CXTech Week 41 2024 News and Analysis

Oct 11, 2024

The purpose of this CXTech Week 41 2024 newsletter is to highlight, with commentary, some of the news stories in CXTech this week. What is CXTech? The C stands for Connectivity, Communications, Collaboration, Conversation, Customer; X for Experience because that’s what matters; and Tech because the focus is enablers.

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Covered this week:

Remember Elon Musk 🫶💰🚘🚀’s rant on telcos stealing $60M from Twitter using AIT?
TADHack is next weekend, 19-20 October
The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite
People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Remember Elon Musk 🫶💰🚘🚀’s rant on telcos stealing $60M from Twitter using AIT?

Did anything happen to stop AIT? Sadly, no. CPaaS companies can not help themselves was the conclusion of CPaaS meetings.

Google, Meta, Amazon, thousands of brands are robbed by AIT everyday. Its endemic in the industry. Is a serious customer privacy issue. AND MUST BE STOPPED.

Learn about AIT, the personal security risks, and how it can be stopped by independent experts:

ALSO, guess who is making money from robocalling and SMS spam to the tune of $25B per year in the US (source Truecaller)? It’s not just the scammers, it’s the same culprits, CPaaS.

At least T-Mobile appears to be taking a stand with recent moves to protect its customers. Learn more at TADSummit 22-23 Oct, one of the few places where Truth in Telecoms still matters. tadsummit.com.

TADHack is next weekend, 19-20 October

Everything is set for TADHack Global. tadhack.com. The largest and longest running hackathon, focused on programmable communications / telecoms.

Sponsored by Strolid, Inc. (creators of vCon) and TSG Global, Inc., (creators of TNID).

Hackers from around the world hack on important new technologies in programmable communications.

Here is how to submit your hack, and here’s a handy guide to TADHack.

I added the pre-TADHack sessions to the Developer Resources Sections, on the TADHack website.

You can start hacking whenever you like.

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s hacks on 19-20th Oct, good luck! Results will be announced on 21st Oct.

Special mention to our TADHackers in Florida, as hurricane Milton passed through Florida. I’ve heard from a few, but not from everyone. Keeping my fingers crossed.

The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite

The Wall Street Journal first reported Friday last week that a Chinese government hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon broke into three of the largest U.S. internet providers, including AT&T, Lumen (formerly CenturyLink), and Verizon, to access systems they use for facilitating customer data to law enforcement and governments.

The hacks reportedly may have resulted in the “vast collection of internet traffic” from the telecom and internet giants. CNN and The Washington Post also confirmed the intrusions and that the U.S. government’s investigation is in its early stages.

The wiretap systems, as mandated under a 30-year-old U.S. federal law, are some of the most sensitive in a telecom or internet provider’s network, typically granting a select few employees nearly unfettered access to information about their customers, including their internet traffic and browsing histories.

But for the technologists who have for years sounded the alarm about the security risks of legally required backdoors, news of the compromises are the “told you so” moment they hoped would never come but knew one day would.

Personally, as long as I decide who can access my communication records / data and over what terms, I have no problems. 99.9% is quite boring and filled with swearing. Perhaps we should move to a decentralized model where only the creators can decide?

BT have Teeth, and other YouTube Shorts on AIT

Because BT has teeth, it can enforce a code of conduct. This is a critical point in stopping AIT

Google and Meta are a critical part of any solution, they are both telcos and enterprises.

The embryo of a solution starts to emerge in carriers taking more control within their networks.

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Asier Arranz is now Senior Developer Advocate at NVIDIA. I’ve known Asier since his time with Telefonica 15 years ago. Here’s his pitch at TADSummit 2014, where he won the Oracle prize.

Mitch Lieberman is now with at TELUS Digital – Building platforms and making advanced capabilities available for the Contact Center and the Enterprise; with Generative AI as both the foundation as well as front and center. We first met working on the original vCon whitepaper.

Kevin Mitchell is now Vice President, Marketing & Partners at GOCare.

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