🏛 Losing the news

Meta and California are in a standoff over your newsfeed

June 1, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE 🗣 Amazon faces hefty FTC fine over children's privacy violations 📰 Facebook, Instagram may lose news in California if bill passes 🥽 Apple expected to launch its mixed-reality headset next week

UP FIRST Amazon faces hefty FTC fine over Alexa and Ring privacy violations The tech giant will pay just over $30 million to settle two cases Amazon has agreed to pay $30.8 million over alleged privacy violations related to its Alexa digital voice assistant and Ring smart doorbell.   In the case involving Alexa, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Amazon of violating children's privacy rights by keeping recordings of voice interactions with Alexa for years after they were made, along with location history.   Besides paying the FTC $25 million, Amazon will have to delete inactive child accounts along with stored voice recordings and geolocation information and refrain from using the data to train its algorithms.   In a separate case, the FTC accused Amazon's home security camera unit, Ring, of allowing its employees and contractors to access the private videos of customers, and of providing inadequate security safeguards that enabled hackers to take control of some accounts. Amazon has agreed to settle with a payment of $5.8 million.   Responding to both cases, Amazon said: "Our devices and services are built to protect customers' privacy, and to provide customers with control over their experience. While we disagree with the FTC's claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us." Read more

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Facebook and Instagram could soon lose news content in California The state is in a standoff with Meta over a proposed bill Meta is threatening to remove news content from Facebook and Instagram in California if the state passes a new proposal forcing tech firms to pay publishers for carrying news content.   The California Journalism Preservation Act would take a portion of the advertising profits that platforms make from distributing news articles, NPR reported. The collected funds would then be shared among local news organizations, many of which have seen their ad revenue plummet in the digital age.   The bill's sponsor said that more than 100 California news organizations have gone under in the past decade, so the funds are vital to support those that remain in business.   But Meta is pushing back, saying that if the law passes, it will be "forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers."   It added that the bill "fails to recognize that publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves and that substantial consolidation in California's local news industry came over 15 years ago, well before Facebook was widely used."   Meta faced similar action in Australia, while Canada and New Zealand are also considering similar laws to support local news outlets. Read more

COMING UP Apple just days from expected launch of its first mixed-reality headset It'll be the company's first new product line since 2015 Apple is just days away from the likely unveiling of its first-ever mixed-reality headset.   The big reveal is expected to come during the keynote address on the first day of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.   Apple has been working on the headset for years, with a slew of leaks over that time giving commentators some idea of what to expect.   The latest of these came just this week when renowned Apple leaker Ross Young claimed that the device – possibly called the Reality Pro – will contain two 4K-resolution displays as part of 1.41-inch Micro OLED screens.   To function effectively as both an augmented- and virtual-reality device, the headset could contain as many as 15 cameras, eight for AR, one for environmental detection, and six for "innovative biometrics," according to another reliable leaker.   It won't come cheap though, with forecasts pegging it at around $2,000, though some tipsters suggest a more affordable version with fewer features could come later.   Apple has much riding on the headset, a device that, when it finally shows up, will mark its first new product line since the arrival of the Apple Watch eight years ago. Read more

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