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Lawsuit Claims Google Knew Its ‘Incognito Mode’ Doesn’t Protect Users’ Privacy
It can be hard to keep track of all the lawsuits against Google. The Department of Justice filed one in 2020 and might have another one coming soon. Texas has at least two. Arizona recently settled theirs with the search giant for $85 million. And Washington state and DC have lawsuits, too.
Here’s another one to add to the list. Right now, a California judge is deliberating on whether to allow a class-action lawsuit representing millions of Google users to go forward. A group of consumers is alleging the company misled people about what data it collected when they were using private browsing modes on both Google’s Chrome web browser and browsers built by other companies such as Apple and Mozilla.
Because essentially all internet users in the United States use a browser to surf the web, the potential fines should Google be found liable could be in the billions of dollars.
The lawyers spearheading the lawsuit have already amassed a trove of internal Google emails they say show how the company’s executives have known for years that what the company calls “Incognito mode” is anything but incognito. Private browsing modes usually block tracking cookies — little bits of code that follow people around the internet logging their activity.
Banks Shouldn’t Be Moral Arbiters — Even for Kanye
The rapper Ye West, formerly known as Kanye, has been the subject of public ire for the past few weeks after sporting a T-shirt with the words “White Lives Matter” emblazoned on it and tweeting that he was going to “go death con 3 on Jewish people.”
Public ire quickly turned to corporate punishment: JPMorgan Chase announced that it was kicking the rapper and his money out of their bank, and on Friday, the fashion brand Balenciaga followed suit, cutting ties with West.
Let me be clear: There is no place for antisemitic commentary in society. I hope we can all agree West’s words were harmful and deserving of condemnation. And yet, I also find it extremely troubling to witness the escalating trend of financial institutions and corporate entities choosing to dole out punishment and restrict access to vital services based on political and social perception.
This trend does not just impact rich celebrities who mouth off like Ye; it has also impacted activists, journalists and ordinary citizens who hold political views that contravene the ruling narrative. And it has the potential to impact any of us if our views don’t perfectly align with the edicts and agendas of governmental and corporate elites.
Biden Administration Amps up Efforts to Boost New COVID Shots
President Biden on Tuesday will announce a series of new efforts to boost the administration of the bivalent COVID-19 booster shots, including partnerships with several major companies and pharmacy chains.
To encourage more people to get boosted, the Department of Health and Human Services will also be launching a tour on Oct. 26 during which it will host vaccine pop-up events and distribute toolkits to families.
Medicare will also be sending out email reminders to about 16 million people in the next week informing them of how they can get the updated booster.
During his remarks on Tuesday, Biden will be joined by the leaders of major pharmacy chains including Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and Albertsons. The White House’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will also be joining him.
Texas Rejects New CDC Recommendation to Mandate the COVID Shot to School Children
The entity that determines the vaccination schedule for children in Texas was quick to adjust its website on Oct. 20, hours after advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a recommendation to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the children’s immunization schedule.
After a state representative expressed his concern, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) removed a line on its website that stated: “Children need all CDC-recommended vaccines” to attend school.
Many states unilaterally adopt the CDC vaccination recommendations without input from elected officials or parents.
The COVID-19 vaccines have proven increasingly ineffective against both infection and severe illness from newer virus variants. In addition, there is no evidence that vaccines protect against severe disease for children under 5.
First on CNN: Administration’s New COVID Vaccine Ads Target ‘High-Risk’ Communities
New ads promoting the COVID-19 vaccines are making their debut this week, targeting specific communities that have had a slow uptake of the updated shots.
Black audiences are encouraged to get vaccinated in the “On Point” video, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday.
A Spanish-language ad titled “No te pierdas el juego” also started airing Monday, targeting Latino audiences. An English version of the ad, the title of which translates to “Don’t Miss the Game,” is scheduled for release next month during the FIFA World Cup.
The new ads, first reported on CNN, will run in 15 U.S. markets, according to HHS. Radio and print versions will run in 30 markets across the country.
Autism Services for Adults in Philly Area Still Haven’t Rebounded From COVID Shutdowns
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
When state officials approved Devon Geiger for the most comprehensive benefits Pennsylvania offers for adults with autism and intellectual disabilities, her mother, Deb Geiger, had peace of mind. She thought her daughter would get the services she needed.
Geiger and her daughter, who live in Horsham, are among the growing number of families who were approved for Pennsylvania’s most generous intellectual disability benefits under Medicaid but remain without services as agencies struggle to restart services that had to be shut down early in the pandemic.
“We have a lot of families sitting at home really struggling,” said Audrey “Dee” Coccia, cofounder of Vision for Equality, a Philadelphia nonprofit that advocates for individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families.
China Imposes COVID Curbs in Center of Factory Hub Guangzhou
China suspended in-person schooling and dining at restaurants in a district at the center of Guangzhou, stoking concerns about the potential for disruption in the southern Chinese manufacturing hub that is home to about 19 million people.
All primary and middle schools in Haizhu district, where about 10% of the city’s total population lives, halted in-person lessons from Monday.
The restrictions come more than a week after Huadu district shut entertainment venues and schools and, while a small number of neighborhoods were allowed to ease curbs on Sunday, most of the area remains subject to control measures.
A Tech Lobbying Group Is Trying to Terrify Parents
The opening is standard for political advertising. A husband and wife sit at a kitchen table. The woman laments that a child spent hundreds of dollars on “battleskins,” objects purchased within a game to create a different appearance. “It used to be that parents had to approve their kids’ in-app purchases. Then the government got involved.” Exasperated, “This is how you help me? By making it harder to control my kids’ in-app purchases? Do me a favor, Congress, leave my phone alone.” It ends: “Call your congressmen and tell them to vote no on S2710.”
S2710, the bill the ad is targeting, is the Open App Markets App. The advertisement preys on the familiar fear that government regulation will result in consumers getting worse service, losing control of their data and even being hit with massive bills when their kid goes on a spending binge. But the premise of the ad is a lie. The bill doesn’t impact consumers at all; the bill only puts controls on big tech companies (Apple and Google) to stop them from engaging in a series of predatory practices which exploit smaller tech companies (like startup app developers independent of the big tech companies).
Basically, the ad is trying to outrage consumers so that they will call their representatives on behalf of Apple and Google, by misleading those consumers about what the bill does.
The ad was made by NetChoice, which is a group that wants to “make the Internet safe for free enterprise and free expression.” NetChoice is a lobbying group and trade association; Google, Meta, TikTok and many other major tech companies are members. The earlier version of the video, on NetChoice’s YouTube page, is identical except for targeting a similar bill, S2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.
School Seeking Access to Personal Devices Sparks Outrage Online: ‘Hard No’
Members of a popular online forum were eager to speak out after one student revealed how their school is gaining access to personal devices.
In a viral Reddit post published on r/mildlyinfuriating, Redditor u/DevontePlayz (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) shared a screenshot of a message they received from the academic institution, requesting they create a new profile on their cell phone in order to use Google‘s classroom software.
“Installing this profile will allow the administrator…to remotely manage your iPhone,” the message reads. “The administrator may collect personal data, add/remove accounts and restrictions, install, manage, and list apps and remotely erase data on your iPhone,” it continues.
Captioned, “My school wants us to allow this on our personal devices, just to use Google Classroom,” the post has received nearly 60,000 upvotes and 4,000 comments since Oct. 19.
The Clock Is Ticking for Elon Musk to Buy Twitter — and He’s Running out of Time
The pressure is on Elon Musk and his army of lawyers. The billionaire has only four days to close his deal with Twitter or face a trial — which experts say he is likely to lose.
Earlier this month, the Delaware judge overseeing the court case gave the two parties until 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 28 to agree to a new deal or the case will resume in a five-day trial in November.
But, experts say Musk is likely to reach a deal before the deadline expires on Friday.
Meta Investor Urges Company to Slash Headcount, Slow Metaverse Spending
Meta Platforms investor Altimeter Capital sent an open letter calling on CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the tech giant‘s board of directors to cut back on the company’s headcount and spending on its metaverse ambitions.
Like many other companies in a zero-rate world — Meta has drifted into the land of excess — too many people, too many ideas and too little urgency. This lack of focus and fitness is obscured when growth is easy but deadly when growth slows and technology changes,” Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner wrote Monday. “At the same time that Meta ramped up spending, you lost the confidence of investors.”
The firm claims that Facebook hit a wall in its core business last fall, prompting it to “hastily” change its name and pivot its focus to the metaverse, an immersive online space where users can interact with each other as avatars in a computer-generated environment.
The letter notes that, in the past 18 months, Meta’s stock has tumbled 55%, compared to the average 19% of its big-tech peers. As of the time of publication, Meta is down approximately 63% year to date.
