A bill threatening to ban an app beloved by half of the American population just rocketed through the House of Representatives in a week’s time.
TikTok the company and TikTok the chaotic community of creators and their followers are rightfully freaking out right now.
TikTok successfully fought back against a state-level ban on the app in Montana last year, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.
Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, who frequently sows concern about China, registered his support for a Senate version of the TikTok bill following the vote.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, another Senate Republican hawkish on China, also expressed her support for pushing a version of the House TikTok bill through.
It’s been over two years since a key piece of the tracking-ads’ industry’s consent collection apparatus was found to breach European Union’s data protection laws.
A simple ‘yes or no’ to ad tracking is as much friction web users should get.
Critics dub the whole cynical approach compliance theatre: An attempt by the ad industry to evade data protection law and keep tracking and profiling web users en masse by packaging systematic non-compliance inside an industry standard framework.
However action requiring reform of the framework was suspended pending a final court ruling on the IAB’s appeal.
Plus the European Data Protection Board is due to weigh in with guidance soon.
As we’ve reported before Meta’s self-serving ‘consent or cough up’ offer is already facing a number of other GDPR complaints.
Today’s complaints are not the first filed against Meta’s consent or pay tactic by consumer protection groups — some of which argue it’s breaching the bloc’s rules on consumer protection, too.
However its blog post defending the controversial tactic does not make any mention of how it complies with EU consumer protection law.
So another very pertinent question, vis-a-vis Meta’s consent or pay offer in the EU, is what the Commission will do?
*The BEUC members filing GDPR complaints against Meta are: CECU, dTest, EKPIZO, Forbrugerrådet Tænk, Forbrukerrådet, Poprad, Spoločnosť ochrany spotrebiteľov (S.O.S.
Intuitive Machines’ first moon mission will come to a premature end due to the spacecraft landing on its side, which altered how the solar panels are positioned in relation to the sun, the company said in an update Tuesday morning.
Intuitive Machines made history when it landed its spacecraft, called Odysseus, near the lunar south pole last week.
The lander is the first American hardware to touch the lunar surface since NASA’s final crewed Apollo mission in 1972.
It’s also the first privately built and operated spacecraft to land on the moon — ever – and the closest a lander has ever come to the lunar south pole.
Intuitive Machines and NASA leadership will host a second televised news conference tomorrow to discuss updates to the mission.
Welcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter.
It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name.
But sometimes we forget that technology does, too — especially when it comes to AI, which is still in its early days in many respects.
— AnnaAI unfairness at workEmployee-monitoring software isn’t new.
Also known as bossware, it is pitched by its makers as a way to help boost productivity, but by those who endure it, it’s a surefire way to deplete morale.
The Barcelona court accepted that the mental problems suffered by the worker are not a common illness but a work accident, per the newspaper.
Meta’s subcontractor had processed his absence from work as common ailment and sought to deny responsibility for any psychological harms suffered from reviewing violent content uploaded to Facebook and Instagram.
Meta also noted it provides technical solutions to subcontractors which are intended to enable content reviewers to limit their exposure to graphic material they are being asked to moderate as much as possible.
In the article the newspaper quotes a worker describing the support provided by their employer, and Meta’s subcontractor, as “very insufficient”.
Legal rulings that impose requirements on third party content reviewers to take care of workers’ mental health could put limits on the model, however.
Lai made impassioned comments about Taiwan’s chip industry after his victory on Saturday that seem to make it clear that his administration’s main tech focus will be on semiconductors.
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry strengthens the global standing of the country, a small island with a population of 23 million.
Another barrier is that even though the semiconductor industry is important to Taiwan’s economy, most people don’t work in it.
“Most people in the nation are not employed in the semiconductor industry, even though it’s the lifeblood of the economy,” says Patel.
Despite the challenges faced by Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, Triolo notes that its international recognition has grown significantly since Tsai came into power eight years ago.
The state of Iowa is suing TikTok, alleging that the social media company misleads parents about the kinds of content available to young users.
The lawsuit from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird accuses TikTok of hosting “sexual content, drugs, alcohol, intense profanity, self-harm messages, and other X-rated content,” making videos that aren’t age appropriate easily accessible for children and teens in the state.
“TikTok represents to Iowa parents and Iowa children that inappropriate content on its platform, including drugs, nudity, alcohol, and profanity, is ‘infrequent,'” the lawsuit states, slamming those claims as “lies.”The state specifically takes issue with TikTok’s age rating in app marketplaces.
Providing age ratings for social apps that surface endless waves of niche algorithmic user-generated content has always been more of an art than a science, but Iowa argues that TikTok intentionally misrepresents itself to parents.
Iowa is the latest state to sue the app over concerns around the content it serves to underage users, joining Indiana, Arkansas and Utah.
What then followed, last fall, was a claim from Meta that it would be switching to a consent basis for tracking.
Facebook and Instagram users who wish to continue to get free access to the services have to “consent” to its tracking — which Meta claims is valid consent under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Withdrawing consent in the scenario Meta has devised requires users to sign up for a monthly subscription.
So noyb’s follow-up complaint targets the inherent friction in Meta charging users money to protect their privacy.
However, by then, Meta had already shifted its claimed basis to consent, meaning it could just sidestep the regulatory intervention.
The product is a relief within the constant buzz of notifications and fitness goals and the relentless race against time.
Bring on the AIThe company uses its AI back end to learn the wearer’s biorhythms and can send gentle personalized vibrations to remind you to calm the hell down, already.
“I would like to see if her heart rate heart is going into certain zones that might be worrying.
He also points out that the company is seeing increased interest in B2B sales, especially in stress management and scientific research.
I love a good oddball curveball company, and it was interesting to see the company continue to grow and evolve.
