Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 07/11 - Bird In Trouble Or Turning The Corner?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme ride home for Thursday, July 11th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Apple quietly brings the hammer down on Zoom's hidden web server. Apple also turns off walkie-talkie in order to fix it. Google Assistant is listening in on you as well. Amazon Music as a streaming dark horse. And dang, is Bird losing a lot of money? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Apple has pushed a silent Mac update to remove the hidden web. server in the Zoom app that would let websites add a user to a video call without their permission. What is a silent Mac update? Glad you asked. Quoting TechCrunch, Apple said the update does not

Starting point is 00:01:20 require any user interaction and is deployed automatically. Apple often pushes silent signature updates to Macs to thwart known malware, similar to an anti-malware service, but it's rare for Apple to take action publicly against a known or popular app. The company said it pushed the update to protect users from the risks posed by the exposed web server. Zoom spokesperson Priscilla McCarthy told TechCrunch, quote, we're happy to have worked with Apple on testing this update. We expect the web server issue to be resolved today. We appreciate our users' patience as we continue to work through addressing their concerns, end quote.

Starting point is 00:01:59 Yeah, on that last bit, I'm sure you worked with Apple on this update. I'm sure Apple is totes thrilled with you guys right now. I'm sure Apple just loves to have to push a fully nuclear software update because one software vendor in particular has done something shady. Should be noted that Zoom did in fact release its own patch to its software on Tuesday after initially saying it wouldn't. Quote, late Monday evening, the company published an extensive statement defending the practice and addressing other bugs found by security researcher Jonathan Leitzsch. But it declined to fully address the concern that, an attacker could distribute a malicious Zoom call URL, trick users into clicking it, and then open a channel to their lives when their webcam automatically activated. Zoom originally said that it would

Starting point is 00:02:47 just adjust the settings by which a user chose to launch video by default with every call. That proposed tweak did little to Molify critics who pointed to Zoom's casual use of a local web server on Mac computers. That feature allowed Mac users to join meetings seamlessly, but potentially created the risk of remote code executive attacks and circumvented a safari feature that exists precisely to expand privacy protections, end quote. It should also be noted. A lot of people were like, Apple can do silent software updates that users don't even have to lift a finger for. As John Gales tweeted, hidden self-updating software does silent update to eliminate other hidden self-updating software. Privacy wins.

Starting point is 00:03:33 But hey, Apple security has apparently had a busy 72 hours or so because Apple says it is also temporarily disabling the Apple Watch walkie-talkie app due to a vulnerability that Apple found which would allow someone to listen in to another person's iPhone. Apple apologized for the bug and said the walkie-talkie feature will remain unavailable until the company can find a fix. Quoting TechCrunch, the walkie-talkie app on Apple Watch allows two users who have accepted in. invite from each other to receive audio chats via a push-to-talk interface reminiscent of the PTT buttons on older cell phones. A statement from Apple reads this, quote, We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the walkie-talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and we'll restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not

Starting point is 00:04:29 aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously. We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer's iPhone without consent. We apologize again for this issue and the inconvenience, end quote. Belgian public broadcaster VRT obtained more than 1,000 Google Assistant audio clips from, quote, a Google contractor who is part of the workforce that is paid to review audio captured by Google Assistant devices. Some of the recordings were what you would expect. People asking for weather, asking for directions, etc., but, quote,

Starting point is 00:05:20 wired reviewed transcripts of the files shared by VRT, which published a report on its findings Wednesday. In roughly 150 of the recordings, the broadcaster says the assistant appears to have activated incorrectly after mishearing its wake word. Some of those captured fragments of phone calls and private conversations. They include announcements that someone needed the bathroom and what appeared to be discussions on personal topics, including a child's growth rate, how a wound was healing, and someone's love life. Google says it transcribes a fraction of audio from the assistant to improve its automated voice processing technology. Yet the sensitive data in the recordings and instances of Google's algorithms listening in unbidden make some people,

Starting point is 00:05:58 including the worker who shared audio with VRT and some privacy experts, uncomfortable. Privacy scholars say Google's practices may breach the European Union privacy rules known as GDPR introduced last year, which provide special protections for sensitive data such as medical information and require transparency about how personal data is collected and processed. In a statement, a Google spokesperson said the company has launched an investigation because the contractor breached data security policies. The statement said Google uses, quote, language experts around the world to transcribe audio from the company's assistant, but that they only review around 0.2% of all recordings, which are not associated with user accounts.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Google's reviewers may not see account data, but they still get to hear very private information, for example, related to health. Jeff Osluss, a researcher at the Center for IT and IP law at the University of Leuven in Belgium, told VRT that means Google's system may not comply with GDPR, which requires explicit consent to collect health data, end quote. You know, they say they only review 0.2% of all recordings,

Starting point is 00:07:01 but that still sums up to a heck of a lot of recordings. And speaking of GDPR, One Trust is a startup which builds tools to help companies navigate things like data protection and privacy policies, things like GDPR and the recent California Consumer Privacy Act. One Trust just announced a $200 million Series A, led by Insight Partners, at a $1.3 billion dollar valuation, quoting TechCrunch.

Starting point is 00:07:36 It's an outside, round for a series A being made at an equally outsized valuation, especially considering that the company is only three years old. But that's because, according to CEO Kabir Barday, of the wide-ranging nature of the issue and one trust's early moves and subsequent pull position in tackling it. Quote, we're talking about an operational overhaul in a company's practices, Barday said in an interview. That requires the right technology and reach to be able to deliver that at a low cost, end quote. Notably, he said that One Trust wasn't actually in search of funding. It's already generating revenue and could have grown off its own balance sheet, although he noted that having

Starting point is 00:08:14 the capitalization and backing sends a signal to the market and in particular to larger organizations of its stability and staying power. Currently, One Trust has around 3,000 customers across 100 countries and 1,000 employees, and the plan will be to continue to expand its reach geographically and to more businesses. Funding will also go towards the company's technology. It already has 50 patents filed and another 50 applications in progress securing its own IP in the area of privacy protection, end quote. When it comes to music streaming, don't sleep on Amazon. According to the Financial Times, Amazon's Music Unlimited service is adding subscribers faster

Starting point is 00:08:55 than rivals such as Spotify and Apple Music, quoting the Financial Times. The number of people subscribing to Amazon Music Unlimited has grown by about 70% in the past year, to people briefed on its performance. In April, Amazon had more than 32 million subscribers to all its music services, including unlimited and prime music. By contrast, Spotify, the world's largest streaming service with 100 million subscribers is growing at about 25% a year. Quote, Amazon is the dark horse in music, said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Media Research. People don't pay as much attention to it as Apple and Spotify, but it's been hugely effective, end quote. The secret to Amazon's maybe success, according to the Financial Times, it's the ubiquity of Amazon's Alexa platform,

Starting point is 00:09:41 which offers Amazon's music streaming services as a default option. Plus, there's the cost factor. Amazon music is $10 a month, but only $8 a month if you're a prime member, and only $4 a month if you only listen on an echo speaker. Another scoop from the information again today, sources are telling it, that e-scooter startup bird lost around $100 million. in the first quarter of this year, on revenue of only about $15 million. And sources are saying that Byrd only has about $100 million in cash left on hand,

Starting point is 00:10:22 even after raising more than $700 million over about 18 months. Quoting from the piece, it's well known that scooter companies struggle in the colder months of the year, but the depth of Byrd's problems hasn't been previously reported. Now the company that unleashed the global scooter craze is trying to raise hundreds of millions of dollars more in venture capital by convincing investors that it has started to turn around, recording what one person familiar with the figures said was double-digit revenue growth each month since February. Prominent in its pitch is previously unreported internal

Starting point is 00:10:54 data obtained by the information that aims to show Byrd's new scooters are durable enough so that each ride makes money. Bird insisted it has turned a corner. It says it has been slashing the cost it has to pay per ride to repair, charge, ensure, and replace its vehicles. That's largely because the vehicles are heavier and made of new types of components that make them more difficult to steal. The progress is renewing optimism among some current investors. The company is projecting solid growth in the summer months when it expects to break even, excluding capital expenditures. Bird has been having conversations with investors about raising more money for several months, people familiar with the matter said. It has told potential investors it wants to raise

Starting point is 00:11:33 $200 million to $300 million more by the end of the summer. The company is seeking to raise at a higher price in its current $2.3 billion post-money valuation, which it attained last summer after less than a year of existence. Since then, when it was able to increase its valuation from $1 billion to $2 billion in just a few weeks between deals, the investment frenzy has cooled, end quote. The SEC has approved the first ever regulated token offering, giving the go-ahead to blockchain startup block stack to offer $28 million in tokens under Regulation A-plus. An alternative, to IPOs, quoting the block. Reg A-plus is a fast-track for smaller companies to publicly raise money

Starting point is 00:12:19 with less strenuous accounting and disclosure standards than a regular initial public offering requires. Even so, Blockstack founder Munib Ali told the Wall Street Journal that the process is still very long and costly since the SEC had to devise a brand-new protocol for token offerings under Reg A-plus, something the regulator had never done before. recent poor performances and fraud concerns surrounding some of the reg a plus IPOs have discouraged NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange from reg Aplus listings. Against this backdrop, having the SEC's approval on a reg a plus token offering may shed light on a new path for blockchain companies to raise funds under regulation, according to Blockstack. Blockstack is a blockchain builder that has raised $47 million through a previous token offering under Reg D, a different provision that does not require SEC approval but is

Starting point is 00:13:09 only limited to accredited investors. In comparison, reg A-plus is open to all companies and individuals adding its value as the financing accelerators for smaller firms. Well, get ready for it because as we vault over the hump of summer, it's getting to be that season again, the prime iPhone rumor season. Part of the fun of the roll-up to a new iPhone event is tracking all the things people are expecting or wanting from a new device and then using those expectations to measure how jazz people actually are when they find out what they're actually getting. Well, good old Ming Chi Kuo is out with a note to investors with some interesting prognostications, but not about this year's upcoming iPhone, but about next years. Quo says the 2020 iPhone will include a smaller

Starting point is 00:13:58 true-depth camera, which would allow Apple to reduce the size of the notch at the top of the screen or maybe even eliminate it, question mark. Also, the rear-facing camera will have a seven-piece lens system. But let's come back to that notch. Again, is the notch on the way out? Bottom line is that Quo says the design of next year's handset will likely change on a fundamental, not incremental level, quoting Apple Insider. Whether the redesign is in some way related to the removal of iPhone's notch is unclear. The report is short on detail and does not specifically state that Quo's note predicts a switch away from the design heralded by the iPhone 10 and carried on with the iPhone 10S and 10R. Considering the current state of technology and recent rumors, a decrease in notch size is

Starting point is 00:14:44 more likely than its outright removal. The company is working on a number of solutions to the notch issue, including camera and optics technology capable of operating under, more accurately through a smartphone's screen. Quote's predictions are more conservative than those of a Credit Suisse analyst referenced in the report. According to the Business Times, Credit Suisse channel checks presented at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai exhibition this week show Apple's screen suppliers are developing full-screen displays without cutouts. Activity, the research firm believes, will lead to a notchless iPhone as soon as next year. By 2021, Apple will ultimately move to an optics-based full-screen fingerprint recognition technology similar to products employed by high-end Android handset makers,

Starting point is 00:15:26 Credit Suisse said. The next iPhone might feature both a next generation, full-screen touch ID solution alongside an underscreen true-depth camera, end quote. That's all for today. Quick reminder, that you should head over to firesidecomf.com slash ride to sign up to join me in Canada at the fireside conference in September. That's firesidecomf.comf.com slash ride. And that's about it today. Actually, not an insanely hot day here. So I think I'm going to try to jog home tonight instead of taking the train. Little mental health break for me for about an hour. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 07/11 - Bird In Trouble Or Turning The Corner?

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