There’s been a shake-up; a new world order brought about by the coronavirus that could. It’s a sweeping change felt by all corners of society, and a great equalizer as well, with the disease hitting indiscriminately.

And the tech scene itself is changing with the world.

There are the giants – Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba, the lot of them – making the big money contributions, all welcome and necessary to somehow keep the wheels of modern society turning for now. Even the hardest cynics who sneer at publicized corporate donations, given the circumstances, have to stand down. 

If and when the virus passes, their war efforts will certainly not be forgotten. All controversies and scandals take a backseat for now for there is a bigger threat. The bad joke is that the virus has become a sort of lifesaver for some of these corporations whose reputations had soured. 

In the Philippines, Huawei has offered its AI tech for COVID-19 diagnosis, but in a post-Cambridge Analytica world, we simply can’t be lax in protecting user data. Some groups have made a little noise, asking for more caution regarding these tools. 

Contact tracing data-collecting apps are also in use right now in some parts of the world. In reaction to that, an EU coalition is launching a new set of rules to safeguard the user, even as these users give out their data for the benefit of controlling the disease. 

Just a reminder: Often, it’s hard to imagine what our personal, individual data is really worth. “So, they’ll see a few of my pictures – so what?” But taken as a whole, as population data from which sentiments and leanings could be derived, then it becomes something that could be used to manipulate societal thinking, possibly extending all the way to elections.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter deleted a president’s video and tweets for dangerous coronavirus information. 

New players have also entered: Zoom, Slack, Houseparty, and all these other apps keeping us connected. Well, they’re not new, but now they find themselves pushed – perhaps not as ready as they could’ve been – under the harsh lights of center stage. (READ: 4 programs that let you watch online videos remotely with your friends)

Zoom, in particular, the star of the season, is apparently more flawed than we thought. The past days have been brutal for the publicly listed company as internet sleuths find the holes in its performance. Facebook must be saying, “Now you know how it feels!” (READ: Boom in video chat apps brings out cybercriminals with fake sites, malware)

The crisis truly hasn’t been kind to incompetence, in the tech world and beyond.

Slack, a workplace messaging app, has also seen users surge, and its CEO has been refreshingly forthright, basically saying that they, too, are adjusting to the spike in users, asking users to spare them some patience. (READ: Zooming out: Video chat apps aren't perfect, but we need them anyway)

Internet traffic has been a big deal too, but it seems, it’s mostly in Europe and the US where they’ve been paying close attention to possible spikes and outages. So far in the Philippines, we've seen reduced bitrates for streaming platforms like Netflix and iFlix, to ease the load even before it gets too heavy. PLDT has reported some usage spike, but there doesn’t appear to be problems specific to this. 

And we kind of know there aren’t internet problems because Filipino Twitter hasn’t missed a beat. Every day, Filipino Twitter crowns its Social Media Winner of the Day, spanning the likes of Cat Arambulo-Antonio, Koko Pimentel, Alan Cayetano, Mocha Uson, President Duterte himself, and from out-of-nowhere, a certain Sam Morales. It has been both entertainment, and livid activism-from-home. 

We commend all the young Filipino upstarts too, looking to contribute through innovative implementations of available technology such as these 3 locally made apps. (READ: ENDCoV app tells you if you need testing, features crowdsourced contact tracing)

And as for gadgets? Welp, we kind of need the money for food and rent, right now. 

These are just of course a few ways that the tech scene’s been affected. But as one of the most moneyed and innately innovative sectors in the world, there’s a big moral imperative for them to stay proactive in this crisis. 

– Gelo