Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 10/30 - HBO Max Deets

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

WhatsApp sues the NSO Group about that crazy exploit, Uber is threating to sue Los Angeles about a crazy tracking program that I’m not sure about, we’ve got the full details surrounding HBO Max, an activist is taking Facebook’s political advertising policy to its logical conclusion, and how come none of you told me about Mario Kart Tour? Sponsors: Tiny Capital Pessimists Archive Podcast Links: Why WhatsApp is pushing back on NSO Group hacking (Washington Post) WhatsApp Says Israeli Firm Used Its App in Spy Program (NYTimes) The New HBO Max is competing with Netflix by giving you Friends and Game of Thrones for $15 a month (Recode) Report: Apple to Use Qualcomm's X55 5G Modem in All Three 2020 iPhones (MacRumors) Uber in talks with Los Angeles as scooter location data lawsuit looms (CNET) Privacy groups actually side with Uber in scooter data fight (Mashable) This man is running for governor of California so he can run false Facebook ads (CNN Business) Mario Kart Tour Has a Rocket Start With 123.9 Million Downloads in Its First Month (SensorTower) 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 TechMeme right home for Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. WhatsApp sues the NSO group about that crazy exploit. Uber is threatening to sue Los Angeles about a crazy tracking program that I'm not quite sure about. We've got the full details surrounding HBO Max. An activist is taking Facebook's political advertising policy to its logical conclusion.

And how come none of you told me about Mario Kart Tour? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Remember in May when WhatsApp announced it had discovered a flaw that allowed hackers to install surveillance software on iPhone and Android phones? And the flaw was so crazy that all you needed was to just receive a call from someone and your phone could be infected, even if you didn't answer the call. And then the surveilers would basically see every message you sent, every photo, every everything. At the time, fingers were pointed at the Israeli Digital Surveillance Company NSO Group. Well, WhatsApp has officially pointed the finger at NSO Group, filing a lawsuit against the company in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, saying NSO was behind the exploit, that it was used to spy on 1,400 people in 20 different countries. and even though the suit did not speculate on who NSO group's technology was being used on behalf of, it did note that the area codes for the compromised users indicated a focus on people living in, Mexico, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

This is Will Cathcart head of WhatsApp, which is, of course, owned by Facebook. Quote, how can we say this with confidence? As we gathered the information that we lay out in our complaint, we learned that the attackers used servers and internet hosting services that were previously associated with NSO. In addition, as our complaint notes, we have tied certain WhatsApp accounts used during the attacks back to NSO. While their attack was highly sophisticated, their attempts to cover their tracks, were not entirely successful. There was another disturbing pattern to the attack, as our lawsuit explains. It targeted at least 100 human rights defenders, journalists, and other members of civil society across the world.

This should serve as a wake-up call for technology companies, governments, and all internet users. Tools that enable surveillance into our private lives are being abused, and the proliferation of this technology into the hands of irresponsible companies and governments puts us all at risk. NSO has previously denied any involvement in the attack stating that under no circumstances would NSO be involved in the operating of its technology, but our investigation found otherwise. Now we are seeking to hold NSO accountable under U.S. state and federal. laws including the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, end quote. Now quoting from the New York Times. NSO Group is one of dozens of digital spy outfits that provide technology to track everything a target does on a smartphone. Its spyware allows governments to track the location, communications, contacts, and web activities of targets. But such access can be easily abused. NSO Group has said in the past

that it limits the sale of hacking tools to governments with poor human rights records, but it has little insight into how its tools are used once they are in government hands. The company has said it only learns and investigates cases of abuse when they surface in the media, end quote. Today we got the official details on the HBO Max streaming service. It is going to launch in May. It will cost $15 a month, which is the same price that HBO costs now if you're a subscriber. And we have more information about how existing HBO subscribers. will be treated. In short, HBO wants everyone to convert to HBO Max, but when and how people will

do so is sort of complicated, quoting Recode. At first, millions of people won't pay anything at all for the new service. AT&T plans to give away one-year subscriptions of HBO max to 10 million of its phone customers who already pay for HBO. The company says it will offer the service as part of some of its phone and broadband bundles for free, and it also says it would like HBO subscribers who have signed up through traditional pay TV distributors to get it for free as well, but it doesn't have deals to do that yet. By pricing HBO max at the same price as HBO, AT&T makes it an easy decision for existing HBO subscribers to upgrade, and it also makes the service an easier sell for new subscribers. It is also likely to cause problems with traditional pay TV distributors

like Comcast, who have traditionally been HBO's primary retailers. HBO executives already saw a version of this conflict when they rolled out HBO now. it's broadband-only service and got pushback from cable companies who saw the new service as competition for the one thing they were already selling, end quote. HBO says it thinks the cable companies and other TV distributors will be incentivized to work with them to retain existing customers, which, you know, we'll see about that. But AT&T slash WarnerMedia slash HBO says the intention is to pour $4 billion into making HBO Max a success. It expects the service will nab 50 million subscribers by 2025 when it would be generating around $1 billion a year in profit, which we'll see about that too. HBO Max will be three times as expensive as Apple TV Plus, but at the same time, HBO Max is probably guaranteed to definitely have stuff that you'd want to watch, which you can't yet say the same for Apple TV Plus.

and late-breaking news on that front as well, Apple confirmed that student subscribers to Apple Music will get Apple TV Plus at no extra charge. Currently, students only pay $4.99 a month for Apple Music, which, of course, is the same price that eventually they will be charging for Apple TV Plus. According to a research report published today, Apple will be using Qualcomm's X-55 5G modems for all three of next year's iPhones, which, of course, everyone expects will be the first 5G iPhones. Quoting Mac Rumors,

Apple is expected to launch three iPhones next year in 5.4 inch, 6.1 inch, and 6.7 inch sizes. According to the Niki Asian review, all three will carry the 5G modem chip designed by Qualcomm called the X-55. Quote, all three of the new iPhones will carry the most advanced 5G modem chip known as X-55 that is designed by U.S. mobile chip developer Qualcomm. Four people familiar with the plan told Niki. The chip, which enables much faster downloads, faces such an increase in demand that there could be supply constraints, one person added, end quote.

The X-55 chip offers 7 GBS peak download speeds and 3 GBS upload speeds, though these numbers are theoretical maximums and actual speeds will depend on carrier networks. The chip is Qualcomm's first 5G chip that supports all major frequency bands, operation modes, and network deployments. The X-55 is also more power-efficient than Qualcomm's X-50 chip, which means it will draw less energy and will have less of an impact on battery life when connected to a 5G network, end quote.

Apple, if you'll recall, had intended to use Intel modems for their 5G iPhones, but Intel went and blew up its modem business, thereby forcing Apple to end its litigation against Qualcomm and jump back into metaphorical bed with them. Thus, this news. Uber is considering filing a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, refusing to provide the city with real-time location data about its scooters. Uber is also requesting a restraining order in case LA decides to suspend Uber's license to operate scooters in the city. Quoting CNET.

Los Angeles's mobility data specification plan represents one way local governments are trying to wrestle with the impact of technology companies. It's caught on in other cities such as Seattle, Austin, and Louisville because they don't want to be caught flat-footed the same way they did when ride-hailing companies first arrived and caused traffic headaches. But the request for real-time location data on scooters is a step too far, raising serious privacy concerns, Uber argues. Independent privacy experts have clearly and repeatedly asserted that a customer's geolocation is personally identifiable information and, consistent with a recent legal opinion by the California Legislative Council, we believe that LADOT's requirement to share sensitive on-trip data compromises our customers' expectations of data privacy and security, an Uber spokesperson said. Therefore, we had no choice but to pursue a legal challenge, and we sincerely hope to arrive at a solution that allows us to provide reasonable data and work constructively with the city of Los Angeles while protecting the privacy of our writers, end quote. So this is an odd one, and I'll be honest, I don't know where to come down on this. one hand, as Greg Benzinger said on Twitter, quote, this is rich from the company that tracked

writers for five minutes after each ride and developed Godview and hell, end quote. But on the other hand, quoting from the ride share guy, quote, seems extreme for the government to basically have real-time data on riders. Do they really need all that data to paint parking zones in the street and build more protected bike lanes? End quote. When I first read this, I assumed that it had to do with cities wanting to, you know, figure out where a bunch of scooters were piling up on sidewalks. But this is maybe more than that. I mean, put it this way. Would you want the government to always have real-time data on the rides you took in Uber cars? Like, why would they need that? And also, it seems like this mobile data specification plan, as mentioned,

would probably run afoul of California's own Electronic Communications Privacy Act, right? And actually, it's worth noting that actual privacy groups, again as mentioned, are on the side of the Ubers of the world on this one, quoting Mashable. Earlier this year, the Digital Rights Group Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote to the LA City Council concerned about risking customers' private information. Lyft sent a letter in April outlining three main issues with the data program. First, the letter discussed sharing customers' highly granular origin and destination data in real time and their complete route data at the end of their trip. It also raised concerns with using a third

party to store data which Lyft considered, quote, insufficient safeguards to secure our customers' information from breach, abuse, and disclosure, end quote. Finally, it noted that LADOT, quote, provided no justification for requiring, collecting, and storing detailed records of every scooter trip, end quote. Uber's issues lined up similarly and the company held fast to their objections, end quote. As Catherine Trindacosta tweeted, quote, I can't believe I'm being forced to agree with Uber on something, end quote. Facebook announced today that it has taken action against inauthentic behavior originating in Russia and targeting African countries, including Sudan, Libya, and Madagascar. But that is one of those stories that seems like same old, same

old. One day the same as the other. So let me take this opportunity to catch you up real quick on something else that we haven't spoken about regarding Facebook. A few weeks ago, Facebook announced policy surrounding political advertising on its platforms. Facebook said that it would not fact-check ads bought by politicians themselves or their political campaigns. In other words, if politicians lie in their ads on Facebook, they would not be taken down. PACs and other outside activists or special interest groups would see their ads taken down if they could be proven to be demonstrably false, but politicians, not so much. This policy has drawn criticism, especially from Democrats, for ads like the one that the Trump

presidential campaign was running that said Democrats have admitted that they went to repeal the Second Amendment. And when Mark Zuckerberg was testifying on the Hill last week, AOC asked him, if she could buy an ad saying her opponent supported the Green New Deal, even if that wasn't true. And it seemed to be that the answer is yes. And so an activist in California is taking this to its logical conclusion. Adriel Hampton has registered as a candidate in California's 22 gubernatorial election just so he can run false Facebook ads, quoting CNN Business. Hampton told CNN Business that he will use.

use his new status as a candidate to run false ads on Facebook about President Trump, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and other Facebook executives. He also said, he plans to run false ads on Facebook about executives of Twitter, which also has a policy of not fact-checking ads run by candidates. His goal is to force Facebook to stop allowing politicians to run false ads. On Monday, the New York Times reported that hundreds of Facebook employees had recently signed a letter to Mark Zuckerberg also decrying the policy, commenting on the law. letter a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CNN business, Facebook's culture is built on openness, so we appreciate our employees voicing their thoughts on this important topic.

We remain committed to not censoring political speech and will continue exploring additional steps we can take to bring increased transparency to political ads, end quote. Hampton is the treasurer of the really online lefty league pack, which last Friday began running a false ad on Facebook claiming that Senator Lindsey Graham backed the green news. deal. The ad spliced together different audio of Graham speaking to make it sound like he said, simply put, we believe in the Green New Deal. Graham never said that, end quote. Again, I don't know why Facebook needs any of this. Like, why not just ban all political advertising, even if you just do it through the end of next year's election or something like that? I know

there's a lot of money involved, money left on the table, but to what degree would foregoing that money, buy them so much goodwill, and save them, frankly, from a ton of grief and controversy like this. Finally, today, how did I not know there was a Mario Kart mobile game? Or maybe I did. I kind of vaguely remember hearing something about it coming down the pike, but I certainly did not know it was available. How come none of you told me? I blame you all. Well, it's definitely here. I mean, it's definitely here. According to Censor Tower, Nintendo's new Mario Kart Tour game had 123.9 million downloads in its launch month across iOS and Android, making that the best debut ever for a mobile game behind only Pokemon goes 163 million downloads in its launch month. Quote, the racing app is Nintendo's most successful mobile game launch by downloads so far, eclipsing Super Mario runs,

21.8 million downloads more than five times over. In terms of revenue, Mario Kart Tour comes in at second place, losing out only to the $67.6 million gross during Fire Emblemen Heroes launch month. Mario Kart Tour is faring less well in terms of revenue per download with an average of 26 cents per player, a slight improvement over Dr. Mario World's 19 cents per player, while Dragalia's lost, impressive $16.50 per player in its first month has yet to be beat, end quote. Well, now that I know about Mario Kart Tour, I know what I'll be doing this weekend. I've got nothing for you today. Gonna rush home and begin pumpkin carving, so I'll talk to you tomorrow.