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The Lax-Detection-And-Oversight Edition Saturday, December 17, 2016

Health Wearables + Big Data Collection = Bad News For Your Privacy, by Brett Williams, Mashable

An extensive new report published by the Center for Digital Democracy and American University tackles the complicated issue of health wearables and big data systems from every angle. It comes to a troubling conclusion: there are almost no privacy safeguards in place for consumer health data, and multiple industries are ready and willing to mine the system for profit.

According to the report, there are benefits of a connected-health system, like personalized insurance policies and improved emergency services. Wearable makers Apple and Fitbit have partnered with healthcare companies (Aetna and Cigna, respectively) in an effort to collect user data for just that reason.

Privacy Policy Strategy: The Digital Fine Print, by Ernie Smith, Tedium

As the Evernote saga recently showed, there are quite a few reasons for a privacy policy to exist, and one of those is that it helps the public know when the apps they use are breaking the contract between the company and the end user.

But what if that contract just wasn’t there at all? Turns out that this is a more common situation than you’d think, in part due to lax detection and oversight.

Run With Data

Players Complain About High Data Use From Persistent Internet In 'Super Mario Run', by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

Initial reports from Apple Retail and other Apple employees with the game installed on their devices claimed that the game would use up to 75 megabytes per hour of near-constant play.

Super Mario’s Reluctant Leap To The iPhone, by Simon Parkin, New Yorker

While the threat of financial ruin might have lured Mario to the iPhone initially, there were other factors that, for Miyamoto, make this the right time for a reinvention. For years, Nintendo’s consoles—especially its ubiquitous handheld devices, from the Game & Watch toys of the eighties through to the many incarnations of the Game Boy and Nintendo DS—were the first computerized devices that children encountered. They were tactile, approachable, intimate. That position, Miyamoto observed, has been ceded to smartphones, which are now “powerful and stable enough to meet the level of performance we need for our games.”

Stuff

Apple Adds 21 New Aerial Screen Savers To Apple TV, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

New screen savers of video captured in China, Dubai, Greenland, Hong Kong, Liwa, and Los Angeles have been added.

Review: Gamevice MFi Controller Transforms iPad And iPhone Into A Handheld Game Console, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

If you keep your iPad at home, in the living room, the Gamevice can be quickly slipped on and off when you want to relax with a shooter or adventure game. For long trips, a Gamevice-equipped iPhone or iPad is a perfect companion. On a bumpy train ride or plane ride, the handheld console form factor is superior to a separate stand when space is constrained.

First Look: IBM's Watson Analytics Comes To The iPad, by Sharon Machlis, Computerworld

IBM today announced Watson Analytics Mobile for iPad -- an app that can be used along with a free personal or paid enterprise Watson account.

The Foolish King - This New iPhone And iPad App Brings Chess To A New Generation, by Daily Express

The Foolish King uses fairytale storytelling to teach children to play chess.

Notes

Google, Apple And Uber Say They Would Not Help Build A Muslim Registry, by Nitasha Tiku, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed News asked all three companies whether they would help build or provide data for a Muslim registry. An Apple spokesperson said: “We think people should be treated the same no matter how they worship, what they look like, who they love. We haven’t been asked and we would oppose such an effort.” [...]

Oracle declined to respond to the same questions about a Muslim registry. It also declined to say whether the National Security Agency is still an Oracle customer. Oracle’s refusal to comment comes one day after CEO Safra Catz announced that she would join the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump, while remaining at Oracle.

Who Said What Inside The Trump Tech Meeting: Immigration, Paid Maternity Leave And Becoming The ‘Software President’, by Kara Swisher, Recode

Still, although I have called the meeting not much more than a photo op — noting that tech leaders were wrong to miss the opportunity to make a strong public joint statement on key values and issues important to them and their employees — one source said that the group was put between a rock and a not-soft place by the election.

“It was what it was, which was a public show of truce,” said one source, noting the hostile nature of the relationship between Trump and tech during the campaign. “Everyone got to meet him, and got to bring up some of tech’s issues, so that’s a victory of a sort. We’ll see what comes next.”

‘Jeopardy!’ Champion Dies Before She Could See Her Triumph On TV, by Daniel Victor, New York Times

When the science content developer from Austin, Tex., began recording her episodes on Aug. 31, she had Stage 4 colon cancer, a fact known by only a few of the show’s staff members and the host, Alex Trebek. Her competitors were unaware.