Has the “Generosity” of ISPs During the Corona Virus Pandemic Revealed Inherent Problems With Their Business Models?

For years, we as consumers have become accustomed to paying higher rates to accommodate for data caps set in place by our Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These data caps have been justified under the defense that without them, the ISPs would not be able to handle the greatly increased strain that would come from consumers not limiting their own usage. During this global pandemic, many ISPs including Comcast have removed their data caps to allow users to stay at home without having to worry about going over their allotted data usage.

Comcast has reported that this greater demand has increased their uploading traffic by 32% and their downloading traffic by 18%. With all this increased traffic, consumers would expect Comcast to be struggling to maintain service with all the new strain on their systems, but Comcast seems to be doing just fine. This raises the question that if they are able to survive without problems while removing their data caps, why do those caps need to exist in the first place.

It becomes obvious that there is no need to cap consumer data and that the only reason these caps are set in place is to increase revenue. Covid-19 has damaged the global economy greatly but as we start to rebuild after this pandemic, we need to question the necessity and ethical consequences of many previous business practices that only harm the consumer for increased profits.

 

Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200420/06583844328/fancy-that-comcasts-network-holding-up-fine-without-usage-caps.shtml

Google to Require Verification of Advertisers

According to the New York Times, in response to a number of disinformation campaigns related to the Corona Virus, Google will require perspective advertisers to verify that they are who they say they are. This policy is an expansion of their already existing policy regarding the verification of the identity of political advertisements.

Google has stated that they will begin with the verification of US companies before expanding the verification process internationally. They will be verifying thousands of companies per month but have already predicted that it will take them years before they are able to get to the international stage.

This is a good example of both security and ethics in IST. Because of the malicious intent of small parties, Google now has to spend a lot of resources to change their advertisement process to ensure their advertisements can be trustworthy.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/business/media/google-advertising.html

India Requires Approval on Chinese Investments

Due to the economic problems caused by the Corona Virus, many businesses are struggling financially. Smaller businesses are being hit the worst due to the fact that they don’t have the resources to hold out until things go back to normal. This leaves them open for predatory investments from larger institutions that will hurt them in the future. In response to these issues, the Indian government expanded a previously existing mandate that required businesses in Pakistan and Bangladesh to seek government approval before investing in Indian companies. The new mandate now targets all of India’s neighboring nations which, most importantly, now includes China. China has been expanding their investments in foreign countries in recent years and the current economic recession has given them plenty of opportunity to prop up struggling businesses. When the economy begins to recover after this pandemic, this will be one of the interesting developments that will have a large impact on the world at large.

 

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/18/to-avoid-hostile-takeovers-amid-covid-19-india-mandates-approvals-on-chinese-investments/

Tesla Designs New Ventilator Using Parts From the Model 3

With Covid-19, the US and many other countries have had a exponentially increasing demand for ventilators that the current supply chain could not support. Many companies and individuals have been rushing to design new ventilator models that could be produced quickly and cheap, but many of these lack the sophisticated level of control necessary for treating serious victims of the virus.

Many factories have shifted their production to meet the new demands, but the time necessary until they are capable of regular production comes too late to treat the current epidemic. Tesla is trying to solve that problem by creating a new ventilator that runs off of pieces that their factories already produce. This allows them to roll out new ventilators much faster and at a cheaper cost than converting their factories entirely to building traditional ventilators.

 

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/tesla-unveils-coronavirus-ventilator-prototype-that-uses-model-3-parts/

NYC Public Schools Ban Zoom Over Security Flaws

During this global pandemic, video conferencing services have been exploding in growth. One of the largest companies that has seen rapid growth is the same company that Penn State has been using to host its virtual classes, Zoom. There has been an alarming number of cases recently showing exploits in Zoom’s security options resulting in examples of people joining meetings they should not have access to and private information being accessed by unwelcome third parties.

In response to these increasingly growing problems, the Department of Education announced that teachers and other department faculty should immediately stop using Zoom. In its place, the DOE recommended schools move to Microsoft Teams as an alternative.

Security flaws like these are a major part of the IST, specifically SRA, field and it raises the priority of online security in the modern world. Businesses need to keep the privacy of their consumers in mind as data breaching has become a more serious problem with people relying on the internet more to hold onto private information.

 

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/90486586/zoom-banned-from-new-york-city-schools-due-to-privacy-and-security-flaws