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Essential tech industry news & intel to start your day.
April 21, 2021
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U.S., E.U. Have Intensified Privacy Shield Negotiations. Companies Are Still Warning Investors About It

Nine months after a court decision that nullified Privacy Shield — an agreement between the United States and European Union for companies to securely transfer data across the Atlantic Ocean — impacted companies have been given little consistent guidance about what to do while a new deal is being negotiated so they can avoid fines and regulatory retaliation down the road.

 

 

And that corporate anxiety is now being reflected in SEC filings, with several companies outside of the tech sector — like shopping channel QVC and ViacomCBS Inc. —  including the end of Privacy Shield as a risk factor for the first time in recent months. Read more here from my deep dive into the SEC database and conversations with key privacy experts to learn more about what can be gleaned from this recent trend.

 

Have thoughts, musings, fun stories (or tips) to share? I’m here.

 

Top Stories

  • Lawmakers are expected to grill representatives from Apple Inc. and Google during a Senate antitrust subcommittee hearing regarding the two companies’ app store policies today, with Chairwoman Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) saying in an interview she plans to focus on the fees app developers face in the two stores and alleged self-preferencing practices by the tech giants. (Bloomberg)
  • The European Union proposed legislation that would limit high-risk applications of artificial intelligence such as police use of facial recognition technology in public spaces, ban certain uses or marketing of AI systems and impose a fine of up to 6 percent of a company’s global revenues for severe violations. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • Cybersecurity company FireEye said a group of suspected China-backed hackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in Pulse Connect Secure devices, which several government agencies and companies rely on for secure remote access of their networks. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert saying that it was aware of the “ongoing exploitation,” and Pulse Connect Secure said it expects to have a patch ready early next month. (The Associated Press)
  • The Federal Trade Commission warned in a blog post that companies that sell or use biased artificial intelligence systems could be violating consumer protection laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and called on companies to test their algorithms for bias and rely on complete demographic datasets. (Protocol)
 

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Events Calendar (All Times Local)

 

What Else You Need to Know

General
 

Tesla crash that killed two shines spotlight on company’s shaky history with U.S. safety investigators

Faiz Siddiqui, The Washington Post

Officials said Tesla is not party to a probe into a weekend Model S crash that killed two — a departure from typical protocol and a potential sign of the auto company’s strained relations with investigators. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said Tuesday was investigators’ first full day at the scene of the crash in a Houston suburb, and they were probing the vehicle’s operation and the subsequent fire.

 

Restaurants, delivery apps still at odds as demand grows

Dee-Ann Durbin, The Associated Press

Diners got used to delivery during the pandemic, and the habit may stick long after dining rooms reopen. But restaurants and delivery companies remain uneasy partners, haggling over fees and struggling to make the service profitable for themselves and each other.

 
Antitrust and Competition
 

Discord Ends Deal Talks With Microsoft

Sarah E. Needleman and Cara Lombardo, The Wall Street Journal

Chat startup Discord Inc. has halted talks to sell itself to potential suitors including Microsoft Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, as it resumes interest in a potential initial public offering down the line. Microsoft had been in advanced talks to acquire Discord for at least $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. 

 

With AirTags, Apple launches a new product–and invites antitrust scrutiny

Reed Albergotti, The Washington Post

Apple launched its long-anticipated AirTags Tuesday, a quarter-sized tracking device that is a lightning rod for Apple’s critics and competitors who say the tech giant is abusing its power in the smartphone market. The $29 gadget, Apple’s first new hardware product category in three years, is meant to help iPhone users find lost items.

 

Daily Mail owner files antitrust suit against Google over digital ad market power

Rebecca Klar, The Hill

The parent company of the Daily Mail is suing Google over allegations that the Silicon Valley giant has illegally maintained a monopoly in the digital ad space that has hurt the newspaper’s ad-supported business model, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. The newspaper hit Google over its market power in the digital ad space, and accused the search giant of using its power to “punish publishers that do not submit to its practices.”

 

GOP Faction Wields Antitrust Threats, Echoing Trump’s Populism

Anna Edgerton and David McLaughlin, Bloomberg

Some of Donald Trump’s most fervent congressional allies are turning to a favorite tool of the former president: threatening antitrust action against American companies that cross them politically on voting rights or other controversial issues. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri last week fired what he called an “opening salvo” to an ambitious trust-busting agenda when he introduced legislation to crack down on mergers by large corporations and give antitrust officials more authority to break up dominant companies.

 
Telecom, Wireless and Internet Access
 

Customized agency networks are the ‘real benefit’ of 5G

Dave Nyczepir, FedScoop

Government agencies should model their 5G rollouts after the Department of Defense, which customized its network to meet mission needs rather than making it widely available, according to a National Science Foundation official. NSF similarly has invested in foundational 5G research for the last decade and started the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research program in 2016 to provide researchers with city-scale testbeds for such customizations, said Thyaga Nandagopal, deputy division director with NSF.

 
Mobile Technology
 

U.S. Faces Security ‘Crisis’ on Chips, Commerce Secretary Says

John Fitzpatrick, Bloomberg

The U.S. faces a national security “crisis” due to its lack of semiconductor production, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told senators in a hearing on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan. “It is not an exaggeration to say at the moment that we have a crisis in our supply chain,” Raimondo said Tuesday, calling the production deficiencies “a national security risk and an economic security risk.”

 

Wisconsin amends Foxconn’s contract to reflect radically smaller project

Josh Dzieza, The Verge

After more than three years of grandiose promises and missed deadlines, Foxconn and Wisconsin have agreed to amend their contract to reflect the reality of a much-diminished project. Under the amendment, which was approved by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) today, the company will receive vastly smaller tax subsidies in exchange for greater flexibility about what business it ultimately pursues in the state.

 
Cybersecurity and Privacy
 

Biden administration unveils plan to defend electric sector from cyberattacks

Shannon Vavra, CyberScoop

The Biden administration is buckling down on cyber threats to U.S. power infrastructure. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced a 100-day plan to help shore up the U.S. electric power system against cyber threats Tuesday.

 

Apple will start enforcing the iPhone privacy change that Facebook is worried about next week

Kif Leswing, CNBC

The next major update to the iPhone operating system, iOS 14.5, will be released “next week,” Apple said on Tuesday. The detail was slipped into new product announcements Apple made on Tuesday. iOS 14.5 has a lot of new features, but the one that’s being most closely watched is called ATT, or App Tracking Transparency.

 

FTC commissioners agree they should act to protect consumer privacy if Congress doesn’t

Lauren Feiner, CNBC

A Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday revealed several areas of common ground among the four sitting Federal Trade Commissioners, who are evenly split along party lines. The agency is awaiting the confirmation of a fifth commissioner to fill out its slate — the confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden’s nominee Lina Khan will take place on Wednesday — but it’s clear there are several areas in which the FTC does not need a tie-breaking vote.

 

Apple Targeted in $50 Million Ransomware Hack of Supplier Quanta

Kartikay Mehrotra, Bloomberg

As Apple Inc. was revealing its newest line of iPads and flashy new iMacs on Tuesday, one of its primary suppliers was enduring a ransomware attack from a Russian operator claiming to have stolen blueprints of the U.S. company’s latest products. The ransomware group REvil, also known as Sodinokibi, published a blog on its darkweb site early on Tuesday in which it claimed to have infiltrated the computer network of Quanta Computer Inc.

 

Tool Links Email Addresses to Facebook Accounts in Bulk

Joseph Cox, Motherboard

A tool lets a user see which email address is linked to a Facebook account even if the Facebook user didn’t publicly advertise their address, according to a video sent to various researchers and Motherboard. The news presents another significant privacy issue for Facebook, which is continuing to face a series of data leaks around phone numbers and other data.

 

Feds Track Down Capitol Rioter With Facial Recognition Hit On His Girlfriend’s Instagram

Ryan J. Reilly, HuffPost

Federal authorities arrested a suspect in the U.S. Capitol riot in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, on Tuesday after they used facial recognition programs to find an image of him on his girlfriend’s Instagram page. Stephen Chase Randolph, federal authorities say, knocked over a U.S. Capitol Police officer manning the barriers at the building, “causing [Officer-1]’s head to hit the stairs behind her, resulting in a loss of consciousness.”

 
Social Media and Content Moderation
 

Instagram launches tools to filter out abusive DMs based on keywords and emojis, and to block people, even on new accounts 

Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch

Facebook and its family of apps have long grappled with the issue of how to better manage — and eradicate — bullying and other harassment on its platform, turning both to algorithms and humans in its efforts to tackle the problem better. In the latest development, today, Instagram is announcing some new tools of its own.

 
Tech Workforce
 

The rise of the independent worker: Why everyone wants to work in the gig economy now

S. Mitra Kalita, Fortune

It took a pandemic but the side hustle finally got promoted… into the C suite. Even before COVID, independent workers were a growing part of the U.S. workforce; by one pre-pandemic estimate, more than a third of workers were involved in the gig economy. In 2020, their wages and participation grew 33%.

 
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
 

Congress Should Open the App Store to Competition

Meghan DiMuzio (Executive Director, Coalition for App Fairness), Morning Consult

Smartphones have evolved into something so much more than, well, a phone. Thanks to the ingenuity and leadership of app developers around the world, we use our mobile devices in almost every aspect of our lives.

 

NIST Needs Help To Improve Face Recognition Vendor Tests

Omid Ghaffari-Tabrizi (Director of Cloud Policy, Internet Association) and Alexandra McLeod (Legal and Policy Counsel, Internet Association), Morning Consult

At the heart of the U.S. technology industry, the Department of Commerce plays a crucial role in the development of reliable technology through the team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is especially true for emerging technologies that lack recognized standards.

 

Tech in the Post-Pandemic World

Kara Swisher, The New York Times

The freaky video of the New York Police Department’s robot dog owned the internet earlier this month. The minute that DigiDog creepily trotted out of a public housing building, many people decided that the “Terminator” future had arrived — and that humanity was doomed.

 
Morning Consult