Week in Review for the Week of 2/4/19
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| Week in Review for the Week of 2/4/19 | |
| Number | 747 |
| Broadcast Date | FEBRUARY 9, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 4:10 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Jeff Bezos posts about AMI’s compromising photos, a trio of stories about Facebook Messenger, and Apple warns devs about screen recording.
Headlines
- On Thursday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos posted on Medium that AMI, which publishes the National Enquirer, told him it would publish embarrassing photos of him if he did not publicly state that the Enquirer's coverage was not politically motivated. Instead of doing that, Bezos posted two emails from the Enquirer. One was from Howard Dylan, Chief Content Officer at AMI, describing the photos it had of Bezos and a woman named Lauren Sanchez, whom Bezos is said to have an affair with. A separate email from AMI Deputy General Counsel Jon Fine proposed terms wherein Bezos would publicly affirm there was no political connection to AMI's coverage, and AMI would agree not to publish texts and photos. Bezos' private security consultant Gavin de Becker believes the leak of the images was politically motivated. In response to Bezo's post, AMI says it believes it acted lawfully but its Board has begun an investigation.
- TechCrunch reports that many iOS apps use services like Glassbox that record the screen when customers use the apps in order to replay them to observe interactions in order to improve the interface. Mobile expert the App Analyst recently discovered that Air Canada's iOS app wasn't properly masking these recordings, meaning personal info like passport and credit card numbers were being sent in the recordings. Apple subsequently told TechCrunch it is informing developers that they must properly disclose the use of screen recording or remove any such functionality.
- Sources tell Axios that Facebook is building unified messaging for businesses so they can access and manage Instagram Direct Messages alongside messages in Facebook Messenger itself. The report echos a similar story from the New York Times last week that Facebook was also unifying their backend consumer messaging products. Facebook also updated Messenger to allow users to delete messages from a conversation after sending for up to 10 minutes. The feature rolled out to Android and iOS users this week. Germany's Federal Cartel Office has told Facebook it cannot combine information from Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook without getting voluntary consent from the user. Facebook must also get voluntary consent in order to combine information from third parties with Facebook data. A check box to agree to all terms would not be sufficient. Facebook has a month to challenge the ruling.
- Google Fiber announced they will be ending service in Louisville, KY and will not charge for their final two months of service for subscribers. The announcement blames the departure on a faulty infrastructure decision to place their lines in shallow trenches which have proved unreliable and would require another full reinstallation.
- German ministers meet as U.S. urges Huawei exclusion: sources
- Huawei offers to build cyber security center in Poland
- Reuters reports that according to sources, German Ministers and telecom operators discussed Wednesday whether to keep Huawei out of the market to build 5G service in Germany. The sources say no consensus has been reached but a decision could come next week.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that Captain Marvel will be the first Marvel movie to come to Disney+ exclusively instead of to another streaming service. Disney has ordered ten episodes of "Diary of a Female President" from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend writer Ilana Peña. It will be produced by CBS TV Studios for Disney+. Iger also said Disney intends to take Hulu international once it becomes the majority owner after its acquisition of the majority of Fox is complete. Iger said FX will output content to Hulu.
- Spotify announced it has acquired podcasting company Gimlet and podcasting mobile platform Anchor. The company also updated their Terms of Service to explicitly ban ad blocking on the service. According to the new terms, “circumventing or blocking advertisements in the Spotify Service" can result in either immediate termination or suspension of service. The new TOS goes into effect March 1st.
- Sprint filed a lawsuit against AT&T in the Southern District of New York, claiming the company's use of 5G Evolution on phones was false advertising and damages the reputation of 5G standards. The complaint cited a survey commission by Sprint that found 54% of consumers thought 5GE was equivalent or better than 5G. The suit seeks an injunction preventing AT&T from using the term on phones or in advertising.
Links
| Preceded by: "Fintech Firms Flock to Lithuania" |
Week in Review for the Week of 2/4/19 |
Followed by: "President Trump Signs the American AI Initiative" |