Lifeboat Foundation

Apple was hit with a wave of criticism earlier this year when it announced plans to scan iPhones to stop the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Critics fretted that Apple’s hash-checking system could be co-opted by governments to spy on law-abiding iPhone users. In response to the backlash, Apple might end up making changes to that program, but Google has its own way of spotting CSAM, and it might be even more intrusive for those who use all of Google’s cloud services.

The specifics on Google’s CSAM scanning come by way of a warrant issued in early 2020 and spotted by Forbes. According to the filing, Google detected CSAM in Google Drive, its cloud storage platform. And here’s where things get a little weird; the warrant stemming from this report targeted digital artwork, not a photo or video depicting child abuse.

Apple’s system under its “Expanded Protections for Children” banner uses hashes for known child abuse materials, scanning iDevices for matching hashes. This should prevent false positives and it doesn’t require Apple to look at any of the files on your phone. The issue cited most often with this approach is that Apple is still scanning your personal files on your smartphone, and it could be a privacy nightmare if someone manages to substitute different hashes. Apple says this isn’t possible, though.

Sinclair’s first episode. Enjoy.

In this episode, Dr. David Sinclair and co-host Matthew LaPlante discuss why we age. In doing so, they discuss organisms that have extreme longevity, the genes that control aging (mTOR, AMPK, Sirtuins), the role of sirtuin proteins as epigenetic regulators of aging, the process of “ex-differentiation” in which cells begin to lose their identity, and how all of this makes up the “Information Theory of Aging”, and the difference between “biological age” and “chronological age” and how we can measure biological age through DNA methylation clocks.

Continue reading “The Science Behind Why We Age | Lifespan with Dr. David Sinclair #1” »

Hackers breached the computer networks of a southeast Florida health care system in October and may have accessed sensitive personal and financial information on over 1.3 million people, the health care system announced this week.

Social Security numbers, patient medical history and bank account information are among the data that have been exposed in the breach of Broward Health, a network of over 30 health care facilities serving patients across roughly 2 million-person Broward County, Florida, according to a notice the health care provider filed with the Office of the Maine Attorney General.

About 470 of the data breach victims live in Maine. Like other states, Maine law requires organizations that hold state residents’ personal data to file a disclosure when they’ve been hacked.

Blockchain Technology on Mars.

Can a Mars economy be established on top of Blockchain Technologies?

Continue reading “Blockchain Technologies on Mars — Building a cryptocurrencies economy on another planet” »

A lawsuit filed in a California federal court in June 2020 claims that Google Chrome’s “Incognito Mode” is not as private as people think.

Now, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai will need to answer questions over whether Google continues to track users even when they’ve activated the browser’s private browsing mode, as first reported by Bloomberg Law.

The case, Brown et al v. Google LLC, was filed on June 2, 2020, assigned to Judge Lucy H. Koh in a U.S. District Court in San Jose, California.

Continue reading “Alphabet CEO Ordered To Testify About Private Browsing Confusion On Google Chrome” »

Hypersonic air travel is anything that travels at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. The U.S. was once a leader in developing supersonic and hypersonic technology, but has taken “our foot off the gas,” according to Mark Lewis, executive director of the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute.

Watch the video to find out more about how the U.S. fell behind Russia, China and possibly North Korea, and how we’re spending billions to catch up.

Continue reading “How The U.S. Fell Behind In Hypersonic Technology” »

We live in a very fast-changing world and quite an unpredictable one. In part, it is because we got lots of technological powers while our brain stays just the same as in pre-technological times. What do we teach children in this world? How can we help them to reflect on their thinking, get wiser in using the new technological powers, develop growth mindset and resilience, see the big picture and the interconnections within the complex systems (be that our body, ecological system, or the whole Universe)? We are trying to address these issues by teaching space science, AI and cognitive science, and existential risks and opportunities to pre-teens. In three years, the kids get an opportunity to talk to some of the most prominent thinkers in the field, reflect on deep questions, develop connections with specialists from multiple fields, from space law to ecology to virology, present their work at conferences. Check out our classes:

Art of Inquiry is an Online Science School for Young Explorers. We teach inquiry, thinking skills, and cutting-edge science. Our speakers and consultants are distinguished experts from academia, AI and space industry.

Celestial tensions mount with U.S. as both sides aim for supremacy.

PALO ALTO, U.S. — China on Tuesday accused the U.S. of ignoring international space law and urged Washington to act responsibly after two near-collisions this year between Beijing’s new orbiting station and satellites launched by Elon Musk’s exploration company SpaceX.

Electric-vehicle and battery startups have turned to an elite group of lawyers to ward off regulatory scrutiny while raising capital. Meet them here.