Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/13 – Apple Comes For Patreon

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Patreon is forced to change how it does things because Apple finally came to claim their vig. Have basically all our social security numbers been leaked? Crowdstrike owns its mistakes in person. And even if you build it, the chip factories might not come if nobody shows up to work. Sponsors: HensonShaving.com/ride and code ride Shopify.com/ride Links: Apple says Patreon must switch to its billing system or risk removal from App Store (TechCrunch) ‘Apple’s Requirements to Hit Creators and Fans on Patreon’ (Daring Fireball) Hackers leak 2.7 billion data records with Social Security numbers (BleepingComputer) FBI probing alleged Iran hack attempts targeting Trump, Biden camps (Washington Post) CrowdStrike Exec Shows Up to Accept 'Most Epic Fail' Award in Person (PCMag) TikTok comes for messaging apps with the addition of group chats (TechCrunch) Chipmakers face a labour crisis (Financial Times) 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 right home for Tuesday, August 13th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. Patreon is forced to change how it does things because Apple finally came to claim their Vig.

Have basically all our social security numbers been leaked? CrowdStrike owns its mistake in person. And if you build it, the chip factories might not come if nobody shows up to work. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. If you sign up for a Patreon membership via its iOS app, that will now be subject to Apple. 30% fees beginning in November. Also, creators on Patreon must now switch to subscription billing. So Apple doing Apple crap again, quoting TechCrunch. Apple has threatened to remove creator platform

Patreon from the app store if creators use unsupported third-party billing options or disable transactions on iOS instead of using Apple's own in-app purchasing system for Patreon's subscriptions. In a blog post and email to Patreon creators about upcoming changes to membership in the iOS app, The company says it's begun a 16-month-long migration process to move all creators to Apple's iOS-in-app purchase system by November 2025. Patreon also informed creators it will switch them over to subscription billing as of November 2024, but they will be able to decide whether to price their memberships at a higher fee to cover Apple's commission or decide if they want to absorb the fee themselves. In addition, creators can opt to delay the migration in their Patreon settings to November 2025, the company said.

However, if creators choose the latter option, they won't be able to offer memberships in the iOS app until they adopt Apple's iOS-in-app purchase system, as Apple's rules will apply as of this November. The announcement serves as another example of how Apple's App Store rules have been applied unevenly, an accusation that Apple has faced in the past from critics, including Fortnite Maker Epic Games, which sued the tech giant over antitrust issues. While Epic largely lost that lawsuit, as the court ruled Apple was not a monopolist, it did decide the iPhone maker would have to allow links to other payment options inside their apps. As a result, Apple now allows developers to promote their subscriptions via links to a website,

but with a 27% commission instead of the standard 30% or 12% instead of 15% for auto-renewing subscriptions in year 2. Apple's compliance with the court's injunction is still being fought in court. Despite Apple's rules and policies, Patreon had existed in an odd sort of gray area, as some of its subscription-based offerings could be consumed in its app, while others could not. Another possible reason for the Patreon exception was due to the fact that many users didn't come to Patreon itself to discover creators and content. Patreon CEO Jack Conte told Tech News site the Virgin 2021. Instead, the discovery took place through other channels. Though the company admitted it didn't have any sort of special contract with Apple to avoid the app store fees,

the app had been able to skirt Apple's in app billing requirements for some time. Clearly, Patreon is not happy with the recent pressure from Apple to now comply with its policies, as it tells creators that neither of the options presented, either raising their subscription prices or eating the cost themselves, is, quote, ideal. Most creators on Patreon use subscription billing. Patreon's blog posts points out, over the past few years, we've slowly rolled it out, tackling each hurdle that has come up to ensure that the migration is not disruptive for creators. That's the way we like to roll out products. Unfortunately, because of Apple's timelines and constraints, we can't continue to do it this way. Instead of helping creators move to subscription billing, if and when they

feel like it's right for them. We're now being forced to migrate all creators on Apple's timeline, end quote. So I know this is one of those. Sure, Brian, you can be objective about other things, but when you can see something that could affect you personally, it's a different story. But I mean, come on, objectively, objectively, how can you not agree with a sentiment like this from Steve Trotton Smith? Quote, some multi-millionaire VP at Apple has decided that the best thing for the company, one of the biggest in the world to do is introduce a new 30% tax on struggling artists and creators who have no business or professional relationship with it in the first place, end quote. Or at Kenny NL.

If you use the Patreon app on iOS and decide to donate to your favorite artist or developer, Apple will get 30% of your donation. Because, you know, because, because, because, and quote, here's John Gruber. This might epitomize the way Apple can be pennywise, but town foolish when it comes to the app store. However much money they think they might get from these Patreon subscriptions once the Patreon iOS app switches to IAP, I refuse to believe it's worth the further degradation of Apple's brand that this dispute with Patreon is incurring. The paying users of Patreon are fans. They are such dedicated and devoted fans of certain creators and artists that they choose to pay those creators money. And now these users are being informed that Apple is

putting the squeeze on these creators and inserting themselves into a relationship that these fans see as being between them and the artists they support, end quote. Look, the Patreon iOS app is sort of worthless anyway, in my opinion. Just delete it from your phone. Pretend they don't have an app. Do you support someone on Patreon? Pretend it's 2004, and only the web exists as a way to support them. Anything else is at this point absurd.

Back on August 6, hackers leaked around 2.7 billion data records of people in the U.S. containing social security numbers and names, allegedly from National Public Data, which collects and sells data, quoting bleeping computer. National public data is believed to scrape this information from public sources to compile individual user profiles for people in the U.S. and other countries. In April, a threat actor known as U.S. DoD claimed to be selling 2.9 billion records containing the personal data of people in the U.S., UK, and Canada that was stolen from national public data.

At the time, the threat actor attempted to sell the data for $3.5 million. and claimed it contained records for every person in the three countries. USDOD is a known threat actor who was previously linked to an attempted sale of Infragard's user database in December 2020 for $50,000. Bleeping computer at the time contacted national public data and never received a response to our email. The leaked data consists of two text files totaling 277 gigabytes and containing nearly 2.7 billion plain text records rather than the original 2.9 billion number originally shared by USDOD, While leaping computer can't confirm if this leak contains the data for every person in the U.S.,

numerous people have confirmed to us that it included their and family members' legitimate information, including those who are deceased. Each record consists of the following information, a person's name, mailing address, and social security number, with some records including additional information like other names associated with the person. None of this data is encrypted. Previously leaked samples of this data also included phone numbers and email addresses, but these are not included in this 2.7 billion record leak. It is important to note that a person will have multiple records, one for each address they

are known to have lived at. This also means that this data breach did not impact three billion people, as had been erroneously reported in many articles that did not properly research the data. Some people have also told leaping computer that their social security numbers were associated with other people they don't know, so not all the information is accurate. Finally, this data may be outdated, as it does not contain the current address for any of the people we checked, potentially indicating that the data was taken from an old backup, end quote. More info on that campaign hack, TLDR. It wasn't just the Trump campaign, quoting from the Washington Post.

Three staffers on the Biden-Harris campaign received spearfishing emails that were designed to appear legitimate, but could give an intruder access to the recipient's communications, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive investigation. So far, investigators have not found evidence that those hacking attempts were successful, these people said. The FBI began the investigation in June, suspecting Iran was behind the attempts to steal data from two U.S. presidential campaigns. Agents contacted Google, among other companies, to discuss what appeared to be a fishing effort targeting people associated with the Biden campaign, these people said.

The new details show the investigation is broader and involves more potential victims than previously known. It also underscores the degree to which, hacking by foreign nationals targeting U.S. political candidates may simply be a recurring feature of politics in the digital age. U.S. officials concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump, including by hacking and releasing internal emails and documents from Democrats. We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter, the agency said in a brief statement. On Saturday, the FBI said only that it was aware of media reports of an alleged hack. The Trump campaign said it had been hacked after reporters received copies of an internal campaign

vetting document on Senator J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's running mate, end quote. CrowdStrike President Michael Centonas appeared at DefCon in person to accept the Most Epic Fail Award, saying, we got this horribly wrong and CrowdStrike will own it. Quoting PCMag, at the DefCon Hacking Show, the annual Pony Award recognizes achievements and major blunders in the cybersecurity industry. Past winners of the Most Epic Fail Award include Microsoft, the TSA, and Twitter. This year, there was no question that CrowdStrike would receive the notorious title after the company accidentally distributed a faulty security update that bricked millions of Windows PCs and servers. Although CrowdStrike could have easily ignored the award,

CrowdStrike President Michael Santonis accepted it in person, which elicited applause from an audience made up of other cybersecurity professionals. Santonis said it was important he accepted the award so that CrowdStrike could, quote, own its mistakes. Definitely not the award to be proud of receiving, he told the audience. I think the team was surprised when I said straight away that I would come and get it because we got this horribly wrong. We said that a number of different times, and it's super important to own it. He said he will prominently display the trophy he received at Crowdstrike's headquarters in Texas, quote, because I want every crowd striker who comes to work to see it. Our goal is to protect people, and we got this wrong, Santona said, and I want to make sure

everyone understands these things can't happen, and that's what this community is about, end quote. The gesture received praise from other cybersecurity workers, since it's rare for a company to accept the most epic fail award from The Pony's. Still, CrowdStrike faces a long road to repairing its reputation. A pair of class action lawsuits have already been filed against the company demanding it pay damages for causing last month's outage. In addition, Delta Airlines, which was forced to cancel thousands of flights due to the disruption, is also considering a lawsuit against CrowdStrike and Microsoft, end quote. TikTok has added group chats with support for up to. 32 people available to all users over 15 years old and has added safety measures specifically to protect people that age, quoting TechCrunch. TikTok looks to be taking on popular messaging

services like Meta's WhatsApp and Apple's messages as the company announced on Monday that it's adding group chats to its platform. You can now create group chats with up to 32 people and chat and share content together. While people often share TikTok videos with each other in group chats on messaging apps, TikTok is now letting users do so within its own platform. Users can now watch, comment, and react together all on TikTok. The latest edition indicates that TikTok is interested in making its platform more social and a place for conversation with friends not just an entertainment platform where you interact with strangers. As with individual messages, group chats are only available to users above the age of 15.

TikTok says it has added safety measures to protect teens between the ages of 16 and 17. Everyone including teens can only be added to a group chat by a mutual follower. If a teen gets an invite to join a group chat, they can't join unless the group has at least one mutual friend in it. Plus, when a teen creates a group chat, TikTok will require them to review and approve new joiners. You can create a group chat by tapping the chat button at the top of your inbox and then selecting more options. Then you can select the friends you want to include in the group and then click start group chat. To join an existing group chat through an invite, you can tap on the invite and then click join group, end quote. We've done a bunch of segments on all the money and efforts going into on-shoring silicon production in places like the U.S., but it turns out that those efforts are maybe running up against one of the original problems people said would be there from the beginning.

Chipmakers are facing a labor crisis despite those huge investments in capacity build-out. McKinsey says the U.S. needs more than 160,000 new workers for these new plants. Meanwhile, only 1,500 engineers join the industry yearly, quoting the Financial Times. Until now, the dominant belief has been that increasing chip manufacturing capacity was simply a matter of money. The global chip shortage that started in early 2020 was addressed by governments throwing billions at chipmakers to increase capacity, preferably in their backyard. TSM has been expanding its semiconductor factories in the U.S., Germany, and Japan. The U.S. has been one of the world's most aggressive in boosting capacity with investments in its chip

industry expected to reach more than $250 billion over a five-year period. But cash, it turns out, can only go so far in chip making. The problem is that making a chip factory is not as simple as setting up a new factory that assembles smartphones in another country where local workers can be quickly hired and trained. Chip plants require highly skilled employees with master's and doctoral degrees in science and engineering to run them. Even the construction of a chip fabrication plant itself requires specialist workers. The large investment and subsequent build-out of the U.S. chip sector means more than 160,000 new job openings in engineering and technicians support alongside additional openings in related construction craft jobs, according to McKinsey

analysis. Yet, just around 1,500 engineers join the chip industry each year. For chip technicians, that figure is even lower, with just about 1,000 new technicians joining each year. In the next five years, the demand for these workers is forecast to reach 75,000. Meanwhile, the U.S. chip manufacturing workforce has fallen 43% from its peak in the year 2000, according to McKinsey. At the current rate, the shortage of engineers and technicians could reach as high as 146,000 workers by 2029. In South Korea, home to chipmaker Samsung Electronics, the chip industry has been dealing with a shortage since 2022 and is expected to face a labor shortage of 56,000 people by 2031, according to industry estimates. Demographic trends are another issue. Both Taiwan and South Korea, where TSM and Samsung,

have most of its workers-based, are dealing with declining populations. The number of students enrolling in higher education has been following every year since 2012. These two countries account for over 80% of the world's global contract chip manufacturing. A worker shortage has already pushed back the start date of TSM's Arizona plant and is reported to have flown in around half of the 2,200 workers at the plant from Taiwan. Cultural differences further complicate hiring. As each new plant costs nearly $30 billion to build, the factories need to run nonstop for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to be able to commercially justify that price tag. TSM founder Morris Chang has pointed out that if a machine breaks down at 1 a.m. in the morning in

the U.S., it will be fixed the next morning, but in Taiwan, it will be repaired at 2 a.m. Replicating this, Taiwanese work culture may be challenging in other countries, end quote. Obviously, I decided to cover the Google event tomorrow. I felt like the Patreon story needed more space. All the deets on the new pixels tomorrow. Talk to you then. Thank you.