Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 16

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload, Clare McDonald, Brian McKenna and Ryan Priest embark on a particularly anarchic journey to discuss some of the week’s biggest stories in tech.

• Clare talks about her trip to Spain for Cegid Connections, where she spoke to retailers about their use of the retail software provider’s products.
• The team takes a deep dive into the issue of sustainability in the retail industry, spearheaded by the recent announcement of a sustainability partnership between Google Cloud and Stella McCartney.
• Ryan enters the world of beauty vlogging to analyse the meaning of “clout” and the impact one wrong move can make on an influencer’s follower base.
• Ryan also covers defence secretary Gavin Williamson being “cancelled” over the alleged leaking of information from a National Security Council meeting.
• After a lesson in pronunciation, the team talks about the development of Huawei as a company and China as a nation, as well as Donald Trump’s decision to ban adversary technology. Clare struggles to be objective when discussing Trump’s decisions, with recent US headlines in mind.
• Brian leads Clare and Ryan in a discussion about the differing attitudes in the US and the UK about the use of Huawei technology.
• The team briefly discusses the WhatsApp vulnerability, as well as the National Crime Agency’s plea for more cash to tackle cyber crime, leaving Brian to contemplate what percentage of organised crime is down to cyber criminals.