The UN Human Rights Council Thursday adopted a resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age that “addresses the need for better procedural safeguards and effective domestic oversight, as well as remedies for government surveillance that infringes upon an individual’s privacy rights,” said a Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) news release. The resolution “clearly states that metadata can reveal deeply personal information and that extraterritorial surveillance is a threat to the right to privacy,” the CDT said. The resolution also establishes a dedicated special rapporteur on the right to privacy for a three-year period, who will be “tasked with monitoring, investigating, and reporting on the state of privacy in UN Member States around the world -- including where secret surveillance is concerned,” the CDT said. In a news release, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged all countries to support the new mandate by “providing all necessary information" requested by the special rapporteur and to "consider implementing the recommendations made in his or her reports.” The resolution allows the council to “establish a forum to provide a platform for identifying best practices, challenges and opportunities to secure respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” the UN news release said. Thirty-five nations, including the U.S., voted in favor of the resolution, 12 nations abstained. The UN Human Rights Council “strongly reaffirmed that privacy is a core part of human freedom,” said CDT Human Rights and Surveillance Legal Fellow Sarah St. Vincent. “A Special Rapporteur on privacy is a monumental step in ensuring that the world remains focused on reining in invasive government surveillance practices that have a chilling effect not only on our right to privacy, but also on our right to free expression.”
Two European chipmakers announced integrated circuits designed for use in smart watches and wearables. ConnecteDevice bowed the WatChip, which it called the smallest connected chip dedicated to the watch industry. By introducing an IC measuring 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.3 mm, ConnecteDevice eased the burden of smart watch designers by removing “most of the dimension constraints,” the company said Monday. WatChip combines Bluetooth Low Energy, a motion sensor for fitness tracking and a power management processor, it said. The chip can work independently or with the company’s iOS and Android APIs (application program interface) that communicate with a cloud-based backend for data storage and analytics needs, it said. Earlier at Baselworld, various luxury watch makers disclosed smart watch partnerships, involving companies including Google, Intel and TAG Heuer (see 1503190040). Elsewhere, ams introduced the AS3701 integrated power management unit measuring 2 x 2 x 0.4 mm for use in wearables. Power system designers using the AS3701 will be able to realize space savings and provide advanced power management functionality in products supplied by a single lithium-ion cell, such as smart watches, sport bands, wearable medical devices, handheld GPS units and cellphones, the company said. Its power path management lets a device start up with a dead battery, and optimizes power distribution between the battery charging circuit and the system power supply when plugged in to the mains, ams said. A one-time programmable boot sequence gives designers the flexibility to adapt the device’s startup operation for different applications and processors, said the company, which lets original equipment manufacturers use the same power solution in multiple end-product designs.
Luxury watchmakers announced smart watch intentions at the start of the Baselworld watch and jewelry showcase event in Switzerland Thursday. They were as reluctant to provide product details as they were eager to trumpet their technology partners. At a news conference announcing a relationship among luxury watch icon TAG Heuer, Google and Intel, TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver called it “my biggest announcement ever” in his 40 years attending Baselworld. Biver prefaced a brief Q&A with the caveat that he wouldn’t provide pricing, availability or product features of the TAG Heuer smart watch. Biver called the announcement something he could “never have imagined,” a partnership that would “give birth to the greatest connected watch.” The Silicon Valley companies supplying the technology to TAG Heuer also are providing the tech foundation for Fossil Group’s upcoming smart watches (see 1503060058). That led to a question in Q&A on how the partnership with TAG Heuer differs from that with Fossil. Michael Bell, general manager-Intel's new devices group, responded for the group and said, “What we’re talking about here is a very nice luxury Swiss smart watch” and called Fossil “also a phenomenal partner.” The TAG Heuer smart watch will reside on a software platform called Android Wear, a version of the Android operating system tailored for the connected watch, said David Singleton, director-engineering of Google's Android Wear. The brains of the watch are made by Intel. Because of the collaboration among the three companies, and the fact that the watch's "brain" is made by Intel, the upcoming watch won’t be able to be labeled what has been a point of pride for TAG Heuer’s other watches: “Swiss Made.” Also at Baselworld, Gucci Timepieces said it partnered with i.am+ and will.i.am to develop wearable technology. In announcing the collaboration, Gucci Timepieces CEO Stéphane Linder, who left TAG Heuer as CEO in December, said he coined the term “fashionology” to describe the merging worlds of fashion and technology. The Gucci device will operate as a “completely standalone smartband, untethered from any smartphone,” said the company. The feature list of the smart device includes: the ability to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages and emails, music, maps, calendar, fitness functions and a “sophisticated personal assistant activated by voice command,” the company said.
Supply chain services supplier Ingram Micro continued its acquisitions binge, saying Wednesday it completed the buy of the Peruvian and Chilean businesses of Tech Data, the Florida-based wholesale distributor of technology products. Terms weren’t disclosed. Ingram said acquiring those businesses from Tech Data would add more than $270 million annually to its revenue line and that the acquisition “complements” its existing holdings in Peru and Chile. The deal also “immediately delivers increased reach and scale in the region, which has consistently been a top performer for the company,” Ingram said. Earlier this month, Ingram announced the introduction of Anovo, a Europe-based provider of repair services for smartphones and set-top boxes across Europe and Latin America (see 1503030020).
Broadcom’s BCM7252 system-on-a-chip (SoC) is “powering” the world’s first Ultra HD set-top box for Android TV, the chip maker said Wednesday. The SoC is embedded in the Freebox set-top offered by Free, the French Internet TV provider, Broadcom said. The BCM7252 delivers the performance and security levels required for Android TV certification and also is the first device to support HEVC-encoded, 10-bit 4K content at 60 frames a second, it said. The BCM7252 is in production and the Freebox is being shipped to subscribers starting this month, Broadcom said.
EarthLink selected Level 3 to provide secure, global connectivity to support enterprise customers from EarthLink’s Middle East location, a Level 3 news release Wednesday. It said the selection was made in the face of demand for enhanced online security and connectivity to worldwide markets from customers in sectors such as the financial services and oil industries.
Rovi inked an IP-based licensing deal with Bell Mobility for the carrier's mobile TV service in Canada, the vendor said in a Tuesday news release. “Home entertainment is inevitably moving from the TV set in the living room to multiple screens and mobile devices,” said Samir Armaly, Rovi executive vice president-intellectual property and licensing. Through Rovi guide technology, Bell Mobility customers will have access to an integrated TV programming guide that enables them to see what’s playing “now and later,” Rovi said.
Companies transferring consumer data from the European Union to the U.S. can ensure the transfer complies with European privacy law by participating in the voluntary U.S.-EU safe harbor program, FTC Consumer Education Specialist Alvaro Puig wrote in a blog post Monday. To participate in the safe harbor program, a company must abide by seven principles: notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access and enforcement, Puig said. If an organization says it complies with the safe harbor program, it must live up to that promise or risk being sued by the FTC, he said.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and all other members of the Oregon congressional delegation should move to support Trade Promotion Authority “as soon as possible,” said several large companies with Oregon facilities, including BSA/The Software Alliance and the Gap, in a recent letter. TPA will let U.S. negotiators broker trade pacts that open global markets for U.S. goods and services, said last month's letter. “Congress needs to pass TPA soon, and we hope you will support it."
More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.