VW Software Scandal May Lead To More Open-Source Code

The great emissions-beating software scandal is still in full swing, with Volkswagen stating that eleven million of its vehicles have installed software that helps it beat environmental testing procedures in order to release as much as 40% more harmful emissions than the law allows. Now, Audi has admitted that 2.1 million of its cars have the same type of software installed, and other auto makers are expected to fess up with some actual numbers very soon. Sadly, news has also come out that not only was VW warned back in 2007 that they can’t do this–even though they clearly did–the EU was also told about this issue two years ago and yet did nothing.

While the political and financial sectors handle this slovenly man-made crisis, there’s a whole other branch of experts watching this unfold in order to see how the scandal changes the way we do business, and that’s individuals with a bent on consumer law and protection. To date, the owners of more than 13 million cars have been unwittingly polluting the environment beyond even the allowable harm that cars cause, and that doesn’t sit well with people charged with protecting consumers’ rights.
The result is a call for greater transparency in the way our goods and products are manufactured and in the way they run, which for some products will include understanding the code in the software that makes it work. If consumers are being honest with themselves, how many can truly say they know how their modern-era cars work, or what software powers their drop-in pod coffee maker that has DRM-encryption on its pods? Do most consumers know what drives the products currently available in the IoT space, or are they blindly using devices and gadgets that seemingly work on the sly?
According to an article for Network World, one of the main culprits isn’t even related to proprietary software or a desire to skirt the testing system, but instead has more to do with copyright concerns than how your smartphone can talk to your light bulb without anyone knowing. This veil of secrecy is typically more about making sure others don’t write similar code–and therefore produce competing products that are just as effective but cheaper now that programmers didn’t have to be paid write new code–than keeping consumers or government regulators in the dark.
Fortunately, if there is good to come from a software scandal that stands to cause serious, lasting harm to the planet, it’s that open-source software is looking better and better for the transparency it provides. In an age when consumers no longer make purchases blindly and don’t have the wherewithal to understand the mechanisms of their purchases, unsealing the vault surrounding so many manufactured goods stands to prevent this type of scandal in the future.

Yahoo Mail Goes Password Free

So it looks like the next time you log in to your Yahoo Mail account from a smartphone, you might not need your password…

Instead, you might just need “Account Key.”

In the month that Yahoo Mail turns 18, users of Yahoo Mail can now check their email using nothing more than their user name and a smartphone. The new password free login allows users to verify any device they want to check their email on, by authenticating login details using their main smartphone.

While Yahoo are initially pushing the service primarily at its Apple and Android users, the desktop experience is also  available for U.S. users currently, and is set for a global release later this year.

Yahoo’s senior vice president of product management, Dylan Casey, said this in the blog post announcing Account Key: “Account Key streamlines the sign-in process with a secure, elegant and easy-to-use interface that makes access as easy as tapping a button,” 
 
Yahoo have made the move in an effort to improve security and help eliminate one of the big hassles that internet users face every day. The Account Key feature, comes as part of the biggest shakeup to happen to Yahoo Mail in years. Unveiling a raft of new features in the blog post, the company said Yahoo Mail’s redesign “will take user convenience and security to the next level.”

Time will tell if Account Key will actually solve the problems with passwords, including the fact that people have a tendency to use the same password to logon to several different systems and devices. Yahoo’s Casey said that “Passwords are usually simple to hack and easy to forget….Account Key uses push notifications to provide a fast and secure way for you to access your Yahoo accounts from your smartphone. It frees you from memorizing complicated passwords, making signing-in to your Yahoo Mail app easy as tapping a button.” 

The unveiling of Account Key is the latest new feature to be rolled out by Yahoo this year. While it is not currently certain, it appears that Account Key will replace Yahoo‘s On Demand SMS password system released in March. The SMS service allowed users to log into their Yahoo accounts using one time passwords.

Yahoo’s new look apps and increased security features is part of the larger plan to try and regain some of the ground it has lost to Google over the last five years or so.
In August 2013, both Google and Yahoo both had about 96 million U.S. email users each. In the two years that have followed, Google grew its user base by another 40% to over 135 million users, while Yahoo’s base dropped by over a quarter in the same time period.