This week, whos tracking your teams computers . How taiwan is tackling covid with tech. And finding cuddly koalas with drones. Hello, you. Hope youre doing 0k. The weathers getting warmer here, which means only one thing any minute now, you will hear my next door neighbours lawnmower whizz past and theres nothing i can do about it. Sorry about that, lara. There is an app for that, you know, dont you watch a programme called click . Oh yes, i remember. Good point we were actually all meant to be outside this week at the hay festival, but alas its not happening this year. Yeah, i know. Im going to miss the hay festival this year. Hay is still online though and theyve got loads of speakers who are giving talks from their homes rather like the rest of us these days. Yes. How are you finding working from home, spencer . Um, well, im really lucky to be able to work from home, but the weird thing is, whenever i have worked at home in the past, i have worked harder and longer than i have in the office, basically because im paranoid people will think im skiving off. Yeah, i can understand that. Although, of course, not everybodys that conscientious. And speaking to a lot of friends i think the idea that moving forward many of us could be working from home more, even after the pandemic. Well, while our bosses cant watch us in the way they would in the office, there is some technology that might. With millions of us now working from home, managers are facing new challenges. Homeworkers are harder to monitor, and so trust is vital. However, in recent weeks demand for software to monitor employees has surged in the us, so it seems not everyone is quite so trusting. While Companies May argue that its simply about maintaining productivity, others may feel that were slipping into a time of creepy surveillance. So based on these concerns, New York Times journalist adam satarino decided to conduct an unusual experiment. I wanted to see how this Employee Monitoring Software worked. And so i thought the best way to do that would just be to turn it on myself, so i downloaded the software on my computer, on my phone, and then i turned it around and gave my manager, my editor in San Francisco access as well, just knowing that your supervisor was looking over my shoulder and could see screenshots of what was on my computer screen, or a log of what websites i was visiting, that sort of change how you behave and how you perform yourjob. Adam used Monitoring Software hubstaff. The software is now installed on over 100,000 company machines. It can snap screenshots of your computer every few minutes. Other software on the market can even record your screen and monitor every keystroke. I really did begin to feel that it was intrusive and over the top. It spits out this percentage which becomes kind of your productivity score that can be used to measure you. And so mine were always stubbornly low, which was surprising, i consider myself to be a fairly productive person. I am embarrassed to say i looked at that number and i was like, what . What is going on here . it kind of raises immediate questions like, what is this guy doing . So i should have known better, because when he explained that this really only measures the amount of time youre, you know, typing on your device and using your device and your laptop, that explained a lot. But knowing what else he was doing felt really weird and intrusive. And it was kind of gross, you know. Its like youre not only violating adams privacy, youre sort of violating other peoples privacy that he was communicating with by extension. Adams experiment was one manager monitoring one employee and the Companies Providing the software argue that this isnt a true reflection of how their customers use it. But thats not the reality of what really happens. What really happens is i have 100 employees and theres nobody whos going around looking at the detail of 100 employees. So really what theyre looking for is just those basic insights that we talked about. And the detail is just there if its needed, if something looks off, looks awry. However, in the United States the sudden surge in demand has started to draw attention to the lack of Legal Protection for workers privacy. And has also highlighted a power imbalance between employers and employees. Governmental action is necessary to protect workers from being forced to treat their dignity in the employment bargain. In february, i did testify in congress in the subcommittee on labour and education, and this was an issue that was raised. This productivity tracking of employees and also the fate of the data that is collected. With millions more of us now working from home, dr ajunwas concerns have become even more pressing. She told us that currently employers are allowed to secretly monitor employees as no federal law exists that requires them to inform their workers about surveillance. Its now a free for all. Its the wild, wild west. Everybody is now subject to the same kind of minute monitoring as we previously thought was, you know, the plight of those poor factory or warehouse workers. And theres also the issue of employment discrimination that can arise from all this data collection. If youre taking screenshots, you might discover information about the employee that you perhaps would not have discovered in a traditional workplace. You might discover that the employee is of a different sexual orientation, so that could also give rise to discrimination on those grounds, or a different religion. But in europe, where productivity monitoring of employees is still legal, there is much tighter oversight, and there are regulations around its use. In europe we have to tell people what were doing and why, and ensure that we have lawful grounds for doing that. If an organisation has a legitimate interest in collecting the data for workforce productivity in certain areas, then it will be able to do so without consent, but it will still need to be transparent with its employees, telling them what its doing and of course putting safeguards to protect the data. Maybe we will see this sort of Employee Surveillance become the norm, but clearly it will stir quite some debate. After all, how would you feel if your boss was monitoring you . Hello and welcome to the week in tech. It was the week that, for the first time, twitter restricted access to one of president trumps tweets, saying it glorifies violence. Its the latest move in an escalating row between the president and the social Media Company over censorship and freedom of speech. A Canadian Court ruled that the case of senior huawei executive meng wanzhou, who is fighting extradition to the United States, can go ahead. And if 10,000 songs was not enough for your lockdown listening libraries, Music Streaming Service spotify has now removed that limit. You can now save an unlimited number of tracks and dance like nobodys watching. If youre getting square eyes in lockdown, how about upgrading to a holographic 8k display . The display, developed by looking glass, has a massive 33. 2 million pixels and is designed to give the appearance of 3d without needing glasses. Although a little less likely to happen to you at the moment, when you next find yourself out at sea, would you trust an algorithm to help you if you went overboard . Researchers at eth zurich and mit developed the algorithm to help speed up search and rescue operations, by more accurately predicting where a floating person would drift. And finally, while some of us have been struggling to fill the free time inside, one developer built a robot companion to keep him company. Engineer sharath naik created ewon using a raspberry pi powered by google assistant. Ewon can detect and show emotions but cant currently follow you around the house. Now, as lockdowns are starting to ease, were also beginning to see the economic consequences. And questions are being asked as to whether covid 19 could have been handled differently. Well, one part of the world that managed to keep things business as usual, more or less, is taiwan. With direct flights to wuhan and densely packed cities, the strategy promised to be a disaster. But no. By the 20th of may, taiwan had had just seven covid 19 deaths. So where did it all go so right . Back in 2003, taiwan faced another epidemic which also originated on the chinese mainland sars. This time around, the government immediately began testing and tracing specific parts of the population using, for example, travel data to see whod just returned from wuhan together with health data pointing to those with recent health problems. Those who were quarantined were monitored using location data from their mobile phones. The virus was stopped in its tracks before it had a chance to take hold in the community. But how did this democratic island persuade the people to allow such use of their data . Well, last year we met taiwans digital minister audrey tang who was part of the 2014 sunflower revolution, in which citizens stormed the Parliament Buildings demanding to be listened to. Among the protesters, civic hackers like these who worked together using open data to solve issues in the public interest. Theyve since come up with transparent ways of giving ordinary people a bigger say in making decisions. After that occupation at the end of 2014, the entire cabinet started to learn the art of listening and skill. And today listening continues. So when a citizen reposted a warning from whistleblower dr li wenliang of a sars like disease at the start of december, people took note. And so because of this we were able to gain precious time to set up the centre, epidemic command centre, even before we had the first confirmed local case. Along with strong messaging about hand washing and social distancing, taiwan was keen to emphasise the benefits of wearing masks. In taiwan, people care about each other. And we built masks as something that, a, reminds you to wash your hands properly and, b, protects you from touching your mouth. And that is the main benefit of masks to the person who wears it. Of course we know once a majority of people in the same place to start wearing medical masks, they start protecting each other. The peer pressure only takes effect if a majority of people in a room wear a mask. Mask production was ramped up from 2 million to 20 million a day and, to combat panic buying, they were rationed. Then the Hacking Community stepped in with a series of real time mask maps to show the nearest points to you where they were still available. As maps became more popular, more volunteers came on board, and features like voice activation for the visually impaired were added. We trust the people a lot. Sometimes, the people trust back. And the people who trust back first gets their applications, their innovations amplified by the government into essentially Civil Engineering infrastructure. So that more than 10 Million People use it in a participatory way to keep each other accountable. And heres another product of this higher level of trust between people and government. When rumours started to circulate online that toilet rolls were made of the same kind of paper as masks, toilet rolls started to run out. In response, taiwans premier was enlisted to quash this misinformation with a meme. He shows his bottom wiggling a little bit and says that we only have one pair of buttocks each. And then a table that says the masks are produced using domestic material and tissue paper are produced using south american material and these two do not overlap. And this went absolutely viral. We make sure that these ideas travel faster than conspiracy theories, than rumours, by using cute dog memes so that the press conferences get translated by the spokesdog that explains hand sanitation rules, social distancing, mask use, and things like that and in many languages. And so this is literally our spokesdog and often go very viral. Can you understand why not all governments think like you and, therefore, why populations dont trust their governments . Back when we encountered sars, we had to barricade an entire hospital unannounced. There was no fixed time limit and that was barely constitutional. There was a severe trust crisis. And so we know how it was like because it was very chaotic. Its just that the entire society gets inoculated by that it experience. The important thing is that as a society we need to start deliberating about, for example, data use. The Robust Civil Society takes control of most of the data applications, or do you want a surveillance state or do you want the Multinational Companies to play that role . And that decision must be made by the entire society by the time that a next wave comes or a next mutation comes that will determine how your society responds to it. That was audrey tang talking to me earlierfrom taiwan. And now we go even further across the world. Yeah, see, a little while ago nick kwek decided he had had enough of the uk and he moved to australia to explore the country. Three weeks after he arrived he went into lockdown and hasnt left his apartment since. Hi, nick. Oh no. Hows it going . Hello great to see you guys. Yeah, its been amazing. I feel like i really have managed to grasp what australias all about from the inside of these four white walls. Erm, im so glad that i moved from the other side of the world to now remain inside this cell. Oh, no lockdown is easing there now, isnt it . I mean, are you hoping to start your touring soon . Thats right. On monday, the pubs are going to be open, so ill be queueing immediately after this. Oh, i bet you will be now, before going into lockdown you did actually go to film some pieces for us, didnt you . Thats right. Well, i looked across the australian technological landscape and i thought, what better way to start than go and cuddle some koalas or kangaroos . And i wasjet lagged anyway so i thought id pop out during the night. In the dead of the night, something is afoot. Two feet, in fact, and a jump. Westpac Little Ripper Group and myself are sacrificing sleep to track down some roving roos or the occasional wandering walla by. Were not fussy. Table, check, carpet, check, two unmanned aerial vehicles, check, check. Im out with the same team behind the slick sharkspotter drones ive covered before. With the bushfires and the animals that have been affected, weve now taken the Amazing Technology that weve had on the beaches for the last three years and weve put it over the bushland. Now theyve turned nocturnal and their new targets are considerably cuddly creatures. You can see kangaroo, kangaroo, kangaroo. You can see they really stand out against the background. Were filming before sunrise during the coldest part of the day. So the new thermal cameras fixed to the drones can work properly. As well as being able to serve a huge swathe of land in the blink of an airborne eye, the drones thermal capabilities can help in other ways. A thermal signature makes animals much easier to see at night. Their natural internal temperatures making them visible even in the most dense of treetop canopies. And the different individual temperatures of the animals can be recorded, therefore making them more distinct between species. Different animals show up at different temperatures. They have different fur that insulates them. So its just a matter of picking them out so you can see quite easily that theres a whole lot of kangaroos in this field. We fly over an area and theres a kangaroo that seems removing a little bit differently, not as efficient as it usually would, not normal movement patterns, then well focus on that. And if we bring the drone a little bit closer and they dont move or they dont scare or a human gets closer to them and they dont move or dont scare then we know that something is probably wrong with its health and we will focus on identifying that and passing that on to rescuers. Dr grant hamilton from Queensland University of technology is also using drones to monitor koalas. Hes devised an algorithm to automatically detect animals in the outback using computer vision. 0n the right hand side, we have the Artificial Intelligence algorithm working and on the left hand side we have the thermal imagery. Its a koala. Initially, it was falsely detecting kangaroos, for example, as koalas. We were even detecting humans, and even hot car bonnets. But thats the whole point that you go back and you retrain the algorithm. So the algorithm gets better and better and better to the point now were better than humans are at detecting koalas. All of the algorithms that have been developed to date is processing back at a university, so theres no in field processing. So were now going to work with the universities and the institutions, take their datasets and algorithms that theyve started to develop, layer it over our technology, which enables us to do these surveys at night in the field and get Real Time Data back. And thats the key. Someone who knows a thing or two about the state of Australian Animals is dr michael pyne. When i first started here 20 years ago we admitted just three koalas in the whole year and last year we admitted almost 600 koalas. He sees real value in an up to date digital census. These surveys are done intermittently, maybe every ten years, and in many areas theyre not done at all, its just estimates. Technology such as drones, you know, using those thermal cameras, can mean a large area can be covered in short periods of time, you know, relatively cheaply, to get those numbers so we know how many koalas are there and that makes all the difference. Only if we know whats there can we manage whats there and be able to make, you know, decisions about the future. As well as the fires and the underlying issue of drought, chlamydia is a huge problem putting koalas under threat. So staff at currumbin have been using tech of their own to help diagnose the disease. We can take a swab, we can use this little unit here called the genie 3 and it will detect whether theres chlamydia or not from that swab within 25 minutes. So its Amazing Technology that we can actually take out into the field, which makes all the difference to us being able to start treatment appropriately and at the end of the treatment, you know, decide whether weve been successful with the treatment or not. A lot of work remains to be done and, in fact, its the very beginning of the important work to find out whats left. The other thing to consider, though, is that this is just one bushfire season. And australia has bushfires regularly. So unless we get a good count now, were not going to be able to get any idea of what happens next time. That was nick, who, as we speak, is setting up a tent on the Pavement Outside his local pub ready for the grand opening. And thats it from us for this week. You can keep up with the team throughout the week on instagram, youtube, facebook, and twitter bbcclick. Thanks for watching and we will see you soon. Bye bye. Hello there. Its been a very sunny spring and a pretty dry may for many. The final day of the month brings more warmth, more sunshine and more dry weather across the country. As we go through this afternoon, then, we are going to see some areas of patchy fair weather cloud developing across england and wales. Perhaps some high cloud turning the sunshine hazy at times in scotland and Northern Ireland. Youll notice the strength of this easterly breeze. Just like yesterday, that will make it feel a little bit cool close to some north sea coasts. Aberdeen, 18 degrees. Its not bad for this time of year, i have to say. But with some shelter in inverness, more like 25 degrees. Warmest weather in Northern Ireland will be found across western counties, county tyrone, county fermanagh. The east coast of england on the cool side, exposed to that breeze. But further west, the midlands, wales, north west england towards the west country as well, some spots will get up to 26 or 27 degrees. Strong sunshine with high uv levels and high pollen levels for most as well. Through tonight, we keep clear skies overhead except for this lump of low cloud and fog which i think is likely to work into some coasts of eastern scotland and north east england. Temperatures between seven and 13 degrees for most. Tomorrow, we could start off with some mist and murk for some of these eastern coasts. It should tend to retreat back out to sea as the day wears on. And then we see patchy cloud and sunny spells, but just a very small chance of an afternoon shower across scotland and Northern Ireland. Those temperatures again at 19 to 25 degrees across most parts of the uk. Things do start to change as we move out of monday and into tuesday. This frontal system starts to sink in across scotland and that will bring some out rain southwards. That rain actually could turn fairly heavy for a time, and behind the rain band, to the north of it, notice where the winds are coming from. They are coming down from the north. That is going to introduce some cool air. Temperatures in the North West Highlands much, much lower than they have been over the past few days. Further south, more sunshine and more warmth, 27, maybe 28 degrees towards the south east. However, as we head deeper into the week, we see cooler air sweeping southwards across all parts of the uk and, with that, there will be some outbreaks of rain. Perhaps not an awful lot of rain down towards the south, but still there will be some and we really could do with it. Good afternoon. At least 30 cities in the United States have seen protests overnight, triggered by the death of the black man, george floyd, in Police Custody in minneapolis. Officers in riot gear charged at demonstrators, some using rubber bullets, and curfews are now in place in several cities after shops were looted and cars burned. This report from david willis contains some distressing images. This was the night america rose up in protest