Exposure Notification Express

In April 2020, I wrote about the collaboration between Apple and Google for exposure notification APIs here and here. Earlier this month, I wrote about the adoption of SafePass in Los Angeles and some limitations of smartphone-based contact tracing.

While there are a variety of apps used in different areas of the United States, some of which use Bluetooth and some of which use GPS location tracking as a means for contact tracing, Apple and Google have built a “second generation” of exposure notification API capabilities directly into their operating systems as well. This enables users to receive exposure notifications without having to download an app. This option is referred to as Exposure Notification Express.

With Exposure Notification Express, rather than relying on app developers to write apps, public health authorities can simply provide information to Apple and Google to get things configured. According to MacRumors:

“Public health authorities provide a name, logo, criteria for triggering an exposure notification, and the materials to be presented to users in case of exposure, with Apple and Google using this information to offer an Exposure Notifications System to customers on behalf of the public health authority. Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. will be the first areas to use Exposure Notifications Express. Exposure Notifications Express programs from various areas are interoperable with one another and existing Exposure Notifications apps that have rolled out. Public health authorities can still choose to build their own custom apps instead of using Exposure Notifications Express.”

The following table (click to enlarge) is provided by 9to5Mac and shows which states are using Exposure Notification Express, as of September 22:

To enable Exposure Notification Express on your iOS device, you’ll first need to install iOS 13.7 or later. Then go to Settings > Exposure Notifications and press “Turn on Exposure Notifications”. If your local Public Health Authority has not yet registered with Apple and Google, you can enable Availability Alerts so you’ll be notified when exposure notifications are available in your area.

Hopefully this app-free approach will be an easier opt-in choice for people to make, as compared with relying on people to download apps. After all, the network effect applies here—the more people elect to enable exposure notifications on their smartphones, the better the chance that technology-based solutions will complement the laborious task of contact tracing, and the more likely we will mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and ultimately prevent illness and death.

Influenza Virus Vaccine Package Insert

In my previous post, I discussed the strains of influenza virus that are targeted by this flu season’s vaccine, as well as an overview of the nomenclature behind those strains. Although I like to ask for a physical copy of the package insert to see what strains are included in each year’s vaccine, one can find the exact same information on DailyMed which is the official provider of FDA label information and leverages the Structured Product Labeling (SPL) document markup standard to display drug information.

Since October 31, 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required drug manufacturers to submit documentation about their products in SPL format. Before that, most people looked up drug information in annual hardcopy editions of the Physicians’ Desk Reference (which I have more recently repurposed as a monitor stand). DailyMed also launched in 2005 and displays the contents of SPL documents. Here is the package insert for the flu shot that I received yesterday: FLULAVAL QUADRIVALENT 2020/2021- influenza virus vaccine suspension.

Using this flu vaccine as an example, a structured product label includes standard document sections for Indications and Usage, Dosage and Administration, Dosage Forms and Strengths, and many other categories. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the information on DailyMed is exactly the same as what is printed on the hardcopy of the package insert. The Description section is where I found the 4 strains of influenza virus that are targeted by the 2020/2021 vaccine. Note that this pertains only to the flu vaccine made by this particular manufacturer, and different vaccine manufacturers may put different antigens into their vaccines. Here’s an overview of the flu vaccines and their manufacturers for this season.

The Clinical Studies section describes clinical trials that examined the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. It describes study designs, control groups, infection rates across groups, adverse effects, immunological responses, and much more. This is the scientific evidence showing us that the vaccine works, and just as importantly, that it is safe to administer. Safety is particularly important because unlike most other drugs that are used to treat illnesses, vaccines are given to large populations of healthy individuals to prevent disease, so to ensure that there is a net benefit, the safety profile must be extremely favorable.

Note that there are options to view printer-friendly versions, patient-friendly versions, and versions in PDF and XML. If interested, you can also download the entire set of package insert data for all drugs.

If you want to explore the package insert information for any other drug, just enter the drug name in the search. It understands generic and brand names. Just be aware that the package inserts are based not on ingredients but rather a combination of ingredient and other characteristics such as the dosage (the strength of each unit) and dosage form (e.g., tablet, extended release capsule, rectal suppository) depending on the drug, as this may impact the prescribing information that is contained on each label. Perhaps this will be the topic of a future post.

Influenza Viruses and Vaccines: What’s in a Name?

Yesterday our family got our annual flu shots. Since influenza virus constantly mutates, the influenza virus vaccine varies from year to year. Scientists try to predict which strains of influenza virus will result in the greatest number of cases, and they create vaccines to target those strains.

Out of curiosity, I usually ask the nurse to give me a copy of the package insert. Also referred to as a “drug label” or “FDA label” or other names, the package insert is the document that is created by the drug manufacturer and describes indications, contraindications, dosing, side effects, and other information relevant to the drug. Sometimes nurses refuse to give me the package insert, sometimes they make up excuses (e.g., “We don’t have it”), and sometimes they gladly give me a copy. Yesterday I was given a copy of the package insert for the 2020/2021 influenza virus vaccine:

As you can see, this package insert is quite lengthy, as are most package inserts. And as you could guess, most people don’t read them. But I am not like most people—I do uncommon things like write blog posts (that most people don’t read).

In any case, the reason for my interest in reading the package insert is to find out which strains of influenza virus the vaccine is designed to combat this year. For the 2020-2021 flu season, we are targeting the following 4 influenza virus strains (2 A strains and 2 B strains):

• A/Guangdong-Maonan/SWL1536/2019 (H1N1) CNIC-1909
• A/Hong Kong/2671/2019 (H3N2) NIB-121
• B/Washington/02/2019 (B-Victoria lineage)
• B/Phuket/3073/2013 (B-Yamagata lineage)

I’ll try to explain some of the nomenclature. The “A” and “B” refer to one of the 4 types of influenza virus. Influenza virus A and B viruses are the most common causes of seasonal influenza in humans, and some strains are included in the vaccine as described above. Influenza virus A (but not B) can cause flu pandemics, depending on viral characteristics. Influenza virus C also causes flu in humans, but illnesses are generally mild. Influenza virus D infects cattle but is not thought to cause human illnesses.

Influenza A viruses have 2 surface proteins that are important to characterize: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). There are 18 H subtypes (H1 to H18) and 11 N subtypes (N1 to N11), yielding 198 permutations of H and N proteins, of which 131 combinations have been found in nature.

Influenza B viruses also have H and N surface proteins, but for classification purposes, they are subdivided into one of 2 antigenically distinct lineages: Victoria and Yamagata.

Both influenza A and B viruses can be further subdivided into clades (groups) and sub-clades (sub-groups) based on the genetic codes behind the H surface proteins, and this sub-classification allows us to track which specific viruses are in circulation.

As you can see from the names of the virus strains, there are city names that indicate where the virus was isolate, and there are numbers that indicate the strain of the virus and the year they were isolated. For more information about the nomenclature of influenza viruses, check out this memorandum from the World Health Organization, and click on the free full text link if you want to see a PDF version of the full memorandum.

Because the H1N1 and H3N2 strains of influenza virus A are prevalent, the influenza virus vaccine usually contains antigens that resemble their structures. The vaccine also contains one or two influenza B virus antigens. I hope this sheds some light on what’s in this year’s flu vaccine.

In my next post, I’ll continue this discussion by focusing on the package insert of the influenza virus vaccine.

Texting Barack Obama

According to Barack Obama’s Twitter and Facebook feeds, he is inviting everyone to send him a text message to let him know how you’re doing, what’s on your mind, and how you’re planning on voting this year.

Of course, that’s not his actual personal mobile phone number but rather a number that is used for his account on Community. Community is a social messaging platform that combines social networking and text messaging as a means for celebrities to engage with their followers.

According to this article, “Community offers its leaders (what it calls the notable folks providing a phone number) a walled garden of their own, with a line of communication that bypasses media and trolls, and connects them directly to fans and supporters. It also allows these users to cater their messages by geography and demographic.”

Community offers an online directory of its leaders that can be browsed or searched. Who do you feel like texting today?

Recent LA Area Earthquakes

Last night I was rudely awakened by an earthquake. I previously wrote about the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program website. It presents basic seismic data (intensity and location) and is also packed with many other features (e.g., interactive map, regional information, crowdsourcing of intensity estimation of fatalities and economic losses, aftershock forecasts, and much more).

However, there is another website that is maintained by the City of Los Angeles that profiles recent LA-area earthquakes: https://earthquake.lacity.org. Perhaps the appeal of this site is its simplicity.

In my observation from social media posts, most people talk about 2 obvious pieces of data: seismic intensity and location of the epicenter. Perhaps the simplicity of the site is its main appeal.

The Recent LA Area Earthquakes does provide a slightly different view of earthquake data by presenting the strongest earthquake in the past 24 hours, the number of 1.0+ earthquakes in the past 24 hours, and a table of all 1.0+ earthquakes in the last 24 hours. However, it is done in a clear and concise manner.

Additional resources include links for getting prepared, getting notified, and the ShakeAlertLA app for iOS and Android.

Limitations of Contact Tracing with Smartphones

In my last post, I wrote about a new COVID-19 contact tracing app for residents of Los Angeles. In this post, I’d like to discuss two technological limitations of contact tracing smartphone apps.

The first technological limitation is that of false positives. As discussed in an article by The Brookings Institution, “False positives (reports of exposure when none existed) can arise easily. Individuals may be flagged as having contacted one another despite very low possibility of transmission—such as when the individuals are separated by walls porous enough for a Bluetooth signal to penetrate.”

I believe that this is exactly what happened to me immediately after I installed SafePass. Although I did not receive an exposure notification, SafePass did inform me that I had a Bluetooth contact.

This happened about an hour after I had installed SafePass. I was the only person in our household who installed SafePass, and I hadn’t left home during that time. Therefore, I conclude that SafePass must have detected a Bluetooth signal from one of my 2 neighbors that share (thin) walls with me in our 10-unit condo complex. Had my neighbor contracted COVID-19 and documented it in SafePass, I would have received a false positive exposure notification.

The second technological limitation is a foreground/background issue. That is, contact tracing apps may not work properly unless they are running in the foreground (i.e., the active/visible app). As discussed in this article, iOS apps have limitations when running in the background. While protecting privacy and battery life, iOS also limits the utility of contact tracing apps unless users remember to bring them back to the foreground. On the other hand, Android apps are allowed to operate while they’re not in the foreground; read the article for more details about the rationale for the different behavior on iOS and Android devices. In any case, on iOS devices, apps in the background are put into a suspended state and might look like this in the app switcher:

Apps in a suspended state may still be able to use Bluetooth services is they declare to iOS that they want to do certain things while in the background. However, if another app or iOS itself needs RAM, iOS can terminate suspended apps so that they no longer run at all.

There are lots of variables at play here. Compounding the issue is that I have an old iPhone 6 Plus that has only 1 GB of memory, so suspended apps on my phone are frequently terminated upon launching other apps. Remembering to regularly re-launch SafePass is impractical and unlikely to happen on a consistent basis for most users, even if they understand the foreground/background issues described above.

A potential solution to the iOS foreground/background issue is Exposure Notifications Express which Apple introduced with iOS 13.7. Exposure Notifications Express can provide contact tracing without the need to install a dedicated contact tracing app. However, it must be supported by a public health authority, and users must enable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications in their settings. According to this article, users who opt in will be notified when their local public health authority adopts Exposure Notifications Express.

In conclusion, smartphone-based contact tracing is not a panacea, nor will it replace the labor-intensive work of manual contact tracing. Rather, to put things into perspective, the use of contact tracing apps will be a supplement to a myriad of approaches that we need to implement simultaneously. Those include but are not limited to social distancing, mask wearing, handwashing, sufficient testing, contact tracing (manual and via smartphones), developing effective treatments, and ultimately the administration of safe and effective vaccines.

SafePass: A Contact Tracing App for Los Angeles

I previously wrote about the Apple-Google partnership on a contact tracing infrastructure using bluetooth connections on smartphones, and I provided more detail about how exposure notification is designed to work.

Since then, many regions of the U.S. and around the world have developed their own contact tracing applications, some with the Apple-Google infrastructure, and some with other methods. There are debates about privacy, and some people prefer not to use contact tracing apps for fear that their data will be used for nefarious purposes. While I think there are legitimate privacy concerns, in my opinion the potential benefits of widespread adoption of smartphone-based contact tracing outweighs the risks. Furthermore, we as a nation have not been adapting well to the pandemic, whereas other countries have gotten the virus under control, using contact tracing as part of a multifaceted approach to mitigating both the health, social, and economic effects of the pandemic.

The City of Los Angeles recently announced a partnership with Citizen, the developer of a mobile app called SafePass that provides contact tracing capabilities for smartphone users throughout Los Angeles County. SafePass will allow users to self-report their COVID-19 symptoms and receive exposure notifications and alerts from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. This enables people to get tested following exposure notification and is an important tool that can be used to prevent further spread of COVID-19. Citizen asserts that contact tracing data collected by the app is anonymous, private, encrypted, and deleted after 30 days. If you receive an exposure notification, you will not know who exposed you—you will only know that you were in proximity to someone who later tested positive. Here’s a brief overview of its features:

According to this article, “An Apple rule concerning contact tracing apps forced the company to spin SafePass off into a standalone app. Android users need to download the Citizen app to access the features for now, but the company says a standalone SafePass app will be available in the Play store in the next month.”

I encourage everyone in Los Angeles (and other areas where it has been implemented) to download SafePass and report symptoms. It should only take a minute of your time each day, and it could save lives.

Daytime Running Lights and Drive-In Movies

Daytime running lights (DRL) are more or less a standard safety feature found in most modern passenger vehicles, despite conflicting reports of their impact on safety endpoints as described in this transportation research synthesis in November 2010.

Last weekend our family attended a socially distanced drive-in movie. The temperature was above 100°F as we approached our 8:00 PM showtime, so we were debating whether we should periodically run the air conditioning in our vehicles or just leave the windows down for the duration of the movie. One of the many sensible rules of the drive-in theater was to keep headlights off during the movie. Since my 2019 Honda HR-V is equipped with DRL, and I could not figure out how to disable the lights, we had no choice but to leave the engine off, roll the windows down, and bear the heat for a couple hours. The audio for the movie required us to tune in to a specific FM station, and fortunately I was able to start the engine (which activated DRL), turn on the radio, turn off the engine (to disable DRL), and continue to receive audio through the FM station.

After the fact, I discovered that there is a simple way to disable DRL while the vehicle is running. Simply (1) turn off the vehicle, (2) engage the parking brake, and (3) turn on the vehicle. You may need to make sure you are pressing the brake pedal to engage and disengage the parking brake. Viola, the engine should be running with headlights completely off. I wish I knew this before going to the drive-in movie, but at least I will be prepared for the next one. I don’t know if this same method works for vehicles other than Honda, so give it a try and let me know.

Are You Ready for a Wildfire?

If a wildfire were to start burning in your neighborhood or vicinity, you may be given mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders. Local fire departments may use different terms such as mandatory evacuation and evacuation warning or precautionary and immediate threat. In any case, there are a couple of resources that might help you prepare for a wildfire.

Ready.gov is a website that is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, and there is a page dedicated to wildfires. It provides recommendations for preparation, how to evacuate and survive a wildfire, and what to do after a wildfire to maintain safety. The current recommendations have been modified to account for the double-whammy of dealing with wildfires and COVID-19 at the same time, so so various aspects of social distancing are factored into the recommendations.

Ready for Wildfire is a website maintained by the state of California, under the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). It provides resources for fire prevention, preparedness, evacuation, and returning home. CAL FIRE launched a new Ready for Wildfire web app to help residents prepare for and stay accurately informed about California wildfires. The web app allows you to view CAL FIRE incidents and sign up for text messages about wildfires near you. Read the FAQ for more info.

What’s Your Local Air Quality Index?

Since wildfires are burning across the western states, the air quality has been worse than usual in many parts of California, Oregon, and Washington due to the smoke.

Did you know that there is an air quality index (AQI) that quantifies the amount of pollutants in the air? It runs on a scale from 0 to 500, with higher values representing greater health hazards.

To find out AQI values in your area, visit AirNow which is a website run by the Environmental Protection Agency. There is also a mobile app for Android and iOS. Here’s an example of the current air quality in Los Angeles:

There is also a Fire and Smoke Map that overlays—you guessed it—fires and smoke information on the same map. Here’s a view of the continental United States which gives you an idea of how far-reaching the effects are of the smoke from all the wildfires:

You can drill down to see information for a particular wildfire:

And you can also click on each of the colored dots to view information that has been acquired from a specific air quality sensor.

There is a lot of other information on AirNow, including an option to receive air quality notifications.

LA Times Wildfires Map

Here’s another map of the wildfires burning in California:

Maintained by Casey Miller of the Los Angeles Times, this map provides information about fire origins, fire perimeters, hotspots, mandatory evacuation zones, evacuation warning zones, and air pollution data.

Currently there are 44 fires burning across the state, and for each fire, visitors can see the name of the fire, acres burned, fire duration, percent containment, and of course the location of the fire on the map which is provided by Mapbox.

Stay safe out there.

California Wildfires

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) protects more than 31 million acres of California’s privately-owned wildlands by responding to all types of emergencies. This includes mostly fires but can also include floods, earthquakes, hazardous material spills, automobile accidents, child drownings, and other incidents. A full list of incidents is downloadable in .csv format here.

As the name CAL FIRE implies, most emergencies are related to wildfires. According to CAL FIRE, “Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have burned over 3.1 million acres in California. This year’s acres burned is 26 times higher than the acres burned in 2019 for the same time period.” Given the unprecedented impact of wildfires across California, I thought it would be useful to share a current map of incidents across California.

After navigating to an incident, you can view summary information such as this:

And depending on the impact of the incident, you may be able to view information related to damages and losses:

…and resources assigned:

Of noteworthy mention, the Resources page provides links to county-specific fire department websites where you may be able to obtain more information about fires in your county.

Video Conversion Hack

Let’s say that you need to convert a video from one format to another (e.g., for playback compatibility) or scale down the resolution to reduce the file size. There are video converters that you can buy for both Mac and Windows platforms to get the job done. You could also load the video into a video editor (e.g., iMovie or Final Cut Pro for Mac; various options on Windows) and then export with the desired format and resolution.

However, did you know that there is an unconventional option that also works pretty well and is completely free? All you have to do is upload the video to YouTube (free) and download it with 4K Video Downloader (also free). Let’s discuss these 2 steps in more detail.

Step 1: Upload the video to YouTube. Every video that is uploaded to YouTube is automatically processed upon completion of the upload. During processing, YouTube compresses the video and creates multiple versions of the video in different resolutions (e.g., 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, and 4K). This is because depending on the device and bandwidth, YouTube selects the best possible resolution to provide the viewer with an uninterrupted video stream. The YouTube System Requirements help page provides recommended sustained internet speeds for each video resolution. In my experience, the processing occurs rather quickly, with 360p and 480p versions most readily available, and higher resolutions taking several minutes or even hours, depending on the length of the video. Some users have reported extended delays, but generally the process is fairly quick. YouTube will not create a video in a resolution that is higher than the original video, but it will create a compressed version of the video at the same resolution. For example, if you upload a 1080p video that is 100 MB, after YouTube compression, the processed 1080p file might be only 50 MB—this obviously cuts down on bandwidth requirements. So essentially YouTube is doing the video compression and conversion for you with every upload.

Step 2: Download the video from YouTube. Now that there are multiple versions of your video on YouTube servers, all you need to do is download the one you want. I’ve previously discussed some of the benefits of 4K Video Downloader which is my go-to choice for downloading YouTube videos, so I’ll discuss this in a little more detail (but note that there may be other applications that work equally well). Simply paste the YouTube video link into 4K Video Downloader. If you have Smart Mode enabled, the app will download the video in the format and quality that you specify. If you disable Smart Mode, you’ll be presented with choices such as these:

Note that there are versions for different resolutions as well as video formats. And if your video was created in a high frame rates (e.g., 60 fps), you may see options for lower frame rates as well. Simply pick the video that you want, and in a few moments you’ll have your converted video. Viola!

Note that YouTube does provide recommended upload encoding settings which include an MP4 container, AAC audio codec, H.264 video codec, a common frame rate (e.g., 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, or 60 fps), a 16:9 aspect ratio, and various recommended bitrates. However, it is capable of handling a wide spectrum of other encodings beyond these recommendations. For example, I just converted a video using the approach described above, and here are the before-and-after encodings as displayed in VLC media player:

Original video, .mov container, 1.63 GB

Processed YouTube video, .mp4 container, 33.6 MB

As you can see, YouTube converted Apple ProRes 422 Standard to H.264 and preserved the 1280x720 resolution and 30 fps frame rate. I have not seen an official exhaustive list of all encodings that YouTube is capable of handling, but my guess is that their capabilities are broad since they’d want to lower the barrier to entry as much as possible. If you can accept the fact that processed YouTube videos are going to be converted to H.264, perhaps this hack will work well enough for you.

Gmail Downtime and G Suite Status Dashboard

Today I encountered an error when I tried to login to my Gmail account via my Safari browser (version 13.1.2) on my 2016 MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina (version 10.15.6).

I was amused when I clicked on the “Show Detailed Technical Info” link which revealed “Numeric Code: 2”—that does not exactly fit my conception of detailed technical information, so I assume it is just quirky Google humor. There is a Gmail Community discussion thread on the topic with no definitive resolution of the issue. The error message also provides a link to G Suite Status Dashboard. This is what the dashboard looks like:

It is described in more detail in this G Suite Admin Help page. Users can check the current status of core G Suite services, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Meet.

Interestingly, while I’ve had a Gmail account for more than a decade, I am not using G Suite services. I’m not sure if the G Suite Status Dashboard reflects the status of regular Gmail (i.e., not part of G Suite). Based on the indicators above, my guess is that regular Gmail is excluded since the G Suite Status Dashboard was not reporting any service outage or service disruption with Gmail today (although there was service disruption with Google Drive yesterday, 9/8/20).

Another observation was that while I was unable to login to Gmail via Safari, I had no problem accessing Gmail via Chrome just a few seconds after receiving the temporary error in Safari. This occurred 3 times toady, so I wonder if the Gmail folks were tinkering with something that created some kind of incompatibility with Safari browsers. I did not try Firefox or my Gmail iOS app.

Level Up Your Google Searches

Google is a popular search engine because of its simplicity and highly relevant search results. For most searches, I can quickly and easily find what I am looking for, and rarely will I have to scroll to the next page of search results to find what I need. However, there are times when I need to refine my searches in specific ways. Did you know that there are some lesser-known advanced search options available?

The Advanced Search allows you to find pages that match a combination of all words in a list, exact phrases, any words in a list, none of the words in a list, or numbers in a range.

Results in advanced searches can be further restricted by language, region, last update, and other parameters.

There is also an Advanced Image Search that allows you to find images with all words in a list, exact phrases, any words in a list, or none of the words in a list.

Additionally, from the main page at www.google.com, you can specify “command line” search parameters. One of my favorite features is to search within a specific website by putting “site:” in front of a domain. For example, if I was looking for an article that I read in the Los Angeles Times, I could add “site:latimes.com” to my search query to restrict results to pages within that domain.

Another one of my favorites is to find websites that link to a certain URL. For example, if I wanted to find websites that direct the most traffic to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html, I could search for “site:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html”. Interestingly, according to this article, a Google employee recommends not using the “link:” operator. Furthermore, Google’s Refine web searches support page does not list the “link:” operator, but it does provide a bunch of other potentially useful operators to help you refine your search. That being said, I am still able to find modest success with the “link:” operator.

Hope this helps you level up your search game on Google.

Web Privacy and Browser Fingerprinting

Did you know that you can be uniquely identified by websites simply based on your browser configuration? An extensive collection of browser features is known as a “browser fingerprint” and can include things like your web browser name and version, operating system and version, screen resolution, microphone, camera, installed fonts, installed plugins, cookies preferences, Do Not Track preferences, and many other features. All of this can be obtained without the use of cookies or your IP address.

There are legitimate reasons for websites to collect your browser fingerprint. For example, your bank or credit card company might use it to verify that you’re likely to be a legitimate user if you’ve previously authenticated using the same browser in the past. However, the same browser fingerprint can be used to track users across web sites and collect information about their habits and preferences without users knowing about it and consenting to being tracked.

If you’d like to see if your browser has a unique fingerprint, one option is to visit AmIUnique. Keeping in mind that results will vary for each browser on each device, here’s an example of how one of my browsers can be uniquely identified by AmIUnique:

If you scroll down, you’ll see all the browser attributes that are available to most websites, along with a similarity ratio that quantifies how many other visitors during a certain timeframe share the same attribute setting. When you see all the attributes that are exposed to websites, you’ll see how diverse browser fingerprints can be and how it is possible to uniquely identify browsers. You are also given the option to download your browser fingerprint. This yields a .json file which you can open in any text editor.

Another website that examines your browser fingerprint is Panopticlick. Here’s a summary of results:

If you click on the link to show full results, you’ll see all the browser characteristics and the frequency that other browsers have the same setting for each characteristic.

Browsers on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers all have different fingerprints. Note that browser fingerprinting only uniquely identifies the browser that you are using—it does not uniquely identify who you are.

Now that we’ve established that it is possible to track your browser activities even if you disable or delete your browser cookies, you might wonder what you can do to improve your online privacy. While no methods give you complete privacy, one starting point is to install Privacy Badger which is available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera browsers. Other steps to take include installing other browser extensions or to use certain search engines and browsers which are listed here.

In summary, if you’re not already aware that you’ve given up some degree of your privacy just by visiting websites, I’m sorry to burst your bubble. While there are some measures you can take to improve your privacy, there may be a balance you will need to strike between privacy and convenience because making yourself completely private may also thwart legitimate uses of browser fingerprinting. Where will you draw the line?

Precision Medicine Research

The Precision Medicine Initiative was launched in January 2015 and provided funding to the  National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to support research, development, and innovation related to tailoring care to patients based on their genetic profiles.

Precision medicine has been used in practice for quite some time. For example, we know that for certain cancers, lab tests can sometimes help doctors select chemotherapy agents that are more likely to work. We also know that genetic mutations can make some patients poor candidates for certain drugs, and alternative medications should be prescribed instead. The goal of the Precision Medicine Initiative is to accelerate our understanding of how to tailor our therapies for patients based on their genetic information.

A Precision Medicine Initiative Working Group assembled in March 2015 and concluded its work in September 2015 with a report which included recommendations to launch a project to transform the understanding of factors contributing to individual health and disease. That set the stage for the “All of Us” Research Program which launched in May 2018 and seeks to enroll one million people across the U.S. to help build one of the most diverse health databases in history.

This creates more opportunities to:

• Know the risk factors for certain diseases
• Figure out which treatments work best for people of different backgrounds
• Connect people with the right clinical studies for their needs
• Learn how technologies can help us take steps to be healthier

Here’s an overview of how the program works:

You can read more about the program in this article. If you are interested in participating, you can enroll through https://joinallofus.org/ or download a smartphone app for iOS or Android. From there, you’ll be asked to fill out a series of questionnaires about your health, and eventually you may be given the opportunity to complete additional health surveys, use smartphone and sensor devices for data collection, and/or join future studies that could involve in-person visits or biospecimen collections.

A public Data Browser provides interactive views of the publicly available All of Us Research Program participant data. All data are de-identified, meaning that while each individual’s data are pooled into the master database, there should be no personally identifying information that could allow visitors or researchers to trace the data bace to the individual source.

History of uBlock and Ad Blocking on Safari

Shortly after writing my previous post about uBlock, I discovered a few things.

There is a difference between uBlock Origin and uBlock. I had installed uBlock Origin on my Firefox and Chrome browsers, but I got duped into installing uBlock for Safari. This wiki tells the history behind uBlock which was originally developed by Raymond Hill and used community-maintained block lists. Hill then transferred the uBlock project to Chris Aljoudi, forked the code, and continued developing his own version under the name uBlock Origin. Hill’s uBlock Origin continues to use community-maintained block lists, while Aljoudi’s uBlock was acquired by AdBlock and began allowing Acceptable Ads which are basically ads that are not filtered when publishers pay a fee.

The uBlock application (owned by AdBlock) is hosted on https://ublock.org. However, when attempting to download uBlock for Safari, users are redirected to the Mac App Store and then shown an App Not Available message. My guess is that development has been paused or halted entirely. I also noticed that I had been unable to update my filter list on uBlock. Because of this, and because of the for-profit nature of uBlock, I uninstalled it.

Development of uBlock Origin continues to this day, and the source code is available at https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari. On Safari, the preferred installation method is through the extension gallery. However, starting with version 13 of Safari, uBlock Origin no longer works because Safari 13 deprecates legacy extensions. That being said, uBlock Origin should still work on other supported browsers. See this explanation for more information.

Official uBlock Origin logo

So in summary, for browsers other than Safari, uBlock Origin (not uBlock) continues to be a good choice. For Safari 12 and earlier, you should be able to use uBlock Origin by installing it through the extension gallery. For Safari 13, you’ll need to find an alternative ad blocker. Currently I’m testing out AdGuard for Safari, a free ad blocker that is available in the Mac App Store. Maybe I’ll share my experiences with AdGuard in a future post.