Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world.
This week.. EU Calls For Interoperative, Privacy-Compliant Contact-Tracing Apps, Ola opens its tech platform to Indian government to combat coronavirus crisis, attacks on 5G mobile masts surge over Easter weekend and much more.
EU Calls For Interoperative, Privacy-Compliant Contact-Tracing Apps
Forbes
Virus-tracking apps used in Europe must comply with EU privacy rules and should avoid using personalised location data, the European Commission said today.
It’s created a ‘toolbox’ – a set of recommendations – for mobile apps that aim to control the spread of Covid-19 by tracing the contacts of victims.
“Contact tracing apps to limit the spread of coronavirus can be useful, especially as part of Member States’ exit strategies,” says the commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton.
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Can mobile contact-tracing apps help lift lockdown?
BBC
Smartphone contact-tracing technology has played a role in easing lockdown in China, and other countries are following suit. But are contact-tracing apps all they’re cracked up to be?
With Covid-19 showing no signs of slowing its spread across the globe, public debate is moving on from how to stop the virus in its tracks, to how we can adapt and live through this outbreak.
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Ola opens its tech platform to Indian government to combat coronavirus crisis
Tech Crunch
As India scrambles to keep its citizens safe from the coronavirus, local ride-hailing giant Ola has stepped up to help. The Indian firm has made its technology platform — which is capable of, among other things, conducting real-time tracking and navigation and managing crowds — available to the federal and state governments at no cost.
Ola, which is already working with the state government in Punjab, said its technology platform can be refashioned to help the government and public service organizations manage their real-time war rooms.
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Coronavirus: Attacks on 5G mobile masts surge over Easter weekend
Sky
Attacks on mobile masts surged over the Easter weekend, with a further 20 suspected arson cases being reported.
The attacks come as a deeply flawed and scientifically ignorant conspiracy theory is spreading linking the deployment of 5G antennas to the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to mobile networks, incidents were reported in England, Wales and Scotland over the bank holiday – and follow others the previous weekend.
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The World Is Going Mobile—Shouldn’t Work Do The Same?
Forbes
Even just a few years ago, forgetting your phone at home was an inconvenience—not a reason to turn around and rush back. Today, there’s no question about it: Without our phones, we’re lost. Sometimes literally.
Mobile phones have impacted every aspect of our lives. We make reservations; we catch rides; we send and receive money; we keep in touch with friends and family. Emoji is a language. Swipe, snap and slide have new digital definitions.
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Mobile IoT roaming goes live across Europ
IoT Business News
Deutsche Telekom has signed its first NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) roaming agreements with several European operator partners. The cooperation with Swisscom, Telia Company and Vodafone brings Mobile IoT roaming services to a further nine European countries. Deutsche Telekom currently offers NB-IoT roaming in nine of its own markets. The roaming agreements address customer demand for international coverage and service continuity for their fast-growing number of IoT devices.
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Mobile payment giants join China blockchain group
Mobile World Live
Representatives from Tencent and Ant Financial joined experts from Huawei and other huge Chinese technology companies in a research group charged with investigating standards related to use of blockchain.
In a statement, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) named 71 members for its National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardisation Technical Committee, having first announced the project in 2019.
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Programmatic Advertising in the Age of COVID-19: Mobile App Ad Spend Dips 14%; ‘Sports’ Lose 95% but ‘Parenting’ Apps Soar 122%
Martech Series
Pixalate, a global ad fraud intelligence and marketing compliance platform, today announced the release of its latest report, Programmatic Ad Spend in the Age of COVID-19: Mobile App Advertising, an analysis of how U.S. programmatic advertisers reallocated investments in March 2020 in response to the crisis.
“Despite the fact consumers are spending more time with media than ever before, our research reveals that advertising demand is not in lockstep with the influx of supply,” said Jalal Nasir, CEO of Pixalate. “However, while overall mobile in-app ad spend fell last month, certain apps and app categories saw significant growth as advertisers altered their media plans.”
