Fri, 08/20/2021
Welcome to ‘Tech Roundup,’ where we highlight some of the most significant/thought-provoking news items from the world of tech, especially at the nexus of law and technology. We are particularly interested in foregrounding tech news that is happening in Nebraska, and our region more broadly. If you have a news item you would like to see in the Roundup, please email neil.rutledge@unl.edu.
Local/Regional
Lincoln firm uses its robot for first time in operating room at Bryan
Lincoln Journal Star
- A Lincoln company that designs and makes small surgical robots has accomplished a milestone. Virtual Incision said Monday that the first surgery using one of its devices was completed at Bryan Medical Center.
- The device is small and portable, weighing only 2 pounds. The system is designed to enable complex, multi-quadrant abdominal surgeries using a simple, handheld device.
- Its smaller size also means it costs less, which can make it more affordable for smaller hospitals and for hospitals that might lack the funds to invest in robotic surgery systems.
Here's Why Nebraska isn't Showing up on National COVID Case Maps
Nebraska Public Media
- In Lancaster county (...) there are local numbers, but they’re an exception, as other local health departments across Nebraska can only share county data for those with more than 20,000 people.
- The state’s decision to withhold county data is not unchallenged, and Nebraska’s legal justification for not publishing complete county level COVID-19 data may be based on a misreading of federal privacy guidance, according to a Creighton University law professor.
- “All of that creates additional challenges for (counties) to be able to provide appropriate guidance and information for decision makers within their communities,” Dr. James Lawler, the co-executive director for the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said.
Security in Omaha-Built Voting Machines Make Hacking Difficult
Nebraska Public Media
- One of the largest voter technology manufacturers in the country said the elections were the most secure in history -- and they’re a Nebraska based company in Omaha.
- Election Systems and Software, or ES&S has been building voting machines, ballot marking devices, scanners and more for 40 years. The Omaha-based company serves about half of the election jurisdictions in the country, including Nebraska.
17 New Deaths, Breakthrough Data Confirms Vaccines are Effective in Weekly Data Update
Nebraska Public Media
- The state also released “breakthrough” data for 2021. The results are as expected: Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are far greater among those not fully vaccinated, confirming that the COVID vaccines reduce the risk of serious infection and death.
- Also in the update, hospitalizations saw a big spike this week: 277 Nebraskans are now in a hospital bed, which is 60 more than last week. This puts the state where it was in early February before vaccines were widely available to the public.
- This week, another half percent of Nebraska’s population became fully vaccinated. In all, 51.2% of the state's population is fully vaccinated, and another 0.2% got a first vaccine shot, pushing that total to 5.1%.
With new program, Burks builds community for future Huskers
Nebraska Today
- Burks, a science learning specialist with TRIO Programs and instructor in biological sciences, worked with colleagues to develop a summer research internship program for incoming first-year students already enrolled in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Upward Bound Math-Science program.
- Upward Bound works with marginalized high school students to discover and cultivate their STEM skills and encourage the pursuit of a college degree. The new research internship program, which was a partnership of Upward Bound, TRIO and the School of Biological Sciences, specifically worked with first-generation and underrepresented students.
Web development skills in tow, students graduate from North Omaha’s Highlander Code Camp
Silicon Prairie News
- Five high school students graduated Friday from the Highlander Code Camp, a six-week coding program delivered by the Omaha-based nonprofits AIM Institute and Seventy Five North.
- The event was held at the Highlander Accelerator, a 65,000-square-foot building and community space developed by Seventy Five North to educate, engage and enrich the historically excluded community of North Omaha.
Seven Lincoln Firms Make Inc. 5000 List
Lincoln Journal Star
- Seven Lincoln companies were named to Inc. magazine's 2021 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies.
Local Startup Spotlight
- Workshop, which raised $3.5 million in a seed round, provides an employee and internal communications software product. Former Flywheel founders and executives Dusty Davidson and Rick Knudtson are joining Derek Homann and Ben Stevinson as co-founders for the new endeavor.
National/International
Federal Trade Commission
- Today, the Federal Trade Commission filed an amended complaint against Facebook in the agency’s ongoing federal antitrust case. The complaint alleges that after repeated failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance. According to the FTC, It unlawfully acquired innovative competitors with popular mobile features that succeeded where Facebook’s own offerings fell flat or fell apart.
- “Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile. After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat,” said Holly Vedova, FTC Bureau of Competition Acting Director.
Chip shortage: Toyota to cut global production by 40%
BBC News
- Toyota is to slash worldwide vehicle production by 40% in September because of the global microchip shortage.
- The world's biggest carmaker had planned to make almost 900,000 cars next month, but has now reduced that to 540,000 vehicles.
- Toyota's other rivals, including General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Daimler, BMW and Renault, have already scaled back production in the face of the global chip shortage.
AbbVie, Teva Escape Class in Generic Niaspan Pay-to-Delay Case
Bloomberg Law
- A proposed class of pension funds and other “end payers” failed to convince a Pennsylvania judge to certify their case against AbbVie Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for allegedly conspiring to keep a generic version of the cholesterol drug Niaspan off the market.
- The multidistrict lawsuit, consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claims Kos Pharmaceuticals Inc., now an AbbVie subsidiary, and Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., later acquired by Teva, violated antitrust, fair trade, and consumer protection laws in several states by engaging in a “pay-to-delay” agreement that stalled generic competition for Niaspan.
Battery power capacity in the US grew big time in 2020
The Verge
- Power capacity — a measure of how much power a battery can instantly discharge — for large-scale batteries grew at an unprecedented pace in the US last year, according to an annual report released this week by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
- 2020 smashed the previous record set in 2018 for the biggest growth in power capacity in the US with 489MW of large-scale battery storage added. That’s more than twice what was added in 2018.
Green aviation: Electric powered plane trialled over Orkney
BBC News
- In this video from the BBC, Scotland’s first hybrid-electric plane has taken to the skies at a new test centre in Orkney. A 90-minute rapid charge of the plane's battery can provide around an hour of flight.
China Passes One of the World’s Strictest Data-Privacy Laws
Wall Street Journal
- China has approved a sweeping privacy law that will curb data collection by technology companies, but that policy analysts say is unlikely to limit the state’s widespread use of surveillance.
- The national privacy law, China’s first, closely resembles the world’s most robust framework for online privacy protections, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, and contains provisions that require any organization or individual handling Chinese citizens’ personal data to minimize data collection and to obtain prior consent.
Amazon Plans to Open Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores
Wall Street Journal
- Amazon.com plans to open several large physical retail locations in the U.S. that will operate akin to department stores, a step to help the tech company extend its reach in sales of clothing, household items, electronics and other areas, people familiar with the matter said.
Kyle Langvardt, Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, offered a reaction to this article from Harper’s:
Bad News: Selling the Story of Disinformation
Harper’s Magazine
- In his piece, Joseph Benstein comments on the fungibility of the concept of “online disinformation,” and shows how alarm over the phenomenon subtly serves the interests of the largest online social media platforms.
Langvardt offered this perspective:
Big social platforms have come under a lot of criticism for spreading misinformation and disinformation that leads to widespread public harms. This is a very insightful critique of the critique -- insightful, in particular, because it shows the backhanded ways that the misinformation critique actually bolsters the platforms' image and power. There are a couple of important points here.
The first is that Facebook's whole value proposition is that it can influence human behavior through exposure to certain targeted stimuli that we usually call ads -- but misinformation and propaganda fall under this heading as well. If Facebook can't convince ad buyers that its ads work, then its business model collapses. Well, if misinformation doesn't work, then ads probably don't work either. So Facebook actually benefits, businesswise, from the perception that misinformation on Facebook causes widespread public harm. Because if that's the case, then ads on Facebook probably lead to widespread public shopping.
The other reason the misinformation critique benefits Facebook is that it's one that, at least in principle, can be addressed through content moderation. Content moderation at scale is extremely expensive, which means that giant platforms like Facebook are in a much better position to provide it than their smaller competitors. And the need to provide content moderation (unlike, say, the need to make a more privacy-protective or less habit-forming product) doesn't threaten the company's basic ad-driven business model.
Tags: Tech Round-Up
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