The Facebook Container add-on was created by the Mozilla Foundation itself, the company that made Firefox. Installing the add-on on the Firefox browser automatically deletes Facebook cookies and logs, according to the add-on description. Mozilla created the add-on in response to the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal where Facebook user information was reportedly misused for the United States 2016 presidential election.

Every time a user logs on to Facebook, the social media site gets its own blue “container” tab. Everything that happens in this container tab will not be shared to other websites. It essentially becomes a self-contained environment for browsing the Facebook site. On the other hand, all activity within the tab will still get tracked by Facebook. Mozilla warns that advertising networks may still try to match a user’s Facebook activity with regular browsing habits.

Mozilla recognises Facebook as a service people still use and find convenient, so they consider the Facebook Container as a limiting tool to help preserve a user’s privacy while still allowing use of the social media platform.

Due to the isolating nature of the container add-on, some Facebook features integrated in websites such as embedded comments and Like buttons will not work.

Meanwhile, Share buttons on websites would still send Facebook information from the website users shared from. This information could later be used to curate content for the Facebook user.

From this summer, the council will consider how to evacuate residents, and discuss ways to forecast and announce the range and amount of volcanic ash fall and the establishment of ash-related criteria for beginning evacuations.

Since the 3,776-metre Mt Fuji, which straddles Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, took its current form about 3,200 years ago, there are said to have been seven large-scale eruptions.

In the Hoei eruption that occurred on the southeastern flank of Mt Fuji in 1707, volcanic smoke is said to have reached as high as about 20,000 metres and volcanic ash accumulated at a depth of more than 3 metres in areas around the mountain.

It has been recorded that volcanic ash piled up to a depth of more than 10 centimetres in present-day eastern Kanagawa Prefecture, in areas including Yokohama and Sagamihara, and reached about 4 centimeters in areas around central Tokyo.

If a huge amount of volcanic ash falls on modern cities, it could land on electric transmission facilities. Rain could then cause short circuits, which could lead to large-scale blackouts. Since operation of railways, aircraft and vehicles would become difficult, it is highly likely that urban functions would become paralysed.

Some houses could also collapse due to the weight of the ash, and it would become impossible to use water and sewage systems for a long period of time. For these reasons, residents would need to evacuate.

The Japan Meteorological Agency currently issues volcanic ash fall forecasts for mountains including Mt Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture, and Shinmoedake, a volcano that straddles Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures.

However, the agency simply urges residents to refrain from going out or driving a car when 1 millimetre or more of ash is expected, and does not assume a massive amount of ash fall that would require evacuation, as happened with the Hoei eruption.

A council comprising the Cabinet Office and nearby local governments, including Tokyo and three prefectures, created a volcanic hazard map for Mt Fuji, which shows via diagrams areas that could be affected by volcanic stones, lava flows, pyroclastic flows and other things, and calls for evacuation in case of an eruption on Mt Fuji. However, it does not include evacuations in the event of volcanic ash falling.

In the study to be started this summer, the government will ask volcanologists, officials from municipalities in the Tokyo metropolitan area and others to participate, and discuss methods for ash fall forecasts, the handling of forecast information, and measures to be taken by central government bodies, among other issues.

Finally, the government will create criteria for what scale of eruption and ash fall should require evacuations to start.

In the fiscal 2018 budget, the government plans to allocate about Y183 million for promoting volcanic disaster prevention measures, and will use part of the budget for the planned study. The results of the study will be also used for measures for other volcanoes.

“When a volcano that has been inactive for more than 100 years becomes active again, it will lead to a large-scale eruption in several years,” said Toshitsugu Fujii, former chairman of the Volcanic Eruption Prediction Liaison Council and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. “Mt Fuji has been dormant for more than 300 years, and the government should take concrete measures as early as possible.”

Volcanic ash refers to cold fragments of magma each measuring 2 millimetres or less in diametre. It is a hyaline substance, and substances of volcanic gas are attached to it, so it can damage the eyes and throat. If an airplane engine takes in volcanic ash, it gets stuck inside, which sometimes causes the engine to stop. If it rains after volcanic ash falls, the ash becomes solid after drying out, which makes it difficult to dispose of it.

The conservative estimate seems to be gaining an upper hand after an autonomous Uber car killed a woman in the United States last month when she walked her bicycle across the street. It was the world’s first fatal crash involving a self-driving car.

Uber soon suspended its tests of autonomous cars and Japanese automaker Toyota followed suit by halting such testing on public roads in the US. Tests in enclosed grounds continue. Many other tech companies and automakers, including General Motors and Ford, have so far not been disturbed by the accident.

Yet the accident has raised the concerns that the current technology may have many problems to solve, although it is agreed that in the long run autonomous cars will be safer because, unlike people, cars will not grow tired or distracted.

“There is no doubt that ultimately autonomous cars will do a better job than us,” said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association.

“But this accident sounds a timely warning that currently we cannot put all our faith in the technology, and we still need a lot more work to improve and test it.”

In China, internet search giant Baidu has probably the most aggressive campaign regarding autonomous driving. It established its intelligent driving unit in late 2015 and unveiled its Apollo last year, an open platform that is said to help its partners develop their own autonomous driving systems.

According to Baidu, the platform has attracted many Chinese and international partners, including BYD, Ford, Microsoft and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.

Apollo is expected to fully support all four major computing platforms: NVIDIA, Intel, NXP and Renesas this year.

Days before the Uber accident, Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li said fully autonomous vehicles on truly open roads are only three to five years away.

That is a lot sooner than predicted by Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, who said it would only be reality in eight to 10 years and explained that safety should be a top priority.

“I am more optimistic and believe that we might achieve that goal ahead of schedule,” Li said.

His remarks came one month after a fleet of more than 100 vehicles with Baidu’s Apollo system drove themselves across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge as one of the opening episodes in this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala, offering an audience of 1.1 billion a glimpse of its technology.

The vehicles included sedans from BYD, buses from King Long as well as road sweepers and logistics cars from Beijing Idriverplus Technology. With the help of the Apollo system, King Long is scheduled to mass produce autonomous buses that run in designated areas as early as July.

JAC Motors and BAIC Group will each roll out Level 3 self-driving cars featuring the Apollo system in 2019, with Chery Automobile following in 2020.

According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, Level 3 cars can manage most aspects of driving, including monitoring the environment, but the driver must be available to take over at any time.

‘Real autonomy’

Some carmakers are pushing forward their own autonomous vehicle campaigns. Among others, SAIC Motor inked a deal with Intel earlier this year to develop software for self-driving cars. BYD is working on self-driving technologies itself, as well as in cooperation with Baidu.

Yet Zhu Jun, general manager of Shanghai E-propulsion Auto Technology Co, an SAIC Motor subsidiary, does not expect affordable cars with “real autonomy” to drive into daily life within 10 years because of technological issues and costs. “By real autonomy, I mean at least cars at Level 4 or above,” said Zhu.

According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, a Level 4 vehicle can drive itself almost without any human interaction, and a Level 5 vehicle can drive itself without human interaction on any road.

Beijing Electric Vehicle Co has a similar timeline. It plans to finish developing and testing fully autonomous cars before 2025, but said they are unlikely to hit the road in large numbers before 2028.

Those estimates are in line with the view of PwC consultancy subsidiary Strategy&, which predicts that highly or fully autonomous cars will become a reality in daily lives from around 2027.

Policymakers in China are paving the way for development of the technology that is believed to take center stage in future transportation.

Local authorities in Beijing released the country’s first guideline on road tests of autonomous vehicles in December and unveiled a closed testing ground for autonomous cars in February. The 13-hectare facility, composed of up to 100 different road conditions and situations, is the first of its kind nationwide, according to the Beijing Daily newspaper. The capital city is scheduled to open a second, larger one in June.

Developers must pass tests up to 5,000 km in such closed facilities before they can go on to conduct road tests, according to Beijing Electric Vehicle Co.

Currently working on Level 3 autonomous functions, BJEV said it will start testing its model, Lite, in April in the closed facility.

Local authorities in several other cities, including Shanghai and Chongqing, came up with regulations on self-driving car tests, since the country unveiled its ambition.

China expects cars with some autonomous functions to account for half of new vehicles sold by 2020, according to a guideline released by the National Development and Reform Commission in January.

In order to improve and perfect the legal system for self-driving technologies, the government will speed up its drafting of regulations for public road tests of autonomous driving and revise the current road safety regulations “when conditions are mature”, according to the plan.

Progress is made in infrastructure as well. Zhejiang province will finish building China’s first expressway that fully support autonomous driving before 2022, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

Some industry insiders urge players in the segment to take a gradual approach to improve the technology.

Wu Zhixin, vice-president of the China Automotive Technology & Research Center, suggested that companies should first promote widespread use of lower-level functions, like autonomous parking, which is easy to realize in simple scenarios like parking lots.

“If we promote them, then more people will use them. When more people use them, carmakers will have returns on investments so they will have the money to invest further in research and development.”

Yale Zhang, managing director of the Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight, said China may gain a head start in autonomous driving based on a combination of factors.

“In the past two years, we have seen more professionals in artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies, the government is placing a lot of emphasis on it, and Chinese people are open to such new technologies, so it is likely for China to stand out.”

The Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) and the Fintech Association of Japan (FAJ) have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to foster greater fintech cooperation, the two bodies said in a joint statement.

This partnership will be used to raise the profile of the Japanese fintech industry, and promote Singapore as a destination for Japanese businesses within Asia.

It will also see the two associations collaborating on joint projects to support fintech innovation and development, with members benefiting from the exchange of expertise in a bid to nurture global business opportunities.

The signing of the MoU was celebrated with a “friendship evening and sake tasting” at the Money 20/20 conference in Singapore on March 13.

SFA president Chia Hock Lai said the aim of the partnership is to bridge the gap between the fintech communities here and in Japan.

Separately, FAJ vice-chairman Natalie Shiori Fleming said that she looked forward to “growing synergies” through a deeper relationship with the local fintech community.

The partnership comes as the governments in both nations seek to enhance fintech capabilities in their respective countries. The joint statement said that the Financial Services Agency of Japan has updated its legislation to enable established banks and non-bank fintech companies to collaborate.

Last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore established the financial services Industry Transformation Map, outlining fintech innovation as a growth strategy.

Also, data from KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report showed that fintech funding in Singapore reached a record US$229 million (S$300 million) last year. – The Straits Times

Keikyu stations gear up for translation service

Japan’s Hitachi Ltd and Keikyu Corp have jointly developed an automatic translation system for railway station employees in cooperation with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, an agency under the jurisdiction of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.

With more foreigners visiting Japan, station employees will need to increasingly communicate in foreign languages. The new system allows station employees to instantly translate conversations using a tablet device.

Keikyu plans to introduce the system on a trial basis in April at all of its about 70 stations.

It aims to officially launch the system in July.

The system will be equipped with artificial intelligence that instantly translates Japanese into foreign languages, and vice versa, when people speak into the tablet. The translation is displayed on the screen and is also provided in audio form.

The system has become more accurate at translating conversations that are common at train stations. It provides useful translations such as, “Please transfer at Keikyu Kamata Station,” and others for dealing with lost articles. The system can handle English, Chinese and Korean. – The Japan News

The exchange operator said it would invest in blockchain technology startups and firms pursuing areas that can be integrated with blockchain, including data analytics and management, artificial intelligence and financial technology via mergers and acquisitions as well as equity investment.

Dunamu plans to set up a venture capital subsidiary, tentatively named Dunamu & Partners.

It has tapped Lee Kang-jun, the chief investment officer of Dunamu, as the head of the new subsidiary. Lee was previously with McKinsey & Company, Softbank and Seoul-based e-commerce firm Ticketmonster.

“There is high interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain in Korea. And now is a pivotal opportunity for Korea to become the global mecca of blockchain-based technologies,” Dunamu chief executive Song Chi-hyung said in a statement. “Through this investment, we hope to become a foothold for youths who are interested in blockchain technologies to establish and run their own startups.”

Dunamu has already begun to make investments on this front. In February, the Upbit operator together with K Cube Ventures, which has since been renamed Kakao Ventures, invested in Kodebox, a blockchain startup focused on the game industry.

Kodebox is building technologies in the form of “Blockchain as a Service,” or solutions that allow client firms to adopt blockchain systems into their products. The startup is preparing to launch Korea’s first mobile game built on the Ethereum blockchain by the first half of this year.

Dunamu has also invested in Rootone Soft. The startup is preparing to launch a smart wallet service based on blockchain technologies and is headed by Lotiple co-founder Chang Sung-hoon. That location-based service startup was acquired by Kakao in 2010.

Under Kakao, the Upbit exchange operator has been actively pushing for leadership in Korea’s cryptocurrency and blockchain tech ecosystem.

Dunamu announced last week that it had completed the development of Korea’s first cryptocurrency index, the Upbit Crypto Index, with plans to debut it next month.

Similarly, Kakao is planning to soon launch a new subsidiary dedicated to blockchain technologies and other related services, tentatively called Kakao Blockchain.

The upcoming unit will embark on various blockchain projects, and possibly pursue a “reverse initial coin offering,” where established firms raise new capital by launching a new cryptocurrency.

For now, Kakao is reviewing the details of its blockchain business agenda, and plans to make an official announcement in the near future, according to a company spokesperson.