Google Cloud Platform News

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  Celebrating update 100 with new Chromebook features
  • sorangutan  

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  Thanks to regular automatic updates, Chromebooks are always stepping up their game. Each Chrome OS update helps your laptop (and you) get things done faster, easier and more securely.

  And you might have noticed we’ve had a lot of them. In fact, Chrome OS officially hit update 100 this week. In celebration of the big 1-0-0, we’re sharing a few announcements to improve Chromebooks for everyone — whether you’re using them to work, learn, manage a business or just kick back and relax.

  Find more with the new Launcher

  With a quick press of the Everything Button on your keyboard or the circle icon on the bottom left corner of your screen, Chromebook’s Launcher has made it easy to search for your apps and files — and even find answers online. And now, Launcher is getting an updated design and enhanced search functionality to help you more easily find what you’re looking for.

  First, you’ll notice that Launcher will open on the side of your screen instead of from the bottom — leaving more space for any windows you have open. You’ll also be able to organize your apps by name or color, or manually arrange them in any order you like. And when you download a new app, it will follow the same organizational style.

  Searching with Launcher is also getting easier. Looking for that celebrity name on the tip of your tongue? Before, Launcher would show you a short preview of your search result. Now, it will show even more information — so you can check the weather or find that celebrity name, all without leaving Launcher. You can also quickly search for Chromebook shortcuts, like how to take a screenshot or turn on caps lock.

  

  Launcher now provides even more information when you search

  If you work with a lot of Chrome browser tabs and windows open (no judgment), it can be difficult to find the exact one you’re looking for. Instead of sifting through your tabs for that crossword puzzle you started this morning, a quick search in the new Launcher will direct you to the right open tab.

  Keep an eye out for the new Launcher, rolling out to all Chromebooks soon.

  Discover your next Chromebook

  Our partners HP, Lenovo, Acer and ASUS recently announced several powerful Chromebooks to help you make the most of Chrome OS now and in future updates. Check out a few of our favorites, available for purchase in the next few months:

  • HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook: Designed for a premium productivity experience, with features like a haptic trackpad, an integrated privacy screen, 5G and support for a wirelessly chargeable magnetic Stylus pen
  • Acer Chromebook Spin 513: The first Chromebook to feature the MediaTek Kompanio 1380 processor, bringing together power and efficiency with up to 10 hours of battery life
  • ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5: Made for productivity and entertainment with 12th Gen Intel Core processors, a 16-inch nano-edge display and Harmon-Kardon certified speakers
  • Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook: Built with productivity in mind and comes with powerful processors, a 1080p webcam and a stunning 14-inch 16:10 FHD display

  

  Recently announced Chromebooks from Lenovo, HP, Acer and ASUS

  Make edits with your voice

  You might already use the Dictation feature, where you can dictate text anywhere you would normally type on your Chromebook — like in an email or on your browser. Now, you can also edit using your voice. Simply say “delete” to delete the last letter, or “move to next character” to adjust where your cursor is on the screen. Or, if you’re not sure what command to use, say “help” and your Chromebook will give you ideas. Once you’ve enabled “Dictation” in Settings, try it out by pressing the Everything Button + D.

  

  Use your voice to edit dictated text on Chromebooks

  Create and share your own GIF

  Instead of digging through the internet to find that perfect GIF, you can now make your own right in the Chromebook Camera app. Simply open the Camera app, select “Video” and flip the toggle to “GIF.” Record a five-second video and when you’re done, it will automatically convert to an animated GIF. Share it through email and other apps on your Chromebook, or send it to your Android phone using Nearby Share.

  Grab a friend, or a pet, and make your own GIF on the Chromebook Camera app

  Continue learning at home

  Thanks to new Chromebook updates, students can easily review what they learned at school that day. With school accounts for Family Link, parents and guardians can add a Google for Education account for kids to access Google Classroom and other school resources on supervised Chromebooks at home. And with so many teachers sharing educational YouTube videos during class, parent supervision to YouTube is now available for Family Link users on Chromebooks. Plus, a new YouTube app for Chrome OS allows offline playback, so students can keep up with their lessons even without access to Wi-Fi at home or on long car rides and flights.

  10:25

  See more device insights

  We’re also making it easier for IT administrators to keep their organization’s devices running smoothly.

  Within Google Admin console, we’ve added a new report for a quick look at which devices need attention. Meanwhile, the new Chrome Management Telemetry API provides more detailed information about device performance so you can create your own personalized report. This complements the existing Chrome Policy API, which allows IT admins to quickly apply policies across a fleet of devices.

  Go cloud-first and reduce e-waste

  Chrome OS Flex is a new, free-to-download operating system that brings the speed, simplicity, manageability and proactive security of Chrome OS to PCs and Macs. Built for businesses and schools, it allows you to modernize PCs and Macs with a cloud-first operating system and reduces e-waste by extending the lifespan of older devices. Since early access availability in February, we’ve verified more than 100 devices to work with Chrome OS Flex and brought it into beta. Try it out and share your feedback.

  We’ll be back to share more Chromebooks and features to help you personalize your laptop and work even better across multiple devices. And of course, we look forward to bringing you the next 100 Chrome OS updates.

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/chromebooks/whatsnew-100/
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  Using AI to keep Google Search safe
  • sorangutan  

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  Every day, people come to Google looking for ways to keep themselves and their families safe. From highlighting resources in the wake of a natural disaster to providing time-sensitive health information, we’re constantly working on new features and improvements to help you quickly find what you need. And advancements in AI can power new technologies, like flood forecasting, to help people stay out of harm’s way.

  Here’s a look at how our AI systems are helping us connect people to critical information while avoiding potentially shocking or harmful content — so you can stay safe, both online and off.

  Finding trustworthy, actionable information when you need it most

  We know that people come to Search in the moments that matter most. Today, if you search on Google for information on suicide, sexual assault, substance abuse and domestic violence, you’ll see contact information for national hotlines alongside the most relevant and helpful results.

  But people in personal crises search in all kinds of ways, and it’s not always obvious to us that they’re in need. And if we can’t accurately recognize that, we can’t code our systems to show the most helpful search results. That's why using machine learning to understand language is so important.

  Now, using our latest AI model, MUM, we can automatically and more accurately detect a wider range of personal crisis searches. MUM can better understand the intent behind people’s questions to detect when a person is in need, which helps us more reliably show trustworthy and actionable information at the right time. We’ll start using MUM to make these improvements in the coming weeks.

  Steering clear of unexpected shocking content

  Keeping you safe on Search also means helping you steer clear of unexpected shocking results. This can be challenging, because content creators sometimes use benign terms to label explicit or suggestive content. And the most prevalent content that matches your search may not be what you intended to find. In these cases, even if people aren't directly seeking explicit content, it can show up in their results.

  One way we tackle this is with SafeSearch mode, which offers users the option to filter explicit results. This setting is on by default for Google accounts for people under 18. And even when users choose to have SafeSearch off, our systems still reduce unwanted racy results for searches that aren't seeking them out. In fact, every day, our safety algorithms improve hundreds of millions of searches globally across web, image and video modes.

  But there’s still room for improvement, and we’re using advanced AI technologies like BERT to better understand what you’re looking for. BERT has improved our understanding of whether searches are truly seeking out explicit content, helping us vastly reduce your chances of encountering surprising search results.

  This is a complex challenge we’ve been tackling for a while — but in the last year alone, this BERT improvement has reduced unexpected shocking results by 30%. It’s been especially effective in reducing explicit content for searches related to ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender, which can disproportionately impact women and especially women of color.

  Scaling our protections around the world

  MUM can transfer knowledge across the 75 languages it’s trained on, which can help us scale safety protections around the world much more efficiently. When we train one MUM model to perform a task — like classifying the nature of a query — it learns to do it in all the languages it knows.

  For example, we use AI to reduce unhelpful and sometimes dangerous spam pages in your search results. In the coming months, we’ll use MUM to improve the quality of our spam protections and expand to languages where we have very little training data. We'll also be able to better detect personal crisis queries all over the world, working with trusted local partners to show actionable information in several more countries.

  Like any improvement to Search, these changes have and will continue to go through rigorous evaluation — with input from our search raters around the world to make sure we’re providing more relevant, helpful results. Whatever you’re searching for, we’re committed to helping you safely find it.

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/search/using-ai-keep-google-search-safe/
• 

  Tracking cyber activity in Eastern Europe
  • sorangutan  

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  In early March, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) published an update on the cyber activity it was tracking with regard to the war in Ukraine. Since our last update, TAG has observed a continuously growing number of threat actors using the war as a lure in phishing and malware campaigns. Government-backed actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as various unattributed groups, have used various Ukraine war-related themes in an effort to get targets to open malicious emails or click malicious links.

  Financially motivated and criminal actors are also using current events as a means for targeting users. For example, one actor is impersonating military personnel to extort money for rescuing relatives in Ukraine. TAG has also continued to observe multiple ransomware brokers continuing to operate in a business as usual sense.

  As always, we continue to publish details surrounding the actions we take against coordinated influence operations in our quarterly TAG bulletin. We promptly identify and remove any such content, but have not observed any significant shifts from the normal levels of activity that occur in the region.

  Here is a deeper look at the campaign activity TAG has observed over the past two weeks:

  Curious Gorge, a group TAG attributes to China's PLA SSF, has conducted campaigns against government and military organizations in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. While this activity largely does not impact Google products, we remain engaged and are providing notifications to victim organizations.

  Recently observed IPs used in Curious Gorge campaigns:

  • 5.188.108[.]119
  • 91.216.190[.]58
  • 103.27.186[.]23
  • 114.249.31[.]171
  • 45.154.12[.]167

  COLDRIVER, a Russian-based threat actor sometimes referred to as Calisto, has launched credential phishing campaigns, targeting several US based NGOs and think tanks, the military of a Balkans country, and a Ukraine based defense contractor. However, for the first time, TAG has observed COLDRIVER campaigns targeting the military of multiple Eastern European countries, as well as a NATO Centre of Excellence. These campaigns were sent using newly created Gmail accounts to non-Google accounts, so the success rate of these campaigns is unknown. We have not observed any Gmail accounts successfully compromised during these campaigns.

  Recently observed COLDRIVER credential phishing domains:

  • protect-link[.]online
  • drive-share[.]live
  • protection-office[.]live
  • proton-viewer[.]com

  Ghostwriter, a Belarusian threat actor, recently introduced a new capability into their credential phishing campaigns. In mid-March, a security researcher released a blog post detailing a 'Browser in the Browser' phishing technique. While TAG has previously observed this technique being used by multiple government-backed actors, the media picked up on this blog post, publishing several stories highlighting this phishing capability.

  Ghostwriter actors have quickly adopted this new technique, combining it with a previously observed technique, hosting credential phishing landing pages on compromised sites. The new technique, displayed below, draws a login page that appears to be on the passport.i.ua domain, overtop of the page hosted on the compromised site. Once a user provides credentials in the dialog, they are posted to an attacker controlled domain.

  

  Example of hosting credential phishing landing pages on compromised sites

  Recently observed Ghostwriter credential phishing domains:

  • login-verification[.]top
  • login-verify[.]top
  • ua-login[.]top
  • secure-ua[.]space
  • secure-ua[.]top

  The team continues to work around the clock, focusing on the safety and security of our users and the platforms that help them access and share important information. We’ll continue to take action, identify bad actors and share relevant information with others across industry and governments, with the goal of bringing awareness to these issues, protecting users and preventing future attacks. While we are actively monitoring activity related to Ukraine and Russia, we continue to be just as vigilant in relation to other threat actors globally, to ensure that they do not take advantage of everyone’s focus on this region.

  
  
  https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/tracking-cyber-activity-eastern-europe/
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  Extending our support to Ukrainian startups
  • sorangutan  

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  The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine has been devastating to witness. Much like the rest of the international community, our response has evolved as the circumstances have developed. In addition to supporting the refugee crisis and fighting misinformation, we’re investing in Ukraine’s people and businesses.

  Today, we’re announcing a $5 million Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund to allocate equity-free cash awards throughout 2022. Selected Ukraine-based startups will be announced on a rolling basis and will receive up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding as well as ongoing Google mentorship, product support and Cloud credits. This hands-on support is designed to help Ukrainian entrepreneurs maintain and grow their businesses, strengthen their community and build a foundation for post-war economic recovery.

  Ukraine has a strong and vibrant startup community. Of the roughly 2000 startups in Ukraine, 126 startups have raised venture capital funding since the beginning of 2021. Yesterday, our CEO Sundar Pichai met with a number of these Ukrainian entrepreneurs at our Google for Startups Campus Warsaw. Through these conversations, we heard practical ways that Google could help the startup community.

  Funding is only one element of the support that is required. We’ve invited Ukrainian startups to use Google for Startups Campus Warsaw space as a temporary office. The first few startups — predominantly run by women who have fled the country — are already working from Campus, and we’ve witnessed their determination to succeed.

  Support for Ukrainian-led startups will help them succeed and build the tech that their country needs now. And as the region starts to recover, startups and tech companies will be key to rebuilding the Ukrainian economy, creating jobs, and positively impact the cities they make their homes.

  Read Article

  Increasing Google’s investment in Poland

  It has been over 15 years since we opened our first office in Poland. Back in those days, it had one room and could fit no more than thre...

  Read Article

  
  
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/extending-our-support-ukrainian-startups/
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  Celebrating 10 years of Google Indonesia
  • sorangutan  

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  When we opened the Google Indonesia office back in 2012, we had a clear vision: to develop products and programs that were specifically helpful for Indonesians. Looking back, it’s been incredible to see the momentum the team has built over the years — and that original vision remains just as important today.

  As we mark the 10th anniversary of Google in Indonesia today, I took the opportunity to explore our archives. Here are our 10 top moments from the past decade.

  1. Building product features for Indonesians

  Over the years, many of our products and features have been developed with Indonesians in mind, such as our Google Maps two-wheel feature to help Indonesian motorcyclists. We’ve also localized features to make them helpful to Indonesians. That includes incorporating some of Indonesia’s hundreds of languages into Google Translate, including Javanese — the second-most-spoken language with 83 million native speakers.

  

  Our Google Maps Two-Wheel feature launched in 2018

  2. Training two million Indonesians with digital skills

  With internet adoption growing rapidly in Indonesia, it’s a priority for Google to help ensure the next wave of entrepreneurs, businesses, and individuals are well-equipped with digital skills. Even before the opening of our office, we'd already launched several programs with local partners, including Bisnis Lokal Go Online in 2012, to help small and medium-sized businesses with their online presence. We've gone on to launch programs like Gapura Digital and Women Will, which have collectively trained more than 2 million Indonesians, including over 800,000 women entrepreneurs.

  

  Attendees from our free Gapura Digital and WomenWill workshops from 2019

  3. Supporting over 200,000 Indonesian mobile developers

  A fan of tahu bulat (fried tofu balls), Bandung-based developer Own Games ID created a fun game with the same name — it topped the Play Store rankings and has over 10 million downloads to date. Hit games and educational apps coming out of Indonesia have inspired us in our efforts tot train over 200,000 developers since 2016. We continue to find ways to mentor startups and nurture the developer community through programs like Google for Startups, contributing to growth of the region's largest digital economy.

  

  The people behind Own Games ID, with YouTube creator Gogogoy

  4. Bringing Borobudur to the world through Street View

  Seven years ago, our Street View operators strapped on the trekker and set out to capture 360-degree imagery of all 2,500 square meters of the world’s largest and oldest Buddhist temple: Borobudur in Magelang. From the heights of the Borobudur temple to the depths of Raja Ampat, anyone in the world can explore and enjoy Indonesia’s landmarks and natural beauty — all with a simple click, no matter where they are.

  

  Street View operators capturing imagery at Borobudur

  5. Protecting our ocean with technology

  Indonesia is home to some of the most beautiful natural wonders in the world, but there’s more work to do to ensure our heritage is protected for future generations. We’ve seen innovative organizations like the Gringgo Foundation, backed by funding support from Google.org, develop tools to address plastic waste pollution. We also worked with the former Minister of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, Susi Pudjiastuti, who used the technology behind Google Earth’s Global Fishing Watch to address illegal fishing in sovereign waters.

  

  Global Fishing Watch, the first global view of large scale commercial fishing activity over time

  6. Celebrating Indonesia’s rich history and culture on our platforms

  We launched our first Indonesian Doodle in 2012, celebrating the 67th anniversary of our nation’s independence. Since then, our doodles have spotlighted significant local moments and celebrated historic Indonesian figures like Ki Hajar Dewantara and Roehana Koeddoes. Beyond Doodles, we wanted to introduce Indonesia’s rich culture to the world. My favorite moments were when we shared our batik tradition and Indonesian spices through Google Arts and Culture.

  

  Our first Doodle showcasing the traditions during Indonesia’s independence

  7. Empowering the next generation

  We believe every Indonesian should have access to digital education and training opportunities, and we offer training tailored to people’s skill levels and goals. We introduced Google Career Certificates last year to get more people trained in job-ready skills. We also introduced Bangkit, an intensive six-month training program in partnership with local technology companies and leading universities, to equip more Indonesians with in-demand skills for the tech industry. Now entering its third year, the program has trained almost 2,500 people like Syifa Nur Aini, who became an IT manager after completing the program. We look forward to graduating another 3,000 students later this year.

  

  After graduating from Bangkit, Syifa Nur Aini started her role as an IT Manager at Trapo Indonesia

  8. Supporting journalism and the news industry

  We work closely with Indonesian news publishers of all sizes, providing tools, technology and programs to help ensure everyone has access to quality information. We've partnered with publishers to help them build their business models, empower newsrooms through technology, and learn the latest tools and reporting skills. Since 2019, we’ve trained more than 23,000 journalists locally, including in-depth workshops on data journalism and fact-checking, while funding the fact-checking mission of the Cek Fakta network.

  

  Local reporters attending a workshop run by the GNI Indonesia Training Network

  9. Reaching over 100 million people on YouTube monthly

  Since YouTube’s launch in Indonesia in 2012, we have seen incredible highs in Indonesia. If there’s one thing that's certain, it’s that Indonesia is full of talented individuals waiting to be discovered. Indonesian creators are redefining what it means to be artists, entertainers, and key opinion leaders. Take Weird Genius, a local band collaborating with well-known musicians worldwide and sharing their music with Indonesia and the world through YouTube. It’s humbling to see the role YouTube plays in Indonesians’ lives. For some viewers, YouTube creators make them feel part of a wider community. For others, it's about allowing them to dive deeper into their passion and brush up on new skills. Today, YouTube is reaching more than 100 million people every month in Indonesia, and the numbers continue to grow.

  10:25

  10. It’s always the people: Dozens of Googlers serving Indonesia today

  One of my biggest joys working at Google is the people. I'm proud to see how our office has grown from just four employees to the dozens of Googlers working on impactful projects in Indonesia today.

  

  Indonesia team during Google’s 21st global birthday celebration in the office

  Together with the people, communities and businesses we support, we've accomplished a lot over the past 10 years. I’m looking forward to seeing what more we can contribute to Indonesia’s progress over the decade ahead. Happy anniversary, Google Indonesia!

  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/10-years-google-indonesia/
• 

  Building together, with and for everyone
  • sorangutan  

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  Editor’s Note: Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker sent the following note to the company today.

  In a conversation I had last year with civil rights scholar john a. powell about belonging, he talked about “building a place together, for all of us.” I keep coming back to this as we reach new stages in the pandemic, and as we continue to support those who are impacted by the war in Ukraine.

  I’m humbled by the many efforts happening across the company that show how we’re making progress and building belonging at work, and in our world — together. Read on to learn more.

  10:25

  Supporting and investing in communities around the world

  Supporting our global workforce and local communities around the world remains a top priority for us. Today, we announced several initiatives to help with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and to support the post-war recovery of Central and Eastern Europe. We’ve also hosted community support sessions to help Googlers affected by the war, connecting them to wellbeing and emergency resources. And we’re continuing to support the Ukrainian community through our products and services.

  We’re increasing our investments in communities across the globe, through efforts like expanding the Black Founders Fund initiative in Europe, where Google investments and support are helping Black-led startups succeed. These startups raised millions in funding and created more than 100 jobs in 2021. We announced in March that we will double the fund for 2022, providing equity-free cash awards and direct support to more Black entrepreneurs.

  In Canada, Google.org is supporting the growth of Indigenous businesses and helping indigenous entrepreneurs reach broader audiences. Our February grant to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance is targeting tech access issues in rural and tribal communities in the U.S. And the Go Digital ASEAN program in Asia now reaches about 200,000 small businesses and underemployed youth in rural and isolated areas, as well as women and people with disabilities.

  The AARP Foundation is helping us connect with more than 25,000 adults — primarily women and people of color from low-income communities in the U.S. — as they build digital career skills. And in January, the Google Career Certificates program became available in Spanish, enhancing tech skills for tens of thousands of U.S. job seekers.
  

  Collaborating to expand opportunities

  Our work to expand access to tech is guided by the expertise of organizations and institutions on the ground. Today, 59 faculty members are researching areas that aim to positively impact society like accessibility, algorithmic fairness, higher education and participatory machine learning as part of the Award for Inclusion Research Program. And close to 8,000 undergraduate students from underrepresented communities in eight countries are pursuing research careers in computing with funding from our exploreCSR awards.

  Building on the momentum of our $50 million grant to 10 HBCUs last year, we recently announced an unrestricted grant to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and United Negro College Fund to help create new HBCU student programming, guided solely by these organizations. We’re also expanding our Grow with Google Career Readiness Program through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities to bring digital skills training to 200,000 Latino college students.
  

  Our ongoing equity work

  Since first announcing our 2020 racial equity commitments, we’ve hired close to 4,700 Nooglers across our Atlanta, Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. offices. And last year, we had the highest ever year-over-year increase in women hires in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, thanks to targeted campus outreach and the establishment of a DEI recruiting team in the region.

  Our work must extend beyond hiring and representation to support the day-to-day experience of every Googler. In February, we launched The Collective, a new six-month onboarding program designed for Black+ Nooglers and their managers. The program is now slated to expand to other countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, the U.K., Singapore, and South Africa later this year.

  We can only have belonging when everyone feels safe and heard. In February, we completed our rollout of the more than 50 new workplace commitments announced in September 2020. All of these commitments are in service of building a safe, respectful and equitable workplace where there is trust and accountability. For example, we’ve taken steps so that written warnings impact performance evaluations, promotion eligibility and compensation. And we now assign a specialist team to cases involving senior leaders to ensure appropriate scrutiny.​​ Together, these changes set and uphold higher standards for the whole company — as we continue to take a harder line on inappropriate conduct and provide more care and support to people who raise concerns.
  

  Community connections

  In February, we hosted 2,000 Googlers for the first-ever Black Men of Google Summit — a half-day program to build connections around shared experiences. And in early March, more than 20,000 women and allies gathered virtually for our International Women’s Day Summit, aimed at recognizing resilience and deepening community for women at Google.

  In India, allies of the LGBTQIA+ community are engaging in identity-focused discussions known as “Chai Chats.” Efforts like this, along with policies and initiatives, such as Google’s Transgender and Intersex Medical Advocacy program, helped Google India achieve a gold rating in the country’s first comprehensive benchmarking study of organizational inclusion.

  This momentum is so energizing for the work ahead. Thank you to the many teams and community leaders who are helping us learn and make progress in building a world where we can all belong.

  
  
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/diversity/building-together-and-everyone/
• 

  “Lift as you lead”: Meet 2 women defining responsible AI
  • sorangutan  

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  At Google, Marian Croak’s technical research team, The Center for Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technology, and Jen Gennai’s operations and governance team, Responsible Innovation, collaborate often on creating a fairer future for AI systems.

  The teams complement each other to support computer scientists, UX researchers and designers, product managers and subject matter experts in the social sciences, human rights and civil rights. Collectively, their teams include more than 200 people around the globe focused on putting our AI Principles – Google’s ethical charter – into practice.

  “The intersection of AI systems and society is a critical area of my team’s technical research,” Marian says. “Our approach includes working directly with people who use and are impacted by AI systems. Working together with Jen’s central operations team, the idea is to make AI more useful and reduce potential harm before products launch.”

  For Women’s History Month, we wanted to talk to them both about this incredibly meaningful work and how they bring their lived experiences to it.

  How do you define “responsible AI”?

  Marian: It’s the technical realization of our AI Principles. We need to understand how AI systems are performing in respect to fairness, transparency, interpretability, robustness and privacy. When gaps occur, we fix them. We benchmark and evaluate how product teams are adopting what Jen and I call smart practices. These are trusted practices based on patterns we see across Google as we’re developing new AI applications, and the data-driven results of applying these practices over time.

  Jen: There are enormous opportunities to use AI for positive impact — and the potential for harm, too. The key is ethical deployment. “Responsible AI” for me means taking deliberate steps to ensure technology works the way it’s intended to and doesn’t lead to malicious or unintended negative consequences. This involves applying the smart practices Marian mentioned through repeatable processes and a governance structure for accountability.

  How do your teams work together?

  Marian: They work hand in hand. My team conducts scientific research and creates open source tools like Fairness Indicators and Know Your Data. A large portion of our technical research and product work is centered in societal context and human and civil rights, so Jen’s team is integral to understanding the problems we seek to help solve.

  Jen: The team I lead defines Google policies, handles day-to-day operations and central governance structure, and conducts ethical assessments. We’re made up of user researchers, social scientists, ethicists, human rights specialists, policy and privacy advisors and legal experts.

  One team can’t work without the other! This complementary relationship allows many different perspectives and lived experiences to inform product design decisions. Here’s an example, which was led by women from a variety of global backgrounds: Marian’s team designed a streamlined, open source format for documenting technical details of datasets, called data cards. When researchers on the Translate team, led by product manager Romina Stella, recently developed a new dataset for studying and preventing gender bias in machine learning, members of my team, Anne P., N’Mah Y. and Reena Jana, reviewed the dataset for alignment with the AI Principles. They recommended that the Translate researchers publish a data card for details on how the dataset was created and tested. The Translate team then worked with UX designer Mahima Pushkarna on Marian’s team to create and launch the card alongside the dataset.

  I’m inspired most when someone tells me I can’t do something. No matter what obstacles you face, believe you have the skills, the knowledge and the passion to make your dreams come true.

  How did you end up working in this very new field?

  Marian: I’ve always been drawn to hard problems. This is a very challenging area! It’s so multifaceted and constantly evolving. That excites me. It’s an honor to work with so many passionate people who care so deeply about our world and understanding how to use technology for social good.

  I’ll always continue to seek out solutions to these problems because I understand the profound impact this work will have on our society and our world, especially communities underrepresented in the tech industry.

  Jen: I spent many years leading User Research and User Advocacy on Google’s Trust and Safety team. An area I focused on was ML Fairness. I never thought I’d get to work on it full time. But in 2016 my leadership team wanted to have a company-wide group concentrating on worldwide positive social benefits of AI. In 2017, I joined the team that was writing and publishing the AI Principles. Today, I apply my operational knowledge to make sure that as a company, we meet the obligations we laid out in the Principles.

  What advice do you have for girls and women interested in pursuing careers in responsible tech?

  Marian: I’m inspired most when someone tells me I can’t do something. No matter what obstacles you face, believe you have the skills, the knowledge and the passion to make your dreams come true. Find motivation in the small moments, find motivation in those who doubt you, but most importantly, never forget to believe in the greatness of you.

  Jen: Don’t limit yourself even if you don’t have a computer science degree. I don’t. I was convinced I’d work in sustainability and environmental non-profits, and now I lead a team working to make advanced technologies work better for everyone. This space requires so many different skills, whether in program management, policy, engineering, UX or business and strategy.

  My mantra is “lift as you lead.” Don’t just build a network for yourself; build a supportive network to empower everyone who works with you — and those who come after you, especially those who are currently underrepresented in the tech sector. Your collective presence in this space makes a positive impact! And it’s even stronger when you build a better future together.

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/ai/lift-as-you-lead-meet-2-women-defining-responsible-ai/
• 

  Go with the flow state: What music and AI have in common
  • sorangutan  

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  Carrie Cai, Ben Zevenbergen and Johnny Soraker all work on developing artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly at Google, in the larger research community and across the technology industry. Carrie is a research scientist focusing on human-AI interaction, Ben is an ethicist and policy advisor and Johnny is an AI Principles ethicist. They all work within a global team of experts from a variety of fields, including the social sciences and humanities, focused on the ethical development of AI. They’re driven to make systems that are fair, inclusive and focused on people.

  But they have more than their work in common: They’re all accomplished musicians who’ve studied music, composed and published pieces and even played at the professional level. We wanted to know more about their musical backgrounds, and how this creative interest informs their work building AI systems that take everyone into account.

  What instrument — or instruments — do you play?

  Ben: Guitar, bass and drums.

  Johnny: Mainly drums these days, but I’ve also done ambient and electronica.

  Carrie: I play piano and I also compose music.

  Where did your interest in playing music come from?

  Ben: I grew up in a musical family where instruments were always lying around. My parents’ friends would bring their instruments when they came to visit and our house would turn into a music venue. I enrolled in a music degree in my late teens to become a professional drummer. Then, a year later, I serendipitously became a bassist: I went to law school in the Netherlands, and the university band already had someone who was a better drummer than I was — but they needed a bassist, so I grabbed the opportunity.

  Carrie: I started out in the Yamaha music program when I was six, where rather than learning technical piano playing skills you focus on ear training, hearing the music and how to play as an ensemble. I think that foundation led me to be a lot more creative with my music than I would have been otherwise. I spent part of my childhood years composing music, too — here are some of my early compositions from my high school days!

  Johnny: I’ve played lots of instruments since I was a child, but never had the tenacity to get very good at any of them. Perhaps as a result of this, I got involved with a highly experimental ambient scene in the early 2000s and started the one-man project Metus Mortuus, using samples and DIY equipment to create often disturbing soundscapes. It was really only when I got hooked on the video game “Rock Band,” where you play "fake" instruments along with the notation on screen, that I put in the hours needed to get some basic limb independence and with that a platform for learning real drums.

  • Carrie stands in front of a group of people speaking while holding a microphone. A presentation behind her reads: “Neural substrates of Musical Creativity.”

    Carrie speaking at a conference about musical creativity and brain science.

  • Ben performing on stage. He is playing a bass and wearing a red and white track suit.

    Ben playing the bass during a concert in Amsterdam.

  • Johnny speaking on stage to an audience in a dimly lit room.

    Johnny speaking at a TedX talk.

  Did you gravitate toward the drums in the game?

  Johnny: No, I hardly ever touched them — I simply couldn’t make my left arm do something my right arm wasn't doing, but one day I decided to try an experiment: Can I make these stale neural pathways of mine actually learn something new well into adulthood? I started practicing on these toy drums every day, which was painful and frustrating, but occasional breakthroughs kept me going. Eventually I achieved a level of limb independence I hadn't thought I was capable of. I invested in proper e-drums and I’ve played almost every day since.

  This [work] often requires you to think creatively. And I feel that the way in which drumming almost literally rewired my brain has made me much better at doing that.

  What’s your favorite thing about playing?

  Johnny: It's really the ultimate flow experience, where you're fully immersed in an activity to the extent you lose track of time and only focus on the present moment. There’s lots of empirical research in the field of positive psychology suggesting that regular flow experiences promote better well-being.

  Ben: I love playing the bass with a band because it’s the glue between the rhythm section and the melody sections. It’s fun when you purposefully come in a beat later, you really see people not sure whether to dance or not. When you start playing, suddenly the whole audience understands what’s going on. And then they have the audacity to say they never hear the bass!

  How has music made its way into your work, if at all?

  Carrie: It’s certainly affected how I think about my work today, particularly around how to make AI more controllable to everyday people. For example, we’re now seeing these new, highly capable generative AI models that can compose music sounding indistinguishable from something written by Bach. But we discovered that, just because an AI model is capable of making beautiful music, doesn’t mean humans can always make beautiful music using AI.

  When I create music, I’m thinking, “I want the beginning of the song to sound cheerful, then I want it to build tension, before ending in a somber way.” When I’m creating with AI, it can be difficult to express that — I can’t easily say, “Hey AI, make the first part happy and then build tension here” This can make it difficult for people to feel a sense of artistic agency and authorship when they’re creating any kind of content with AI.

  Recently, I collaborated with other human-computer interaction (HCI) and machine learning (ML) researchers at Google to create new tools enabling people to steer and control AI as they compose music with it. We found that these “steering tools” significantly boost users’ sense of creative ownership and trust as they compose with AI.

  10:25

  Do you think there’s anything about the sort of work you do that exercises the same sort of “mental muscles” as music does?

  Johnny: Yes, I think the key to ethics — and especially ethics of AI where there often is no precedent — is to be able to approach a problem from different angles and draw connections between the case at hand and relevant, similar cases from the past. This requires you to think creatively. And I feel that the way in which drumming almost literally rewired my brain has made me much better at doing that.

  Ben: When you learn to play the drums, one of the hardest things is learning you must separate the movements of your limbs in your mind. It's pretty difficult to process — which makes it a very nice experience once your mind can asynchronously control parts of your thinking to create interesting rhythms that are still in time. I think for my work on ethics of technical design, I have to frequently understand many interacting but very different disciplines. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with drumming, but I find that I can think about these things in tandem, while they are completely different.

  Once when I was little, I woke up and without even changing out of my pajamas, spent the entire day composing a piece of music.

  Carrie: I remember once when I was little, I woke up and without even changing out of my pajamas, spent the entire day composing a piece of music. I realize now that that was a flow state — I was working on something that was challenging yet doable. I think that’s a key property of creativity and it’s affected how I work in general. It's easiest for me to be productive when I'm in that state — working on something that’s challenging, but not so difficult that I won't want to start it or keep going. That’s helpful in research because there’s so much uncertainty — you never know if your experiments are going to work! But I can take a lesson from how I got into that flow state with music and apply it to research: How can I as a research scientist enter a flow state?

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/ai/go-flow-state-what-music-and-ai-have-common/
• 

  In Warsaw: Announcing more support for Ukraine
  • sorangutan  

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  Today I am in Warsaw, Poland, a city that’s become a symbol of safety and hope for so many Ukrainians fleeing the war. In my mind, the shared collective history of Central and Eastern Europe represents an ideal of freedom, resilience and community. So it wasn’t surprising to me that so many people across the region had opened their homes to take in refugees or stood in train stations to welcome them with food, clothing and kindness.

  I spent my morning visiting our Google for Startups Campus in Warsaw, which we opened three weeks ago to NGOs supporting refugees as well as Ukrainian startups. I met with the NGOs to hear how Google can best support the needs of refugees, now and in the future. I also heard from some of the first entrepreneurs working from the campus and was inspired to see their strength and resolve in the face of such personal tragedy and loss.

  While in Europe, I’ve also been meeting with government officials to discuss the humanitarian crisis and the need for continued public-private partnerships to support refugees and fight disinformation in the region. Today we announced several additional initiatives to help with these efforts, and to support the post-war recovery of Central and Eastern Europe.

  Supporting the refugee crisis

  Already more than 3.7 million refugees have fled Ukraine — the majority of them women, children and the elderly — making this Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II. To help the humanitarian aid efforts on the ground in Central and Eastern Europe, Google.org and Googlers have committed over $35 million in funding and in-kind support. This includes support for organizations focused on people in Ukraine, likeNova Ukraine andFight for Right, as well as nonprofits supporting refugees in bordering countries, such asThe Polish Center for International Aid,Hungarian Interchurch Aid,Romanian Red Cross, andPeople in Need in Slovakia.

  Today we’re also announcing a new grant for refugees with disabilities, as well as a grant and Google.org Fellowship to Tech to the Rescue, a young Polish nonprofit that connects tech companies and expert volunteers with humanitarian aid organizations to help solve technical needs. A team of Google.org Fellows will work on a pro-bono basis to help build and scale their platform and efforts.

  Fighting misinformation

  As an information company, we take our responsibility seriously to provide reliable, trustworthy information to people when they need it. We saw how many Ukrainians turned to Search to find up-to-date information, including where to find shelter or humanitarian aid, and relied on air raid alerts on their phones. To help, we’re also rolling out new features that enhance access to trusted information, including Info Panels in local languages and Transparency Labels for publisher content on YouTube.

  A big part of the challenge is addressing the misinformation that is spreading about the realities and facts of the war in Ukraine. Today we’re investing an additional $10 million for this effort, including new partnerships with think tanks and civil society organizations to conduct region-specific research into misinformation and disinformation, as well as cash grants to support fact-checking networks and nonprofits. Jigsaw, a unit within Google that builds technology to counter threats to open societies, will partner with local experts and academics to develop approaches to both directly counter disinformation and help people more easily identify disinformation.

  Investing in the future of Central and Eastern Europe

  We believe in the strength and future of Central and Eastern Europe. Just last year we opened our new office in Warsaw, hired over 350 people and launched a Google Cloud region in Poland. And earlier this month we announced a $700 million investment in the purchase and development of The Warsaw HUB, a modern office complex in the heart of Poland’s capital city.

  We’ll continue to invest in the region and support people and businesses affected by the war and its hardships. And when this war ends, we will be here for Ukraine and the region for the long haul.

  
  
  https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/warsaw-announcing-more-support-ukraine/
• 

  The Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework: Building for the long term
  • sorangutan  

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  We commend the European Commission and U.S. government on the work they’ve done to reach a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework.

  People want to be able to use digital services from anywhere in the world and know that their privacy is respected, and their information safe and protected. This agreement acknowledges that reality: it commits the parties to a high standard of data protection while establishing a reliable and durable foundation for the future of internet services on both sides of the Atlantic.

  A meaningful agreement

  The work to get to this stage was anything but trivial, and required addressing important considerations of both national security and individual privacy. Google has long advocated reasonable limits on government surveillance. The U.S. government has now committed to systems that will enable independent and meaningful redress for people in the EU, strengthen the guardrails and proportionality of U.S. intelligence collection, and ensure effective oversight of these new privacy and civil liberties standards in ways that address the concerns articulated by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

  Citizens expect these safeguards from democratically elected governments, even as they understand the importance of protecting people from national security threats.

  Building for the long term

  People rely more than ever before on the global exchange of information in their daily lives. Everything from online shopping and travel to business operations and security depends on data flows across borders. The Framework guarantees that the tools and services people in the EU use every day will remain available, even while being held to the highest standards of privacy and data protection.

  We look forward to certifying our processes under the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework at the first opportunity. For Google, these (and similar) standards serve as a floor, not a ceiling, for the protections we offer our users and customers. We already help our customers meet stringent data protection requirements by offering industry-leading technical controls, contractual commitments, and resources for risk assessment, and we have long offered leading data access and control tools to our users. Our investment in that work continues to grow.

  Sustaining transatlantic cooperation

  The Framework shows that it is possible to take difficult steps to reinforce transatlantic cooperation and address emerging security and information threats. This urgency should carry over to enacting a robust new U.S. federal privacy law to align with international standards and enhance trust and confidence in digital services.

  For similar reasons, we called eight months ago for the creation of the Transatlantic Trade & Technology Council (TTC) to enable the kind of bilateral coordination necessary to get ahead of future challenges and ensure that the U.S. and EU avoid discordant or discriminatory approaches. We were encouraged by the creation of the TTC and its commitment to avoiding unnecessary barriers to technological trade. There is now a need for progress in other areas of transatlantic divergence, from online content to taxation to competition to supply chains.

  The importance of safe, resilient distributed computing in the face of war and autocracy makes this work even more urgent. As the TTC prepares for its next meeting, it is more important than ever that it carry forward the lessons of the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework to promote a durable digital partnership.

  
  
  https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/trans-atlantic-data-privacy-framework-building-long-term/
• 

  Helping UK children be safe and confident explorers of the online world
  • sorangutan  

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  Children are growing up with access to the internet, and all its educational and social benefits, from an early age. Today, learning how to stay safer online is a vital part of a child’s education — and it is something that the whole community around the child needs to support, from their school and their family to the technology companies who have a responsibility to design safer products for children.

  As a teacher, I've spent 20 years having broad conversations about safety with children and supporting them to better understand how to be safer and more confident explorers of the online world, and how to get support from trusted adults.

  One of the ways I do this is via Be Internet Legends, an online safety education programme, developed by Parent Zone and Google.

  Be Internet Legends teaches children in the UK how to be Sharp, Alert, Secure, Kind and Brave online at a level that children understand. Anyone who takes part in the activities — children, educators, parents — gets it. Playing Kind Kingdom in Interland helps families see the impact being kind online has. Role playing what to say to a trusted adult when they have seen something upsetting online empowers children when learning from the Be Internet Brave pillar. And inviting parents and other family members to join a National Drop-in Assembly from their home or workplace helps to facilitate conversations outside of school about how to stay safer online — reinforcing the learning that takes place in school.

  There’s proof that it works. An independent review[9f04e3]found that following the Google and Parent Zone training, children are twice as likely to show an improved understanding of internet safety than those who haven’t received the training. It also found that two weeks after receiving the training, 7 in 10 children aged 7-11 report having been kinder in the way they say things online.

  A new curriculum for 2022

  The Be Internet Legends curriculum was first released in 2018 for all UK primary schools. With the ever changing digital landscape, an update was due – and I was excited to work on this in my new role as education writer at Parent Zone.

  Coming straight from the ‘front line’ as a teacher, my knowledge of what really works in the classroom – and what makes a teacher's life easier – enabled the team, in partnership with Google, to develop an updated curriculum that would be well-received, relevant and actionable.

  One wonderful aspect of the curriculum and how to use it is that it is completely flexible; teachers are empowered to adapt and use the curriculum to suit their learners. But, in developing the update, I wanted to create ways for schools to use the curriculum with greater span and longevity.

  In direct response to teachers’ feedback, I created a progression of skills plan for each year group – and we increased the number of lesson plans to ensure the programme’s messages can be embedded across different age ranges.

  The progression of skills demonstrates to schools how they can use the programme with each year group over 4-5 lessons per year; each one building on the previous year’s learning. Following this approach means the Be Internet Legends curriculum can be fully integrated into the PSHE/RSE/computing curriculum every year.

  So, you can see that we really want teachers to take ownership of the curriculum and deliver it in a way that suits them.

  Media literacy and social-emotional learning

  New additions to the programme include a Media Literacy and Social & Emotional learning focus. Media literacy is vital for children and young people; it is the ability to identify different types of media and to understand the messages they are sending.

  The curriculum also has a strong Relationships and Sex education (RSE) focus: thinking about, discussing and sharing feelings. Be Internet Legends is about more than just teaching practical online skills – there is a big focus on roleplay and discussions about different relationship situations.

  

  Helping teachers teach

  One of the best things about Be Internet Legends is how it gives teachers autonomy over the learning – allowing them flexibility to use it as, when, and how they wish. Teachers love being in control of what they are teaching!

  By co-delivering the teacher-training workshops, I’ve found out so much about how the programme is being used. One secondary special educational needs and disability (SEND) school teacher explained how the curriculum fits perfectly with the academic levels of their learners — and how the students are highly engaged. They said materials for younger learners rarely resonate for their students.

  Parents from across the country and with children of all ages have also told me it's something they can understand and, importantly, engage in.

  Starting your Legends adventure

  Helping schools — and families — stay ahead of the curve with online safety is crucial – so seeing the programme develop for 2022 is exciting. Whether it’s media literacy, RSE or another priority, it’s great to see teachers learning to adapt the programme to support their communities.

  I’m really looking forward to continuing to help teachers, children and their parents become safer and more confident explorers of the online world.

  And you can find out more about the Be Internet Legends programme or — if you feel like a challenge — take on the Interland game to test your legendary skills too!

  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/helping-uk-children-be-safe-and-confident-explorers-online-world/
• 

  A day in the life with Google Assistant
  • sorangutan  

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  The last few years have been full of change, and 2022 is no exception. Personally, I’ve begun heading back to the office for work — which is a pretty big departure from the days when I used to sleep, work, exercise and relax all inside my San Francisco studio apartment.

  I’m ready to put away the athleisure (at least during work hours), and I’m excited about seeing everyone in person…but at the same time, I'm a bit worried about keeping up with the healthy habits I developed while working from home.

  Since I started working as a Product Marketing Manager on the Google Assistant team about a year ago, though, I’ve gotten hooked on a few features that help me manage my day and keep me accountable to my wellness goals. Here’s a day in my life with Google Assistant:

  • 7:45 a.m. - My alarm goes off on my Nest Hub, and I wake up to country music (my favorite). Usually I’m a snoozer, but since I started setting my alarm to my favorite genre of music, I’ve been waking up to feel-good tunes for a little extra motivation.
  • 7:50 a.m. - After brushing my teeth, I kick off my morning Routine. “Hey Google, Good morning” starts an automated rundown of everything I need to prepare for the day ahead: a weather update, an overview of my calendar and important news headlines. This pre-made Routine works great for me, but I can always go into the Google Assistant settings on my phone to edit or create a custom Routine when my needs change.
  • 10:30 a.m. - I have a break between morning meetings and grab a banana. I’m trying to eat more fruits and veggies, so I’ve been tracking them — and I can just say “Hey Google, log a banana on MyFitnessPal” and Google Assistant will automatically help me log it in the app on my phone.

  

  • 12:15 p.m. - Lunch time arrives and I grab a salad to eat with my teammate, Laura. We decide we want to start working out together in the office gym during lunch breaks, so I set a reminder for next week by saying “Hey Google, remind me to pack workout clothes every Tuesday at 8 a.m.”
  • 3:00 p.m. - The afternoon whizzes by, and at 3 p.m. I’m ready for a snack. I grab a sparkling water and trail mix, log it in MyFitnessPal and finish the day working from a communal table overlooking the city.

  

  • 5:15 p.m. - I power down for the day, commute home to the Marina and change into running clothes. I've signed up for the San Francisco marathon in July, and today I want to get in a few light training miles along Crissy Field since it’s (finally!) still light out and the weather is beautiful. I start my running playlist, and with a simple “Hey Google, start my run with Strava,” I’m on the move.
  • 6:00 p.m. - I finish my run and complete my workout with a quick strength circuit in my apartment with some help from Google Assistant: I don’t have to fumble with my phone between sets and can instead use a hands-free timer by saying “Hey Google, set a 60-second timer for planking.”
  • 8:00 p.m. - Work day evenings are usually pretty mellow for me, but today I made plans to get a scoop of ice cream with a friend I haven’t seen in a while. I walk to meet her a few blocks away, and we have a fun time catching up over a sweet treat.
  • 10:30 p.m. - Bedtime! I wind down for the day, write in my journal and set my media alarm again, this time for an early pre-work run: “Hey Google, wake me up at 7 a.m. to pop music.”

  There you have it: A snapshot of the real ways I use Google Assistant to stay organized with my health and wellness.

  Whatever your goals might be, sticking to your fitness or wellness goals alone can be tough, and while Google can’t work out for you, it can be your accountability partner. With regular reminders to help you stick to your goals, motivating ways to start each day right and easy voice access into your wellness apps, Google can help you build healthy habits and stay accountable to your wellness goals this spring — just say, “Hey Google.”

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/assistant/day-life-google-assistant/
• 

  Helping your products stand out to shoppers
  • sorangutan  

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  Online shoppers are more empowered than ever. They can find ratings, reviews, price comparisons and deals as quickly as inspiration strikes. And with all this information at their fingertips, they’re also open to buying from somewhere new. In fact, last year in the U.S., 67% of holiday shoppers agreed Google helped them find new products, services or brands. Standing out to shoppers in those moments of inspiration and decision is critical.

  This week at Shoptalk, we’re sharing new data and insights tools to give brands and retailers the extra edge in knowing how shoppers are finding them, what shoppers want and what they’re browsing for. These tools can also help merchants price their products more competitively and — most importantly — boost sales.

  Building trust with shoppers

  Shoppers discover new brands online every day. But before they make a purchase, they want to know they’re spending money with a business they can trust. To reward merchants for good customer experiences and help them build their reputation with potential buyers, we’re introducing the Shopping Experience Scorecard program.

  Merchants who provide excellent shipping and returns services, for example, may receive a badge indicating they’re a Trusted Store, which will appear alongside their free product listings on the Shopping tab. Merchants receive a Trusted Store badge based on their performance across metrics relative to other merchants, including but not limited to shipping speeds, shipping and return costs, and return windows.

  Based on our early testing, merchants displaying a Trusted Store badge are more likely to receive clicks. We're also seeing stronger traffic to lesser-known merchants. Keep an eye out for the Shopping Experience Scorecard program, which will roll out across the U.S. in the coming months.

  

  The Trusted Store badge indicates a merchant performs well in areas like shipping speeds and costs

  Delivering more actionable insights

  From merchandising to branding, insights have influenced decision making and the ability to attract customers for decades. Today, we’re introducing new insights tools to help merchants keep reaching customers and growing their businesses.

  It’s free for any merchant to list their products on Google. And now, we’re making it easier to measure the impact of their free listings with free listings conversion reporting. This new tool shows merchants the total traffic, impressions and conversion rate of their free listings, helping them make decisions about future ones.

  For example, let’s say an online hat seller started using Google’s free listings a year ago. At the time, it wasn’t possible to see the business impact of those free listings in their Merchant Center account. Now, with conversion reporting, they can see all the conversions Google is sending them — at no additional cost.

  

  Free listings conversion reporting helps a merchant see the total traffic, impressions and conversion rate of their free listings on Google

  Product pricing in the market is dynamic, and staying competitive is critical. That’s why we’re introducing the price insights tool, which helps merchants see whether their products are priced competitively and the projected impact of price changes on their revenue. Using machine learning, the tool offers merchants a suggested price for each product they sell, along with predicted impressions, clicks, conversions and gross profit. This means a merchant can see how their pricing stacks up in comparison to the same product sold by other retailers, as well as potential revenue if they were to change the price.

  Let’s come back to our online hat seller. The price insights tool would give them insights into how to price different hats. For instance, during warmer temperatures, the tool might recommend lowering the prices of winter hats and raising the prices of sun hats.

  

  See whether your products are priced competitively in the market with the price insights tool

  Local product insights are also coming soon to local retailers who manage a Business Profile in the U.S. and Canada. These insights will show local businesses their most-viewed products, including a snapshot of top products and total views of their products over time. This will help brick-and-mortar retailers without an e-commerce offering better understand how interest varies among their top products.

  Now let’s pretend our online hat seller sells out of several brick-and-mortar locations. The local product insights report would show them which products from their Business Profile are most viewed. This may change their merchandising, assortment or even buying choices in the future.

  

  Brick-and-mortar merchants who list their products on Google can easily see a snapshot of their top-viewed products

  Merchants running Google Ads can also use these tools with the Insights page, which provides business-driving search trends and tailored performance insights.

  These are just some of the ways we’re helping merchants of all sizes understand their performance in stores and online, and reach more shoppers on Google. To learn more, register for Retail on Air — an on-demand video series to understand how customer behavior is shifting and how to unlock more profitability in 2022.

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/shopping/shoptalk-2022/
• 

  Shopping ads support jobs and business growth in Europe
  • sorangutan  

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  Shopping ads on Google are designed to help people find the products they are looking for quickly and easily. And, with the help of Comparison Shopping Services, Shopping ads also help merchants to reach potential customers.

  As e-commerce continues to accelerate, supporting job growth and small businesses across Europe, we wanted to take a look at the growth of Comparison Shopping Services (CSSs) in Europe, and their work to connect merchants with even more shoppers.

  Merchants are attracting more customers

  When consumers search for products on Google — like a toaster — they may see a series of ads showing products to buy. These ads are placed by CSSs and shoppers can then either click through to the merchant to buy or visit the CSS to compare more.

  People find these results helpful and traffic to these ads has continuously increased over time (in 2021, consumers clicked on 30% more shopping ads from CSSs than in 2020). And almost all CSSs have increased the number of merchants they work with or increased their activity with existing merchants.

  European businesses are expanding

  In 2021, the number of CSS businesses advertising on Google grew by more than 20% alone and many of these are hiring new employees, or expanding into new countries or markets.

  In total, there were more than 350 active Comparison Shopping Services groups in Europe who advertise on shopping ads at the end of 2021. Together, they operate more than 800 CSS websites across multiple countries in Europe, creating new business opportunities and job growth.

  The majority of offers uploaded to Google in the EEA are from CSSs, and the number of merchants using CSSs like Kelkoo, Redbrain, Connexity, Solute, Smarketer, and Smarter e-commerce to place ads grew by more than 30% in 2021.

  • Image showing that there are now more than 800 Comparison Shopping Service websites in Europe.
  • Image showing that the number of merchants using comparison Shopping Services to place ads grew by more than 30% in 2021.
  • Image showing how shopping ads allow shoppers to quickly and easily find your merchants' online inventory.

  Google is supporting the CSS industry

  Since 2017, Google has developed tools and invested in dedicated support for Comparison Shopping services. This includes the CSS Partner Program, an official recognition from Google who meet additional quality criteria based on minimum number of merchants, knowledge of Shopping ads, and other indicators. To date more than 100 CSSs have been certified. The programme also provides access to technical specialists, and customized training sessions.

  Additional training programmes, educational events and tools have been developed, including the CSS Center which helps CSSs manage hundreds or thousands of associated merchant accounts efficiently.

  We look forward to continuing to invest in and support the growth of Comparison Shopping Services in Europe, and to ensure that our users can continue to find the most relevant offers and answers.

  
  
  https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/shopping-ads-support-jobs-and-business-growth-europe/
• 

  Empathy and trust: How 3 women influence Google products
  • sorangutan  

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  This Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating Googlers who contribute to products and features that people rely on each day. Last week we heard from women working on our crisis hotlines and Street View. Today, we hear from three more Googlers about how they build products — like Maps, Google Assistant and Google News — with safety, empathy and collaboration in mind.

  Making the internet safer for women

  What do you love most about building at Google?

  Few companies in the world have the level of impact that Google does. When I tell people I work on Google Maps, they tell me how much they love Maps and how it’s a part of their everyday life. That’s the best part of doing this job!

  What is the best career advice another woman has given you?

  I had a lot of self-doubt and uncertainty about returning to work after my daughter was born. During that period, my mother encouraged me to think beyond the initial anxiety and adapt to my new way of life as a working mother. Her simple advice was to take a long-term view of my life and happiness and make decisions based on that.

  Why is it important to moderate things like reviews on Google Maps?

  Women-owned businesses often face threats of trolling, shaming and digital sabotage through fake reviews and other malicious practices. To make Google Maps universally safe and trusted — especially for women — we must constantly invest in fighting abuse and misinformation.

  Bringing empathy to technology

  What’s early career advice you’ve gotten from another woman?

  When women don’t meet every qualification on a job description, they often assume they’re not qualified for the job. A friend gave me the advice to believe in my capabilities and tell the story of what made me qualified in the moment, instead of assuming that I needed to do more or be more. It’s a mindset shift that’s allowed me to stretch and grow in unexpected ways.

  When you create experiences with this in mind, it keeps you focused on being of service to people as opposed to being of service to goals or ideas.

  Your work focuses on making the Assistant more empathetic. Why is empathy an important part of the user experience?

  Empathy is an important part of the human experience. We need each other, and we all want to feel understood and cared for. When you create experiences with this in mind, it keeps you focused on being of service to people as opposed to being of service to goals or ideas.

  Other than Google Assistant, what’s your favorite Google product or feature?

  I’d be lost without Maps.

  Collaborating across perspectives

  How have your experiences impacted the way you build products?

  Before joining Google, I’ve felt at times that my voice wasn’t heard; this led me to approach my current role with empathy and curiosity. I have a strong desire to deeply understand and incorporate a wide array of perspectives — from considering the needs of people using Google News to collaborating with others internally to create different ways to deliver essential news through the app. I believe this helps us build more inclusive experiences for people with a wide range of circumstances and needs.

  Making sure everyone has equal access to this essential information empowers everyone, including women, and fuels a well-functioning society.

  Why is it important for women to access quality news and information?

  Everyone needs to be able to access reliable and authoritative news to make informed decisions, engage in their local community, have conversations with friends and family, and stay safe. Making sure everyone has equal access to this essential information empowers everyone, including women, and fuels a well-functioning society.

  
  
  https://blog.google/inside-google/googlers/empathy-and-trust-how-3-women-influence-google-products/
• 

  Meet 3 Black women pushing for inclusivity in tech
  • sorangutan  

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  “When you think about the technologies we use all the time and how few of them are designed to consider an identity like mine — Black people or women — it makes us question how much technology is made for us, with our needs in mind, to protect us, to consider us,” says Ashley Jane Lewis.

  Ashley is a creative technologist who focuses on finding ways that science and tech can better impact underrepresented communities. She’s featured in Women Techmakers Black Women in Tech initiative, which highlights Black women’s leadership in the technology industry.

  We recently took time to talk to three of these leaders to learn more about them and their work: Meet Ashley Jane Lewis, Chanelle Hardy and A.M. Darke.
  

  Ashley Jane Lewis, creative technologist

  10:25

  “Creative technologist” is perhaps a role you’ve never heard of, but an example of Ashley’s work may better explain what she does: Currently, Ashley is using slime mold to raise awareness of society’s structural inequities. That’s right, slime mold. “Slime mold has the capacity to be multicellular in its structure and distributes nourishment equitably,” Ashley explains. “It’s a natural example of how mutual aid positively impacts communities.”

  Through her project, called Slime Tech Lab, Ashley brings actual terrariums of slime mold to schools and organizations that typically don’t have access to science and technology resources. Using a Raspberry Pi, Ashley measures and tracks the slime mold’s movement, and the result is part art piece, part science experiment, part social metaphor. How the slime mold acts can teach us about community cooperation, Ashley explains. “I’ve found that non-Black communities I bring this to have an increase in empathy, and I think it could lead to more thoughtful conversations around topics like immigration and borders.”

  A huge part of Ashley’s workshop centers the goal of offering the Black community science and tech skills coupled with creative speculations on the future through storytelling. “If you live in an environment with no visibility of the way out of an oppressive structure, you have to use your imagination,” she says. “Imagination builds resilience and paints a future you can walk toward as a Black person.”

  Chanelle Hardy, head of civil and human rights at Google

  10:25

  Chanelle Hardy, head of civil and human rights at Google, originally gravitated to public policy after two years of teaching fifth grade in Anacostia with Teach for America. “These incredibly brilliant and talented fifth grade students were inspiring because they embraced and got excited about everything they were exposed to,” she says. “I realized systems impacted the lives and opportunities of my students, and I wanted to understand how those systems worked and be part of designing, developing and improving systems.”

  That interest eventually brought Chanelle to Google. “When I came to Google, it was a tremendous opportunity to be at the forefront of thinking about how tech and innovation could help to solve some of the challenges we face in society. After all, we were thinking about tools, who uses them and how.”

  Chanelle founded the Google Next Gen Policy Leadership Program based on her certainty that there were emerging leaders who didn’t even know their expertise could be valuable in the context of tech policy and social justice. “I knew that just because the world of tech policy isn’t as diverse as it should be, there wasn’t a dearth of talent,” she says. “It was about making connections and bringing people together.”

  A.M. Darke, artist, professor and game designer

  10:25

  “What I actually care about is liberation,” says A.M. Darke, an artist and professor who designed ‘Ye or Nay?, a game that reimagines “Guess Who?” with all Black men, and half the characters are Kanye West. A.M. describes the game as “providing a critical analysis of popular Black men from a position of cultural subjectivity.” A.M. also produced the open source Afro Hair Library, a database with the purpose of creating a wider visual library for Black hair.

  A.M. says she doesn’t take much time to savor accomplishments — she’s always already thinking about the next thing. But when young women and non-binary people share how she’s positively affected them, she feels genuinely moved, happy and grateful. “When what I'm saying and doing is affirming to others, that is something that I really connect with. I'm trying to build a world that didn't exist for me,” she says.

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/developers/meet-3-black-women-pushing-inclusivity-tech/
• 

  The Check Up: helping people live healthier lives
  • sorangutan  

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  My years spent caring for patients at the bedside and in the clinic inspired me to find ways to improve health for them and their communities at scale. That passion eventually brought me to Google where I could help solve the world’s most significant health challenges.

  I joined the company just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. At the time, most people hadn’t heard of “flattening the curve” or “mRNA vaccines.” But what they did know was that they could turn to Google with their questions. The COVID-19 pandemic strengthened our resolve that Google could and should help everyone, everywhere live a healthier life. It also accelerated our company-wide health efforts.

  We embed health into our products to meet people where they are. Our teams apply their expertise and technological strengths and harness the power of partnerships to support our 3Cs – consumers, caregivers and communities around the world.

  Today, we’re hosting our second annual Google Health event, The Check Up. Teams from across the company — including Search, YouTube, Fitbit, Care Studio, Health AI, Cloud and Advanced Technologies and Projects team — will share updates about their latest efforts.

  Among the areas of progress, I’m delighted at the ways our teams are working to support consumers with helpful information and tools throughout their health journeys.

  Making it easier to find and book local care providers in the U.S.

  When people have questions about their health, they often start with the internet to find answers. No matter what people are searching for on Google Search, it's our mission to give high-quality information, exactly when it’s needed.

  The Search team recently released features to help people navigate the complex healthcare system and make more informed decisions, like finding healthcare providers who take their insurance.

  At today's event, Hema Budaraju, who leads our Health and Social Impact work for Search, introduced a feature we’re rolling out that shows the appointment availability for healthcare providers so you can easily book an appointment. Whether you put off your annual check-up, recently moved and need a new doctor, or are looking for a same-day visit to a MinuteClinic at CVS, you might see available appointment dates and times for doctors in your area.

  While we’re still in the early stages of rolling this feature out, we’re working with partners, including MinuteClinic at CVS and other scheduling solution providers. We hope to expand features, functionality and our network of partners so we can make it easier for people to get the care they need.

  

  Helping people in Brazil, India and Japan discover local, authoritative health content on YouTube

  Of all the information channels people turn to for health information, video can be a helpful and powerful way to help people make informed healthcare decisions. People can watch and listen to experts translate complex medical terms and information into simple language and concepts they easily understand, and they can connect with communities experiencing similar conditions and health challenges.

  Dr. Garth Graham talked about YouTube Health’s mission of providing equitable access to authoritative health information that is evidence-based, culturally relevant and engaging. In the past year, YouTube has focused on building partnerships with leading health organizations and public health leaders to increase the volume and visibility of authoritative health content through new features.

  Starting this week in Japan, Brazil and India, YouTube is adding health source information panels on videos to provide context that helps viewers identify videos from authoritative sources, and health content shelves that more effectively highlight videos from these sources when people search for specific health topics. These context cues help people easily navigate and evaluate credible health information.

  Supporting heart health with Fitbit

  In addition to information needs, people use our consumer technologies and tools to support their health and wellness. Fitbit makes it easy and motivating for people to manage their holistic health, from activity and nutrition to sleep and mindfulness. Fitbit co-founder James Park shared how Fitbit believes wearables can have an even greater impact on supporting people with chronic conditions, including heart conditions like atrial fibrillation (AFib).

  In 2020, the team launched the Fitbit Heart Study, with nearly half a million people who use Fitbit. The goal was to test our PPG (Photoplethysmography) AFib algorithm, which passively looks at heart rate data, to alert people to signs of an irregular heart rhythm.

  We presented the study results at the most recent American Heart Association meeting, showing that the algorithm accurately identified undiagnosed AFib 98% of the time. We’ve submitted our algorithm to the FDA for review. This is one of many ways we’re continuing to make health even more accessible.

  Building the future for better health

  These updates are only a slice of what we covered at the event. Check out our Health AI blog post and tune into our event to hear more about ways we are advancing better, more equitable health for everyone.

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/health/check-up-consumer-developments-2022/
• 

  The Check Up: our latest health AI developments
  • sorangutan  

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  Over the years, teams across Google have focused on how technology — specifically artificial intelligence and hardware innovations — can improve access to high-quality, equitable healthcare across the globe.

  Accessing the right healthcare can be challenging depending on where people live and whether local caregivers have specialized equipment or training for tasks like disease screening. To help, Google Health has expanded its research and applications to focus on improving the care clinicians provide and allow care to happen outside hospitals and doctor’s offices.

  Today, at our Google Health event The Check Up, we’re sharing new areas of AI-related research and development and how we’re providing clinicians with easy-to-use tools to help them better care for patients. Here’s a look at some of those updates.

  Smartphone cameras’ potential to protect cardiovascular health and preserve eyesight

  One of our earliest Health AI projects, ARDA, aims to help address screenings for diabetic retinopathy — a complication of diabetes that, if undiagnosed and untreated, can cause blindness.

  Today, we screen 350 patients daily, resulting in close to 100,000 patients screened to date. We recently completed a prospective study with the Thailand national screening program that further shows ARDA is accurate and capable of being deployed safely across multiple regions to support more accessible eye screenings.

  In addition to diabetic eye disease, we’ve previously also shown how photos of eyes’ interiors (or fundus) can reveal cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood sugar and cholesterol levels, with assistance from deep learning. Our recent research tackles detecting diabetes-related diseases from photos of the exterior of the eye, using existing tabletop cameras in clinics. Given the early promising results, we’re looking forward to clinical research with partners, including EyePACS and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH), to investigate if photos from smartphone cameras can help detect diabetes and non-diabetes diseases from external eye photos as well. While this is in the early stages of research and development, our engineers and scientists envision a future where people, with the help of their doctors, can better understand and make decisions about health conditions from their own homes.

  Recording and translating heart sounds with smartphones

  We’ve previously shared how mobile sensors combined with machine learning can democratize health metrics and give people insights into daily health and wellness. Our feature that allows you to measure your heart rate and respiratory rate with your phone’s camera is now available on over 100 models of Android devices, as well as iOS devices. Our manuscript describing the prospective validation study has been accepted for publication.

  Today, we’re sharing a new area of research that explores how a smartphone’s built-in microphones could record heart sounds when placed over the chest. Listening to someone’s heart and lungs with a stethoscope, known as auscultation, is a critical part of a physical exam. It can help clinicians detect heart valve disorders, such as aortic stenosis which is important to detect early. Screening for aortic stenosis typically requires specialized equipment, like a stethoscope or an ultrasound, and an in-person assessment.

  Our latest research investigates whether a smartphone can detect heartbeats and murmurs. We're currently in the early stages of clinical study testing, but we hope that our work can empower people to use the smartphone as an additional tool for accessible health evaluation.

  Partnering with Northwestern Medicine to apply AI to improve maternal health

  Ultrasound is a noninvasive diagnostic imaging method that uses high-frequency sound waves to create real-time pictures or videos of internal organs or other tissues, such as blood vessels and fetuses.

  Research shows that ultrasound is safe for use in prenatal care and effective in identifying issues early in pregnancy. However, more than half of all birthing parents in low-to-middle-income countries don’t receive ultrasounds, in part due to a shortage of expertise in reading ultrasounds. We believe that Google’s expertise in machine learning can help solve this and allow for healthier pregnancies and better outcomes for parents and babies.

  We are working on foundational, open-access research studies that validate the use of AI to help providers conduct ultrasounds and perform assessments. We’re excited to partner with Northwestern Medicine to further develop and test these models to be more generalizable across different levels of experience and technologies. With more automated and accurate evaluations of maternal and fetal health risks, we hope to lower barriers and help people get timely care in the right settings.

  To learn more about the health efforts we shared at The Check Up with Google Health, check out this blog post from our Chief Health Officer Dr. Karen DeSalvo. And stay tuned for more health-related research milestones from us.

  
  
  https://blog.google/technology/health/check-up-ai-developments-2022/
• 

  How we kept information on Maps reliable in 2021
  • sorangutan  

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  In a world that’s constantly changing, it’s important for Google Maps to give you the freshest, most up-to-date information possible — so you can know whether the restaurant down the street from you reopened or if your neighborhood grocery store has curbside pickup. One way we do this is through contributed content.

  Every day we receive around 20 million contributions from people using Maps. Those contributions include everything from updated business hours and phone numbers to photos and reviews. As with any platform that accepts contributed content, we have to stay vigilant in our efforts to fight abuse and make sure this information is accurate. Thanks to a combination of machine learning and human operators, we continue to decrease the amount of content seen on Maps that is fraudulent or abusive – in fact, it’s less than one percent of all the content that is viewed on Maps. Today, we’re sharing more about how we kept irrelevant and offensive information off of Google Maps throughout 2021.

  Read Article

  How reviews on Google Maps work

  A behind-the-scenes look at how we keep the local reviews on Google Maps helpful and reliable.

  Read Article

  Keeping business information reliable

  The world shifted throughout 2021 with the rollout of vaccines, updates to mask mandates, and new COVID variants. Our community of Maps users showed up in full force to update Google Maps with fresh information about their communities. In fact, throughout 2021, their contributions helped us add updated business information, such as a place’s hours of operation or its health and safety protocols, for 30% more businesses than in 2020.

  But sometimes fraudsters try to update business information on Google Business Profiles with abusive edits. In 2021, we blocked more than 100 million of these edits from going live thanks to our continued advancements in machine learning models that improved our ability to catch bot activity and unearth suspicious activity patterns. Here’s a deeper look at the information we removed from Maps:

  • Thanks to advancements in our technology, we identified and removed more than 7 million fake Business Profiles — more than 630,000 of which were reported directly to us.
  • We stopped more than 12 million attempts from bad actors to create fake Business Profiles and nearly 8 million attempts from bad actors to claim Business Profiles that didn’t belong to them.
  • Thanks to continued improvements in our machine learning, our technologies and teams disabled more than 1 million user accounts due to policy-violating activity, such as online vandalism or fraud.

  Verifying photos, videos and reviews on Business Profiles

  As the world reopened throughout 2021, people relied on Google Maps reviews to get the information they needed about places before visiting them — like what health and safety protocols were enforced or if there was outdoor dining and open spaces.

  However, we also saw individuals and groups attempt to use fake reviews as a tactic to hurt local businesses — oftentimes spurred by public attention on differences in opinions. In 2021, to prevent violative content from appearing on Google Business Profiles, we put protections on over 100,000 businesses after detecting suspicious activity and abuse attempts. Here’s what else we did in 2021 in our efforts to keep the content in Google Maps reliable:

  • We blocked or removed more than 95 million policy-violating reviews, over 60,000 of which were taken down due to COVID-related instances.
  • We took down more than 1 million reviews that were reported directly to us.
  • As a result of continued advancements in our machine learning, our technologies and teams blocked or removed more than 190 million photos and 5 million videos that were blurry, low quality, or violated our content policies.

  Local knowledge that our global community contributes is a huge part of what makes Google Maps more than a navigation tool. We’ll continue to invest in keeping this information fresh and reliable so you can discover information about the world around you.

  
  
  https://blog.google/products/maps/how-we-kept-maps-reliable-2021/
• 

  Countering threats from North Korea
  • sorangutan  

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  On February 10, Threat Analysis Group discovered two distinct North Korean government-backed attacker groups exploiting a remote code execution vulnerability in Chrome, CVE-2022-0609. These groups' activity has been publicly tracked as Operation Dream Job and Operation AppleJeus.

  We observed the campaigns targeting U.S. based organizations spanning news media, IT, cryptocurrency and fintech industries. However, other organizations and countries may have been targeted. One of the campaigns has direct infrastructure overlap with a campaign targeting security researchers which we reported on last year. The exploit was patched on February 14, 2022. The earliest evidence we have of this exploit kit being actively deployed is January 4, 2022.

  We suspect that these groups work for the same entity with a shared supply chain, hence the use of the same exploit kit, but each operate with a different mission set and deploy different techniques. It is possible that other North Korean government-backed attackers have access to the same exploit kit.

  In this blog, we will walk through the observed tactics, techniques and procedures, share relevant IOCs and analyze the exploit kit used by the attackers. In line with our current disclosure policy, we are providing these details 30 days after the patch release.

  Campaign targeting news media and IT companies

  The campaign, consistent with Operation Dream Job, targeted over 250 individuals working for 10 different news media, domain registrars, web hosting providers and software vendors. The targets received emails claiming to come from recruiters at Disney, Google and Oracle with fake potential job opportunities. The emails contained links spoofing legitimate job hunting websites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter.

  

  Example of spoofed job hunting websites

  Victims who clicked on the links would be served a hidden iframe that would trigger the exploit kit.

  Attacker-Owned Fake Job Domains:

  • disneycareers[.]net
  • find-dreamjob[.]com
  • indeedus[.]org
  • varietyjob[.]com
  • ziprecruiters[.]org

  Exploitation URLs:

  • https[:]//colasprint[.]com/about/about.asp (legitimate but compromised website)
  • https[:]//varietyjob[.]com/sitemap/sitemap.asp

  Campaign targeting cryptocurrency and Fintech organizations

  Another North Korean group, whose activity has been publicly tracked as Operation AppleJeus, targeted over 85 users in cryptocurrency and fintech industries leveraging the same exploit kit. This included compromising at least two legitimate fintech company websites and hosting hidden iframes to serve the exploit kit to visitors. In other cases, we observed fake websites — already set up to distribute trojanized cryptocurrency applications — hosting iframes and pointing their visitors to the exploit kit.

  

  Attacker-Owned Websites:

  • blockchainnews[.]vip
  • chainnews-star[.]com
  • financialtimes365[.]com
  • fireblocks[.]vip
  • gatexpiring[.]com
  • gbclabs[.]com
  • giantblock[.]org
  • humingbot[.]io
  • onlynova[.]org
  • teenbeanjs[.]com

  Compromised Websites (Feb 7 - Feb 9):

  • www.options-it[.]com
  • www.tradingtechnologies[.]com

  Exploitation URLs:

  • https[:]//financialtimes365[.]com/user/finance.asp
  • https[:]//gatexpiring[.]com/gate/index.asp
  • https[:]//humingbot[.]io/cdn/js.asp
  • https[:]//teenbeanjs[.]com/cloud/javascript.asp

  Exploit kit overview

  The attackers made use of an exploit kit that contained multiple stages and components in order to exploit targeted users. The attackers placed links to the exploit kit within hidden iframes, which they embedded on both websites they owned as well as some websites they compromised.

  The kit initially serves some heavily obfuscated javascript used to fingerprint the target system. This script collected all available client information such as the user-agent, resolution, etc. and then sent it back to the exploitation server. If a set of unknown requirements were met, the client would be served a Chrome RCE exploit and some additional javascript. If the RCE was successful, the javascript would request the next stage referenced within the script as “SBX”, a common acronym for Sandbox Escape. We unfortunately were unable to recover any of the stages that followed the initial RCE.

  Careful to protect their exploits, the attackers deployed multiple safeguards to make it difficult for security teams to recover any of the stages. These safeguards included:

  • Only serving the iframe at specific times, presumably when they knew an intended target would be visiting the site.
  • In some email campaigns the targets received links with unique IDs. This was potentially used to enforce a one-time-click policy for each link and allow the exploit kit to only be served once.
  • The exploit kit would AES encrypt each stage, including the clients’ responses with a session-specific key.
  • Additional stages were not served if the previous stage failed.

  Although we recovered a Chrome RCE, we also found evidence where the attackers specifically checked for visitors using Safari on MacOS or Firefox (on any OS), and directed them to specific links on known exploitation servers. We did not recover any responses from those URLs.

  Example Exploit Kit:

  • 03a41d29e3c9763093aca13f1cc8bcc41b201a6839c381aaaccf891204335685

  The attackers made multiple attempts to use the exploit days after the vulnerability was patched on February 14, which stresses the importance of applying security updates as they become available.
  

  Protecting Our Users

  As part of our efforts to combat serious threat actors, we use results of our research to improve the safety and security of our products. Upon discovery, all identified websites and domains were added to Safe Browsing to protect users from further exploitation. We also sent all targeted Gmail and Workspace users government-backed attacker alerts notifying them of the activity. We encourage any potential targets to enable Enhanced Safe Browsing for Chrome and ensure that all devices are updated.

  TAG is committed to sharing our findings as a way of raising awareness with the security community, and with companies and individuals that might have been targeted or suffered from these activities. We hope that improved understanding of the tactics and techniques will enhance threat hunting capability and lead to stronger user protections across industry.

  
  
  https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/countering-threats-north-korea/