor, sleep tracking and blood oxygen detection already present in current models.
This updated Apple Watch won't likely hit the market for another year if it follows the annual release schedule or two if Apple wants to wait a whole decade after its first release. The Apple Watch Series 9 is on its way first (and expected to be unveiled at an event this September), bringing with it a faster processor for the first time since the Series 6 and some new colors. It's expected to stay the same size as the Series 8 across its models and, overall, will be a limited upgrade.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-watch-x-will-reportedly-feature-a-thinner-casing-and-magnetic-bands-092419190.html?src=rss
The modern world of consumer tech wouldn't exist as we know it if not for the near-ubiquitous connectivity that Wi-Fi internet provides. It serves as the wireless link bridging our mobile devices and smart home appliances, enabling our streaming entertainment and connecting us to the global internet.
In his new book, Beyond Everywhere: How Wi-Fi Became the World’s Most Beloved Technology, Greg Ennis, who co-authored the proposal that became the technical basis for WiFi technology before founding the Wi-Fi Alliance and serving as its VP of Technology for a quarter century, guides readers on the fascinating (and sometimes frustrating) genesis of this now everyday technology. In the excerpt below, Ennis recounts the harrowing final days of pitching and presentations before ultimately convincing the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standards committee to adopt their candidate protocol as well as examine the outside influence that Bob Metcalf — inventor of both Ethernet, the standard, and 3Com, the tech company — had on Wi-Fi's eventual emergence.
With our DFWMAC foundation now chosen, the work for the IEEE committee calmed down into a deliberate process for approving the actual text language for the standard. There were still some big gaps that needed to be filled in—most important being an encryption scheme—but the committee settled into a routine of developing draft versions of the MAC sections of the ultimate standard document. At the January 1994 meeting in San Jose, I was selected to be Technical Editor of the entire (MAC+PHY) standard along with Bob O’Hara, and the two of us would continue to serve as editors through the first publication of the final standard in 1997.
The first draft of the MAC sections was basically our DFWMAC specification reformatted into the IEEE template. The development of the text was a well-established process within IEEE standards committees: as Bob and I would complete a draft, the members of the committee would submit comments, and at the subsequent meeting, there would be debates and decisions on improvements to the text. There were changes made to the packet formats, and detailed algorithmic language was developed for the operations of the protocol, but by and large, the conceptual framework of DFWMAC was left intact. In fact, nearly thirty years after DFWMAC was first proposed, its core ideas continue to form the foundation for Wi-Fi.
While this text-finalization process was going on, the technology refused to stand still. Advances in both radio communications theory and circuit design meant that higher speeds might be possible beyond the 2-megabit maximum in the draft standard. Many companies within the industry were starting to look at higher speeds even before the original standard was finally formally adopted in 1997. Achieving a speed greater than 10 megabits — comparable to standard Ethernet — had become the wireless LAN industry’s Holy Grail. The challenge was to do this while staying within the FCC’s requirements — something that would require both science and art.
Faster is always better, of course, but what was driving the push for 10 megabits? What wireless applications were really going to require 10-megabit speeds? The dominant applications for wireless LANs in the 1990s were the so-called “verticals” — for example, Symbol’s installations that involved handheld barcode scanners for inventory management. Such specialized wireless networks were installed by vertically integrated system providers offering a complete service package, including hardware, software, applications, training, and support, hence the “vertical” nomenclature. While 10-megabit speeds would be nice for these vertical applications, it probably wasn’t necessary, and if the cost were to go up, such speeds wouldn’t be justifiable. So instead, it would be the so-called “horizontal” market — wireless connectivity for general purpose computers — that drove this need for speed. In particular, the predominantly Ethernet-based office automation market, with PCs connected to shared printers and file servers, was seen as requiring faster speeds than the IEEE standard’s 2 megabits.
Bob Metcalfe is famous in the computer industry for three things: Ethernet, Metcalfe’s Law, and 3Com. He co-invented Ethernet; that’s simple enough and would be grounds for his fame all by itself. Metcalfe’s Law— which, of course, is not actually a law of physics but nonetheless seems to have real explanatory power— states that the value of a communication technology is proportional to the square of the number of connected devices. This intuitively plausible “law” explains the viral snowball effect that can result from the growing popularity of a network technology. But it would be Metcalfe’s 3Com that enters into our Wi-Fi story at this moment.
Metcalfe invented Ethernet while working at PARC, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. PARC played a key role in developing many of the most important technologies of today, including window-based graphic computer interfaces and laser printing, in addition to Ethernet. But Xerox is famous for “Fumbling the Future,” also the title of a 1999 book documenting how “Xerox invented, then ignored, the first personal computer,” since the innovations developed at PARC generally ended up being commercialized not by Xerox but by Apple and others. Not surprisingly, Metcalfe decided he needed a different company to take his Ethernet invention to the market, and in 1979, he formed 3Com with some partners.
This was the same year I joined Sytek, which had been founded just a couple of months prior. Like 3Com, Sytek focused on LAN products, although based on broadband cable television technology in contrast to 3Com’s Ethernet. But whereas Sytek concentrated on hardware, 3Com decided to also develop their own software supporting new LAN-based office applications for shared PC access to data files and printers. With these software products in combination with their Ethernet technology, 3Com became a dominant player in the booming office automation market during the nineties that followed the introduction of personal computers. Bob Metcalfe was famously skeptical about wireless LANs. In the August 16, 1993, issue of InfoWorld, he wrote up his opinion in a piece entitled “Wireless computing will flop — permanently”:
This isn’t to say there won’t be any wireless computing. Wireless mobile computers will eventually be as common as today’s pipeless mobile bathrooms. Porta-potties are found on planes and boats, on construction sites, at rock concerts, and other places where it is very inconvenient to run pipes. But bathrooms are still predominantly plumbed. For more or less the same reasons, computers will stay wired.
Was his comparison of wireless to porta-potties just sour grapes? After all, this is coming from the inventor of Ethernet, the very archetype of a wired network. In any event, we were fortunate that Metcalfe was no longer involved with 3Com management in 1996 — because 3Com now enters our story as a major catalyst for the development of Wi-Fi.
3Com’s strategy for wireless LANs was naturally a subject of great interest, as whatever direction they decided to take was going to be a significant factor in the market. As the premier Ethernet company with a customer base that was accustomed to 10-megabit speeds, it was clear that they wouldn’t take any steps unless the wireless speeds increased beyond the 2 megabits of the draft IEEE standard. But might they decide to stay out of wireless completely, like Bob Metcalfe counselled, to focus on their strong market position with wired Ethernet? And if they did decide to join the wireless world, would they develop their own technology to accomplish this? Or would they partner with an existing wireless developer? The task of navigating 3Com through this twisted path would fall to a disarmingly boyish business development whiz named Jeff Abramowitz, who approached me one afternoon quite unexpectedly.
Jeff tapped me on the shoulder at an IEEE meeting. “Hey, Greg, can I talk with you for a sec?” he whispered, and we both snuck quietly out of the meeting room. “Just wondering if you have any time available to take on a new project.” He didn’t even give me a chance to respond before continuing with a smile: “10 megabits. Wireless Ethernet.” The idea of working with the foremost Ethernet company on a high-speed version of 802.11 obviously enticed me, and I quickly said, “Let’s get together next week.”
He told me that they had already made some progress towards an internally developed implementation, but that in his opinion, it was more promising for them to partner with one of the major active players. 3Com wanted to procure a complete system of wireless LAN products that they could offer to their customer base, comprising access points and plug-in adapters (“client devices”) for both laptops and desktops. There would need to be a Request for Proposal developed, which would, of course, include both technical and business requirements, and Jeff looked to me to help formulate the technical requirements. The potential partners included Symbol, Lucent, Aironet, InTalk, and Harris Semiconductor, among others, and our first task was to develop this RFP to send out to these companies.
Symbol should need no introduction, having been my client and having played a major role in the development of the DFWMAC protocol that was selected as the foundation for the 802.11 standard. Lucent may sound like a new player, but in fact, this is simply our NCR Dutch colleagues from Utrecht — including Wim, Cees, Vic, and Bruce — under a new corporate name, NCR having been first bought by AT&T and then spun off into Lucent. Aironet is similarly an old friend under a new name — back at the start of our story, we saw that the very first wireless LAN product approved by the FCC was from a Canadian company called Telesystems, which eventually was merged into Telxon, with Aironet then being the result of a 1994 spinoff focusing on the wireless LAN business. And in another sign of the small-world nature of the wireless LAN industry at this time, my DFWMAC co-author, Phil Belanger, had moved from Xircom to Aironet in early 1996.
The two companies here who are truly new to our story are InTalk and Harris. InTalk was a small startup founded in 1996 in Cambridge, England (and then subsequently acquired by Nokia), whose engineers were significant contributors to the development of the final text within the 802.11 standard. Harris Corporation was a major defense contractor headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, who leveraged their radio system design experience into an early wireless LAN chip development project. Since they were focused on being a chip supplier rather than an equipment manufacturer, we didn’t expect them to submit their own proposal, but it was likely that other responders would incorporate their chips, so we certainly viewed them as an important player.
Over the first couple of months in 1997, Jeff and I worked up a Request for Proposal for 3Com to send out, along with a 3Com engineer named David Fisher, and by March we were able to provide the final version to various candidate partners. Given 3Com’s position in the general LAN market, the level of interest was high, and we indeed got a good set of proposals back from the companies we expected, including Symbol, Lucent, InTalk, and Aironet. These companies, along with Harris, quickly became our focus, and we began a process of intense engagement with all of them over the next several months, building relationships in the process that a year later would ultimately lead to the formation of the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Bob Metcalfe’s wireless skepticism had been soundly rejected by the very company he founded, with 3Com instead adopting the mantle of wireless evangelism. And Wireless Ethernet, soon to be christened Wi-Fi, was destined to outshine its wired LAN ancestor.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-beyond-everywhere-greg-ennis-post-hill-press-143010153.html?src=rss
Some of the most advanced Roomba robot vacuums are on sale right now. Wellbots has the poop-detecting iRobot Roomba j7+ for an all-time low price of $549. Or, you can opt for our favorite vacuum / mop hybrid, the upgraded Roomba j7+ Combo, for $799. In both cases, you can enter the coupon code ENGROOMBA200 to receive the $200 discount exclusively for Engadget readers.
The Roomba j7+ includes a bundled cleaning station and iRobot’s poop detection tech. The company says the vacuum’s advanced sensors will avoid pet feces — and its “Pet Owner Official Promise” (P.O.O.P.) policy assures you it will replace the device for free if it runs over pet waste within its first year. The self-emptying vacuum also includes an intelligent mapping feature that lets you choose which rooms it covers, and you can schedule multiple cleanings per day in advance. The Roomba j7+ is usually $800, so its $549 discounted price (with code ENGROOMBA200) is worth noting if you’ve been on the lookout for a cleaning machine.
Wellbots’ coupon also applies to that model’s upgraded sibling, one of Engadget’s picks for the best robot vacuums. The Roomba j7+ Combo takes the j7+’s base features (including self-emptying tech and poop detection) and adds wet mopping, letting you transition seamlessly between carpet and floor cleaning. (It can do both simultaneously on hard floors.) It also includes a feature that can help keep your rugs dry by lifting the mop out of reach when it detects it’s on a carpet. The j7+ Combo typically costs $1,100.
Both devices work with the iRobot mobile app. It lets you manage the devices’ smart mapping capabilities, remote startup and scheduling. We find the app to be simple, intuitive and a significant selling point for Roomba robot cleaners.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/irobots-poop-detecting-roomba-j7-is-at-an-all-time-low-price-right-now-130007090.html?src=rss
The Internet Archive is facing another lawsuit over one of its conservation projects. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and a handful of other music labels have filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit organization, accusing it of copyright infringement for digitizing, "willfully upload[ing], distribut[ing] and digitally transmitt[ing]" pre-1972 sound recordings. In particular, the labels are suing Internet Archive for the Great 78 Project, which seeks to preserve music recorded on 78rpm discs.
The labels call Internet Archive's efforts "blatant infringement," involving music by artists that include Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. They also listed a few examples of "iconic recordings" available through the Great 78 Project, such as White Christmas, Sing, Sing, Sing, and The Christmas Song.
The companies said the the songs preserved on the project website are already available through streaming and other music services, so they "face no danger of being lost, forgotten, or destroyed." But the organization explained on the project portal that there's "still research value in the artifacts and usage evidence in the often rare 78rpm discs and recordings."
The plaintiffs disagree, writing in their complaint that Internet Archive's activities "far exceed" the limited purposes of preservation and research. "Internet Archive unabashedly seeks to provide free and unlimited access to music for everyone, regardless of copyright," they added. The labels are asking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each protected sound recording, and that could add up to $372 million for the listed recordings, according to Bloomberg.
Internet Archive is also embroiled in a legal battle with a group of US publishers led by Hachette Book Group over the National Emergency Library. The organization lent out digitally scanned copies of books through the program during the height of the pandemic, which the publishers described as "willful mass copyright infringement." A federal judge ruled against Internet Archive for that particular case, though the organization is planning to appeal that decision.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-and-other-music-labels-sue-internet-archive-for-digitizing-old-records-110108988.html?src=rss
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was sent to jail Friday after the judge overseeing his case revoked his bail. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan found probable cause that the disgraced former CEO repeatedly tampered with witnesses. In addition, Kaplan rejected Bankman-Fried’s attorneys’ request to delay his detention pending appeal.
Prosecutors argued that Bankman-Fried tried to harass a crucial witness last month when he showed a New York Times reporter the personal writings of his former partner Caroline Ellison, a cooperating witness who pleaded guilty in December to criminal charges related to defrauding FTX investors. The prosecution said SBF’s actions were an attempt to damage her reputation and influence prospective jurors. Meanwhile, SBF’s defense team accused prosecutors of using evidence laden with “innuendo, speculation, and scant facts.” Judge Kaplan sided with prosecutors, saying Bankman-Fried attempted to “tamper with witnesses at least twice.”
Reutersreports that the 31-year-old former FTX boss was ushered out of the court by US Marshals “after removing his shoelaces, jacket and tie and emptying his pockets.” The former CEO had been under house arrest in California (at his parents’ home in Palo Alto) since he was extradited in December following his arrest in the Bahamas last December. His $250 million bail package tightly controlled his internet usage.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-bankman-fried-sent-to-jail-for-witness-tampering-202906192.html?src=rss
A studio that handled Baldur’s Gate III translations has apologized after outsourced workers were omitted from the game’s credits. "We take full responsibility for this omission of our freelancers' names and apologize for the effects that it had," Altagram Group founder and CEO Marie Amigues said in a statement. "We would like to thank Larian for allowing us to quickly fix that error and update the credits section. The names of the Brazilian Portuguese translators will be included in an upcoming patch to the game."
Although the credits did not feature the translators Altagram worked with, they included the names of the company's executives and department leads. Contractors who translated Baldur’s Gate III into languages other than Brazilian Portuguese were credited, though different companies handled those localizations.
Baldur’s Gate III developer and publisher Larian Studios said Altagram was to blame for the oversight. It asked the company to rectify the situation, and it seems Altagram swiftly obliged.
Unfortunately, outsourced workers who contribute to games are not always fully credited for their work. That can impact their future prospects, as it makes it slightly more difficult to prove to potential employers that they worked on a given game.
Crediting workers may not be a concern for some localization studios in the coming years, though. We'll surely see certain developers attempting to use artificial intelligence to translate games into different languages in the hopes of reducing costs. However, localization is skilled work that requires people who can not just mechanically translate text from one language to another, but can take into account factors like idiomatic quirks and cultural references that may not make sense to a certain audience.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/baldurs-gate-iii-localization-studio-apologizes-for-omitting-contract-workers-from-credits-195936678.html?src=rss
AI and climate change represent two ways humans may ravage life as we know it on Earth, but the former can also help with the consequences of the latter. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) revealed a new program today that uses AI to detect wildfires. Created in partnership with the University of California San Diego, the Alert California AI program takes feeds from 1,032 360-degree rotating cameras and uses AI to “identify abnormalities within the camera feeds.” It then notifies emergency services and other authorities to check if a potential blaze warrants a response.
The program, launched in July, has already quelled at least one potential wildfire, according toReuters. A camera reportedly recorded a fledgling fire burning at 3 am in the remote Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego. The AI spotted the inferno and alerted a fire captain “who called in about 60 firefighters including seven engines, two bulldozers, two water tankers and two hand crews.” Cal Fire says the flames were extinguished within 45 minutes.
Cal Fire / University of California San Diego
The Alert California technology website says it uses LiDAR scans taken from airplanes and drones to create “equally precise, three-dimensional information about scanned surfaces.” It combines this with the physical traits of tree species to learn more about California’s forest biomass and carbon content. Cal Fire says the ML model leverages petabytes of data from the cameras to differentiate between smoke and other airborne particles.
The system was developed by UCSD engineers using AI from the California-based company DigitalPath. Cal Fire has invested over $20 million in the program over the past four years and promises an additional $3,516,000 in the near future.
“We’re in extreme climate right now. So we give them the data, because this problem is bigger than all of us,” Neal Driscoll, geology and geophysics professor at UCSD who serves as the program’s principal investigator, told Reuters. “We need to use technology to help move the needle, even if it’s a little bit.” However, Driscoll adds that the current sample size is too small to determine the program’s overall effectiveness.
You can check out Alert California’s “camera quilt” on your computer or mobile device. The website displays a grid of the remotely operated live camera views from across the region.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/california-deploys-ai-to-detect-wildfires-before-they-start-spreading-194535845.html?src=rss
Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), a hacking group known for its activist endeavors, built an open source tool for developers to build secure apps. Veilid, launched at DEF CON on Friday, has options like letting users opt out of data collection and online tracking as a part of the group’s mission to fight against the commercialization of the internet.
“We feel that at some point, the internet became less of a landscape of knowledge and idea sharing, and more of a monetized corporate machine,” cDc leader Katelyn “medus4” Bowden said. “Our idea of what the internet should be looks more like the open landscape it once was, before our data became a commodity.”
Similar to other privacy products like Tor, cDc said there’s no profit motive behind the product, which was created “to promote ideals without the compromise of capitalism.” The group emphasized the focus on building for good, not profit, by throwing slight shade at a competing conference for industry professionals, Black Hat, held in Las Vegas at the same time as DEF CON. “If you wanted to go make a bunch of money, you’d be over at Black Hat right now,” Bowden said to the audience of hackers.
The design standards behind Veilid are “like Tor and IPFS had sex and produced this thing,” cDc hacker Christien “DilDog” Rioux said at DEF CON. Tor is the privacy-focused web browser best known for its connections to the “dark web,” or unlisted websites. Run as a non-profit, the developers behind Tor run a system that routes web traffic through various “tunnels” to obscure who you are and what you’re browsing on the web. IPFS, or the InterPlanetary File System, is an open-source set of protocols behind the internet, mainly used for file sharing or publishing data on a decentralized network.
The bigger Veilid gets, the more secure it will be as well, according to Rioux. The strength doesn’t come from the number of apps made on the framework, but by how many people use the apps to further the routing of nodes that make up the network. “The network gains strength by a single popular app,” Rioux said. “The big Veilid network is supported by the entire ecosystem not just your app.” In the presentation, cDc likened the nodes to mutual aid in the sense that they work to strengthen and support each other to make the entire network more secure.
Rious explained that VLD0 will be the cryptography — the protocols that keep information secure — behind Veilid. It’s a mix of existing cryptography frameworks, like Ed25519 to support authentication efforts and xChaCha20-Poy1305 as its 192-bit encryption support. But, recognizing that advancing technology will change cryptography needs over time, cDc already has a plan to handle updates. “Every new version of our crypto system is supported alongside the old ones” so that there are no gaps in security, Rioux said. cDc also put other measures in place like anti-spoofing, end-to-end encryption even at rest and data protection even if you lose your device.
Veiled and cDc aim to build an approachable internet with fewer ads and more privacy, according to Bowden. Veilid Chat, a messaging app similar to Signal, will be the first app built on the framework. You’ll be able to sign up without using a phone number, to decrease personal identifiers, Bowden told Engadget in an email.
cDc is currently in the process of putting together a community and foundation to support the project. “There are a lot of folks who can’t see past web3 as far as privacy (we are more like the web2 we should have had), and really can’t process the idea that we’re doing this without a profit motive,” Bowden said.
Known as the “original hacking supergroup,” cDc’s most noted accomplishments include inventing hacktivism, helping to develop Tor and pushing top companies to take privacy seriously. Notable members include former US representative from Texas, Beto O'Rourke.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/americas-original-hacking-supergroup-creates-a-free-framework-to-improve-app-security-190043865.html?src=rss
