Alexa, What's In My Wallet?

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Alexa, What's In My Wallet?
Number 2709
Broadcast Date MARCH 11, 2016
Episode Length 42:46
Hosts Justin Robert Young
Guests Jaime Ruiz, Eric Geller

Justin Robert Young, Eric Geller and Jaime Ruiz talk FCC, FBI and lots of other security-minded acronyms. Tom Merritt is on assignment!

Guest

Headlines

The US Department of Justice filed a reply to Apple’s motion to vacate an order for Apple to assist the FBI in accessing data on an iPhone 5C. The prosecutors wrote "There is no reason to think that the code Apple writes in compliance with the Order will ever leave Apple’s possession. Nothing in the Order requires Apple to provide that code to the government or to explain to the government how it works.” They also noted that the phone was powered down when recovered and the owner had changed the iCloud password before the FBI obtained it. A hearing is scheduled for March 22.
The US FCC Issued a notice for proposed rule making that would require Internet service providers to get permission before using customer data, like browsing history or location data, to target ads. ISPs could still use anonymized aggregated data without permission. Another provision would require ISPs to notify customers of data breaches within 10 days of its discovery. The proposal is up for a vote March 31st along with the earlier mentioned $9.25 internet broadband subsidy for low income households, followed by a public comment period.
Speaking of the FCC... Ars Technica reports Chinese networking hardware vendor, TP-Link, will block the ability to install open source firmware on its routers sold in the US on and after June 2nd 2016 in order to comply with FCC requirements. In its FAQ TP-Link states “The FCC requires all manufacturers to prevent user[s] from having any direct ability to change RF parameters (frequency limits, output power, country codes, etc.)" Last year the FCC proposed a rule prohibiting the ability for users to alter frequencies, modulation, and power levels of RF equipment to prevent RF interference. TP-Link says it will ship country specific firmware with their products.
In its Q1 2016 progress report Yahoo Chief Architect, Amotz Maimon, announced the company will close Games, Livetext, the BOSS search platform and regional sites Astrology and Maktoob. Games ends March 13th, Livetext and BOSS will close at the end of March and the regional properties will shut down over the coming weeks. Yahoo will focus on its core properties: Mail, Search, Tumblr, News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle.
General Motors will buy San Francisco based self-driving startup Cruise Automation continuing it's forward thinking invested and acquisition strategy. According to the Verge, GM will use the startup’s office as a R&D facility and incorporate Cruise’s technology and personnel to speed up plans to develop and launch self-driving cars. Cruise Automation employees 40 people and launched in 2014. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed Re/Code cited sources saying GM paid a $1 billion for the deal. This follows GM's investment in Lyft and starting their own car sharing service Maven.
The Amazon Echo has learned a new skill - paying your Capital One credit card bill. According to VentureBeat, Alexa-enabled devices will now allow Capital one account holders to access information in checking and savings accounts, and pay credit card bills. Once you set it up, just say, "Alexa, ask Capital One to pay my credit card bill" and other related phrases. No word on whether "Alexa, don't let me use my Capital One card anymore" is an option.
Submitted by stevei0
The Next Web reports that tomorrow Adblock will show its users banner ads to protest online censorship. For 24 hours users will see messages from Edward Snowden, the Russian punk band Pussy Riot and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, as part of the World Day against Cyber Censorship. tl;dr: Adblock will be serving up ads tomorrow.
Remember all those times you said you would pay anything if only you could see a first-run movie from the comfort of your own home? PC World reports that a startup called Screening Room is trying to make that vision an expensive reality. Like $150 dollar set top box + $50 dollars per movie with a 48 hour viewing window and two tickets to see the movie in a theater of their choice. Why the high price? The company is currently in meetings with major studios and theater chains like AMC meaning exhibitors who have been the enemy of deals like this would be getting a cut.
The United States of America has a Chief Information Officer. His name is Tony Scott, and today he released a blog post outlining the Obama Administration's plans to bring open source computing to the US government. Well, semi-open. The request for public comment says "new software developed specifically for or by the Federal Government" would be made for "sharing and re-use across Federal agencies." The plan would also include a pilot program that would result in a portion of that new federally-funded custom code being released to the public.

Discussion

Pick of the Day

Amazon Gift Certificates are a great tool for dealing with pre-loaded debit cards that are often sent out as rebates. On their own, those debit cards are awkward to use and can be frustrating if they're denied at the point of purchase. The companies issuing them know this and count on a percentage not being cashed by the expiration date.

For example, Staples likes to send out these debit cards and my most recent one had a 6-month time limit. So what I do is immediately use the debit card to buy an electronic gift certificate from Amazon, email it to myself, and then redeem it so I have a credit on my Amazon account.

As a Prime subscriber, there's no doubt I'll be able to use the funds on things I want or need. And it doesn't matter much when the balance of the credit gets low as Amazon will automatically apply that first and then ask you to put the rest of the purchase on a credit card.
Submitted by Chris from Sunny St George Utah

Messages

In regards to the name of next Android OS release: It has to be Nutella? Because it couldn't be Nutter Butter​ or even Nerds. But since Google probably isn't going to pull another Kit Kat, I'm calling Nougat for N. It's still made of nuts and doesn't require and weird marketing deals.
Sent by Brian


Just a few words concerning your discussion from yesterday about built in adblockers in browsers.

If browser vendors think about implementing a less controversial form of ad blocking (meaning potentially less threatening for ad providers while still bring a nice marketable feature for their browser), why don't they put in an opt in ad blocker? This could be a ' block the annoying ads on this site' button. That way users wouldn't blanket block all pages with the need to then whitelist certain pages again later. Sure, they would see ads by default. But still they would have a handy and easy to understand tool to block out the bad players with a single click.

I am sure that there is a plugin for that already and naturally the more tech savvy user would want more (things like blocking tracking and finer control). But this would be for the average user out there, who is using the browser as is. They are still the vast majority. And it could be a middle ground that even Google could see implemented in Chrome.
Sent by Arne from Germany

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Preceded by:
"Privacy Badger Don't Care About Tracking Cookies" 		Alexa, What's In My Wallet?
 Followed by:
"Psychological Costs of Notifications"
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