Government investigation finds federal agencies failing at cybersecurity basics -- TechCrunch

Check the full OMB report (pdf) for more disconcerting details

"The Office of Management and Budget reports that the federal government is a shambles — cybersecurity-wise, anyway. Finding little situational awareness, few standard processes for reporting or managing attacks and almost no agencies adequately performing even basic encryption, the OMB concluded that “the current situation is untenable.”

All told, nearly three quarters of federal agencies have cybersecurity programs that qualified as either “at risk” (significant gaps in security) or “high risk” (fundamental processes not in place)."

Government investigation finds federal agencies failing at cybersecurity basics -- TechCrunch

The Wyze Cam Pan offers robust security for just $30 -- Engadget

Also see Wyze Cam Pan review (Digital Trends)

"There are plenty of connected cameras to record the goings-on in your home or office. But few offer as much value as the $20 WyzeCam. It packs a surprising amount of functionality into a tiny stationary frame. But for those who need more coverage from their camera, the company has a new model that can rotate 360 degrees and tilt its lens up and down. The Wyze Cam Pan only costs $30, a bit pricier than its predecessor but with a lot more capability.

The Wyze Cam Pan takes after its predecessor's simple, unassuming looks. Though, Instead of a diminutive white plastic cube, the new camera looks more like a unadorned juice box that rotates on a circular base. It buzzes around with all the seriousness of a little watchdog while its oversized "eye" ball tilts the lens up and down. It's HAL 9000 by way of WALL-E's Eve."

The Wyze Cam Pan offers robust security for just $30 -- Engadget

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says he’s trying to convince Alphabet to put Waymo self-driving cars on the company’s network -- Recode

For sale: a fleet of lightly-used (mostly) self-driving Uber cars...

"“Autonomous will be shared,” he said. “That will be fundamental to the technology. If it’s shared, you want to have the highest utilization rates possible. Owning or being a part of the largest rideshare network on a global basis will enable you to get the highest utilization out of your autonomous cars.”

Khosrowshahi’s tone on self-driving is markedly different from the extreme stance his predecessor, Travis Kalanick, took. To Kalanick, self-driving was an existential threat to Uber and drivers were the biggest obstacle to making the business work. Khosrowshahi said, as he has said previously, that for a long time the network will be a hybrid model where there will be drivers alongside self-driving cars on the platform.

“It’s existential if we don’t have access to the technology,” he said."

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says he’s trying to convince Alphabet to put Waymo self-driving cars on the company’s network

An American Alternative to Europe’s Privacy Law -- NYT

From a Tim Wu privacy law reality check

"How would this work in practice? Once these fiduciary duties were established by state legislation or a court ruling, questions about the breach of such duties would be addressed case by case, by courts and judges, in the American common-law manner. Instead of asking what responsibilities all “data controllers” have, as the Europeans must now do, courts in the United States could ask more specific questions.

For example: Did Equifax, the credit reporting agency, fail to adequately protect user data? (Obviously.) Should a firm like Quora, the question-and-answer website, require that users “opt in” before allowing other people to find out what you are asking about? (Almost certainly.) Should Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant, require users to “opt in” before it listens to their conversations? (It depends on how it would be carried out.)"

An American Alternative to Europe’s Privacy Law

Google Emerges as Early Winner From Europe’s New Data Privacy Law -- WSJ

Oops...

"GDPR, the European Union’s new privacy law, is drawing advertising money toward Google’s online-ad services and away from competitors that are straining to show they’re complying with the sweeping regulation.

The reason: the Alphabet Inc. ad giant is gathering individuals’ consent for targeted advertising at far higher rates than many competing online-ad services, early data show. That means the new law, the General Data Protection Regulation, is reinforcing—at least initially—the strength of the biggest online-ad players, led by Google and Facebook Inc."

Google Emerges as Early Winner From Europe’s New Data Privacy Law

Google Will Try to Tackle Latest iPhones With Pixel Phone Upgrades -- Bloomberg

That seems like a timeless article title...

"The Alphabet Inc. unit is planning at least two new models, likely to be dubbed the “Pixel 3” and “Pixel 3 XL,” said people familiar with the matter. The larger phone is designed with a nearly edge-to-edge screen, except for a thicker bezel known as a chin at the bottom of the phone. The display also will have a notch -- or a cutout -- at the top. The smaller model will look similar to the Pixel 2 and won’t include the notch or edge-to-edge look, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t yet public.

Google’s Pixel smartphones are widely regarded as some of the best Android-based devices, but they continue to lag far behind Apple Inc.’s iPhone and products from Samsung Electronics Co. in sales and market share. Google shipped fewer than 4 million units in 2017, according to data from analytics company IDC. That compares with 216 million iPhones shipped in the same period. Google intends to keep updating its Pixel line annually as it sees the hardware division as important to the company’s long-term future."

Google Will Try to Tackle Latest iPhones With Pixel Phone Upgrades

How spies can use your cellphone to find you – and eavesdrop on your calls and texts too -- The Washington Post

Good thing we don't need regulation anymore...

"The letter, dated May 22 and obtained by The Washington Post, described surveillance systems that tap into a global messaging system that allows cellular customers to move from network to network as they travel. The decades-old messaging system, called SS7, has little security, allowing intelligence agencies and some criminal gangs to spy on unwitting targets — based on nothing more than their cellphone numbers. 

“I don’t think most Americans realize how insecure U.S. telephone networks are,” Wyden said in a statement. “If more consumers knew how easy it is for bad guys to track or hack their mobile phones, they would demand the FCC and wireless companies do something about it. These aren’t just hypotheticals.”"

How spies can use your cellphone to find you – and eavesdrop on your calls and texts too

Chrome 67 prepares to kill passwords -- SlashGear

Another thing "killed" in macOS Chrome 67 is the Blogger BlogThis! extension (Blogger was acquired by Google in early 2003) I'd been using for most of the time since I started this blog in October 1999 (the blog wasn't originally hosted on Blogspot, however; the history here only goes back ~16 years). With no warning or notice, the extension was dropped from my Chrome configuration when I installed Chrome 67 yesterday, and I can't reinstall it (I'm guessing whoever last updated the extension -- in 2011 -- might be in a different role now...). It was a handy tool, and now my blog post routine will be more tedious and error-prone. On a positive note, the BlogThis! extension was also the last reason I was still using Chrome (the extension isn't available for Safari), so now I'll no longer need to use Chrome...

"Once the only way to protect accounts, be they online or offline, passwords are now seen more as a liability than an ally. Everyone’s out to kill it, from Apple to Microsoft to, now, Google. The rollout of the Chrome browser version 67 went almost under the radar. That, however, belies what’s inside this feature packed release, which includes the beginning of the end for weak passwords using WebAuthn and something like a secure USB key or even your fingerprint."

p.s. update: the basic blogger.com editor isn't fully functional in Safari, so now I'm editing blog posts in Firefox...
p.s.s. composing posts directly in the basic Blogger editor also automagically creates corresponding posts on Google+, so I've had more activity today on Google+ than in the last several years (and my own posts unhelpfully dominate the top of my Google+ home view); that's kind of amusing... 
Chrome 67 prepares to kill passwords

The Washington Post puts a price on data privacy in its GDPR response — and tests requirements (Digiday)

Perhaps a leading indicator

"Some U.S. publishers have blocked visitors from the E.U. to their sites rather than comply with the wide-ranging General Data Protection Regulation to protect people’s online privacy. The Washington Post went an extra step and put up a paywall for E.U. visitors, upselling them to a $90 a year “premium EU subscription” in exchange for no ads  — and the privilege of not having their data tracked. The premium subscription is $30 more than the cost of a basic online subscription to the Post. 

“This is something we’ve been working on for a long time to create transparency, minimize friction for our readers and ensure compliance,” emailed Miki King, vp of marketing at the Post. “Our approach was to give readers an additional option beyond our consent-based offerings of free limited access or a subscription. We’ve now added a third option that offers no third-party tracking or advertising at a premium.”"

The Washington Post puts a price on data privacy in its GDPR response — and tests requirements

Snap CEO Says Facebook Is All About Competing for Attention - Bloomberg

Some SNAP shareholders may disagree on "the most fantastic thing"...

"The CEO implied that the Facebook copycatting was the least of his worries. Since taking his company public in March of last year, Spiegel has endured frequent executive turnover, issues with employee morale and a backlash from a redesign of its core application, which he says was unexpectedly disruptive.

“If you can create something that is so beautiful and simple that the only thing other people can do is copy it exactly, that is the most fantastic feeling,” he said. “It is the most fantastic thing in the entire world.”"

Snap CEO Says Facebook Is All About Competing for Attention - Bloomberg

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic just got another step closer to flying tourists to space - The Washington Post

I'm holding out for the SpaceX lunar tourism mission... In the meantime, you will soon be able to catch a ~19-hour nonstop flight from Singapore to Newark.

"The company plans to have another test flight in about six weeks or so, he said, and then it could attempt to reach the edge of space on the next flight — but that would depend on how the vehicle performs in the test flights.

Virgin Galactic, which charges $250,000 a ticket, has some 700 people signed up to fly, and Branson has said he would be among the first to go. To prepare for his flight, which he has said could come this year, the 67-year-old said he’s been cycling, playing tennis in the morning and evening, and spending time in a centrifuge to get his body used to the additional gravitational forces passengers would experience on SpaceShipTwo.

Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, is also aiming to fly its first test flights with people by the end of this year. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)"

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic just got another step closer to flying tourists to space - The Washington Post

How a Pentagon Contract Became an Identity Crisis for Google - The New York Times

Earlier in the article: "Executives at DeepMind, an A.I. pioneer based in London that Google acquired in 2014, have said they are completely opposed to military and surveillance work, and employees at the lab have protested the contract. The acquisition agreement between the two companies said DeepMind technology would never be used for military or surveillance purposes."

"Many of these researchers have recently arrived from the world of academia, and some retain professorships. They include Geoff Hinton, a Briton who helps oversee the Brain lab in Toronto and has been open about his reluctance to work for the United States government. In the late 1980s, Mr. Hinton left the United States for Canada in part because he was reluctant to take funding from the Department of Defense.

Jeff Dean, one of Google’s longest-serving and most revered employees, who now oversees all A.I. work at the company, said at a conference for developers this month that he had signed a letter opposing the use of so-called machine learning for autonomous weapons, which would identify targets and fire without a human pulling the trigger."

How a Pentagon Contract Became an Identity Crisis for Google - The New York Times

Europe's GDPR laws trigger data complaints, drop in programmatic ad buys - Axios

Check the full post for snapshots of GDPR week 1

"Europe's sweeping data privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), went into effect last Friday, triggering a flurry of multi-billion dollar complaints, the shuttering of news websites overseas and a programmatic (automated) ad-buying market crash in Europe.

Why it matters: There hasn't been any indication that enforcement will be that stringent — regulators have indicated they'll be more lenient in the beginning than businesses realize — but ominous press coverage and the fear of heavy penalties has been enough to rattle industry."

Europe's GDPR laws trigger data complaints, drop in programmatic ad buys - Axios

News Then, News Now: Journalism in a Digital Age – Richard Gingras – Medium

From a digital + journalism reality check by Google's Vice President, News

"In open societies it is the epitome of free expression as recognized by the European Charter. It changed how we communicate, how we learn, how we shop, how we sell, how we are informed of the issues of the day and how we form opinions about the issues of the day. The Internet exponentially expanded both the marketplace for ideas and the marketplace for information. It has brought extraordinary value to our societies and introduced new challenges — to our institutions, to our politics, and yes, to journalism itself.

At an existential level it poses the paradoxical question: how can democracies survive and thrive in an environment of unfettered free expression? Democracies succeed by their ability to achieve consensus between different views. How do democracies thrive in an environment that requires bridging gaps between alternate realities? How can we bridge that gap with an abiding structure of commonly-accepted facts from respected sources? Facts matter. The profession of journalism matters.

For us who are involved in the pursuit of journalism, can we evolve new approaches in quest of commonly-understood facts and not fall prey to amplifying our divisions?"

News Then, News Now: Journalism in a Digital Age – Richard Gingras – Medium

Jeff Bezos Details Plan to Make Blue Origin the Amazon of the Moon (Gizmodo)

So the way for Amazon to expand market opportunities is to facilitate the establishment of space colonies...

"According to Geekwire, Bezos said that the lunar surface is “almost like somebody set this up for us,” with polar deposits of water ice that could be mined for everything from oxygen to rocket fuel and possible rare resource deposits. He also added that Blue Origin’s offer of a public-private partnership with NASA to build a lunar lander capable of carrying five tons of cargo in preparation for the arrival of humans remains open, but “We’ll do that, even if NASA doesn’t do it ... We could do it a lot faster if there were a partnership.”

Also, Bezos apparently likes the European Space Agency’s concept of a Moon Village where all lunar outposts are concentrated in a single region for potential resource-sharing the most. As Geekwire noted, Bezos views Blue Origin as primarily about lowering the cost of cargo delivery to space rather than actually getting too deeply involved in the construction of things like habitats, so this would all set up the company nicely to be a sort of Space Amazon for said Moon Village."

Jeff Bezos Details Plan to Make Blue Origin the Amazon of the Moon

Here are the three most head-scratching tweets from Elon Musk this holiday weekend - Recode

Also see Elon Musk wants to fix media mistrust with a dopey rating system. There’s a better way. (The Washington Post) and Elon Musk's Idea of 'Excellent' Journalism Comes From an Alleged Sex Cult (Gizmodo)

"A lot of Musk’s arguments feel rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of how journalists do their jobs. So it’s a good question as to how much first-hand experience Musk has with newsrooms when he’s not the subject of a story. Most people, of course, do not have any experience with newsrooms, but most people are also not making huge claims about the motivations of an entire industry.

Is Musk divining his reasoning from movies about journalism? From friendly media executives? Nope! He’s been in too many newsrooms himself, he says, and they’re a bleak place. Would love to know some specifics about his last visit."

Here are the three most head-scratching tweets from Elon Musk this holiday weekend - Recode

Jeff Bezos: ‘We Must Go Back to the Moon, and This Time to Stay’ - WSJ

For a deep-dive in this domain, see The Space Barons (also see a NYT review by Walter Isaacson)

"Responding to questions about his commitment to pursue human space travel regardless of federal support, Amazon’s CEO joked that either “other people will take over the vision, or I will run out of money.”

But he ended the talk on a more serious note by reiterating his view that moon exploration is an essential step toward transporting humans to Mars and allowing them to create habitats on the Red Planet. Such gradual efforts are the only way to avoid a repeat of earlier policy mistakes, he said, which saw the Apollo astronauts land on the moon but then morphed into five decades without any more human missions there.

“I don’t like to skip steps,” he said, explaining that trying to take people directly to Mars would be futile. “There would be a ticker-tape parade and then 50 years of nothing.”"

Jeff Bezos: ‘We Must Go Back to the Moon, and This Time to Stay’ - WSJ

Dear Publishers, if you want my subscription dollars (or euros), here is what I expect… (Monday Note)

From a timely subscription publication reality check; perhaps Apple News + Texture will provide a solution

"Subscription fatigue is looming. The main growth engine — the Trump bump — will soon reach a plateau. Then publishers that offer poor service and little value added will be the first to lose customers. The biggest mistake of news publishers is their belief that the presumed uniqueness of their content is sufficient to warrant a lifetime of customer loyalty. In thinking this, they choose to ignore the current benchmarks of digital services: intuitively, customers expect nothing less than what they get with Amazon or Netflix. These are now the standard for customer satisfaction."

Dear Publishers, if you want my subscription dollars (or euros), here is what I expect…

Android Creator Puts Essential Up for Sale, Cancels Next Phone - Bloomberg

Less Essential

"Rubin responded with a post on Twitter. “We always have multiple products in development at the same time and we embrace canceling some in favor of the ones we think will be bigger hits,” he tweeted. “We are putting all of our efforts towards our future, game-changing products, which include mobile and home products.”

The original Essential Phone launched last August after a several-week delay. It debuted with a cutting edge look that beat Apple’s iPhone X to market with a nearly all-screen front. It also has a unique ceramic casing and its Android software is nearly identical to the stock version running on Google’s Pixel phones, giving it another unique sales proposition.

The company had been working on a new model, but has since canceled development of the device. It has shifted engineers and other resources to an upcoming smart-home product, which is on track for release by next year, the people said."

Android Creator Puts Essential Up for Sale, Cancels Next Phone - Bloomberg

An Amazon Echo recorded a family’s conversation, then sent it to a random person in their contacts, report says - The Washington Post

New Alexa feature: enunciate and pay attention or actual results may vary...

"Amazon said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post on Thursday afternoon that the Echo woke up when it heard a word that sounded like “Alexa.” “The subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request. At which point, Alexa said out loud ‘To whom?’ At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer's contact list."

The company also said, “As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.”"

An Amazon Echo recorded a family’s conversation, then sent it to a random person in their contacts, report says - The Washington Post

Why Is Elon Musk Attacking the Media? We Explain. (Also, Give Us a Good Rating!) - The New York Times

Also see Pravda is Elon Musk’s worst idea ever (Lance Ulanoff)

"Elon Musk, the billionaire who has ambitions to colonize Mars and whose companies make electric vehicles and rockets, spent part of his Wednesday criticizing an already beleaguered and much-maligned group of humans on Earth.

Yes, Mr. Musk, 46, the chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, could not help unloading on the news media — members of which have written articles, especially in recent months, about the many problems that have plagued his companies."

Why Is Elon Musk Attacking the Media? We Explain. (Also, Give Us a Good Rating!) - The New York Times

U.S. News Outlets Block European Readers Over New Privacy Rules - The New York Times

Not an effective strategy -- GDPR is about whose data you have, not where your site is available

"American news outlets including The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Arizona Daily Star abruptly blocked access to their websites from Europe on Friday, choosing to black out readers rather than comply with a strict new data privacy law in the European Union that limits what information can be collected about people online.

The new rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, strike at a core element of businesses that offer free content online but make money by collecting and sharing user data to sell targeted advertising. The shutdowns came as a surprise because groups had two years to prepare for the new regulations."

U.S. News Outlets Block European Readers Over New Privacy Rules - The New York Times

Facebook, Google face first GDPR complaints over “forced consent” | TechCrunch

GDPR day 1... Also see Sorting Through GDPR: What to Watch After May 25 (Lawfare) and G.D.P.R., a New Privacy Law, Makes Europe World’s Leading Tech Watchdog (NYT)

"The complaints have been filed on behalf of (unnamed) individual users — with one filed against Facebook; one against Facebook-owned Instagram; one against Facebook-owned WhatsApp; and one against Google’s Android.

Schrems argues that the companies are using a strategy of “forced consent” to continue processing the individuals’ personal data — when in fact the law requires that users be given a free choice unless a consent is strictly necessary for provision of the service. (And, well, Facebook claims its core product is social networking — rather than farming people’s personal data for ad targeting.)"

Facebook, Google face first GDPR complaints over “forced consent” | TechCrunch

Follow the CAPEX: Separating the Clowns from the Clouds – Platformonomics

Final paragraphs from a timely Charles Fitzgerald reality check

"No one is looking to electively increase their dependency on Oracle (and embracing cloud takes vendor dependency to a whole new level). Oracle has always been very aggressive on the sales side, and their desperation around cloud appears to be taking it to new heights. Gartner, who are otherwise inexplicitly upbeat about Oracle’s cloud efforts, says, “Oracle sometimes uses high-pressure sales tactics to sell its cloud IaaS offerings, including software audits or threatening to dramatically raise the cost of database licenses if the customer chooses another cloud provider.” The risk for all existing Oracle customers, as the company’s cloud ambitions collide with reality, is the company will get even more aggressive in monetizing its non-cloud installed base in order to sustain its revenue. If you think their maintenance fees and audits are bad now, just wait until they start waterboarding customers (or maybe they already do?).

TL;DR: Thanks for playing IBM and Oracle."

Follow the CAPEX: Separating the Clowns from the Clouds – Platformonomics

Apple, Spurned by Others, Signs Deal With Volkswagen for Driverless Cars - The New York Times

For another self-driving car realty check, see Disrupters Don’t Stand a Chance Against Car Companies (Bloomberg)

"Apple once had grand aspirations to build its own electric self-driving car and lead the next generation of transportation. Over time, the tech giant’s ambitions ran into reality.

So Apple curtailed its original vision, first by focusing on software for self-driving cars and then by working solely on an autonomous shuttle for its own use with employees. Now, the tech giant has settled for an auto partner that was not its first choice."

Apple, Spurned by Others, Signs Deal With Volkswagen for Driverless Cars - The New York Times

Elon Musk Tweet Storm Blames Big Oil for Negative Tesla Reports - Bloomberg

Tangentially, see Trump admitted he attacks press to shield himself from negative coverage, Lesley Stahl says (The Washington Post)

"Musk, 46, was riled by a Robert W. Baird analyst report that said “increasingly immaterial” headlines were dominating Tesla news cycles. The first of his tweets spurred reactions from several journalists who compared Musk with President Donald Trump.

“Thought you’d say that,” Musk wrote back to a reporter for tech website The Verge. “Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks ‘You’re just like Trump!’ Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you any more. You lost your credibility a long time ago.”

Like Trump, Musk communicates directly to a massive Twitter audience -- about 21.8 million followers, to be precise -- and has been combative and defensive with the media for years. Another tendency he shares with the president is his lack of regard for convention"

Elon Musk Tweet Storm Blames Big Oil for Negative Tesla Reports - Bloomberg

Google employees are being targeted with this ad urging them to consider their role in making search rankings more fair - Recode

A deeply nested digital advertising campaign; also see Yelp wants the EU to launch new antitrust charges against Google (Engadget)

"Many campaigns that push for regulating Google are aimed at regulators. But here’s one that’s targeted at the company’s collective conscience — its employees.

A coalition called Focus on the User, led by Yelp and TripAdvisor, has started “significant social media ad buys” targeting Google employees with a new video, according to a coalition rep. The ad asks Google workers to consider their role in making Google’s search-ranking practices more fair.

The video claims that Google gives “preferential treatment to some of its own content,” such as local listings. (Thus the interest from Yelp and TripAdvisor.) The argument: Instead of Google showing the most relevant results, the company sidesteps its own algorithm to show you only “what Google wants you see” — often, Google’s own content."

Google employees are being targeted with this ad urging them to consider their role in making search rankings more fair - Recode

Trump’s Twitter account violated the First Amendment. Here’s what that means for the rest of Twitter. - The Washington Post

On a related note, see ‘Too inconvenient’: Trump goes rogue on phone security (Politico)

"What about Trump's own First Amendment rights? Don't those guarantee him the ability to treat his followers the way he wants?

Trump didn't give up his First Amendment rights by becoming president, the judge said, but upon taking office he gained a number of other constitutional responsibilities — such as not engaging in governmental viewpoint discrimination that's prohibited by the First Amendment.

“No government official — including the President — is above the law,” wrote Buchwald for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Again, private entities such as Twitter are not subject to this expectation. But government officials like Trump are."

Trump’s Twitter account violated the First Amendment. Here’s what that means for the rest of Twitter. - The Washington Post

Getting a Flood of G.D.P.R.-Related Privacy Policy Updates? Read Them - The New York Times

Check the full article for a timely GDPR + privacy reality check

"You have probably noticed a flood of emails and alerts from companies in the last few weeks informing you about changes to their privacy policies.

Don’t ignore them.

Yes, there is a lot of legalese to wade through. But resist the temptation to immediately delete those emails or close the alerts right away. They may contain important information about managing your digital privacy at a time when it’s become clear that our online data is far from safe."

Getting a Flood of G.D.P.R.-Related Privacy Policy Updates? Read Them - The New York Times

Exclusive: Facebook Opens Up About False News | WIRED

Also see How Facebook Wants to Improve the Quality Of Your News Feed for a related interview

"The central message of the film is that Facebook really does care profoundly about false news. The company was slow to realize the pollution building up in News Feed, but now it is committed to cleaning it up. Not only does Facebook care, it’s got young, dedicated people who are on it. They’re smart, too. John Hegeman, who now runs News Feed, helped build the Vickrey-Clark-Groves auction system for Facebook advertising, which has turned it into one of the most profitable businesses of all time.

The question for Facebook, though, is no longer whether it cares. The question is whether the problem can be solved. News Feed has been tuned, for years, to maximize our attention and in many ways our outrage. The same features that incentivized publishers to create clickbait are the ones that let false news fly. News Feed has been nourishing the sugar plantations for a decade. Can it really help grow kale, or even apples?"

Exclusive: Facebook Opens Up About False News | WIRED

Facebook’s plan to stop revenge porn may be even creepier than revenge porn - Vox

Also see Facebook is expanding its unconventional approach to combating revenge porn (The Verge) and this Facebook Safety post

"Facebook’s program launched experimentally in Australia in November 2017, and expanded on May 22, 2018, to the US, the UK, and Canada. It requires those who wish to avoid being victims of revenge porn to act preemptively, before they become targets — by submitting their own nude photographs to Facebook. The idea is that Facebook can then digitally fingerprint the submitted image and block its potential future spread.

But the potential problems with this procedure are numerous. Though members of the public objected to the basic idea of the program back in November, the announcement of its spread has renewed public scrutiny about its harmful potential — and for good reason."

Facebook’s plan to stop revenge porn may be even creepier than revenge porn - Vox

No one’s ready for GDPR - The Verge

Two days to go... On a related note, see Apple launches new privacy portal, users can download a copy of everything Apple knows about them (9to5Mac)

"After four years of deliberation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was officially adopted by the European Union in 2016. The regulation gave companies a two-year runway to get compliant, which is theoretically plenty of time to get shipshape. The reality is messier. Like term papers and tax returns, there are people who get it done early, and then there’s the rest of us.

In today’s meeting with the European Parliament, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would be GDPR compliant by the deadline, but if so, the company would be in the minority. “Very few companies are going to be 100 percent compliant on May 25th,” says Jason Straight, an attorney and chief privacy officer at United Lex, a company that sets up GDPR compliance programs for businesses. “Companies, especially US companies, are definitely scrambling here in the last month to get themselves ready.” In a survey of over 1,000 companies conducted by the Ponemon Institute in April, half of the companies said they won’t be compliant by the deadline. When broken down by industry, 60 percent of tech companies said they weren’t ready."

No one’s ready for GDPR - The Verge

Apple invites press to WWDC 2018 keynote, iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 unveil expected | 9to5Mac

In other Apple product speculation, see Next Generation iPhone Chips Go Into Production (Bloomberg)

"iOS 12, macOS 10.14, tvOS 12, watchOS 5, and possibly improvements to Siri and HomePod are expected. Apple typically releases developer betas of its new iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV software the same day, followed by public beta versions a few weeks later and final releases later in September.

Last year Apple’s WWDC opening keynote also included the launch of new MacBook Pros and iMacs as well as a preview of the iMac Pro and HomePod. Hardware expectations this year are slim with a Retina 13-inch MacBook rumored for later in the year, but we’ll find out more in a few short weeks."

Apple invites press to WWDC 2018 keynote, iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 unveil expected | 9to5Mac

Starbucks’s mobile payments system has more users than Apple’s, Google’s - Recode

Pay different

"By the end of this year, a quarter of U.S. smartphone users — 55 million people — over the age of 14 will make an in-store mobile payment. More than 40 percent of those people will have done so through Starbucks’s mobile payments app, according to new data from research firm eMarketer.

The Starbucks app, which launched before the other three top payments apps — Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay — has long been the most successful payments app. It’s likely going to maintain that lead over the next few years.

The Starbucks app lets users pay with their phones and earn credits toward future purchases. That usage is significant: Starbucks said its mobile order-and-pay system accounted for 12 percent of all U.S. transactions in the quarter ended April 1."

Starbucks’s mobile payments system has more users than Apple’s, Google’s - Recode

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Gets an Earful From the E.U. - The New York Times

Also see European lawmakers told Mark Zuckerberg they could regulate — or break up — Facebook (The Washington Post)

"“It is time to discuss breaking Facebook’s monopoly,” said Manfred Weber, a German lawmaker and the leader of the European People’s Party, which makes up the biggest bloc in Parliament. He added that the company had “too much power.”

Another member asked if Mr. Zuckerberg wanted to be remembered in the same high regard as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, or for undermining democracy. In all, nearly a dozen lawmakers spoke, each with multiple questions, some of them very detailed and pointed about issues such as online bullying and election interference."

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Gets an Earful From the E.U. - The New York Times

Facebook management moves around but people don’t leave - Recode

From an extensive Facebook executive management profile; tangentially, see Tech Companies Embark on a New Apology Tour (Bloomberg)

"It’s sometimes hard to grasp Facebook’s massive scale. The site has more than 2.2 billion users worldwide. In fact, there are nearly as many people who actively use Facebook every month as there are followers of Christianity. Facebook’s 2017 revenue — around $40 billion — was more than the GDP of about 100 different countries. It’s not an exaggeration to think that second- and third-tier Facebook executives have a chance to impact more lives than most of the world’s elected politicians.

That impact has never been more apparent than it is right now. When Facebook’s data policies were exposed during the company’s recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, it affected tens of millions of people (so far). Even the notion that Facebook ads could have affected the 2016 election is a testament to the company’s influence.

We’ve seen this realization wash over Zuckerberg, who has publicly promised to “take a broader view of our responsibility.” But others in Facebook’s upper management believe the same."

Facebook management moves around but people don’t leave - Recode

'Pew Pew' Goes the Blockchain - Bloomberg

More on pew-pew industry dynamics

"We talk a lot around here about the blockchain for banking, and one obvious thing about the blockchain for banking is that it goes pew-pew. You can bring senior executives into a room and tell them that you’re upgrading the infrastructure that you use to reconcile trade settlement data with counterparties, and their eyes will glaze over and they will start nodding off, and you can shout “blockchain! blockchain! blockchain blockchain blockchain!” and they will perk up and hand you a stack of money. The blockchain is exciting in ways that improving database architecture is not. (For reasons that are obscure to me, frankly. I get the pew-pew maps! It is cool when you can move things around on giant wall-mounted touch screens. “The blockchain” lacks that sort of tangible sci-fi experience.) 

But the point is that in a modern economy, actually making stuff work is only part of the job. The other part of the job is performing that making-stuff-workiness to customers and executives. If your goal is to hire engineers to write code to protect your accounts from hackers, first you have to hire different engineers to build maps that shoot lasers, and show the laser maps to executives, to convince the executives to give you money to hire the real engineers to do the real work. (It's easy to hire the laser engineers because, one, fake laser maps are fairly commoditized, and two, if you go to your CEO to ask “can I hire an engineer to build a laser map” of course she will say yes because laser maps are awesome.)"

'Pew Pew' Goes the Blockchain - Bloomberg

Why crypto firms want to become banks (Tearsheet)

What could possibly go wrong?...

"Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and payments firm Ivy Koin reportedly met with FDIC officials in “recent weeks” about possibilities to obtain banking licenses. Since cryptocurrency business models are already modeled on crypto-fiat exchange, remittance, merchant payment processing, personal and business value storage, ATMs, and even escrow and lending, there’s a good business case for bringing all these services together under one umbrella, said Robert Musiala, counsel with law firm BakerHostetler.

A banking license would give crypto firms FDIC insurance for funds invested and offer a platform to sell other products to customers. Cryptocurrency firms that become banks also need to meet customer and anti-money-laundering requirements that would enable firms to accept large crypto payments. Here are three implications of crypto firms’ pursuit of banking licenses."

Why crypto firms want to become banks

Tesla Model 3 Goes Upscale, and Base-Price Buyers Must Wait - The New York Times

Also see Consumer Reports: Tesla’s Model 3 has ‘big flaws’ (The Washington Post)

"Even as Tesla scrambles to master the production challenges of making its first mass-market electric car, the Model 3, the company is moving to add two high-end versions of the vehicle — versions that its chief, Elon Musk, said may be crucial to its profitability.

In fact, delivering the base-price model at this point would cause the company “to lose money & die,” he declared in a Twitter post over the weekend."

Tesla Model 3 Goes Upscale, and Base-Price Buyers Must Wait - The New York Times

A Location-Sharing Disaster Shows How Exposed You Really Are | WIRED

Also see The Privacy Scandal That Should Be Bigger Than Cambridge Analytica (Slate)

"You couldn’t hope for a much better encapsulation of the hopeless state of data privacy in the US today. You can see the same casual security sloppiness with which LocationSmart and Securus treated your location in the countless exposed databases—revealing everything from personal information to voter records—or in the extremely, entirely, embarrassingly preventable Equifax breach. The same system that allows AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint to sell your location to companies you’ve never heard of also allows thousands of barely regulated, shadowy data brokers to know everything about not just where you are but who you are, and what you do online. And lack of tangible progress, the sense that this has all happened before and will happen again, the resignation; that’s the cumulative effect of years of breaches and leaks and carelessness that make this all feel so futile. This keeps happening, and keeps not getting fixed."

A Location-Sharing Disaster Shows How Exposed You Really Are | WIRED

How the Math Men Overthrew the Mad Men | The New Yorker

A timely advertising reality check partially adapted from Ken Auletta's forthcoming book, “Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)"

"Once, Mad Men ruled advertising. They’ve now been eclipsed by Math Men—the engineers and data scientists whose province is machines, algorithms, pureed data, and artificial intelligence. Yet Math Men are beleaguered, as Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated when he humbled himself before Congress, in April. Math Men’s adoration of data—coupled with their truculence and an arrogant conviction that their “science” is nearly flawless—has aroused government anger, much as Microsoft did two decades ago.

The power of Math Men is awesome. Google and Facebook each has a market value exceeding the combined value of the six largest advertising and marketing holding companies. Together, they claim six out of every ten dollars spent on digital advertising, and nine out of ten new digital ad dollars. They have become more dominant in what is estimated to be an up to two-trillion-dollar annual global advertising and marketing business. Facebook alone generates more ad dollars than all of America’s newspapers, and Google has twice the ad revenues of Facebook."

How the Math Men Overthrew the Mad Men | The New Yorker

Microsoft acquires AI company to make Cortana and bots sound more human - The Verge

Also see Your parents love you, Cortana. That's why we bought you an upgrade (The Register)

"Microsoft is acquiring conversational AI startup Semantic Machines in an effort to make bots and intelligent assistants like Cortana sound and respond more like humans. Founded in 2014, Semantic Machines uses machine learning to make bots respond in a more natural way to queries. Semantic Machines is led by UC Berkeley professor Dan Klein and former Apple chief speech scientist Larry Gillick. Both are considered pioneers in conversational AI.

Microsoft’s acquisition will boost the company’s Cortana digital assistant, as well as the company’s Azure Bot Service that’s used by 300,000 developers. Microsoft has already used a human voice for its Cortana assistant. The software maker worked closely with Halo developer 343 Industries on the eyelike visual elements and voice actress Jen Taylor for the voice of Cortana back in 2014. “With the acquisition of Semantic Machines, we will establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley to push forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces,” explains David Ku, chief technology officer of Microsoft AI & Research."

Microsoft acquires AI company to make Cortana and bots sound more human - The Verge

Microsoft makes inroads with U.S. spy agencies as tech giants face off over cloud contract - The Washington Post

In other U.S. government/Amazon news, see Trump personally pushed postmaster general to double rates on Amazon, other firms (The Washington Post)

"For years, Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com that provides cloud computing for businesses and government agencies, has been the primary provider of cloud services to U.S. intelligence agencies, thanks to a $600 million contract with the CIA. (Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)

That remains the case after the recent agreement. Still, executives from Microsoft framed the contract agreement as an “awakening.”

“This is a huge win from a Microsoft perspective,” said Dana Barnes, vice president of the company’s joint and defense agencies business unit. “It’s kind of an awakening as far as the intelligence community is concerned that you can’t be a one-cloud community.”"

Microsoft makes inroads with U.S. spy agencies as tech giants face off over cloud contract - The Washington Post

How One Company Scammed Silicon Valley. And How It Got Caught. - The New York Times

Movie version starring Jennifer Lawrence expected in 2018; also see Theranos Could Have Been Stopped (Monday Note)

"The question of how it got so far — more than 800 employees and a paper valuation of $9 billion — will fascinate business school classes for years. The first line of defense should have been the board, and its failure was shocking. Some of the directors displayed a fawning devotion to Holmes — in effect becoming cheerleaders rather than overseers. Shultz helped his grandson land a job; when the kid reported back that the place was rotten, Grandpa didn’t believe him. There is a larger moral here: The people in the trenches know best. The V.I.P. directors were nectar for investor bees, but they had no relevant expertise. 

Even outsiders could have spotted red flags, but averted their eyes as if they wanted to believe. Fishy excuses — Holmes blamed a production delay on an earthquake in Japan — were blithely accepted. When a Walgreens team visited Theranos it pointedly asked for — and was denied — permission to see the lab. A company consultant pleaded that the chain not go ahead with in-store clinics. “Someday this is going to be a black eye,” he predicted. But Walgreens was plagued by a “fear of missing out.” Like many executives, they were looking over their shoulder and not at the evidence."

How One Company Scammed Silicon Valley. And How It Got Caught. - The New York Times

Banks Adopt Military-Style Tactics to Fight Cybercrime - The New York Times

Average number of "pew pew" maps per fusion center tbd

"Like many cybersecurity bunkers, IBM’s foxhole has deliberately theatrical touches. Whiteboards and giant monitors fill nearly every wall, with graphics that can be manipulated by touch.

“You can’t have a fusion center unless you have really cool TVs,” quipped Lawrence Zelvin, a former Homeland Security official who is now Citigroup’s global cybersecurity head, at a recent cybercrime conference. “It’s even better if they do something when you touch them. It doesn’t matter what they do. Just something.”

Security pros mockingly refer to such eye candy as “pew pew” maps, an onomatopoeia for the noise of laser guns in 1980s movies and video arcades. They are especially useful, executives concede, to put on display when V.I.P.s or board members stop by for a tour. Two popular “pew pew” maps are from FireEye and the defunct security vendor Norse, whose video game-like maps show laser beams zapping across the globe. Norse went out of business two years ago, and no one is sure what data the map is based on, but everyone agrees that it looks cool."

Banks Adopt Military-Style Tactics to Fight Cybercrime - The New York Times

Apple and Its Rivals Bet Their Futures on These Men’s Dreams - Bloomberg

Check the full article for an AI history reality check

"Over the past five years, artificial intelligence has gone from perennial vaporware to one of the technology industry’s brightest hopes. Computers have learned to recognize faces and objects, understand the spoken word, and translate scores of languages. The world’s biggest companies—Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft—have bet their futures largely on AI, racing to see who’s fastest at building smarter machines. That’s fueled the perception that AI has come out of nowhere, what with Tesla’s self-driving cars and Alexa chatting up your child. But this was no overnight hit, nor was it the brainchild of a single Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

The ideas behind modern AI—neural networks and machine learning—have roots you can trace to the last stages of World War II. Back then, academics were beginning to build computing systems meant to store and process information in ways similar to the human brain. Over the decades, the technology had its ups and downs, but it failed to capture the attention of computer scientists broadly until around 2012, thanks to a handful of stubborn researchers who weren’t afraid to look foolish. They remained convinced that neural nets would light up the world and alter humanity’s destiny."

Apple and Its Rivals Bet Their Futures on These Men’s Dreams - Bloomberg

'Speed and simplicity': How Square plans to bring bitcoin payments to the masses (Tearsheet)

Also see Jack Dorsey Is All In on Bitcoin as the Currency of the Future (Bloomberg)

"“We want to go back to that original idea of having people purchase a coffee with it,” Dorsey said at Consensus, the New York blockchain and cryptocurrency conference happening this week. “Our focus is [on] how we get this to an everyday currency… We won’t necessarily be the company that comes up with the right framework, algorithms or technologies, but I do believe we’ll help with the simplifying of it, making it more straightforward and helping educate” consumers as well as regulators.

To do that, Square is leaning on its original approach of helping people complete sales and move money, rather than bucketing itself as a card reader or a software company."

'Speed and simplicity': How Square plans to bring bitcoin payments to the masses

Elon Musk’s Empire Converges: Boring Tunnel to Link L.A. With SpaceX - Bloomberg

Commute different

"Boring’s stated mission is to “solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic,” via a large network of tunnels, shuttling autonomous pods with the capacity to travel more than 600 miles per hour. Closely held SpaceX is going to build its next rocket, known as BFR, at the Port of Los Angeles, an area Musk envisions people getting to using a Boring Hyperloop -- if the city approves the idea.

The “Boring Company Hyperloop will take you from city center under ground & ocean to spaceport in 10 to 15 mins," Musk tweeted Wednesday. But although the entrepreneur has always been long on vision, the City of Los Angeles is a complex, sprawling place. To realize Musk’s idea, Boring will need permits and buy-in from city officials and residents, many of whom felt blindsided when the company first made its goals public. In addition, local neighborhood groups are suing the city over the company’s plans."

Elon Musk’s Empire Converges: Boring Tunnel to Link L.A. With SpaceX - Bloomberg

Amazon Tests Ad Tool That Rivals Google, Criteo - Bloomberg

Digital advertising disruption ahead

"The tool lets merchants selling on Amazon’s online marketplace purchase spots that will follow shoppers around the web to lure the consumers back to Amazon to buy. The company is inviting select merchants to test the new ads later this month, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

Currently, merchants can buy other types of ads on Amazon, and the company has been giving more-prominent placement to these sponsored product spots in its search results. The new tool lets these sellers bid on ads that will appear on other websites and apps, giving them much wider reach. Merchants will only pay Amazon when customers click on the ads."

Amazon Tests Ad Tool That Rivals Google, Criteo - Bloomberg

Amazon is moving into blockchain with a new partnership (CNBC)

Also see AWS Moves to Simplify Production-Grade Business Blockchains (Coindesk)

"The cloud computing giant will team with a new start-up launching Tuesday called Kaleido, which was born out of leading blockchain incubator known as Consensys. The company is aiming to give AWS customers an "easy button" to get into the same technology that underpins bitcoin.

"They can focus on their scenario and they don't have to become PhDs is cryptography, we give them a simple platform to build their company on blockchain," said Steve Cerveny, one of the founders of Kaleido."

Amazon is moving into blockchain with a new partnership

Facebook Says It Deleted 865 Million Posts, Mostly Spam - The New York Times

More spring cleaning

"On Tuesday, the Silicon Valley company published numbers for the first time detailing how much and what type of content it takes down from the social network. In an 86-page report, Facebook revealed that it deleted 865.8 million posts in the first quarter of 2018, the vast majority of which were spam, with a minority of posts related to nudity, graphic violence, hate speech and terrorism.

Facebook also said it removed 583 million fake accounts in the same period. Of the accounts that remained, the company said 3 percent to 4 percent were fake."

Facebook Says It Deleted 865 Million Posts, Mostly Spam - The New York Times

Facebook has suspended around 200 apps so far in data misuse investigation - The Verge

Spring cleaning

"It’s not clear that any of those apps have actually abused their access to Facebook user data, but Facebook has some concerns and is suspending them from working “pending a thorough investigation into whether they did in fact misuse any data.” That investigation will involve Facebook conducting interviews with developers, requesting information about app and the data it has access to, along with audits “that may include on-site inspections.” 

In the event that Facebook does discover that more apps have abused access to this kind of user data, it will ban them immediately, and notify users through this page, which much like Cambridge Analytica will inform them if either they or their friends allowed for their data to be compromised through the app."

Facebook has suspended around 200 apps so far in data misuse investigation - The Verge

‘Alexa’ is a less popular baby name since Amazon launched Echo - Recode

Cortana naming trend line tbd...

"Amazon started widely selling its Echo speaker, voiced by the Star Trek-inspired personal assistant Alexa, in 2015. That year, 6,050 baby girls in the United States were named Alexa, or 311 for every 100,000 female babies born.

Since then, the name has declined in popularity 33 percent, according to new data from the Social Security Administration crunched by University of Maryland sociology professor Philip Cohen. Last year, just 3,883 baby girls were named Alexa.

Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant that launched on iPhones in 2011, has never been a very popular name. That name peaked in popularity two years earlier, when 120 female babies in the U.S. were named Siri, about 6 per every 100,000 girls.

Last year, 20 U.S. girls were named ‘Siri,’ or about 1 per every 100,000."

‘Alexa’ is a less popular baby name since Amazon launched Echo - Recode

Steve Eisman of ‘The Big Short’ Bashes Cryptocurrency: ‘I Don’t See the Purpose of It’ - WSJ

Seems to be a pattern emerging...

"Mr. Eisman now joins a growing chorus of prominent market participants, including Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase , who have been openly critical of digital currencies. Mr. Buffett said earlier this month that bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared’ and predicted that cryptocurrencies “almost certainly...will come to a bad ending.”

In a panel discussion and subsequent interview that ranged from current economic conditions to the moment he knew the U.S. housing market would collapse—May 8, 2006, when Wachovia Corp. made a $26 billion bet on the mortgage market—Mr. Eisman said he has never bought or sold any cryptocurrencies.

“I don’t touch it,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m looking at...I have no interest”"

Steve Eisman of ‘The Big Short’ Bashes Cryptocurrency: ‘I Don’t See the Purpose of It’ - WSJ

Apple paves the way for breakthrough carbon-free aluminum smelting method - Apple

Smelt different

"Aluminum giants Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminum today announced a joint venture to commercialize patented technology that eliminates direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process, a key step in aluminum production. This is a revolutionary advancement in the manufacturing of one of the world’s most widely used metals.
As part of Apple’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its products through innovation, the company helped accelerate the development of this technology. And Apple has partnered with both aluminum companies, and the Governments of Canada and Quebec, to collectively invest a combined $144 million to future research and development."

Apple paves the way for breakthrough carbon-free aluminum smelting method - Apple

Former Facebook advertising targeting boss Antonio García-Martínez on Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast - Recode

Later in the article: "“Any app, and I’m using ‘Facebook’ broadly to mean whatever social media thing we have — whatever the face of social media is, people are more than willing to sacrifice this abstract notion of privacy that Brussels bureaucrats care about, in pursuit of this community thing,” he said."

"“Here’s the reality: Most people don’t care about privacy,” García-Martínez said. “Media elites care about it, underemployed Eurocrats care about it. And the entire privacy-industrial complex — there’s an entire set of very loud voices who are constantly beating the drum and building media careers around this.”

“For those who doubt, here’s a pop quiz: When in the past two or three months did Facebook reach the highest point in app rankings in the Android app store?” he asked. “Literally the day after the #deletefacebook hashtag went viral.”"

Former Facebook advertising targeting boss Antonio García-Martínez on Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast - Recode

Don't Skype Me: How Microsoft Turned Consumers Against a Beloved Brand - Bloomberg

Probably not a great ROI on Microsoft's $8.5B Skype acquisition, but perhaps better than average for Steve Ballmer's big bets... In other inadvertent gifts to Facebook, see Millennials really hated Snapchat’s redesign (Recode)

"The company hasn’t updated the number of Skype users since 2016, when it put the total at 300 million. Some analysts suspect the numbers are flat at best, and two former employees describe a general sense of panic that they’re actually falling. The ex-Microsofters, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential statistics, say that as late as 2017 they never heard a figure higher than 300 million discussed internally.

Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has repeatedly said he wants the company’s products to be widely used and loved. By turning Skype into a key part of its lucrative Office suite for corporate customers, Microsoft is threatening what made it appealing to regular folks in the first place. “It is like Tim Tebow trying to be a baseball player,” Malik says. “The product is so confusing, kludgey and unusable.”"

Don't Skype Me: How Microsoft Turned Consumers Against a Beloved Brand - Bloomberg

Amazon Stops Buying Prized Shopping Ads on Google - Bloomberg

Big shifts ahead in the digital advertising complementor/competitor model

"Right now, Amazon offers similar sponsored product ads on its flagship e-commerce site. Mizuho Securities USA Inc. recently estimated Google’s product ads are four times as effective as Amazon’s at getting people to buy. However, the brokerage firm said Amazon could improve and surpass Google. The note concluded that most spending on Amazon ads comes from marketers switching away from tradition offline ads, rather than cutting into Google budgets.

Still, other analysts see Amazon’s massive web reach, subscription base and voice search services, such as Alexa, as the gravest threat to Google’s business. A broader standoff over ads would add to an already tense year."

Amazon Stops Buying Prized Shopping Ads on Google - Bloomberg

A huge pension fund says Facebook is like a ‘dictatorship’ - The Washington Post

Seems like a simple solution: don't buy the stock, if you have issues with the company's governance model

"Yet another major institutional investor is slamming how Facebook is governed, describing it as "akin to a dictatorship" and calling for an end to the way it structures voting power among its shareholders, a system that gives founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg unusual control over the company and erodes the influence of other investors.

In an op-ed published Thursday morning in the Financial Times, an executive with the country's second-largest pension fund wrote that it is "time to end" the dual-class share structure at companies like Facebook, where special "Class B" shares have 10 times the voting power as regular "Class A" shares."

A huge pension fund says Facebook is like a ‘dictatorship’ - The Washington Post

Goldman Sachs and Apple Plan to Offer a New Credit Card - The New York Times

Also see What the Goldman Sachs-Apple Pay credit card would mean for mobile payments (Tearsheet)

"Apple executives have said they aim for Apple Pay to eventually replace cash and plastic as the primary way to pay. But Apple’s payment service has a long way to go. One of the people familiar with the discussions between Apple and Goldman said that taking Apple Pay into the physical world would help expand its reach. With an Apple Pay credit card, loyal iPhone users could use Apple Pay even in places that don’t yet accept digital payments, the person said.

The research firm Loup Ventures estimated last year that just 13 percent of active iPhones had activated the service. And Apple Pay isn’t even the most popular mobile-payment service. It faces stiff global competition from Samsung Pay and Google’s Android Pay, as well as Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay in China."

Goldman Sachs and Apple Plan to Offer a New Credit Card - The New York Times

Facebook Shares Recover From Cambridge Analytica Scandal - Bloomberg

All is forgiven, for now... Tangentially, see Facebook’s blockchain foray is about trust, not crypto (Tearsheet)

"Since the revelation in mid-March that Cambridge Analytica, a political ad consulting firm, got data on tens of millions of users without their consent, Facebook has been scrambling to address criticism. The company reviewed all its products and made changes to how much information it shares with app developers.

Facebook shares climbed as much as 1.4 percent to $185.25 in morning trading in New York. The stock had closed at $185.09 on March 16, just before the news broke. It rebounded 16 percent from a low for the year in late April."

Facebook Shares Recover From Cambridge Analytica Scandal - Bloomberg

Microsoft reflects on the failures of Courier, KIN, and ultra mobile PCs - The Verge

Check the full article for a tour of some ahead-of-their-time Microsoft products/projects

"Friedman is still at Microsoft and he’s now responsible for the design of Office 365. Friedman held a similar talk at a design conference in Seattle two years ago, but this is the first time he’s spoken at Microsoft’s own conference about past product failures. The timing of Friedman’s talk is ironic as Microsoft is now rumored to be working on a Courier-like device for taking digital notes. The mysterious device has been spotted many times in patents from the Surface team, and reports suggest it will include dual displays with a unique hinge and a special notepad app to mimic writing like a real notebook.

It’s not clear if Microsoft’s mysterious Surface device, codenamed Andromeda, will ever make it to market, but Friedman’s talk does show that the company is aware of its past failures and is trying to learn from them."

Microsoft reflects on the failures of Courier, KIN, and ultra mobile PCs - The Verge

California is requiring solar panels on all new houses: here’s what that means - The Verge

Later in the article: "Though buyers could see their monthly mortgage go up by $40, their utility bills would fall by $80. Over time, a family would save $19,000 of today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation, over 30 years, according to Beck."

"California has become the first state to require that new homes be built with solar panels. The rules go into place in 2020 and are part of the state’s ambitious efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But these requirements also make it more expensive to build in a state where housing is already extremely expensive.

The new building rules approved by the California Energy Commission apply to all residential buildings up to three stories high (including both single-family buildings and condos). They’ll no doubt help California reach its goal of having at least half of electricity come from renewable energy by 2030. Solar is already responsible for about 16 percent of California electricity."

California is requiring solar panels on all new houses: here’s what that means - The Verge

Alexa and Siri Can Hear This Hidden Command. You Can’t. - The New York Times

Later in the article: "Apple said its smart speaker, HomePod, is designed to prevent commands from doing things like unlocking doors, and it noted that iPhones and iPads must be unlocked before Siri will act on commands that access sensitive data or open apps and websites, among other measures."

"Many people have grown accustomed to talking to their smart devices, asking them to read a text, play a song or set an alarm. But someone else might be secretly talking to them, too.

Over the past two years, researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online — simply with music playing over the radio."

Alexa and Siri Can Hear This Hidden Command. You Can’t. - The New York Times

How Misinformation Spreads on Social Media—And What To Do About It - Lawfare

Ample room for improvement

"Last year, the company’s engineering team revealed how its current algorithm works. As with Facebook and YouTube, Twitter now relies on a deep learning algorithm that has learned to prioritize content with greater prior engagement. By combing through Twitter’s data, the algorithm has taught itself that Twitter users are more likely to stick around if they see content that has already gotten a lot of retweets and mentions, compared with content that has fewer. 

The flow of misinformation on Twitter is thus a function of both human and technical factors. Human biases play an important role: Since we’re more likely to react to content that taps into our existing grievances and beliefs, inflammatory tweets will generate quick engagement. It’s only after that engagement happens that the technical side kicks in: If a tweet is retweeted, favorited, or replied to by enough of its first viewers, the newsfeed algorithm will show it to more users, at which point it will tap into the biases of those users too—prompting even more engagement, and so on. At its worse, this cycle can turn social media into a kind of confirmation bias machine, one perfectly tailored for the spread of misinformation."

How Misinformation Spreads on Social Media—And What To Do About It - Lawfare

And for His Next Act, Ev Williams Will Fix the Internet - The New York Times

From a timely Evan Williams reality check

"And as for Twitter, which remains a highly addictive app with millions of compulsive users? Well, Mr. Williams said, the company is working to fix its problems, including weeding out some of the most noxious rule breakers on the service. (The company recently solicited proposals for tools to help it measure “conversational health.”)

But he is not convinced that the problems with social platforms can ever be fully solved, nor does he believe it’s entirely incumbent upon tech companies to solve them. Ultimately, Mr. Williams said, it will be up to users to choose, and stick to, their own information diets.

“There’s a huge buffet,” he said. “If you eat whatever’s put in front of you, you’re not necessarily going to be making the best choices.”"

And for His Next Act, Ev Williams Will Fix the Internet - The New York Times

Google AI Blog: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

Check the full post for some impressive example scenarios

"A long-standing goal of human-computer interaction has been to enable people to have a natural conversation with computers, as they would with each other. In recent years, we have witnessed a revolution in the ability of computers to understand and to generate natural speech, especially with the application of deep neural networks (e.g., Google voice search, WaveNet). Still, even with today’s state of the art systems, it is often frustrating having to talk to stilted computerized voices that don't understand natural language. In particular, automated phone systems are still struggling to recognize simple words and commands. They don’t engage in a conversation flow and force the caller to adjust to the system instead of the system adjusting to the caller.

Today we announce Google Duplex, a new technology for conducting natural conversations to carry out “real world” tasks over the phone. The technology is directed towards completing specific tasks, such as scheduling certain types of appointments. For such tasks, the system makes the conversational experience as natural as possible, allowing people to speak normally, like they would to another person, without having to adapt to a machine."

Google AI Blog: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

‘Oops’: Walmart’s Biggest Deal Ever, Announced by SoftBank’s CEO - Bloomberg

For some context-setting, see Why are Walmart and Amazon desperate to buy Flipkart? (Quartz)

"This isn’t the way multibillion-dollar deals usually get announced.

Hours before Walmart Inc. was scheduled to unveil the largest acquisition in its history, Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., spilled the beans to a roomful of investors and journalists in Tokyo. He confirmed that the U.S. retailer has agreed to buy control of Flipkart Online Services Pvt, the leading Indian e-commerce player backed by SoftBank.

“I think we announced it last night,” he said, during an investor call after his own company’s earnings. “If not, well then that means I’m just spouting this out. In any case, it’s been decided.”"

‘Oops’: Walmart’s Biggest Deal Ever, Announced by SoftBank’s CEO - Bloomberg

Google Strikes Humble Tone While Promoting A.I. Technology - The New York Times

Sundar Pichai also extended Google's mission statement in his opening keynote -- noting “Our core mission is to make information more useful, accessible and beneficial to all of society” (emphasis mine; Google's Our company page still has “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”)

"But in a year when some of its most popular products have been used to propagate misinformation, spread conspiracy theories and meddle with elections, Google struck a more measured tone on Tuesday. Speaking at this year’s Google I/O conference, Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive, said advancements in artificial intelligence had pushed Google to be more reflective about its responsibilities.

“There are very real and important questions being raised about the impact of these advances, and the role they will play in our lives,” Mr. Pichai said during his keynote speech. “We know the path ahead needs to be navigated carefully and deliberately. We feel a deep sense of responsibility to get this right.”"

Google Strikes Humble Tone While Promoting A.I. Technology - The New York Times

Facebook Shakes Up Management; Main Divisions Get New Heads - Bloomberg

For more reorg details, see Facebook to Reorganize After Scrutiny Over Data Privacy (NYT)

"The Menlo Park, California-based company also unveiled a new initiative to explore the use of blockchain, the decentralized ledger technology that underpins digital currencies like Bitcoin. The team dedicated to blockchain will be run by David Marcus, who formerly headed the Messenger chat app.

Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, has been promoted to oversee all of the company’s apps. Will Cathcart will become head of Facebook’s core application, the company said. The former leader of news feed, Adam Mosseri, was named head of product at photo-sharing app Instagram, replacing Kevin Weil, who will join the blockchain team."

Facebook Shakes Up Management; Main Divisions Get New Heads - Bloomberg

Vox Media Punches Up Podcast Ads WIth a Kara Swisher Character Chat – Variety

Parody different

"Vox Media publishes many articles that get people talking. But now the company is doing something it hopes will get its consumers to listen – even when its journalism and analysis aren’t at the center of the conversation.

Listeners to Recode’s “Recode/Decode” podcast this week may have been surprised to hear host Kara Swisher take a break from the program and start to interview Russ Hanneman, the erratic technology investor from HBO’s comedy “Silicon Valley.” In the exchange – laden with profanity – Swisher quizzes the fictional character (played by actor Chris Diamantopoulos) on his efforts to launch cryptocurrencies, which is one of the current plotlines of the program. The interview will also be heard on The Verge’s “Vergecast” and Recode’s “Recode Media.”"

Vox Media Punches Up Podcast Ads WIth a Kara Swisher Character Chat – Variety

Microsoft Tries a New Role: Moral Leader - The New York Times

Tangentially, see Apple is an 'amazing' company with best profit potential in tech, Bill Gates says (CNBC); also see At Google, ‘responsibility’ upstages new technology (Washington Post)

"But while the company’s power has diminished since a couple of decades ago, when it controlled computing through Windows, Microsoft remains an influential voice. On Monday, its market capitalization of $733 billion made it the third most valuable technology company, behind Apple and Amazon and ahead of Google parent company, Alphabet, and Facebook.

“The irony for Microsoft is that they lost in search, they lost in social networks and they lost in mobile, and as a consequence, they have avoided the recent pushback from governments and media,” said David Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. “This has given Microsoft the freedom to take the high road as the ethical leader in technology.”"

Microsoft Tries a New Role: Moral Leader - The New York Times

Opinion | What Will New York Do About Its Uber Problem? - The New York Times

A timely sharing economy reality check; on a related note, see Airbnb is freaking out over NYC's report on rising rents (CNet)

"New Yorkers who can afford to avoid their dysfunctional subway system are spoiled for choice these days. In addition to long-established taxis, livery cabs, black cars and limousines, they can summon rides through Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno and other app-based ride-hailing and ride-sharing services. While this new surfeit of options has been a boon to people trying to get around town, it has also helped lay waste to the livelihoods of taxi drivers and turn New York’s already busy streets into glorified parking lots — and leaders like Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Albany and the City Council have yet to come up with an effective strategy to deal with these problems.

Cities have a long history of intervening to impose order on their streets. No large metropolis can accommodate everyone who would like to drive or be privately driven around — street space is a limited resource, especially in the densest neighborhoods and at the busiest times of the day. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, New York created its taxi medallion system because drivers looking for work flooded the streets, far outstripping demand and driving down wages for drivers. With the rise of Uber, Lyft and the like, the city is again confronting a tragedy of the commons."

Opinion | What Will New York Do About Its Uber Problem? - The New York Times

Bitcoin Sees Wall Street Warm to Trading Virtual Currency - The New York Times

Also see Should the Fed Create ‘FedCoin’ to Rival Bitcoin? A Former Top Official Says ‘Maybe’ (NYT)

"The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange has been working on an online trading platform that would allow large investors to buy and hold Bitcoin, according to emails and documents viewed by The New York Times and four people briefed on the effort who asked to remain anonymous because the plans were still confidential.

The news of the virtual exchange, which has not been reported before, came after Goldman Sachs went public with its intention to open a Bitcoin trading unit — most likely the first of its kind at a Wall Street bank.

The moves by Goldman and Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, mark a dramatic shift toward the mainstream for a digital token that has been known primarily for its underworld associations and status as a high-risk, speculative investment."

Bitcoin Sees Wall Street Warm to Trading Virtual Currency - The New York Times

Just in Time | Asymco

Revisiting the iMac on its 20th anniversary

"In retrospect you have to wonder if Apple, with the iMac, was lucky to survive into this next era or if that era would have ever happened without the iMac. It’s a question of causality which quickly devolves into an un-winnable argument about stochastic vs. deterministic existence.

Regardless, the result was felt more than seen. The computing industry was pivoting. The results are seen also in the graphs above. The iMac came right in the middle of the “desert” of platform choice of the late 1990s. By the 2000s mobile platforms detonated on the scene. The iPod was Apple’s first entry, in 2001, but it was not a computer. It was an appliance. A stepping stone at a time when the early platform contenders Nokia, Palm, Microsoft and BlackBerry surged before realizing that they did not have sound foundations upon which to build ecosystems. Their advances could not be consolidated."

 

Just in Time | Asymco

Cambridge Analytica: how did it turn clicks into votes? | News | The Guardian

Check the full article for an overview of Cambridge Analytica modus operandi

"While this was undoubtedly a highly sophisticated targeting machine, questions remain about Cambridge Analytica’s psychometric model – ones Wylie, perhaps, isn’t best placed to answer. When Kogan gave evidence to parliament in April, he suggested that it was barely better than chance at applying the right Ocean scores to individuals. Maybe that edge is enough to matter – or maybe CA was selling snake oil. And even if individuals were correctly labelled with the five factors, is advertising to them based on that really as simple as slightly hokey-sounding appeals to love of order, or fear of the other?

That said, there’s clearly something in it. Take a look instead at a patent filed in 2012 on “determining user personality characteristics from social networking system communications”. “Stored personality characteristics may be used as targeting criteria for advertisers ... to increase the likelihood that the user … positively interacts with a selected advertisement,” the patent suggests. Its author? Facebook itself."

Cambridge Analytica: how did it turn clicks into votes? | News | The Guardian

What Europe’s Tough New Data Law Means for You, and the Internet - The New York Times

On a related note, see Who Strikes Fear Into Silicon Valley? Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s Antitrust Enforcer (NYT) and The agency in charge of policing Facebook and Google is 103 years old. Can it modernize? (Washington Post)

"Much will depend on how strictly national regulators enforce the rules, and how they use their tight budgets. Data-protection agencies in each European Union country will be in charge of policing the companies that have European headquarters within its borders.

That oversight structure is leading to concerns that officials in countries such as Ireland, where Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and many other data-heavy companies are based, will be overmatched.

A lot of responsibility also falls on you to keep tabs on how companies use your data.

The General Data Protection Regulation provides ways to take action if your information is being misused. But the question is whether people care enough, or if trading privacy for convenience remains a worthwhile deal."

What Europe’s Tough New Data Law Means for You, and the Internet - The New York Times

Berkshire’s Annual Meeting: Buffett Approves of Apple’s Buyback Plan - The New York Times

A long-term investor perspective

"Warren Buffett and Charles Munger saved their harshest words for cryptocurrencies.

“Cryptocurrencies will come to bad endings.” Mr. Buffett said, responding to an attendee from Ukraine.

Mr. Buffett’s main argument against cryptocurrencies is the same one he has made about gold: They are not a “productive asset.” That means the value of cryptocurrencies is determined solely by what someone is willing to pay for it.

“If you had bought gold at the time of Christ and you figure the compound rate on it, it’s a couple tenths of a percent,” Mr. Buffett said."

Berkshire’s Annual Meeting: Buffett Approves of Apple’s Buyback Plan - The New York Times

John Micklethwait: The Future of News - Bloomberg

From a wide-ranging journalism reality check

"Nowadays, journalists increasingly prep their story templates to be filled in by a computer system called Cyborg that dissects a company’s earnings the moment they appear and produces not just instant headlines but, in a matter of seconds, what is in effect a mini-wrap with all the numbers and a lot of context. All this is in competition not just with Reuters but with specialist news-scraping sites that serve hedge funds looking for microseconds of advantage. An arms race has developed, with the battleground moving to secondary data—like the number of iPhones sold in China—that can often move a share price more than the profit numbers. Today, a quarter of the content produced by Bloomberg has some degree of automation.

It’s not just the financial press. The Washington Post, for example, uses automation to cover high school sports. News organizations that used to first hear about news from local reporters now use banks of computers to find news, trawling through reams of social data for words like “explosion,” “resignation,” or even “Kardashian.”"

John Micklethwait: The Future of News - Bloomberg