Technology

Mobike made a roster of announcements about its bikesharing program today, including the end of customer deposits in China and full integration into Meituan Diapingapp. The developments, its first since its acquisition by Meituan for $2.7 billion in April, are meant to help Mobike become a stronger competitor against Ofo, its biggest rival, and a slew of smaller startups in Chinaheated bikesharing wars.

Mobike, which claims 200 million users, will have the chance to reach more customers thanks to its integration into Meituanplatform. Meituan has ambitious growth plans (filed for an IPO in Hong Kong last month) and describes itself as a &one-stop super app& because of the large range of services, including dining, salon, entertainment and travel bookings, it offers. Meituan310 million users were already able to pay for Mobike on the platform and will now also be able to rent a bike through the app.

Mobike also upped the ante for competitors by announcing that it will stop requiring users in China to pay 299 RMB (about $45) deposits and will refund all deposits already paid. Mobike says it is getting rid of deposits to &establish a no-threshold, zero-burden and zero-condition deposit-free standard for the entire bikesharing industry.& (Since the new policy only applies to users in China, instead of all 200 million Mobike users, TechCrunch has contacted the company for more information about how much money it is refunding).

Deposits are a contentious issue among bikesharing users. Though Mobike and Ofo claim they do not use customer deposits to fund operations, some bikesharing startups have been accused of spending deposits on operational expenses, with users complaining that it is very difficult to get their money back, even if they stop using a service or it goes out of business. The issue has resulted in Chinese lawmakers drafting regulations that require bikesharing companies to store deposits in a separate bank account so the funds are still available to return to customers even if a company goes out of business.

Another controversial issue is the large number of trashed or abandoned bikes created by bikesharing companies, with photos of &bikesharing graveyards& becoming symbolic of the sectorexcesses and unsustainable growth. To address environmental concerns, Mobike says it is launching a bike components recycling program in partnership with several companies, including Dow, China Recycling Resources and Tianjin Xinneng Recycling Resources. Called Mobike Life Cycle, the program will recycle bike components into new parts or raw materials. Mobike says it has already recycled and reused over 300,000 Mobike tires.

Mobike will also add a new e-bike that can reach a top speed of 20 km/hour and travel up to 70 km on a single charge. The company hopes that the e-bike, which will be available in China and Mobikeinternational markets, will increase trip lengths. In its press statement, Mobike says most of its bikes are used for trips up to 3 km, but the e-bikes will hopefully increase that to 5 km.

Most camera bags prioritize function over form, which makes sense for protecting some of your most expensive gear, but itstill a bummer. If you&re both practical and interested in cultivating cool, aloof photographer vibes instead of dorky ones, ChromeNiko lineup of camera bags is definitely worth a look.

ChromeNiko Hold($60, Chrome Industries) is the companysmallest camera bag, but if you&re looking for something larger the Niko Messenger and the Niko F-Stop backpack share its sensibilities with a larger form factor. The Niko Hold fits a pretty specific niche, but given the soaring popularity of small-bodied mirrorless full frame cameras and increasingly powerful compact cameras, ita pretty wide one.

With a volume of seven liters, the Niko Hold won&t carry a full-size DSLR or big zoom lenses well but ita great fit for a smaller setup.I used to carry the old version of the Niko backpack, but these days itjust too much case for my cameras and I&ve been looking for something tough thata more suitable size but doesn&t look like it came from the clearance section at Best Buy.

To test the Niko Hold, I carried this for a week of off-and-on event photography near Los Angeles, both fixed shooting on stages and more candid outdoor shooting. The bag is sleek and solid, with a very structured rectangular vibe that looks and feels professional without being boring. I felt confident that my equipment would be safe if the weather suddenly turned, but this pack is more water resistant than fully waterproof, but you&d probably have a special housing for extreme weather needs anyway. There are plenty of circumstances I shoot in that would be a bad fit for this camera bag but for event and street photography it proved ideal. Obviously, you shouldn&t take the Niko Hold on a backpacking or climbing trip, itmuch more of an urban bag than one designed for the outdoors.

To be clear, the Niko Hold isn&t great for fast access, but it worked well for my shooting needs which were mostly carrying my camera, lenses and accessories to and from a location securely. The Niko Holdseam-sealed zipper isn&t fast for getting things in and out, but if I&m ready to shoot my camera would be on my hip anyway. Of course, that won&t always be the case, but there are plenty of other designs with faster access in mind, including the Niko Messenger.

Within the Niko Hold, two dividers offer a little customizable organization, while there are just enough zippered pockets for stashing SD cards and other small accessories, like a phone and wallet if itthe only bag you&re carrying.

The Niko Hold is small, but it can accommodate plenty of compact gear. In my time testing it, the Niko Hold carried my Sony A7S II body, an 18-200mm lens, all of the necessary chargers, SD cards and extra batteries and sometimes even a backup Sony RX 100 II. Its all-black 1050d ballistic nylon construction meant that the bag looked and felt like a small set of armor for my gear, which was ideal. More than anything, this camera bag feels snug and secure.

Small camera cases are usually intended for casual photographers, but this felt like pro level protection and thoughtfulness, which was refreshing for a professional photographer who has downsized my gear over the years. If you&ve converted to camera equipment on the smaller side, carrying your stuff in ChromeNiko Hold will give both your gear and your shooting style the respect it deserves. Finally.

Technology is the proverbial double-edged sword. And an experimental European research project is ensuring this axiom cuts very close to the industrybone indeed by applying machine learning technology to critically sift big techprivacy policies — to see whether AI can automatically identify violations of data protection law.

The still-in-training privacy policy and contract parsing tool — which is called ‘Claudette‘: Aka (automated) clause detector — is being developed by researchers at the European University Institute in Florence.

They&ve also now got support from European consumer organization BEUC — for a ‘Claudette meets GDPR‘ project — which specifically applies the tool to evaluate compliance with the EUGeneral Data Protection Regulation.

Early results from this project have been released today, with BEUC saying the AI was able to automatically flag a range of problems with the language being used in tech T-Cs.

The researchers set Claudette to work analyzing the privacy policies of 14 companies in all — namely:Google, Facebook (and Instagram), Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, WhatsApp, Twitter, Uber, AirBnB, Booking, Skyscanner, Netflix, Steam and Epic Games — saying this group was selected to cover a range of online services and sectors.

And also because they are among the biggest online players and — I quote — &should be setting a good example for the market to follow&.Ehem, should.

The AI analysis of the policies was carried out in June, after the update to the EUdata protection rules had come into force. The regulation tightens requirements on obtaining consent for processing citizens& personal data by, for example, increasing transparency requirements — basically requiring that privacy policies be written in clear and intelligible language, explaining exactly how the data will be used, in order that people can make a genuine, informed choice to consent (or not consent).

In theory, all 15 parsed privacy policies should have been compliant with GDPR by June, as it came into force on May 25. However some tech giants are already facing legal challengesto their interpretation of ‘consent&. And itfair to say the law has not vanquished the tech industryfuzzy language and logic overnight. Where user privacy is concerned, old, ugly habits die hard, clearly.

But that&swhere BEUC is hoping AI technology can help.

It says that out of a combined 3,659 sentences (80,398 words) Claudette marked 401 sentences (11.0%) as containing unclear language, and 1,240 (33.9%) containing &potentially problematic& clauses or clauses providing &insufficient& information.

BEUC says identified problems include:

• Not providing all the information which is required under the GDPRtransparency obligations. &For example companies do not always inform users properly regarding the third parties with whom they share or get data from&
• Processing of personal data not happening according to GDPR requirements. &For instance, a clause stating that the user agrees to the companyprivacy policy by simply using its website&
• Policies are formulated using vague and unclear language (i.e. using language qualifiers that really bring the fuzz — such as &may&, &might&, &some&, &often&, and &possible&) — &which makes it very hard for consumers to understand the actual content of the policy and how their data is used in practice&

The bolstering of the EUprivacy rules, with GDPR tightening the consent screw and supersizing penalties for violations, was exactly intended to prevent this kind of stuff. So itpretty depressing — though hardly surprising — to see the same, ugly T-C tricks continuing to be used to try to sneak consent by keeping users in the dark.

We reached out to two of the largest tech giants whose policies Claudette parsed — Google and Facebook — to ask if they want to comment on the project or its findings.

A Google spokesperson said: &We have updated our Privacy Policy in line with the requirements of the GDPR, providing more detail on our practices and describing the information that we collect and use, and the controls that users have, in clear and plain language. We&ve also added new graphics and video explanations, structured the Policy so that users can explore it more easily, and embedded controls to allow users to access relevant privacy settings directly.&

At the time of writing Facebook had not responded to our request for comment.

Commenting in a statement,Monique Goyens, BEUCdirector general, said: &A little over a month after the GDPR became applicable, many privacy policies may not meet the standard of the law. This is very concerning. It is key that enforcement authorities take a close look at this.&

The group says it will be sharing the research with EU data protection authorities, including the European Data Protection Board. And is not itself ruling out bringing legal actions against law benders.

But italso hopeful that automation will — over the longer term — help civil society keep big tech in legal check.

Although, where this project is concerned, it also notes that the training data-set was small — conceding that Claudetteresults were not 100% accurate — and says more privacy policies would need to be manually analyzed before policy analysis can be fully conducted by machines alone.

So file this one under ‘promising research&.

&This innovative research demonstrates that just as Artificial Intelligence and automated decision-making will be the future for companies from all kinds of sectors, AI can also be used to keep companies in check and ensure peoplerights are respected,& adds Goyens. &We are confident AI will be an asset for consumer groups to monitor the market and ensure infringements do not go unnoticed.

&We expect companies to respect consumers& privacy and the new data protection rights. In the future, Artificial Intelligence will help identify infringements quickly and on a massive scale, making it easier to start legal actions as a result.&

For more on the AI-fueled future of legal tech, check out our recent interview withMireille Hildebrandt.