Good morning everybody morning y'all awake all hung over just kidding So anyways, I'd like to welcome DC 217's very own Wendy Edwards a little bit about her She's a developer interested in data science She is a sans 2017 recipient in women's Academy NASA data not and she's also a recipient of the Dan initiative scholarship and One of the scholarship I think for the period summer con summer con sorry summer con Anyways, round of applause to introduce our speaker Sorry about that Okay, so the title of the my talk is who's tracking your body and we're talking about health apps and Health and possibilities in medical devices and your privacy So let's start with your the health app. So health apps There's a lot of them. How many of you have ever used a health app? Are you guys still using it? Okay So how the apps can really encompass a whole lot of things. I mean fitness Fitness diet and nutrition.  We looked at the at some of those for summer con And there are a whole lot of those and those are so those are actually some of the most popular health apps And there are also things related to specific medical conditions and devices such as CPAP, which we're going to talk about a little bit later And they're also mood and mental health trackers. So what kind of data is I'm going to give you it's going to maybe give you your Diet and exercise habits your weight in your BMI Stuff for example like Women's ovulation their periods are they trying are they trying to conceive? you look what medication is somebody taking and Maybe maybe also like certain kinds of health conditions like for example if you're using a CPAP app, you probably have apnea So question has anybody ever shared information with an app that you maybe wouldn't want to talk about with a person sitting next to you Okay, cuz like yeah, cuz like if you think about it would I like to announce my weight right here? No But people are pretty comfortable putting into it's not unusual for people to be willing to put it into an app So you might think so okay, so apps have privacy policies, right? so Great, they have privacy policies, but how has anybody ever actually tried to read an apps privacy policy? Yeah, okay How many people have found it easy to understand an apps privacy policy? Okay, like not So the in the New York Times did this really interesting study They used something called a lexile framework that measures our reading levels And they found that the privacy policy policies They were very dense not very readable and they were pretty much above the reading level that you would expect of an average college student So it's interesting enough the GDPR they use GDPR requires Concise transparent and intelligible form using clear and plain language And that's that's in a sense kind of interesting. So what is what should readable mean? I mean I Mean has any how many of you have looked at say an internet comments comment section? And you see a bunch of adults who seem to read at a fifth grade level Like so does readable mean that the that Those people should be able to understand it. Does it mean that like an average college grad should be able to understand it? What does it mean? That's and that's still pretty unclear So basically where does the data go and these are these are a couple of examples So for our summer cron project we took a look at ten popular period tracker apps and All of them were communicating with at least one tracker one of them was one of them actually was Communicating with I think up to 19 sites identified as track as tracking sites that one kind of won our price And there was another well-published Study by a granny was published in the BMJ journal They looked at 24 health apps, which were mostly not period trackers and they found that 19 of them shared user data with it with Entities that would be considered trackers. Yeah So generally talking about like advertising or something that Like in analytics thing that tracks user behavior in a site So I have basically whether it's specifically add or whether it's something go whether they talk about it being analytics I believe those are both considered trackers If you all have a question, please use the microphones to sort of cordon the talk And there have been and those are those are just a couple of them But there have been a number of privacy studies compared on on these apps that confirm the same thing Maybe there's been like for example, there's this year There's been a number of articles in the media talking about the the behavior the period trackers that pretty much came to the same conclusion We did so One important concept and privacy is that you want the ability to keep different facets of your life separate like for example You maybe wouldn't want to share with your employer the same thing as you share with your doctor And perhaps you wouldn't bring your work performance reviews into your doctor to share with your doctor either So it's just keep it be able to keep separate aspects of your life separate and so one of the issues with these trackers is they tend to Identify they tend to identify users in a way that so that it can be tracked across different apps It's so it's not just like this one app is creating an ID for you They're creating an identifier that can be used across apps to start to aggregate your data and that's what people care about So just these are just a couple of examples of how it's done. You've got a device fingerprint. I mean they can use Your history or a device type Information about your device some days. I've heard them even using the the fonts that somebody has installed on their computer And then there's also like for example an Android They have something called an advertising ID, which is actually specific to the Android system. Not necessarily individual app So Mostly familiar with what an I am yeah, I is on a cell phone. It's something that uniquely identify your phone That is for example Google prohibits that being used as an identifier But a study idea another study determined that some apps were still doing it So actually another way so what if you want to just send your data? directly to the big big data warehouses I bring you single sign-on So like I'm like my but most of you have signed up to something through Google and Facebook, right? And so like the apps the apps can ask Facebook to send a whole lot of data I don't know if your your when you sign on through Facebook They say you get a bunch of permissions from Facebook asking you to send certain kinds of data Like they want it and they want your profile photo. They want your email address They want all your friends so you that they can connect you to them Perhaps they want your firstborn child And it is written users when at least we're looking at they're usually like yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean Users don't very often seem to say no And so when you when you do that it's like Google and Facebook I mean they're in the business of Aggregating data is a way they make money.  You're probably within a certain age range You might be interested in having a child and they could tell that just for just from the fact that you're using this app So basically where does that where does the data go upstream? So basically sales and marketing is a very big thing they want they want to to be able to target advertising Analytics so with analytics Basically, I mean stuff that's measuring user behavior in a site and trying to figure out how well a site is working And the thing of it is the data All this data could be combined to create to Create kind of a bigger to create a bigger picture of you when you start putting stuff together from across apps Like you could say somebody who's They've got they've they've got a period tracker or they downloaded a Coran app And they're hanging on at a job search site. They're probably a younger Muslim woman looking for a job, right? So so put all this stuff together. I am sometimes the data can go even further upstream because they see these things called data brokers So one of the things about the analytics the analytics Sites they're kind of freemium sites and they'll say they will provide the developers free metrics on how their sites is Performing in exchange for access to the data So so basically so on Valentine's Day There was a pretty good treat tweet that said roses are red violets are blue when the product is free the product is you So I'm using when there's a free free product. They are collecting some kind of data on you So let's go and let's say let's have a question because I'd like you've heard from me long enough Okay, let's say buying data to help target individual is common in higher budget campaigns and it is Let's say Carla candidate knows that her opponent's campaign is likely to be doing this Should she like for example, she could for example Maybe she wants to target people who are likely care about certain health care issues. So Should Carla buy and use this data data to target likely voters ethical or unethical Okay, does it matter that her opponent is going to be doing the same thing and she's likely to be at a disadvantage if she doesn't You know, so okay, so it very likely comes back to issues related to the privacy policies I mean that they use her technically gave it and gave that permission But could they could they read and understand the privacy policy probably not So usually so so like for example like a user Let's say so you have a fairly incomprehensible privacy policy the user couldn't quite understand it Does that count as concerns or not? Sorry, it's just a comment more than anything else in a lot of states the The driver license information and the voter rolls are made available by the state.  No Okay, so we just we got to know so next question a Company wants to target bronies for a my little pony band-aid marketing campaign Is it okay to buy personal data to do this? Oh, okay, Roni So bronies are like Very often like young adult males who like my little pony So for example, like let's say you wanted to see you wanted to find these Young adult males that were likely to need band-aids that had also expressed an interest in my little pony or Brony groups to target for advertising. So I'm taking that as a no So I think it all comes down to the conditions under which people are sharing their data, right? So if they've joined a my little pony band club for bronies and they're Excited about the product line of the my little pony They might be thrilled to receive an ad like this And so I think it's really coming back to your central point Which is what are the terms and conditions under which these data have been collected? So if they've been collected Under ethical terms and conditions then it would of course be ethical to redistribute them as well as legal Yeah, that's a good point So we have a couple of scenarios in which it might at least like some people think that they're that it might in some cases be ethical To use targeted data In effect, let's say if anybody can buy data from these data brokers How about an insurance company like if you can get this all this big data that includes data from your health apps Should an insurance company be able to buy it? Okay, so no any comments on that Yeah, I think the problem that you have if is if they can access this kind of data then it will probably directly influence What your insurance rates are going to be are they going to target you for? Either known or unknown pre-existing conditions, etc. So I think that Gives them more knowledge than than they're entitled to yes I mean, I or at least I would personally agree with you Yeah, I mean like the fdc at some level regulates data brokers, but like for example so that is so they are In the you've got the big data broker sites that they're aggregating a hillbunch of information about people from different sites Who can they sell it to who can buy it? I don't think that's covered at all This is this is assuming that PHI is being exchanged To be able to target individuals so most of the data if not all the data coming out of the health apps It's a world I've lived in as a VC for the last eight years Is all an aggregate so you can't really actually break it down granularly to actually because PHI can't be can't be exposed It has been in a few instances and that is illegal But I guess that for this to actually target and affect and it's great comment about previous in condition You have to actually exchange PHI So what's the basis here? What are we getting at? You're talking about PHI And PHI is like a term under HIPAA right and so the thing of it is like an app developer Somebody sitting in their garage writing a health app is not actually a covered entity covered under PHI Uncovered under HIPAA so it's like whether they are makes so it's like They're they're handling of health information is just not covered under HIPAA. They can do whatever they want So it's basically like there's this completely unregulated Sorts of data that could include health health sensitive health data should insurance companies be able to buy it Especially if anybody else can yeah, so Isn't it incumbent though if in this case across the insurance company? Recognize the information they're buying is actually something under another standard would be HIPAA It's the same information in a different category But that being coming upon them to follow the legal mandate that they're aware of even though that app itself might not fall under that category I That's an excellent question And unfortunately, I am not an attorney and I don't play one on TV So he's right. So the talk space example from New York about 18 months ago is a good example They're not a covered entity if you compare them to like doctor on demand or ginger IO or one of those other companies who have actually a separate medical PC that's a covered entity that clearly falls on the HIPAA, but It was pretty clear that as you said even the ones that aren't covered entity is actually still a fall under under HIPAA in general If you're if you're holding people's individual PHI it's still it still falls under that I would say Insurance companies are covered under HIPAA your developer Your your amateur developer Writing at writing an app is not And I would say that your data brokers are probably not So it's like so you're talking about like an insurance company potentially buying data that does contain PHI from something That's not covered And that's that seems to be in fact pretty uncharted territory. It's not very well defined legally It's one knows my doctor With something that I don't recognize. What's the first thing I do? I Google search it I'm gonna look it up that Google search history is in the is in that history here From other sources, right, but it's not really gonna end up in a PHI bucket But I can identify the user and his past history of somewhat right I mean using analytics and enough data Yeah, I can find figure out what that user's past history of illnesses before I judge him for allowing to Ensure Okay, so let's Let's jump to jump topics So sometimes so basically with Android apps, there are ways you can basically reverse engineer them and modify them like for example, you can Okay, so maybe okay, like so somebody could conceivably like decompile The code change it to do what they wanted recompile it and resign it just with Android studio Or they can even if they if you're talking about specific libraries, you can swap those out if you want so So what if somebody wanted to They like the functionality of an app and they wanted to take it and modify it to enhance it to Improve your privacy like they wanted to just cut out all the stuff that was talking to trackers so Good question So is it ethical to modify an existing app to increase your privacy? Like you want to just take the some of the tracker stuff out What about what if you wanted to take this modified app that you'd this app you'd modified to take out some of the Stuff that you felt compromised your privacy. You wanted to release that app to the public Okay, not ethical Maybe maybe ethical So to me it goes down to the basis of the research side So if you're taking the code and you're making it available But not really re-releasing it as an app Then you're placing the ethics in the hands of anybody who may utilize later That's a that's it off of it would be wrong in my book to put down. Hey, I modified it to do this Your mileage may vary. So so like what if you're not profiting off? But you're just putting an Audi version of the app that you without the problematic privacy The stuff that you felt was an invasion of privacy. You're not profiting it off it at all I personally don't see an issue with that. Okay Comes back to terms and agreements again, it's this thing of people clicking through the agreement most most software agreements have No reverse engineering clause in it. Well, if you download the product You are specifically prohibited from reverse engineering it and if you do if you do release the code You're effectively it's it's plagiarism But where do you whether you're profiting from it or not to some extent is irrelevant if you're using if you're publishing somebody else's copyright It works. You're also breaking those copyright laws. So again, it's it's it's the difference between ethical and and the legality Another question is you could say so the developer spends a lot of their time there a lot of hours of their time writing this code and these In connecting it to these trackers is how they monetize it So would you say do they deserve compensation for their for their effort? Yeah, I think the line on this Really becomes a personal use issue as opposed to impact. It's a it's an intellectual property issue at this point if you are tampering with The person who developed the app if you're tampering with their perceived intent to make money or otherwise Propagate the app then that's unethical because it's an impact to somebody else Okay to put it in simpler terms Okay, if I know that if I know how to make the recipe for Heinz ketchup and I use it for myself Nothing wrong with that. I'm just using it for myself. If I go ahead and put it out on the market Then there's a problem with that or alter it in some way now what I think is probably Similarly ethical would be if you want to get out on a forum or something like that and be able to state so that people have A better understanding of what they're downloading when they download that app then I would consider it consider that also to be ethical Maybe a little bit curious. So like what do you came up? What if you came up with a recipe something to taste it it was based on the Heinz recipe that tasted exactly like it But it was maybe better for diabetics that had limited sugar tolerance. Could you put that out there? Then I think you better talk to your attorney to make sure you're not going to infringe on their patents Okay, well, thank you very much. I think I'm not gonna get into the ketchup making business just So this is a lot. This is very similar to what Dana Lewis has done with the open APS project So she is a diabetes activist who hacked her insulin pump and then Released the code of what she had done Publicly, but didn't then say to people. Oh, if you'd like to hang, you know hack your pancreas Here's how you can do it. So it was a an of one activity But with a large impact Broadly that sounds that sounds actually really interesting Does the releasing the code invalidate the entire privacy? agreement But how does how does that affect like just so I even meant I hadn't even meant releasing a code I had actually meant releasing in a format that people could vary That would make it very easy for people to install on their own devices because it's like like a lot of your Smartphone users out there.  So pretty much anybody with a smartphone couldn't install it Okay, but I haven't even meant yet. Okay. Yeah, I guess all agreements are off at that point and people are just okay Yeah Thank you for the great comments I feel like I feel like these are making these I feel like these are making this talk. Okay so basically So, um, is anybody is anybody who's comfortable sharing is anybody familiar with the ACPAP machine? So basically it's called a It's called a continuous positive airway pressure and it helps people with sleep apnea by delivering this Pressurized air And so like the CPAP devices they're pretty high-tech and they collect a whole lot of data like your usage your mass leakage your sleep interruptions And so so the thing with the CPAP the CPAP things is that is that that takes Surveillance from optional like with you with putting some of these apps on your phone to mandatory like as in You will be sharing this data So how they share it varies like for example There's one like there's a resmed air mini that uses a Bluetooth connection and a smartphone app to manage the data But a lot of them now have these cellular wireless modems that automatically transmit data And so they get basically sent to the device manufacturer Facturists sites and they're shared with not just your doctor, but your insurance company And so I went ahead I got curious and took a look at a couple of the apps Resmis the red med res med air mini APK had at least a code signature in it indicating it was talking to flurry, which is kind of an analytics site considered a tracker So and Phillips dream hacker dream mapper which works with their side I think they actually had a Phillips machine at a Phillips CPAP machine at the biohacking village yesterday And that is talking to app tentative, which looks which also looks a lot like a tracker So those so those are just the smart mode smart phone apps So here's how it works So pro-publica did a very interesting study on the CPAP machines and so they're so a lot of times we have insurance You don't just buy the device outright you're required to rent it And the rental cost is a whole lot more than the outright cost of the machine and then these insurance companies I don't know if anybody dealt with insurance companies to have these compliance standards That you need to use to get paid So medicare initially came up with the idea that they're going to They get to use it for Four hours 70% of the nights in any three-day period and so then the insurance sure as followed suit And the pro-publica made a case that this compliance monitoring was a tactic to shed ship the Cost on the patients like for example the in a story There's a the pro-publica reporter needed a new mask And so he couldn't use his device because he didn't have the mask he needed So the insurance company refused to pay because they claimed he wasn't meeting his uses standards So there are some issues with bad faith denials so Interestingly enough some people have gotten into hacking their CPAP machines. It started with something called sleepy head which was Written by an open sort with by an Australian guy named Mark Watkins That allows users to read their own CPAP data and and even somebody's modified machine settings and That that project is no longer active and Oscar as the open source successor So here's a question Shouldn't insurer have the right to monitor compliance and deny payments if Requirements are not met like if they're okay, so we're getting like pretty much a universal though So my next question So would it be ethical for a patient to modify the device on the software to to improve their privacy and Maybe maybe circumvent some of the compliance monitoring. Yes. Okay. We got to know Now you go get your nose. Okay, so we got mostly yeses, but but a couple of nose. Do we get it? Okay? great Just want to firstly say first up I actually work for resmed one of these companies So everything we're talking about is fairly US centric in this presentation. We do actually have other regions like They you and Japan that have very strict privacy requirements You actually don't need to modify the software We actually require patient consent to opt-in in Europe the devices do not monitor until the patient gives their consent and For some of the apps such as a mini. There's an app as a feature in the app. You can say disable don't Send my data to the cloud So we're on board with the being ethical for the patient to control their own privacy And actually I've been told by somebody else that resmed does a very very good job with the security of their devices Yeah, and I in fact like I read I actually read your documentation about how you secured your communications and That sounded very good and then another security researcher who'd looked into it. So that you've done an impressive job So let's say you but you're in the US and if you turn off the monitoring You're insured your insurance company can stop your insurance company can force you to turn on the monitoring In that case is it ethical to met to mess with the device or the code so that it Maybe to say that so that it just gives gives your insurance company the compliance data It requires that it that it says is required Okay, maybe yes, maybe no Any comments? I think it's a great question. I think here we're talking about regulated devices So there are all kinds of different implications for regulated devices if it was unregulated I would answer probably very differently. I think it's it's more very very loose In regulation if you play with your pacemaker for example and and affect the the bluetooth connectivity to turn it on and off Only when you want to and you end up shorting the unit it burns you what happens in that case Right, so I think there's other implications when you start affecting the code in meta and truly regulated devices Typically because they're in categories in which are lifesaving or or they have other more serious consequences if you actually affect the code adversely Well, yeah, I think that's an excellent point. Like say you want to you want to modify something to increase your privacy Do you do you maybe? inadvertently screw something up or introduce another problems to it And I have no good answers to that Oh, sorry, you were no, no, I Yeah, so I think that I think fundamentally there's a difference between what's Whether we have an ethical or a moral right to privacy And whether we have a legal right to privacy and those are two very different questions So in the case of highly regulated devices, there's obviously a legal there's legal statutes around that But that doesn't infringe upon people's ethical right to privacy So something might be ethical but not legal or You know unethical but legal. Oh, yeah, I mean, I think that there's definitely a difference between like law and ethics And in fact that that actually I mean that raises some interesting questions because like there's an ongoing CPAP hacking project going on called oscar. It's like well Um So you've got somebody so you've got somebody who is a volunteer open source developer who is trying to help them Um, are they responsible if what they're doing to try to help cause is a problem for the patient? I mean I'd be like to what extent should they be responsible for that And that might that might be going into a completely different domain So let's talk about just the idea of making things better There's a few there's a few ideas that occurred to me. Um, so So one thing is maybe increasing some of the legal regulations An issue with that is that dealing with the government can be a little bit slow like for example I'm getting a like getting a device or getting some software through fda approval takes a very long time And and that's and that could be kind of tough because the product the product of product development cycle and stuff with software could be pretty fast Um, and then we talked about like do-it-yourself hacks like you see like an app or something and you and it it's You it's something you consider a privacy um A privacy problem probably say a lot of people attending def con here would have the skills to do something about it But that could that could be a little bit time consuming and possibly fraught with some other risks And then another idea would be maybe a voluntary compliance certification program And so basically how would that so it's there's just an open question is about how that might work So just turning it over to you, um Like so what what do people think? How could we how could we make the privacy situation better? Notakers I'm not going to strictly say how do we make the privacy situation better But I do want to pose a related question Which is is there a balance between privacy needs and health needs When we talk about you know the insurers having the ability to see patient data It feels a bit wrong that they're you know spying on you But if the ultimate goal is to help the patient if the patient isn't using their device It's a good thing if their doctor can call them up on the phone and say hey, you need some help So are we just saying that like the doctor can see the data, but we're not okay with the insurer Is it based on whether it's in the patient's interest versus a financial interest? Is that kind of how we're trying to weigh up privacy versus patient health in this scenario? um, yeah, it's it's a tough situation because like um like I think for example when talking about a CPAP machine There's there are very good reasons for the doctor to be able to see the data The issue in the us that the pro-public article talked about was that there's a there is at least a suspicion that's that um The insurance being able to see the data is part of a known playbook of trying to Intentionally trying to shift the cost back onto the The patient like for example in the exam the with the case that the guy needed a new mask and the insurance The insurance company wouldn't pay because he Couldn't use a device because he needed a new mask That was kind of a bad-faith denial And I think the implication of the article was that there are a few more other bad-faith denials So I think it's a matter of I think the insurance provider being maybe viewed as less trustworthy than in the physician So make oh sir I think a lot of these products a lot of these health tracking products are free apps, right? And so one way to change the system is to ask people to pay up front for an app that has excellent privacy And I think the issue there and the reason why we haven't seen more of it is The public is used to getting these products for free and not understanding the the consequences or what they're giving away, right? Oh, yeah, I think they have no they mostly have no idea Yeah, so I think there's a question of if we want these Products to be more ethically made then we need to educate consumers and get them used to paying for the product up front And then expecting security in return That's that's an excellent point.  I'll install this And it's exactly what you said And I think it's it comes back to uh Some of the incomprehensible privacy policies too like technically there's a privacy policy, but people can't read it And one of the things that article at the article that talked about it said would be interesting is if the privacy policy Actually gave gave customers a list of companies that might be buying their data Would that make them think So it's related to this One of the things that I think about this space is that really the only The really from a regulatory perspective or a policy perspective the only thing that will really shift the market is sunshine laws so requiring companies to Um disclose exactly what they're doing, you know to whom they're selling the data for example Um that said and even if even with all of the work that's being done to make privacy policies more readable Which is my job? There's still too many of them for people to read um, and so I think that what we need to get to is um machine readable digestible privacy policies that then flag you can set your preferences and then flag for you The sketchy stuff Where you would be downloading an app and it would you know your privacy policy Reader would read the privacy policy for you and say oh, you've agreed to all of these sorts of things before you're good with this stuff Here's something that's outside of that norm Um that you wouldn't want to be involved with does that make sense? Yeah, that's a really interesting idea because it seems like um natural language processing has really been getting a lot Stronger yeah in last few years in it and So like 10 years ago, I would have thought that was impossible and now I'm like, you know that actually that actually could very well be uh Be possible. Yeah. Yeah given that one in five Americans can't read at the fifth grade reading level I think that we really need to shift to making adaptive tools just like we make adaptive tools for people with mobility issues or or other Other differences in the way that they interact with the world. Yeah, I mean to be very honest I just I haven't taken a look at some of the privacy policies Um, I cannot imagine like somebody visually impaired trying to cope with that Yeah, exactly. So the adaptive technology would would benefit not only people with difficulty with You know with low reading ability, but people who have low reading ability for myriad other reasons. Yeah So I I love the direction of this. Um When I've seen patients and I'm a surgeon by training when I've seen patients in clinic Like it's super frustrating that you know, you have things designed that As a physician you can't understand you're having your patients understand Then you you extrapolate to the app world For this community The the the kind of extension of that I'd love to see especially because you mentioned And rightfully so we talk about the number regulated or unregulated apps and trackers we can name Multiply that by like a thousand of the homegrown ones are all out there. And so I think a growing um Uh a thing that a number of of kind of innovators have talked about is the gatekeeper probably should happen on the app store level So if you think about applying some of these technologies and actually taking the powers of this larger community Not so much the app developer But to the actual gatekeeper before the app can actually get out there If you look at where they actually have to go in they all funnel through a single store typically either on apple or android or All these different means right now There's no gatekeeper there to actually say like you have to meet this bar when you're collecting this level of information And that you have to actually consent or have people actually go through this level of understanding so much It's somewhat loose But to be able to kind of firm that up. It's kind of tough because So we're talking about um android and and so like play store is where you get android apps. Um, Who creates um android google? Um, what business is like in one of the biggest ad marketing? Um This this is the country these same people who were created android and are running the play store So yeah, it's I mean so like what you said was a really good idea. It's just um It it's hard to imagine google maybe seeing that as being completely in its best interest Yeah, so when when my organization partnered with apple to develop um health research kit the research app platform for ios And research stack, which is the analogous platform on um android they fought us tooth and nail about requiring Informed consent as part of those apps the research apps So these are apps specifically designed for research studies a platform specifically designed to conduct research studies And they fought us on the requirement for informed consent And then fought us on the requirement for ethical board review approval And so I don't think I mean it's a nice idea, but I don't think there's going to be any attraction in the general stores for those Yeah, like so I'm supposedly the newer version. They are the newer version of android q is coming out And that it's going to be a little bit better with on privacy, but eff Uh, eff wrote an article. I believe there are still some shortcomings related to that I think something that's not really talked about is is the idea of maybe presenting it to the user and giving them an option Right, um, you can buy this app for five dollars or we can use your data Um, actually, that's a really good point because I think I think a lot of times Users think that You can spend five dollars on this app or you will occasionally be annoyed by ads They don't think about it in terms of their data. They just think about being annoyed by about having to Put up with ads to do it right they'd have to list Hey, we're going to share this information But you know that that's probably the harder part is knowing who and what they're sharing They don't want that information to go out to the to the consumer But the idea that you could purchase something Or give your data to get that service for free. You're still purchasing it But that value is is in that bottom line, right? You're saying my personal data is worth five dollars to this That's that's true absolutely so Or or at least or at least make sure people are aware of it I mean one of the things that recently came out was vizio said we couldn't sell smart TVs this cheap If they were if they weren't smart TVs and tracking users data So, you know put that in there somewhere it says you paid five hundred dollars for this tv We are giving you a hundred dollar discount because we're tracking your data Just for what it is worth If you have an app that's charging you you're paying the money and they are promising that they're not sharing their data And they actually are there are some ways to to catch them doing it Like for example with the period tracker app I set up I basically set up a bunch of emulators and installed certificates and ran them through like an inter intercepting proxy To see to see who they were talking to and often what they were saying and so it's like Yeah, you can catch you can I mean like you have control of the device and there are ways to find out what it what it's doing It doesn't mean necessarily everybody will always bother to catch them, but they they can get caught So any any any other thoughts? I wasn't fast enough when we were talking about HIPAA, but I think it's a generally a pretty misunderstood thing it's First and foremost for healthcare or health record portability And the privacy stuff pretty much just falls under how that is taken account taken account for So it doesn't fall into a lot of things that people just people see health things and they just say HIPAA Those things just don't happen and I that's just something I didn't learn until I actually worked at a hospital All right, so I think it's just a really big misunderstood thing One thing there was right with that somebody else raised a rather interesting question is that Like for example, if you have a doctor that's maybe encouraging a patient to use a health app Um, does the doctor bear any legal or ethical responsibility for the privacy of the app? Like if a doctor is encouraging a patient to use an app that's loaded with trackers Does the doctor bear any responsibility for that? I mean are they should the doctor be expected to know or have any responsibility for that? I I don't know If there's money coming back from the company because and and so he's pushing it right similar to what happens with drug reps things like that and in a doctor's perspective if that App company is going to the doctor.  It's probably the wrong word, but you know, are you are you? Telling your patients to use this for your own monetary reward and actually I believe that there's an online um database with doctors that will tell you It will tell you um, how much money a doctor has taken and from who so it's like there's I mean like there would be a way to look that up. I believe But it's it's very interesting. I mean like when I look through records, I have not seen any app makers in that But I guess that's I mean that's a possible scenario that could happen in the future Okay, um, okay. Do we have anything else or no? We've talked a lot about systemic change and and different models or approaches to this but I'm curious to hear what you believe is a first step to making these health tracking apps safer or better It like does that do you see that starting with the companies? Do you see that starting with consumer education? Like are there any quick wins? I'm thinking to be honest, um Probably your quickest approach is going to be your quickest approach. You're probably going to be consumer ed I mean because like right now there. I mean, it's legally unregulated. It's you can't really make You can't really make custom The app developers do better one thing though that's interesting though is that there's been some news coverage and like so like these uh newspapers have investigated some of this and they've kind of named and shamed the companies and Like for example, there was a news article about the flow period tracker that was a period tracker that was Basically sharing a whole lot of user information and they got it some very high profile news reporting about it and flow Significantly cleaned up their app and at least if nothing else stops sharing a bunch of data with facebook So I think consumer ed and to be honest just continuing to investigate and maybe uh, maybe shame the companies into doing a little better Is practically speaking the best I can think of Have you seen any evidence that suggests that these app writers and companies that are utilizing this Are doing this privacy infringement on the front end knowing that at some point somebody's going to push back Well, and they take that for us to let's gain what we can monetarily now And then we'll clean it up later because this is all stuff that Is not rocket science Things have been exposed out there for a long time and yet consumers and I agree totally consumers have to be educated but How often do consumers listen? um uh It varies by consumer, but let's say on average probably not very often And so it's like what a lot of times it was software that was like especially with apps and stuff It's like It seems like they you got a fairly short cycle on them like they get developed rapidly and they uh And sometimes they can they can go away rapidly anyhow when the developer gets tired of maintaining them So yeah throwing something up and making as much as they can and then just deciding it'll go away when it goes away Yeah, that's very realistic And especially it's like when you look at the app developer there, you're usually not saying an individual's name You're seeing this company whose name Doesn't mean anything to you at all So so it's like um, yeah, I I think it's very likely I think the other interesting kind of provocative thing to think about is there's a lot of consolidation happening in this space And a lot of the managed care companies are actually buying apps to become innovative Oh, yeah, and they actually then assume the data on many levels And if the company doesn't have the right project of protections and or can censor the patients the question is what's happening to that data And then is there still a wall between it? Yeah, actually, that's interesting. I think one of the better. I remember reading about one of the better Uh period tracker apps getting acquired that way So, uh, yeah, I yeah, that sounds very familiar Will you run any other questions?


Professionally, I'm an organizational psychologist. My mission or my team mission is to really to build more positive and productive organizations. So we may ask, how can we do that? So we basically try to apply the positive and organizational psychology of workplace, designing learning solution to build more engaged and productive teams, leaders and employees. Hong Kong is an international city, no matter what kind of organization they work in. But mostly, maybe the multinational organizations, local back-up, big corporations, government or even NGO, I think English is still the key medium of communications. By the time that you apply for a job, attending an interview on day one, you have to sign the employment contract and on a day-to-day basis you have to and you will be exposed to English as a mean of communication, both on a written basis or on a face-to-face communication.  So I think that's one key reason we have to master English and communication. And secondly, I think in our organization, no matter what roles you take, either you are in a front-line role doing sales and marketing, or you are in a back-end role doing Excel, finance, IT, you cannot escape or you cannot not communicate. So meaning that you have to deal with people. So if you have to connect with people well, you have to express your ideas, express your opinions, express your feelings, so that you can co-create something big together and meaningful together workplace.  It's even more important. You step into a role from like a local role to I call it sometimes regional role, meaning that you have to work with people from different cultures. And again, English is the international language. So if you can again manage language well, that can help you to connect with people with different culture. Finally, talking about like regional role, as you aspire to work with like different culture, working with different countries. And I think if you can master English well, that can open up the doors for you, because you can work in other country maybe, or on a day-to-day basis, like in a project team with other people virtually. And in that context, in that environment, and English and communication is really important. And for me, I have the opportunity in the past to work in like in Korea, Japan, Singapore, to very far away to Dubai and Mexico. So looking back, if I cannot master the communication or English well, I do not have those opportunities. So to summarize, I think we really have to learn the fundamental about communication and English, because it will open up the door for you, for a different career opportunity, for you to have more enjoyable day-to-day work life with your colleagues. And finally, we cannot not communicate. So master the English and master communication. At workplace, we have tremendous opportunity to use English to communicate. Even in the front-line role, like on sales and marketing, client meeting, doing consultation, you have to interact with your customers, talk to them, question them, listen to them, and present your company and product and services so that they all get convinced. So in those moments, it's really important to use your language to create a good first impression that your customer can trust you. So those are very important moments. Looking back, if you are not in the front-line, you are working in the back office. On a day-to-day basis, you have many opportunities, again, to present.  Wow. If not in a face-to-face manner, you have to do it on a written format through email or different ways of communication. In the format I shared earlier, report, proposal, and all those things. Again, that will be creating an important moment that your internal colleagues will perceive you either positively or negatively. So no matter what roles you are at, many opportunities for you to use English or language to communicate well, to connect with people at workplace. At workplace, language is really, really important because it can create a competitive advantage for you. The more language you master, the more opportunity that you have. Of course, you may ask. For certain organizations, they may be demanding you to use one language more than the other. But if you can manage English, Cantonese that we live in Hong Kong, it's important. And of course Mandarin, you're looking at work with people from the quicker China regions, and that is becoming more important. So if you ask me whether I should master one, two, or three languages, of course we can. But I would suggest you to master the three languages because the more you master, the more that allows you to connect with people from different backgrounds and culture and also that will open you up a lot of career opportunities. So master the three languages. At workplace, we will have the opportunity to work with people from different cultures. When we say culture, it may be different background of course in terms of age and gender, in terms of personality, in terms of organizations. So I think when we work with people from different cultures, we have to be number one, be curious and be open-minded. I still remember I had the opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia. And you know, working in different cultures, you have to greet each other, I mean connect with people. I still remember at one moment my team leader at that time reminded me much when you, I mean, with the ladies, the female, be aware that if they don't greet you at the first place, don't shake their hands because in their culture, there's a distance between male and female. So again, when I recall that memory, if I don't really aware of that, be open-minded and to understand about the culture, I may make some really silly mistakes. So I think tip number one, be really curious and be open-minded to learn about other people's culture. I think secondly, when we work with people from different cultures, we can spend some time to understand some of their general norms. An example, I still recall when I did training in Korea and in India, when I asked a question in a class, you know the response in the class. In Korea, when I ask a question, no one responds. We remain very silent. But in India, when I ask the same question, you know what happened? 10 people in the class, 10 people in the classes, so very different response. So the point to make is you have to be really aware some of the general norms in that culture and be aware about your own style and how far or how close you are with that culture. So with that, you can be more agile and think ahead on how you adjust yourself. So to summarize, I think to allow us to work really effectively with people from different cultures, you have to be curious, be open-minded, seek to understand and be flexible and agile. And that will open up the opportunity for you to connect well with people from different cultures. To be effective in communication with English is like any sport, so you have to master the basic, basic fundamentals. To me the fundamental for effective communication in English will be master the grammar. I still remember in the school days, I really spent this amount of effort in learning the basic grammar, the book of the grammar book. Even though nowadays I may still make some mistakes but I think I will refer back to make sure that those basic fundamental are proper and correct because it's a solid foundation for you to create a good first impression in a day-to-day workplace scenario. Tip number one. Tip number two, I think it's the opportunity and exposure to use your language. In Hong Kong you may be using Cantonese as the main medium but you have to look for opportunity to practice English in communications on a day-to-day basis. In school, a workplace that will be opportunity for you when you present to your client to write your report. In those scenario look for opportunity. You may heard about the story of Ma Wan and when he was still a teacher he talked to the tourists on a day-to-day basis that is an example of a search opportunity to practice your language. That's really really important. Finally, I think to move from good to great to strike for excellence, you need to have like a path form for you to to stretch yourself and sustain your learning. With that I would recommend you to join Toastmaster Club. You may heard about it's a path form to practice your public speaking in English and the communications. So this is a really great path form I've been like spanning like over in that path form. Personally I find it very rewarding and useful to learn, I mean to move myself to the next level. So, dear students three tips, master the basic exposure day-to-day practice and then find a path form for yourself so that you can move from good to great. So the magic behind communication we talk about a lot about like English as a medium of communication but think carefully for an effective communicator apart from the language and the words that are now shared with you there's an important step behind is your thinking process how you think about the subject how you put your ideas in a well-organized manner so that your recipient can understand easily, I think there's one magic behind is to master your thinking, make sure that you know about the subject, know about how you organize your message and then you may ask what's the magic behind thinking and I think that go back to the psychology of the human being is the time when you share and present whether you are in a good state good energy whether you have a message to share whether you can let your recipient know who you are as a person so there are something more deeper inside you so my fellow student learn the basic fundamental as a first important step and then work step by step from communication to thinking and then from the psychology and finally who you are as a student, as a person I think that's really the magic that allows you to open up many career opportunities and connect with many different people in your life


From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report. Internet activists and human rights groups are criticizing an order that requires blogs and social media sites in Vietnam to share personal information only. The order aims to ban social media users and bloggers from posting other information such as news stories. Local media reports say the decree states that such sites are not permitted to quote, gather or summarize information from press organizations or government websites. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dong approved Decree 72 in July. Internet activists say this is an attempt by the communist government to restrict freedom of speech. Rights groups say the decree's requirements are too broad and will be used to act against government critics. Bloggers criticized a statement by Le Nam Teng, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications. State media reported him as saying that the law aims to help web users find correct and clean information on the internet. But one blogger says that is a matter of personal choice. She says people should be able to decide for themselves whether information is good or bad. And she says Vietnamese citizens do not need the government to teach them how to think. The decree sets out very broad categories of speech that officials could consider as troublesome. It includes warnings about information that is against Vietnam or undermines certain principles. Sean Crispin is the Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. He says the increased restrictions suggest that the government thinks it has lost control of the criticism that is so widespread on social media. For VOA Learning English, I'm Alex Villareal.


Sooooooo... conditioning. Before I talk about Nickelodeon Guts for Super Nintendo, I have to be upfront with something. Outside of maybe two or three shows, I really did not like Nickelodeon.ällt in Stimpy was great because it was completely different from anything else on TV, Double Dare was a lot of fun, and I liked to the occasional episode of Rocko's Modern Life, but really, Nickelodeon was just not my thing, and that includes Nickelodeon Guts. I just never watched stuff like this. The TV show ran from 1992 to 95 and it was a pretty successful obstacle course show, along the same lines as Wild and Crazy Kids, but I saw exactly none of it, and suffice to say, I did not even think of playing the Super Nintendo game when it first came out in November of 1994, and that's probably a good thing, because this game is pretty bad. This one was exclusive for the Super Nintendo and developed by Viacom New Media, who made some pretty good stuff with Phantom 2040, Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage, and Rocko's Modern Life's Bunkies Dangerous Day. All three of those games completely outclass this thing, though. The way Nickelodeon Guts works is that it's broken down into two different game modes, Action Sports and Elastic Sports, or at least that's how the manual refers to them, and there's five events total to choose from with an unlockable sixth event, the Eggro Craig. Although the three Action Events are exactly the same, and the three Elastic Events are all also pretty much exactly the same.  Elastic Sports is... this.  That's all well and good, and it's a decent idea for a game, but good lord, the controls here are freaking terrible. I swear it's like this game was made by people who had never played a video game before. Momentum while running is wonky, jumping is wonky, the hit detection when grabbing onto stuff is wonky.  What is wrong with you? Oh, it turns out I don't even need to bother with the pole at all. It's just there for the sake of being there, I guess. So the game at least makes up for its terrible controls by having really bad level design. Just grab the rope, man. Grab it! I'm jumping right into it. What is your problem? The issue here is that if you're too low when you jump, you're guaranteed to miss the next rope, but if you're too high, you'll just bounce off the ceiling and miss anyway. Oh hey, can I just drown myself instead? That seems like a lot more fun. Seriously though, the controls here feel drunk. In fact, this game might make more sense if you played it drunk, but I can think of other things I'd rather do drunk, like play Bubsy. The elastic sports aren't that much fun either, but at least the controls have a little more consistency. They're consistently bad, but at least they have a certain logic to them that you can eventually figure out and get used to. I mean, it's actually possible to make baskets in this minigame, for example. There's a meter here that you have to charge by holding down on the D-pad. Let go and you go careeding into the basket, or net, or whatever, and you just kind of fling the ball somewhere near your targets by pressing the B button. You can also do trick shots with other buttons. Wouldn't this work better with the side view? The depth perception here is terrible. The big problem, however, is jumping back onto the platform. You're almost always going to stumble, and that's gonna cost you time. What's especially telling about this game is that there's no computer AI opponents. If you play this one single player, it's just you. I guess I should mention some of the strengths this game has. I mean, it does look like the show itself. The colors are pretty much spot-on. The sprite animation is okay. And there's eight contestants to choose from that each have different stats, even though they all look exactly the same during gameplay. It's also two-player versus, so you can make a friend suffer through this if you're feeling like being a bad person, but I recommend against doing that ever. Do I have it? No. Why would I want it? Keep your guts away from me. So yeah, unfortunately Nickelodeon Guts is another one of those obstacle course-type games where they try and cram in five different mini-games into one supposedly cohesive package, and they all end up failing. In other words, it's a lot like the Super Nintendo American Gladiators game, only this one might be worse. Really, there's two categories of bad games.  Stuff like Captain Novelin or Space Ace or Pitfighter. But then there's bad games that are just really disappointing. Nickelodeon Guts looks good, it represents the show pretty well, and it's a good idea for a game, but the execution here is a half-assed and lazily thrown together with really awful controls that may or may not have been designed by a person who never actually tested the game, which ultimately makes this one nothing but a waste of time. I really just want to buy this cartridge so I can throw it in the trash. Avoid this game. Alright, that's all for now, and I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.


Going on everyone Sam here with late sports car driven 23 at Panini prison football hobby three box break number six random team style There's a look again at your random results as always you can find these on the website under the results tab as well as the link in chat Tim V with the Browns up top Gordon P with the Rams down at the bottom our up top as well Maximilian H Titans Joe a with the Finns Good luck to do it Browns do have a pretty like stack checklist than this because I have a bunch of rookies do that at least For sure with a mon Ross ain't brown Purple Pat our purple ice for the Browns is Zadaria Smith to 225 Achan and over show Eight to go ten box Tuesday basketball everybody let's get it filled up We're almost there last box of flawless box of impeccable in their prism choice. That's a CJ Stroud to 149 There we go Texans Congrats Houston little play 13 of 149 It's gonna be Gordon P. Congrats Gordon. I know a flack of throwback. That'd be dope got a Dalton Kincaid and Ivan face That would be pretty sweet. I'm not gonna lie silver sky more blue ice Eddie jackson Bo jack There's Vaughan and Jalen Carter rookie Got thin men stew. I was hanging out with the other girl scouts It's a miller to 249 Make a serious knot Bunch of nerds So rest of our dinks They're guarded to be 25 for a place Saints John Clifford Peter Skaronsky Oh All right last Stroud and Dell Freakin fire dual a color blast in the battle red helmets. That's fire King Crats Gordon Massive hit dude massive hit That's fired that is awesome, man That yeah, that is that is Something else right there, man. Thank you. Congrats Gordon. Good stuff, buddy Get that straight to the mag of course Ryan burns to 125. Yeah. Yeah, Diaby and Elijah Dodson Yeah, that's the the dual color blasts are pretty cool, man Fire Derek Henry red wave Derek forest for the commanders to 149 Tape inks and on TV on wicks Fireman, that's awesome JSN prismatic Jack Campbell to 49 Nice one there lions on the purple power auto QJ and brights young rookie Silver Lockdown Jalen Petrie the 49 Patrick Willis Nice one there. Yeah, Stroud's been really good, man, didn't read Kenny Macintosh But you can't take too many hits like you did to the dome. I don't care who you are right, okay Right silver rookie will McDonald to 175 Jonathan mingo rookie JSN Silver prison break burrow orange wave Kenny Macintosh to 60 Or the Seahawks on the rookie and we gave Zoma a day flowers Silver Hassan Haskins. We've got nice the 75 green scope auto for the Panthers Jonathan mingo. Congrats on that one as well Very nice Peter and Paul with some spots And Smith I know I saw that too David Jad dunked over Wembley last night VJ Stroud prismatic PQ to 149 Anthony Richardson and VJ O'Jallari. Justin Herbert orange Sam Howell the 249 There is Davis Dorian Williams silver and hawk blue wave Jaren Hall to 199 Shorter and Jordan Addison silver Michael Parsons check Campbell to 249 Is that the new thing they added in for it? Yeah, but They're not called splash bottles We'll have to talk about this in a later time. Oh, yeah To 125 for she rice It is not PG. Yep Bandage fan not sure we do in the draft to go to go QB. I don't know. Hmm. I don't know It's a pianist Burnham. I really don't I don't know what the What they're gonna do Blue wave Davis Mills No No, it's miss CJ Stroud Jamir Gibbs orange to 249 to Neil Hunter Ty J Spears and to Lee to Lee blow to Jordan Love and Colisea Cansey silver rookie auto nice one Tampa That's on that buck still in Horton and will let us I would keep howl for one more year I'll give howl another shot Bryce young Nice one there congrats on that Panthers on throwback 199 big Q Byron young and Darnell right because I mean he was the most sack quarterback by like a mile So to get like a tackle to get for Shawnee. We're all at two I would say Personally need to go on 10 bucks basketball. Yeah, I guess that's fair some Bob rookie tomorrow Overshown Reese Hall to 125 that's mingo and Christian Gonzalez. I guess that's valid owner I just don't know is may is may the truth. That's the only thing you got to think Silver juju Josh downs to 75 green scope rookie auto congrats Colts That's awesome Think that for sure Charbonnet and Rishi rice Think I ah Yeah, okay, that's valid if he's not you still do have how it's true the genre 99 The Falcons to be 25 Chad Johnson bangles for place K-Shawnee T and Marvin Mims 8 to go 10 mocks Tuesday basketball everybody almost there We're in the single digits Silver Herbert Najee Harris the 249 will I understand Emmanuel Forbes true they do need to hire the right coach That's also very true Yeah, I'm white purple power Nolan Smith for the Eagles to 49 nice one there house Murphy and Hello jumbo Tyler Murray to 99 Who can Akua and Tyler Scott make it home?  That's awesome. Congrats on that Giants Hey, Jay Henry and Stetson Bennett justice for jumbo. Oh my god Silver Calvin Austin red wave Calvin Austin as well. You probably just gonna hold it Harry Stevenson and Isaiah Floskey woke up from a nap I Know rope one and Queen both made the Proville as they should have Trayvon digs silver Fred Warner nice one there for the Niners That's San Fran. That one is a dog pendant over Wait, which Zaire Like I think of Zair Franklin now that's our friend who is it Zair? Is it Zair Franklin? No Doesn't Herbert that is Kyle Trask to 199 Who else made it in the AFC? Who's the other linebacker? Because Queen and Roquan both deserve it over anybody because they're the heart and soul of the best defense in the NFL Got a Snakeskin Lions it is a Kirby Joseph Grats on that Detroit on the snakeskin only two inside Austin Hooper to 149 Heaven Hall Silver immersion Kenneth Walker. We're good silver rookie auto rats on that one. They're at Detroit Michael Wilson All the carts going to Let's go Bless you silver Michael Parsons. He just needs to sneeze orange Josh Reynolds 249 In O'Connell, that's so funny. What's they was it? Happened today Tyler Scott the 225 whatever it's up Tony. What's up Tony same person or no? What was in there for a minute Silver chase young 225 champ Bailey Michael Meyer and DJ Turner Clorox Glade thing Wait, do you know who it was or no? Oh, yeah We've got to 99 is Kyler Merit B John the 60 Kenny Mackintosh and Jalen Hyatt the 49 Patrick Willis Nolan Smith snakeskin Kirby Joseph Auto as we got to mirror Gibbs Fred Warner Closure Kansy the 75 Josh Downs and Jonathan Mingo the 49 Jack Campbell CJ Stroud red wave And then the dual color blast of Stroud and Tank Adele So nasty that'll do for the break everybody Thanks again for the fill up next is number seven


Today we're gathered in formal convocation to celebrate the 240th commencement exercises at Purdue University. Please rise and join in singing our national anthem and then remain standing for the invocation offered today by Father Patrick Bacowskis, Pastor and Director of Campus Ministry, St. Thomas Aquinas. There was a woman who died not so very long ago who has inspired millions of people by her life's example and her encouragement for all of us to be attentive to a higher, more purposeful calling. In the places where Mother Teresa of Calcutta lived and worked, she would have these words placed on the walls. And as you go forth today from Purdue, may this reflection she had in front of her every day inspire you as well. People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God. It was never between you and them, anyway. This is the moment, this is the time, and make some sense at last, this is the day. I never expected this. To be addressing you with me in an empty hall and you far away. Wherever you're watching this virtual ceremony, I hope you're surrounded by people you love, people who helped you reach this moment of achievement. As is my practice, I wrote a commencement speech over last Christmas at a time when COVID-19 had only recently gotten its name. I chose a theme without any clue what was coming. In a different year, I might have felt obliged to start over, but as things have unfolded, the events of recent months have in some ways made my chosen topic seem at least as relevant as the day I wrote it. So here goes. Welcome graduates and friends to this day of celebration. Those of you in the caps and gowns are gathered to celebrate the great accomplishment that is a degree from Purdue University. Meanwhile, your parents are, I know, quietly celebrating the clearing of the final tuition check. Congratulations to you all. Purdue celebrated its own landmark this year, our 150th anniversary. Since it coincided with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing by our most famous alum, Neil Armstrong's stories were abundant. My favorite claims that later in life, Commander Armstrong took to telling corny, lame jokes about the moon. And when nobody laughed, he'd say, well, I guess you had to be there. A year or so ago, a major national journalist visited our campus and later wrote a gracious complimentary article about what he saw here. While I enjoyed his accounts of the progress and successful results he thought he'd witnessed, my favorite part of the column was a single phrase, basically a throwaway line. He described Purdue as a happy place. It got me wondering how many college campuses these days would strike a visitor quite that way. I hope it's been that kind of place for you. We know you've worked hard and fought through a lot of pressure. You'll probably remember that. Just wait for those scary dreams where you haven't studied for the test or can't find the exam room. But I hope that among your memories of these years, I was happy there, is prominent among them. I've reflected on that more and more during your last couple years with us. Your parents love you and are proud of you, but from time to time they also must worry about you. That's what we parents do. I hope it's okay if I worry about you and your futures a little also. I've sometimes used these commencements to fret out loud about trends that trouble me in that big wide world you're about to enter. In recent years, I've spoken about the tribalism that now divides Americans. I've talked about the seeming shortage of emotional resilience and grit in your peer group. Twice, I've found myself urging graduates to guard against the so-called big sort, the tendency for young people of your quality and educational attainment to cluster together professionally and socially and to drift apart from those of different backgrounds. But one thing I never expected to worry about, but now do a little, is you being lonely. I have known you and met thousands of you personally in an environment that, despite our size, does a pretty good job of getting people together, creating bonds among them. A thousand clubs, dozens of faith-based organizations, our Greek system and maybe our best examples of true communities are co-op residential houses where students not only live but cook, clean and do repairs together. And most recently, the learning communities where thousands of boilermakers live in mutual support with others who are studying the same subject matter. But elsewhere, the academic journals and lay periodicals are now filled with research about the, quote, epidemic of loneliness, quote, in our society. Surveys report record numbers of Americans living alone and suffering from strong feelings of isolation. Many view it as a new public health crisis linked to rising rates of depression, anxiety, even suicide. A lack of strong social relationships has been found to raise the risk of premature death by as much as 50 percent. It's as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It's not just an American phenomenon. The government of Britain has appointed a minister for loneliness. And all this was before anyone heard of COVID-19. Most startling and alarming are studies finding that the worst loneliness today is not among adults or the elderly, but in your age group. Astonishing percentages of today's young people say they have few, if any, close friends. Dating and other traditional forms of youthful interaction have declined sharply. The University of Southern California recently named a director of belonging. And while the title may be unique, I'm sure the idea is not. We humans are social creatures or, as sometimes said, relational beings. The ability to communicate, interact and collaborate is what defines us and what assured our evolution as the dominant, civilizing species on this planet. We thrive on contact with others. We suffer severely from its absence. The worst punishment we impose on a heinous criminal is solitary confinement. Much of our literature and religious tradition thinks of hell as a state of total permanent aloneness. So an outbreak of loneliness is worth worrying about, especially where those with the longest to live are a big part of it. In the case of your elders, sociologists can identify some obvious causes. Plummeting birth rates play a role. Having fewer children and fewer siblings limits the opportunity for caring contact. In a short two decades, the percentage of retirement age citizens living within 10 miles of their children in the same neighborhood with any relative or having a good friend living nearby dropped by double digits. It's easy to see how that leads to greater loneliness. But particularly in the case of your age cohort, there is no doubt that the sudden eruption and dominance of what we call social media, I often think anti-social media would be a better term, has played a huge role. Some scholars put all the blame there. One major article was titled, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? It wasn't supposed to be this way. The original promise of all the Facebooks and Twitters was that they would connect us in wonderful new ways. But connection over a text message or what is often a glamorized presentation of one's daily life just isn't the same as in-person contact. In fact, it often turns out to separate and alienate its users more than it brings them together. I remain concerned that as members of the new knowledge aristocracy absent a little special effort, you will rarely make friends different from yourselves. Now, studying the growing evidence about isolation, I'm concerned that you, the first age group raised entirely in the iPhone era, won't make many friends at all. In my own college days, a briefly famous Harvard professor offered probably the worst advice ever given to a younger generation. Encouraging both drug use and a non-productive lifestyle, Dr. Timothy Leary suggested, quote, turn on, tune in, drop out. Lately, I've been thinking the best advice one could give you, tomorrow's leaders, might be the exact opposite. Turn off, tune out, drop in. As in, turn off the phone more often, tune out the video screen, drop in personally on friends old and new. For most of human history, personal contact was hard to avoid. Suddenly, our digital age can mean it requires extra effort. Confession being good for the soul, it's only right that I make one here. I am not a good role model for the advice I'm foisting on you. I have not devoted the time I should have to deepen acquaintances into true friendships or to stay in closer touch with the old friends I do have. I've let the call of work get in the way. I've told myself that jobs of broad responsibility mean that one can't get too close to co-workers and colleagues.  I regret it, and I'm the worst for it. You can do better. The same research that is documenting the loneliness epidemic reveals ways to immunize oneself against it. Geographic rootedness makes a difference. People who live in the same community for extended periods are far less likely to be lonely. The great C.S. Lewis wrote, Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods, the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young person about where to live, I would say sacrifice almost everything to live near your friends. Having a religious affiliation also correlates strongly with feelings of connectedness. And nothing statistically reduces the chance of loneliness more than marriage, especially marriage with children. It's a sermon for another Sunday, but I do hope most of you will not miss the joy and the lifelong education of raising children. I promise it's life's greatest reward and the best graduate school you'll ever attend. I heard about one wise guy commencement speaker who instructed his audience, Remember, in life it's not who you know, it's whom. I've thought of that as just a joke, but in our new situation it takes on a more serious tone. A lot of your success and happiness will depend on whom you know and know well. The author Gore Vidal once said, We never know when we are happy, only when we were. I hope in your case that proves way too cynical, that there'll be countless moments when you are truly happy and know it. But I also hope that when you reflect back on times when you were happy, your days at this university will rank high among them. And when people ask you, what was it about Purdue that made it such a great place for you? You can just answer, well, I guess you had to be there. I know great achievements lie ahead for you. My wish for you is that so do great friendships. Hail Purdue and each of you. Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the Purdue faculty. I now confer upon each of you who have fulfilled the stated requirements, the appropriate baccalaureate degree and associate degree, with all the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree. As evidence of your achievement, you will now receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now ask the orders to read aloud the names of all students who are earning baccalaureate and associate degrees. Graduates, I invite you to have your special designee present your diploma to you now. Be sure to capture a photo of this to share with us.  Okay, it's official. You are now graduates of Purdue University. It's time for you to observe the tradition of moving your tassel from the right side of the mortarboard to the left, signifying your new status. Congratulations to all our new alums. It's appropriate at this time that we give special recognition to those graduates who have demonstrated outstanding scholastic achievement, leadership, and service to the university community. You can read the names of the recipients of those recognitions in your commencement program. Additional special awards have been noted on your division's ceremony page. On behalf of the trustees and the faculty, congratulations on your accomplishments. We're counting on you to continue making exceptional contributions in all your future endeavors. Some of our graduates received red, white, and blue cords, signifying that they are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. They deserve our recognition and our sincere gratitude for their patriotism. We honor these graduates for their hard work and accomplishments, but they'd be the first to tell us they did not make the journey alone. So will the graduates please take this moment to offer thanks and appreciation to your parents, grandparents, spouses, brothers, sisters, and other family members and friends for their long and loving support that brought you to this moment. The audience is invited to sing the Purdue hymn. The words are located inside the front cover of the program and will be projected. Will you please stand? I'm pleased to introduce Isha Patel, who was selected as today's student responder in recognition of her leadership in many student and campus organizations. Isha is receiving a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management. After graduation, she will join Microsoft as a financial analyst. Please welcome Isha Patel. Good afternoon class of 2020. I'm proud to say that I am part of the very first group of Purdue commencement responders to be welcomed into your homes all across the world. We may not be in Elliot, but how many graduating classes get to say they graduated with all their loved ones, not just the four favorites that could get tickets and at the location of their choice? Regardless, we're finally here. We finished our last exam, joined our last Zoom lecture, and used boiler key for the last time. We counted the days, hours, and minutes to get to this monumental step. But now, I cannot help but remember all of the exciting traditions we got to experience. Our first mountain run, our first drink at Harry's, and our first bite at triple X. I know what you're all thinking. There are a lot of milestones that we didn't get to have, a big one being a quintessential graduation. But Boilermakers, these four years, and especially these past months, have shown me how we make the best of every situation. Internationally acclaimed poet Lil Nas X put it best when he said, I'm gonna ride till I can't no more. And Boilers, that is exactly what we did. We rode until we couldn't no more. When a snowstorm comes in, we had downslider hell. When Ohio State football came knocking on our door in fall of 2018, we showed them who was boss. When a global pandemic hit, we transitioned the entire university online, helped ease food security concerns, and made sure students' financial and educational burden was mitigated. I know we put a lot of thought and pressure on these last couple months. We hope to squeeze out the last bits of college freedom and enjoyment. But I want you all to realize the weight and beauty of all the moments in between. So I ask you, class of 2020, to recognize the moments in between the milestones. I will always remember sitting in the lounge of my freshman year dorm, eating my body weight in Wiley chocolate chip cookies, and screaming, I use sucks every chance I got. Those are not milestones, but they are of equal importance. I cannot express the gratitude I have for each and every one of you. Thank you to my fellow students for challenging and helping each other, and exemplifying the ideal that Boilermakers work together, not against each other. Thank you to all the friends and family and attendance. This accomplishment is as much yours as it is ours. Thank you to faculty and staff for creating an environment we can forever call home. But my biggest thank you of all goes to my best friend, my twin pillar, and my guiding light. Thank you so much, mom. Thank you for filling my life with fun, knowledge, music, art, and so much love. In a world filled with button ups and pinstripes, you let me be caked with mud and adorned with tutus. And for that, I will be eternally grateful. Class of 2020, boiler up, hammer down, we did it. Thank you. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Today you are standing on the edge of possibility. We pause to give thanks for the deep sense of accomplishment, pride, and hope of this very moment. We pause today to reflect on your time here and the hope for your future. We gather with abundant joy and overwhelming gratitude. We pray the experience here embodies our vision of education as an engaged and dynamic partnership between the university and the wider world. The work here has never been merely for personal use, but always for public good. And so today we celebrate the collective commitment to creating a better and more just world. May we appreciate the joy of this day and may the dedication and patient perseverance that has brought us to this moment carry us forth to create a world marked by peace, justice, and compassion beyond measure. Go forth to do the good work set before you. Be tireless. Seek the common good. Love and nurture the people and things you value. Attend to your work with integrity so that what you believe may be what you do. And when you feel as if you might become defeated, think back on this day and know that you already have accomplished much. May you be blessed and may your lives be a blessing to all of us. Amen. You shall go out with joy. You shall go out with joy. Joy, joy, joy, joy. As we conclude today's commencement ceremony, thank you for joining this celebration of our newest Boilermaker graduates. On behalf of the trustees, faculty, and all the Purdue family, I bid you farewell, Godspeed, Hail Purdue.