Avast Ends Access of User Data for Subsidiary Jumpshot
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Avast Ends Access of User Data for Subsidiary Jumpshot | |
| Number | 1036 |
| Broadcast Date | JANUARY 30, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 5:38 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Avast will no longer provide user data to its subsidiary Jumpshot with plans to eventually shut down the venture, Bitmoji TV will launch February 1st on Snapchat, and the U.S. Justice Department Civil Division announces its first two robocall enforcement actions.
Headlines
- The anti-virus company Avast announced that its subsidiary Jumpshot would no longer have access to user data from Avast products, and will eventually be shut down. Jumpshot previously sold this packaged anonymized information to enterprises and marketers. An investigation from Motherboard and PCMag earlier this week found that information was tied to a unique device ID that was anonymized to those clients.
- Bitmoji TV will launch on Snapchat on February 1st. The new offering will have its own Snapchat Show page that users can subscribe to, with new episodes showing up on the discover Page. Content will feature the Bitmoji avatar of users as the protagonist and the last person they interacted with on Snapchat as a co-star, user avatars are silent while friends will be voiced. Shows are designed to be PG-13 rated, with mild violence and bleeped out swearing. Content for the first season was written and directed by Bitmoji co-founder and CEO Ba Blackstock. Snap says that 70% of its 210 million daily active users have created a Bitmoji avatar.
- Jody Hunt, Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Justice Department Civil Division, announced its first-ever enforcement actions against two groups that facilitated hundreds of millions of robocalls per month. The Justice Department is seeking court approval to stop the organizations from operating, which include two Arizona-based companies: TollFreeDeals.com, SIP Retail and their owner-operators, plus New York defendants Global Voicecom, Global Telecommunication Services, KAT Telecom and their owner-operators. The DoJ says the companies serve “gateways” for fraudulent call operators and get paid for facilitating the calls and passing them into the regular U.S. telecommunications network using digital voice over IP technology.
- A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that Apple and Broadcom infringed on Wi-Fi patents from the California Institute of Technology, ordering a total of $1.1 billion in damages. The suit was filed in 2016 with CalTech naming iPhones, iPads, iPods, Apple Watches, and Mac computers as devices including infringing Broadcom components. The damages breakdown to $837.8 million from Apple and $270.2 from Broadcom.
- According to a European Commission proposal seen by Reuters, the European Union is considering the creation of "a single European data space, a genuine single market for data.” The proposal calls for new rules affecting cross-border data use, data interoperability and data standards for industry verticals like manufacturing, the auto industry, healthcare, financial services, agriculture and energy, as well as more open data access to geospatial, environmental and meterological data across companies. It also considers new rules to prevent large online platforms from unilaterally imposing conditions for access and use of data.
- Pinterest announced a new "civic participation" policy, which states the platform will remove any content from users' posts or ads that misleads people about where, when or how to vote. The policy will also crack down on misinformation about the US census, with any hoaxes reported to the U.S. Census Bureau to help debunk them.
- Sources tell The Information that upon acquiring the startup Xnor.AI, Apple decided to terminate a contact it had with the US Department of Defense's Project Maven. Project Maven, also known as the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Function Team, was launched in 2017 to use artificial intelligence for autonomous object recognition on drone video footage.
- Cloud services company Microsoft reported revenue up 14% on the year, net income up 38% on the year and earnings per share of $1.51 beating expectations of $1.32. Digging down, Office 365 Commercial revenue grew 27%, Azure grew 62%, Office Consumer products and cloud services grew by 19% and Dynamics 365 grew 42%. LinkedIn grew 24%. In non-cloud earnings, Surface revenue grew in the single digits and Xbox digital products fell 11% on the year.
- Samsung announced its operating profit for Q4 decreased 34% on the year to 7.16 trillion won ($6 billion USD). Overall for 2019, operating profit was down 52% compared to 2018 and the lowest since 2015. Much of the decline was due to slowing demand for memory, with Samsung's chip division profit down 57% to 3.45 trillion won. Profits were up 66% for Samsung's mobile division to 2.52 trillion won. Overall revenue in Q4 increased 1% to 59.88 trillion won.
- Nintendo announced it had its strongest Switch sales ever in Q3 with 10.81 million units sold. By the end of 2019, 52.48 million Switch units have been sold, making it Nintendo's third best selling console of all time, surpassing the Super Nintendo. Switch sales increased 15% on the year, with Nintendo citing the launch of the Switch Lite and the launch of the console in China for the growth.
Links
| Preceded by: "Apple Reports Record Q1 Revenue" |
Avast Ends Access of User Data for Subsidiary Jumpshot |
Followed by: "The European Parliament Approves Resolution on a Common Charger Standard" |