Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 09/02 – Now Apple Will Let Apps Acknowledge The Web Exists

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 Tech meme right home for Thursday, September 2nd, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Apple will let Reader apps link to websites to manage accounts for the first time.

Starting point is 00:00:45 WhatsApp faces a record GDPR fine. Twitter continues to at least test all the products and has YouTube music quietly become a major threat to Spotify and Apple music. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Apple is going to let developers of so-called Reader app. links to a website, an outside website, allowing users to set up or manage accounts, early next year, thus closing an antitrust investigation by Japan, quoting in gadget. Apple defines reader apps as those that, quote, provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video, end quote.

Starting point is 00:01:29 As Bloomberg notes, that means the new rule would apply to services like Netflix and Spotify. The tech giant announced the update following. following the conclusion of an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Apple agreed with the commission to let reader app developers add a single link to their website because those developers, quote, do not offer in-app digital goods and services for purchase, end quote. The change will cover all reader apps around the world, but Apple will update its guidelines and review process first before it takes effect. Phil Schiller, the executive in charge of overseeing the app store, said, quote, we have great respect for the Japan Fair Trade Commission and

Starting point is 00:02:05 appreciate the work we've done together, which will help developers of reader apps make it easier for users to set up and manage their apps and services while protecting their privacy and maintaining their trust, end quote. Since the upcoming update doesn't cover games, it won't be able to put an end to Apple's courtroom battle with Epic, end quote. And that's worth noting. Also this. Over at the Verge, Sean Hollister and Sam Bifford argue that allowing web signup links appears to apply only to apps that don't make much money for Apple, apps like, again, Netflix and Spotify, quote. When Apple rejected the Hey Email app, and even after it later modified that controversial decision, the company was very clear that email apps do not count as reader apps. Even if you similarly

Starting point is 00:02:50 subscribe outside of the app and the only thing you can do without an account is sign in. Apple is the one that decides which apps qualify as reader apps to begin with. It also seems like Apple may be slightly redefining what a reader app means. While the company's app review guidelines suggests that a reader app may allow users to access previously purchase content, presumably alongside in-app purchases like Netflix offered for years, Apple's new press release specifies that, quote, developers of reader apps do not offer in-app digital goods and services for purchase, end quote. That would mean that Apple's only offering this exception to companies that aren't contributing any in-app

Starting point is 00:03:28 purchase commissions to Apple anyway, which admittedly include some of Apple. Apple's sternest critics like Spotify, end quote. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Apple is facing an antitrust investigation in India over forcing developers to use its in-app payment system. So, you put all of these governments coming down on the app stores, all of these pinch points together, and it certainly is starting to look like it might be inevitable that the app stores are going to have to be cracked open eventually, right? So why not get ahead of things? Why not just open things up now? why fight every inch along the way? I kind of guess this is the way this sort of legal game works, right? You don't make concessions. You don't have to until you have to. Otherwise, if you make

Starting point is 00:04:16 a bunch of changes unilaterally, you might only open the door to have folks come back at you and demand more. Ireland's Data Protection Commission on behalf of the European Union has fined WhatsApp $225 million for privacy violations, the second largest fine yet under the GDPR regime. WhatsApp, of course, says it will appeal, quoting the Wall Street Journal. It came as part of a decision that found WhatsApp didn't live up to requirements to tell Europeans how their personal information is gathered and used, including regarding the sharing of their information with other Facebook units. As part of the decision, regulators gave WhatsApp three months to bring its communication with users into compliance with

Starting point is 00:05:02 several provisions of Europe's privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, which regulators began enforcing in mid-2018. That includes reorganizing and clarifying parts of its privacy policies and creating prominent notices for non-users that their phone numbers may be uploaded to the app by their contacts. Under the GDPR, Thursday's decision can be appealed in Irish courts, but also directly with the EU's Court of Justice because it was made based on a vote of a board representing all EU privacy regulators. Thursday's fine, representing about 0.8% of Facebook's 2020 profit is the second largest since the regulators began enforcing GDPR. It comes nearly two months after Luxembourg fined Amazon, a record 746 million euros for GDPR violations related to its use of consumer data in

Starting point is 00:05:51 advertising. Until the Amazon fined, the largest penalty under GDPR had been a 50 million Euro fine against Alphabet's Google from France's privacy regulator in early 2019, according to law firm DLA Piper, end quote. And a source is telling Bloomberg that the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to file a second antitrust lawsuit against Google by the end of this year, targeting Google's digital ads business, quote, the Mountain View, California-based company owns major pieces of the online ad market. It runs an ad buying service for marketers and an ad-selling sales. one for publishers as well as a trading exchange where both sides complete transactions in lightning fast auctions. These exchanges operate like online stock trading platforms with an automated bidding process.

Starting point is 00:06:41 Competitors and publishers have complained that Google leverages parts of this vast network, like its ad exchange to benefit other areas and kneecap rivals. Overall, these ad tech products generated $23 billion in gross revenue for the internet giant last year. Google has argued that it pays out much of these ad tech sales to web publishers. The Department's scrutiny of Google's control of the ad tech market goes back to the Trump administration. The DOJ under then Attorney General William Barr sued Google over its search business instead, alleging the company used exclusive distribution deals with wireless carriers and phone makers to lock out competition. That case was followed by a separate antitrust complaint filed by a group of state attorneys general led by Texas,

Starting point is 00:07:22 which accused Google of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising market. The state said Google reached an illegal agreement with Facebook to manipulate the online auctions where advertisers and website publishers buy and sell ad space, end quote. And I guess it's just a day of headlines like this. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has formally sent Tesla a letter asking for detailed information on how Tesla's autopilot detects and response to parked emergency vehicles as part of a wider investigation, quoting the Associated Press. The letter is part of a wide-ranging investigation into how the company's partially automated driving

Starting point is 00:08:04 system behaves when first responder vehicles are parked while crews deal with crashes or other hazards. The agency wants to know how Tesla's detect a crash scene, including flashing lights, road flares, reflective vests worn by responders, and vehicles parked on the road. NHTSA also wants to know how the system responds to low light conditions, what actions it takes if emergency vehicles are present, and how it warns drivers. The agency also added a 12th crash to its probe in which a Tesla on autopilot hit a parked Florida Highway Patrol cruiser Saturday on an interstate highway near downtown Orlando. In the crashes under investigation, at least 17 people were injured and one was killed, end quote. Twitter has officially launched Superfollows for iOS, letting a select group of U.S. test users charge either $2.99, $4.99 or $9.99 per month.

Starting point is 00:09:02 for their tweets, quoting the verge. Creators can set their tweets to go out to super followers only, and the tweets will appear in the timelines of just those subscribers. iOS users in the U.S. and Canada can superfollow accounts that are in the initial test group. Superfollowers are identified to creators by a badge that appears under their name when they reply to tweets. Twitter plans to roll out the feature on iOS in more countries in the coming weeks and says it will be available on Android and the web soon. Superfollow users can charge $2.99, $4.99 or $9.99 a month with payments processed through Stripe. Twitter says users can earn up to 97% of subscription revenue after third-party fees

Starting point is 00:09:43 until they reach a lifetime earnings limit of $50,000 across all Twitter monetization products. After hitting that limit, Twitter says users can earn up to 80% of revenue after third-party fees. People who don't have the Superfollow feature can apply for a wait list under the monetization. tab in the Twitter app. To be eligible, people need to have at least 10,000 followers, be at least 18 years old, have tweeted 25 times in the last 30 days, be in the U.S. and comply with Twitter's super follows policy, end quote. In addition to that, Twitter also introduced safety mode, which blocks harassing accounts for seven days. It's in beta right now for some English language accounts, quoting TechCrunch. The new product test introduces a feature called safety mode that

Starting point is 00:10:29 puts up a temporary line of defense between an account and the waves of toxic invective that Twitter is notorious for. The mode can be enabled from the settings menu, which toggles on an algorithmic screening process that filters out potential abuse that lasts for seven days. Safe mode won't be rolling out broadly, not yet anyway. The new feature will first be available to what Twitter describes as a small feedback group of about a thousand English language users. In deciding what to screen out Twitter's algorithmic approach assesses a tweet's content. hateful language, repetitive, unrecipricated mentions, as well as the relationship between an account and the accounts replying. The company notes that accounts you follow or regularly exchange tweets with won't be subject to the blocking feature in safe mode.

Starting point is 00:11:12 For anyone in the test group, safety mode can be toggled on in the privacy and safety options. Once enabled an account, will stay in the mode for the next seven days. After the seven-day period expires, it can be activated again. In crafting the new feature, Twitter says it spoke with experts in mental health, online safety, and human rights. The partners Twitter consulted with were able to contribute to the initial test group by nominating accounts that might benefit from the feature, and the company hopes to focus on female journalists and marginalized communities in its test of the new product. Twitter says that it will start reaching out to accounts that meet the criteria of the test group, namely accounts that

Starting point is 00:11:47 often find themselves on the receiving end of some of the platform's worst impulses, end quote. How about one more? Kurt Wagner is reporting this morning that Twitter is also testing. privacy-focused tools including archiving and hiding old tweets, as well as editing follower lists, quoting Bloomberg. The tools are related to what Twitter executives call social privacy, or how users manage their reputations and identities on the service. This includes information like a person's list of followers, the tweets they like, and whether their accounts are public or private. Among the features being considered is the ability to edit follower lists and a tool to archive old tweets so that they're no longer visible to others after a specific amount of time

Starting point is 00:12:28 designated by the user. Hiding past tweets could be a popular feature with people who don't want their posts to exist online forever, offering an easier solution than manually deleting posts or coming through years-old messages to find those you wish you hadn't sent. Internal research found that many of Twitter's users don't understand the privacy basics, like whether their account is publicly visible, said Svetlata Pimkina, a staff researcher at the San Francisco-based company. Those users engage less on Twitter because they don't know what other people will be able to see about them. When social privacy needs are not met, people limit their self-expression, Pim Kima said. They withdraw from conversation.

Starting point is 00:13:06 Twitter will start prompting people to review whether their accounts are public or private beginning in September. The company's privacy team is working on several products to assuage this user uncertainty. Some of them will be tested soon, and others are just in the concept stage right now, according to interviews with members of the team, included in the potential list of products. archive tweets. Twitter may let users hide old tweets after a set amount of time. Tweets would be visible to the account holder, but not to anyone else. The company is considering a range of time options, including hiding posts after 30, 60, and 90 days, or hiding tweets after a full year. This product doesn't have a launch date and is still in the concept phase. Removing followers.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Users will soon be able to remove followers. This is currently only possible by blocking someone. Twitter plans to test this feature starting this month. Hiding tweets you've liked. Users will soon be able to set who, everyone, just their followers or select groups, can see which tweets they've liked. There is no timeline for testing this feature. And finally, leaving conversations. Users will be given the option to remove themselves from a public conversation on Twitter. Today, only the person sending a tweet can choose who to mention. Twitter plans to test this before the end of the year, end quote. Finally, today, we spoke about Google earlier, and as I've done before I wanted to take this opportunity to once again do a Maya Culpa, because starting more than a

Starting point is 00:14:30 year ago, I kept hearing from people that Google was hitting a wall in terms of the money it could squeeze from its advertising stone. But if the subsequent alphabet earnings reports are any indication, there's plenty more left in that stone because of things like YouTube, YouTube proper, but also other YouTube programs like sources are telling the Financial Times that YouTube Music reached 50 million paying subscribers in August, up from 30 million paid music and premium subscribers that YouTube had reported in October 2020. After years of friction with the music industry over YouTube's struggle to convince some of its billions of users to pay for content, Google hired Lyre Cohen, a longtime record

Starting point is 00:15:15 executive who helped develop artists, including Kanye West, to lead the launch of YouTube music and turn it into a rival to Spotify. The expanded subscriber base makes Google a genuine competitor in the paid music streaming market after a series of failed product launches over the years. YouTube music is, quote, becoming to Gen Z what Spotify was to millennials half a decade ago, said Mark Mulligan from Media Research and Industry Consultancy. Google's YouTube music has been the standout story of the music subscriber market, resonating both in many emerging markets and with younger audiences across the globe, he added. YouTube's recent growth spurt defied more conservative expectations from Wall Street when its paid streaming service was first announced. Upon launching in

Starting point is 00:15:58 2018, Morgan Stanley analysts projected that YouTube music would reach only 25 million subscribers by 2022. The analyst questioned whether YouTube music would succeed after Google's previous forays into paid music streaming such as Google Play and YouTube Red failed to gain traction. YouTube Music costs $10 a month and YouTube premium, an expanded product with extra video features, costs $12 a month, end quote. So Jeff Bezos has defeated Jack Ma and the hashtag World Cup of Entrepreneurs, which, I mean, you'd have to say that was to be expected. The favorite came out on top, you might say. But what I didn't expect was that this was actually closer than our first day matchup, Bezos, at the time of this writing, won by 74 to 26%.

Starting point is 00:16:54 When the first 10 votes came in on this bracket yesterday, they were all for Bezos. and I kind of expected it might be a near shutout. So interesting that this was closer than Hastings versus Spiegel. Anyway, Bezos is going to go up against Reed Hastings in the quarterfinals now, so that should be interesting. Anywho, today's bracket matchup is Mark Zuckerberg versus Jack Dorsey. So the king of social media versus the man who invented the first challenge to Facebook's social media crown,

Starting point is 00:17:27 and also just so happened to found one of the first and most successful fintechs. So go vote. Link in the show notes, but also the tweet is pinned to the top of the at TechMeme podcast Twitter account. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 09/02 – Now Apple Will Let Apps Acknowledge The Web Exists

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