Technology

An online screening and testing &triage& tool for COVID-19 was launched this week by Verily Life Sciences, a healthcare technology company owned by Mountain View, Calif.-based Alphabet — though with a substantially reduced scope than initially suggested by President Trump.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden last Friday, Trump claimed that Google was directly involved in the project, though he appears to have overplayed the role of Google and the current scope of the screening website.

To read this article in full, please click here

The world is vulnerable to a new type of trolling as people turn to Zoom video calls to feel connected amidst quarantines. Jerks are using Zoomscreensharing feature to blast other viewers with the most awful videos from across the internet, from violence to shocking pornography.

Thatjust what happened today on the WFH Happy Hour, a popular public Zoom call hosted by The Verge reporter Casey Newton and investor Hunter Walk. Suddenly, dozens of attendees were bombarded with disturbing imagery. A troll entered the call and screenshared Two Girls, One Cup and other horrifying sexual videos. Attempts to block the attack were thwarted as the perpetrator simply re-entered the call under a new name and screenshared more gross-out clips. The hosts ended the call rather than subject viewers to the assault until they could stop it.

The problem stems from Zoompolicy that &The host does not need to grant screen share access for another participant to share their screen.& However, hosts can disable this option in their setting or the Admin controls of a call. Anyone publicly sharing Zoom links where they could be discovered by trolls, like on Twitter, should be sure to change screensharing to Host Only before a call starts or as soon as they see the feature being abused.