What went wrong with technology in 2021? Check list

The end-of-year lists mostly bring the greatest hits, but we couldn't help but talk about what went wrong in technology, right? Despite all the advances that were really important so that we could have a more peaceful and trouble-free day, the technology market had some achievements that were not as assertive as the idea seemed on paper.

The name change of Facebook all with Meta, technological failures in the systems of the Federal government do Brazil and even game remaster errors. It's time to know the biggest "balls out" and controversies of this vast universe of technology that happened in 2021.

Use of bots by scalpers

Exchangers are nothing new in the technology market and especially in events that are extremely awaited by the public, but in 2021, these people started using technology to disrupt the market. And so we open our list of what went wrong with technology this year.

Scalpers are using robots that do the entire (bulk) purchase process of tickets and products that are in high demand, so that they can later be sold at a higher price than normal — the well-known premium. This video explains a little about this practice that was one of the technological problems of 2021:

https://youtu.be/s4wOkj7gymw

If you tried to buy tickets for a long-awaited show and/or couldn't get there in time to guarantee that promotion that had an unmissable discount, know that for sure, some scalper made the purchase of this so that the sale is made in marketplaces. In this process, that basic rule is used: the greater the demand, the greater the price a person is willing to pay.

A notable case is the sale of PlayStation 5, whose units quickly disappear from stores as soon as a new batch is put up for sale, and in a short time they appear to be resold with surcharges that can exceed R$ 2.000.

Hacking attacks on Federal Government systems

When we thought that everything had already happened in 2021, on December 10th we were surprised again. A hacker attack that caused the downfall of the Ministry of Health's systems also affected the Connect, where all population vaccination data are recorded. Until today (21), the system is not active and Marcelo Queiroga, Minister of Health, announced that everything should be resolved before Christmas, more specifically on December 22nd.

Other system of Federal government that is still not working is the Electronic Information System (SEI) of Federal police e PRF. So far, it is known that information about police officers in active federal debt has been erased from the system, and there is still no forecast that everything will go back to working as it was before.

Meta

You can imagine so, Mark Zuckerberg was planning to change the name of the company that owns the largest social networks in the world, but the big point is that this happened at a not so suitable time.

Weeks before the name change was announced, accusations that the Facebook was making money from hate speech came to the public. We also learned that Instagram, which is part of the conglomerate Meta, is aware that it can influence the low self-esteem of adolescents, but did nothing about it. There are accusations of racism and misuse of data we provide to the platform. All this puts the Meta on the list of Big Tech Problems of 2021.

In addition to being considered the worst company of 2021 by readers of the Yahoo Finance, who heard the opinion of more than 1.500 people, the name change happened, for many, as a way to take the company's real problems out of focus.

Amazon Web Services taking internet offline

One of the big problems of large companies having a large market share is that in the event of a problem, many services can be unavailable at the same time. the fall by which Facebook, WhatsApp e Social media coordinator passed in September of this year is one of these examples, since all social networks are part of the same conglomerate, the Meta.

Entering the cloud services market, Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division of the Jeff Bezzos, is already responsible for allocating 33% of websites and online services. The big problem is that the operation is not always assertive.

This year there were some service outages, and soon many people were unable to watch the contents of the Netflix, the same happening with those who use Disney +. Who also tried to buy tickets on the website of Ticketmaster had to face the technological failures by which the Amazon Web Services passed on.

The problem here is that leaving everything in the hands of a single company can be the ideal recipe for a major disaster. We hope the server disruption doesn't happen again and the company isn't on our list of what went wrong with the technology next year.

Cryptocurrency Pump and Dump

Can be translated as "inflate and disappear", this practice was being used by several influencers as a way to get money quickly. The scheme works as follows: influencers promote the sale of a new cryptocurrency at low prices, listing several advantages and encouraging the purchase by their followers. When the sales target is reached, the market value of this same cryptocurrency becomes extremely low (it is often zero) and buyers are left empty-handed. Often, what was announced does not even exist.

An example is the game group Clan phase, with the member Kay carrying out the promotion of a cryptocurrency that took the name of SaveTheKids, citing that the amount would be passed on to charity. In fact, it didn't even exist, but when the scam was discovered, it was too late. The good news is that the person who was organizing the coup was expelled, along with other members of the group who were participating in the action.

Round 6 NFT

still talking about pump and dump, a group sold a non-fungible token of Round 6, the famous series of Netflix which was one of the successes of 2021. The creation of a cryptocurrency that could be acquired through the “pay to win” format, where the user needs to buy credits with “real money”. At the time, the unit value became US$ 2.856, before dropping to zero.

There is no clear data on the damage that this may have caused to all the people who purchased the cryptocurrency before it was devalued, but investigations point out that the group made a profit of US$ 3,4 million (about R$ 19,5 million) just with this example about what went wrong in the technology.

The NFT Problem

Despite being valued by artists and even generating profit for them, there are still many problems that need to be resolved in relation to the NFTs. One is art theft, which has become so common in the non-fungible token market that the digital arts site DeviantArt needed to create a tool that allows the creator to find out if their work is being used (and sold) without their permission.

Despite being constantly growing, the NFTs are also heavily criticized by experts due to their huge carbon footprint, generating the known climate change. Also because more energy is needed to be generated, since these assets are allocated on a server.

We are not mentioning that non-fungible tokens have no benefits, but everything is still very closed. Once the bubble bursts, big problems could arise and chances are we'll cite this on our list of what went wrong with technology in 2022.

If you still don't know what NFT is, we explain all about crypto collectibles.

What is NFT, the Crypto-Collectable That's Changing Digital Art

Tesla Bot

Despite all the advances of Tesla in making self-driving cars, we don't always see successes. A model that was presented in August of this year was the Tesla Bot, which can be explained as a humanoid that will be available at some point in the future, using technology from the company's cars Elon Musk as a basis.

The idea seems to be interesting, but it was derided by tech market experts due to its presentation event featuring a person wearing a costume. Everything else seemed like a big party, despite the serious tone of Musk, who was named the 2021 Personality of the Year. Watch:

The concept of the humanoid that uses the system of the cars of the Tesla it is focused on doing all activities considered boring or repetitive for human beings. There is still no exact date for the Tesla Bot reach the market, but its presentation can be cited in our list as a great tech joke in 2021.

Popularization of 5G

IoT gains, faster connections and more benefits. Much has been said about how fifth-generation mobile networks will change our daily lives, but popularization is still taking a slow step, especially in the Latin America. Despite governments hold auctions with companies, the year 2021 only served as a basis for the arrival of 5G to finally happen here.

Fabio Faria, Minister of Communications, says we will see the new networks by July 2022. Meanwhile, operators work with the technology 5G DSS, which takes advantage of the 4G network infrastructure to provide data access with the fifth generation protocol.

The auction of 5G frequencies in Brazil took a long time to happen, and now it depends “only” on companies so that the networks are available to all Brazilians. There are smartphone models with compatibility for these networks on the market, but it is expected that with the growth of networks, this will become even greater.

Harassment and Discrimination at Activision Blizzard

Problems of discrimination in companies are becoming more and more common and this year, it was the turn of the Activision Blizzard to be the protagonist of a scandal. After a two-year investigation, the game developer was sued not only for discrimination, but also for sexual harassment.

Employees were constantly attacked by their alleged co-workers, and several lawsuits to end the harassment were filed by the state of California. About 20 layoffs took place after this complaint.

But was Bobby KotickCEO of Activision Blizzard put the company name on the list of what went wrong with technology in 2021 when it forced Fran Townsend, the company's Chief Compliance Officer, to minimize all allegations in an internal email. Open processes are expected to drive change in the game development industry.

Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition

2021 was not the year we know the long-awaited GTA 6, but Rockstar Games took advantage of the franchise's anniversary to re-release three titles for consoles available on the market through a remaster.

The big problem is that the textures were with several problems and out of the reality of the graphics we have today. The remastered game enters our list of what went wrong with technology precisely because it failed to deliver a job as promised.

Many people who bought the collection for a taste of nostalgia also claimed that too many bugs at the time of release made the games unplayable. THE Rockstar Games publicly apologized, as well as pulled his latest release from the market. We hope not to see the same happening in an upcoming release from the studio.

AirTags for theft

As tracking labels of Apple they had a concept of bringing more security and still helping in the search for objects that were stolen or lost somewhere. But this was left aside when thieves began to use the AirTags in car thefts to Canada, placing the tracking device in the victims' cars to then carry out the theft. The events put the company's products on our list of what went wrong with technology.

Around 5 cases had the same details: a tag that reported the location of the car or any other valuable product, with the theft happening hours later. The company even released an update to allow owners of iPhone knew they were being tracked, but for almost 2 months, users of Android were left unprotected. THE Apple launched a application that reads AirTags on smartphones with Android, the system Google, early December 2021. Still, the app is not able to track AirTags in the background, depending on a user action for tracking. Better late than never, right?

LG's exit from the smartphone market

After many losses and the growth of other brands like realme e Xiaomi, a LG decided to stop manufacturing smartphones and launch new models for this market. The company had been working for 6 years with the mobile division, but in April 2021 everything was interrupted so that the focus was centered on the market for monitors, air conditioning, audio, etc. The company's withdrawal can be cited as a fact of what went wrong with technology in 2021.

In the note released about its exit from the smartphone market, it was mentioned that a loss of US$ 4,1 billion dollars until the end of 2020 had been accumulated due to the company's losses in this sector. Despite its departure from the cell phone market, the LG was responsible for manufacturing 2% of all smartphones in the world until last year.

Sony ends sales in Brazil

Closing our list of everything that went wrong in technology in 2021, let's talk about the exit from Sony in Brazil. In practice, it now means that in order to buy products manufactured by the company, it will be necessary to buy its products outside the country or carry out independent imports, without the company's official support for its products.

A Sony closed its factory which was located in Free Zone de Manaus, as part of what had been announced in 2020. The three main sectors of the company in Tupiniquin lands will no longer receive products: televisions, photo and video cameras and audio equipment. The company will continue selling consoles, which are imported. Warranty and support for products that had been manufactured and sold prior to the announcement remains in effect.

Learning from what went wrong in technology

Companies that are in the technology world will not always present solutions that will be really useful in our daily lives, but the most important thing is that competitors and especially users take this as a learning experience. Even why, mistakes won't do any good if we keep persisting in them, right?

The year 2022 should be marked by many innovations that will be driven by 5G and its expected popularization, as well as many advances that will help us to have an easier day to day without much effort. Among all the things that went wrong in tech in 2021, which one caught your eye the most? tell us Comment!

See also other features

Discover: 22 technologies that will shine next year:

https://www.showmetech.com.br/tecnologias-que-vao-brilhar-em-2022/

Source: PC Mag