Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 06/22 – More EU Trouble For Google

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

Another antitrust investigation formally opened against Google in Europe. Facebook’s Oculus ad partner thinks better of the experiment. Stephen Spielberg decides that Netflix’s money is as green as anybody’s. Ransomware gangs are abandoning bitcoin. And Amazon, at least, still believes in autonomous vehicles. Sponsors: KiwiCo.com/ride for first month free NordVPN.com/ride coupon code ride Links: EU opens antitrust probe into Google’s advertising business (Financial Times) Resolution Games Pulls Blaston Out Of Facebook Ad Test (Upload) Entire London Underground to receive mobile coverage by end of 2024 (The Verge) Tinder lets people add videos to their dating profiles (Engadget) Epic Games releases free anti-cheat and voice chat services for developers (The Verge) Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, Netflix Forge Film Deal in Sign of Changing Hollywood (Variety) Monero emerges as crypto of choice for cybercriminals (Financial Times) Amazon Snaps Up Option to Buy Stake in AI Truck-Driving Startup (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 ride home for Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Another antitrust investigation formerly opened against Google in Europe. Facebook's Oculus ad partner thinks better of the ads experiment. Steven Spielberg decides that Netflix's money is as green as anybody's.

Ransomware gangs are abandoning Bitcoin and Amazon at least still believes in autonomous vehicles. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. The European Commission announced it has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Google favors its own display ad tech over rivals, quoting the Financial Times. Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising, said Mark Heath Vestager, the EU's executive vice president in charge of competition policy. We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack, end quote. In particular, The probe will examine how Google insists that advertisers can only buy display ads on YouTube by using its own tools.

Investigators also want to know if Google's tools favor the company's ad exchange, the marketplace where deals are made, and whether rival services can access data on how users react to the ads traded on Google's exchange. Vestager added that Brussels would investigate Google's policies on tracking users, quote, to make sure they are in line with fair competition, end quote. The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, said it would consider, quote, the need to protect user privacy, in line with the general data protection regulation. It added, quote, competition law and data protection laws must work hand in hand to ensure that display advertising markets operate on a level playing field in which all market participants protect user privacy in the same manner, end quote. After initially agreeing to be Facebook's first VR ad test partner, Resolution Games says, it won't actually be moving forward with the ad test in its paid VR game blast on, quoting upload VR.

Resolution Games CEO Tommy Palm released the following prepared statement regarding the ad test. Quote, our mission at Resolution Games has always been to work to help the industry as a whole move VR forward for the good of everyone involved. Sometimes that means being the first to test some things to see what works and what doesn't. We appreciate all of the feedback and thoughts on the Oculus ad test for Blaston and other games that was announced last week, some good points have been made, and we realize that Blaston isn't the best fit for this type of advertising test. Therefore, we no longer plan to implement the test in Blaston. As an alternative, we are looking to see if it is feasible to move this small temporary test

to our free game bait sometime in the future. We love this domain as much as the most avid players. If ads in VR become inevitable, as it has on other platforms, we want to ensure that while we have this chance to start over and do it right, we do just that. We welcome any and all of your feedback along the way so we can have a constructive conversation around this and create the best path forward, end quote. So apparently there was quite a bit of outrage over this whole ad testing thing among the VR gamer community. There's an interesting angle to that, though, that I hadn't thought about, and it revolves around the developers, quoting Anton Hand. Either Facebook genuinely didn't think there'd be blowback to the

blast-on VR ads thing, in which case they're just bad at being a platform steward, or they did and decided it'd be better to have a third-party catch the buckshot, in which case they're a horrendous platform steward. Either way, the obvious thing for Facebook to do, in this situation would have been to field test their ads in their own games first so that if anything has gone awry, they would have been the sole receiver of said blowback, end quote. The mayor of London has announced that the Tube, the London Underground, will have full mobile coverage by the end of 2024 across the entire network with some popular stations wired by the end of 2022, quoting the verge. By the end of 2024, quoting the verge. By the end of 2024,

on the London Underground will have mobile reception across the entire network of stations and tunnels London's mayor, Sadik Khan has announced. Popular stations including Oxford Circus, Tottenmacourt Road, Bank, Houston, and Camden Town will be hooked up by the end of 2022 with coverage expanding in phases over the ensuing months. The announcement comes just over a year after 4G coverage was introduced on the eastern half of the Jubilee line between Westminster and Canningtown in March 2020. Transport for London or TFL, the city's Transport Authority, says the upcoming infrastructure will support 5G networks as well as 4G, but that it will be up to mobile operators themselves to offer support for the next generation mobile network. TFL is working with BAI communications

to offer coverage across the network. The work will involve laying over 2,000 kilometers or 1242 miles of cabling within tunnels and stations, as well as offering mobile coverage to tube passengers, the project should also have benefits for mobile coverage in the city more generally. The fiber cabling installed in the London Underground's tunnels will also connect to buildings and other infrastructure like street lighting and bus stops, allowing small mobile transmitters to be installed and increase coverage, end quote. So mobile coverage came to the New York City subway a few years ago. I don't remember actually maybe four or five years now, though only in the stations, not in the tunnels between stations. And given the precarious financial situation,

the MTA is always in, if you're listening to me, New York City officials, we do not need this. Spend your money on other things like making the trains run on time. Having connectivity in the stations is more than fine. We don't really need them in the tunnels. Thank you from Concerned Citizen Brian. Tinder has announced several new features, including support for up to nine videos on profiles, and letting unmatched users talk to each other in short bursts before swiping. Quoting in Gadgett. Video is just one of several new additions included in Tinder's latest update, which it hails as one of the biggest changes to its app since launch. It's also introducing a new speed dating style social feature called Hot Takes that lets unmatched users talk in short spurts

before swiping right or left. When the timer runs out, you'll be able to be able to be able to be able to to choose whether to match with the person or move on to another session. Hot takes will be available from 6 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and marks the first time Tinder users have been able to chat before they match. It actually sounds similar to Spark, the dedicated speed dating app Facebook launched in April. Finally, Tinder is also debuting a new section called Explore as a way for singletons to connect based on their shared interests and as a showcase for its live events like hot takes. you'll be able to find potential matches based on their passions like activism, binge watching, or thrill-seeking. The Explore section will launch later this summer.

Together with the other features, it represents another way for Tinder to keep users engaged, lest they seek love or hookups on other dating services, end quote. Epic Games says it will offer free voice chat and anti-cheating tools for developers as part of its online services suite, which will be compatible with all major platforms. Quoting the Verge. The new voice chat service is cross-platform and supports both one-on-one and party chat in lobbies and during in-game matches. When using the service, voice data is relayed through Epic's back-end servers, and the technology

handles all scaling and quality of service features. Epic says the technology has already been, quote, integrated and battle-tested in Fortnite, which provides some assurance that it can handle millions of players at once. Alongside voice chat, Epic Online Services is also adding support. for Easy Anti-Cheet, a service design to root out and boot cheaters from online games. Easy Anti-Cheet has previously been available for third-party developers to license for their games, but it's now free as part of Epic Online Services and should allow many more developers to make use of it. Epic argues anti-cheat software like this is increasingly important as more games offer cross-play

between PCs and other platforms, since cheating software is often more readily available on PC. Like other anti-cheat software, easy anti-cheat can occasionally cause issues for non-cheaters and label innocent software as malicious, so it's far from a perfect solution. But with cheating still plaguing many of the world's biggest games, it's hard to argue against developers having another tool in their arsenal. Epic is including both services as part of its Epic Online Services Suite, which isn't tied to its own game engine or storefront, end quote. You might have heard this news. Stephen Spielberg, who previously seemed to be no fan of Netflix or streaming more generally, has inked a deal with Netflix to produce multiple movies through his company Amblin Partners. Many Cineas Online are accusing Stephen of selling out, selling out his principles in terms of

the form movies should take. Though, frankly, you could also argue that he's just skating to where the puck is going, quoting variety. The move is surprising. and a sign of the major changes taking place in Hollywood, in part because Spielberg has previously been seen as something of a Netflix skeptic. In 2019, for instance, the director reportedly urged the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bar day-and-date streaming releases from being eligible for Oscars. Sources close to the director, however, dispute that Spielberg ever tried to bar Netflix from eligibility. He later clarified his position in a statement to the New York Times in which he denied he had tried to prevent Netflix from winning Oscars. He also

reaffirmed his support for the theatrical experience while stating, quote, I want people to find their entertainment in any form or fashion that suits them. Big screen, small screen, what really matters to me is a great story, and everyone should have access to great stories, end quote. Amlin will continue to maintain offices on the Universal Lot, where the company also has a production pact. Under the deal, Amlin is expected to produce at least two films a year for Netflix for an unspecified number of years.

It is possible that Spielberg may even direct some of of the projects. Netflix is expected to provide financing for some of these productions. That likely won't include his next movie, an untitled semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story with Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams, which is expected to land at Universal. The Netflix movies do not have any budgetary or genre requirements attached to them. They may also receive some type of theatrical release, as have other Netflix picks, such as The Irishman and Marriage Story, but that will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Netflix co-CEO. Ted Sarandos and Scott Stuber, head of original films at Netflix, who previously worked closely with Spielberg when he was an executive at Universal

played key roles in hammering out the deal. CAA advised Amland Partners on the negotiations, end quote. I was wondering if this was going to happen, so much so that I almost talked about it last week, and I wish I had done so now so I could look like a crypto guy in the no. Monero, a cryptocurrency that obscures the sender and receiver of Monero coins, is increasingly being used by ransomware gangs wary of Bitcoin's traceability, as we talked about last week. Quoting the Financial Times. We've seen ransomware groups specifically shifting to Monero, said Bryce Webster Jacobson, Director of Intelligence at Groupsense, a cybersecurity group that has helped a growing number of victims pay out ransoms in Monero. Cybercriminals have recognized the ability for mistakes to be made using Bitcoin that allow blockchain transactions to reveal their identity, end quote. Russia-linked Reville, the notorious ransomware group believed to be behind the attack this month on Meatpacker JBS, has removed the option of paying in Bitcoin earlier this year, demanding Manero only, according to Brett Callow, threat analyst at MCSoft.

Meanwhile, both Darkside, the group blamed for the colonial pipeline hack, and Babuk, which was behind the attack on Washington, D.C., see police this year allow payments in either cryptocurrency but charge a 10 to 20% premium to victims paying in the riskier Bitcoin, experts say. Justin Aaronhofer, a cryptocurrency compliance expert and member of the Monero developer community, said that at the beginning of 2020, its use by ransomware gangs was, quote, a rounding error. Today, he estimates that about 10 to 20% of ransoms are paid in Monero and that the figure will probably rise to 50% by the end of the year, end quote. Finally today, we've spoken about how even people in the industry are seemingly having doubts about the progress of self-driving technology of late. But Amazon, for one,

seems to be full speed ahead. And you would think, given their laser focus on delivery, maybe they see something that others don't yet. According to a regulatory filing, Amazon has ordered a thousand autonomous driving systems from self-driving truck startup plus and acquired the option to buy up to a 20% stake in plus. Quoting Bloomberg. The Sequoia Capital China-backed company, which is developing autonomous driving technology for long-haul trucking, is set to have a valuation of $3.3 billion, adding $500 million in proceeds to accelerate its expansion, the company said in a statement in May.

The company raised $150 million via so-called private investment in public equity or pipe from funds including Black Rock and D.E. Shaw. Plus declined to comment via an emailed statement and a representative for Amazon said the company couldn't immediately comment. Cupertino, California-based Plus, is among a handful of startups trying to upend a fragmented long-haul trucking business with driverless technology. It has been working with Chinese delivery company SF Holding Company, which uses Plus-enabled trucks that can cover 1,500 kilometers or 932 miles a day, plus said in April. State-owned China F-AW Group plans to start mass production. of jointly developed autonomous trucks this quarter, Plus has said. Founded by a group of Stanford University classmates in 2016, Plus is backed by investors

including Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, GSR Ventures Management, and a Chinese long haul company known in English as Full Truck Alliance. It also has a partnership with European truck maker Aveco, SPA, and is working with Cummins, Inc. on using autonomous technology in trucks, powered by natural gas. Plus raised $200 million. in a funding round in February. It began delivering its automated driving system plus drive to some customers in the U.S. and China this year.

The company recently hired Dennis Mooney from Navistar International and Chuck Joseph from Amazon to help scale up production and promote the adoption of Plus technology, end quote. Nothing really for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.