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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the

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Speaker 1: tech are you. It's time for the tech news for

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Speaker 1: the week ending on Friday, August thirtieth, twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I feel like the entire world is at dragon Con.

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Speaker 1: I realize that that's just because I live in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: That's where dragon CON's a big science fiction fantasy convention

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Speaker 1: if you're not familiar, And it seems like all of

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Speaker 1: my friends, like all the people I know, are currently

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Speaker 1: at dragon Con. So I'm getting a little fomo here.

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Speaker 1: But I realized a lot of y'all out there also

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Speaker 1: aren't there, So let us get lost in the warm

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Speaker 1: embrace of tech news. First up, there's an update on

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Speaker 1: the Telegram CEO Pavel Durov story. So on Wednesday, I

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Speaker 1: published an episode about Telegram, the messaging service, and how

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Speaker 1: French authorities recently detained the CEO, Pavel Durov, after his

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Speaker 1: private plane landed at an airport outside of Paris. Since then,

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Speaker 1: a court has indicted Durov on charges that he has

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Speaker 1: been complicit in numerous criminal activities that have been happening

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Speaker 1: or facilitated by the Telegram messaging service. So essentially, the

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Speaker 1: legal argument here is that Telegram has mostly hands off

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Speaker 1: policy when it comes to content moderation. They're very lax,

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Speaker 1: they don't do very much content moderation at all, and

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Speaker 1: that this means Telegram is effectively allowing crimes ranging from

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Speaker 1: terrorist acts to the spread of child sexual abuse material

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Speaker 1: see SAM material. I guess that's repetitive. It's like ATM machine. Moreover,

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Speaker 1: Telegram has a history of denying cooperation with law enforcement

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Speaker 1: officials who are conducting legal investigations into criminal activity, you know,

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Speaker 1: essentially like I've got a legal order for a wiretap

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Speaker 1: and this organization is not being compliant with it. So,

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Speaker 1: according to the charges, it's not just that Telegram failed

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Speaker 1: to cooperate with law enforcement, but that legally received requests

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Speaker 1: were just outright ignored, and that this amounts to the

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Speaker 1: same thing as assisting criminal activity, thus being complicit. And

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Speaker 1: France also has a law that states that services that

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Speaker 1: provide quote unquote cryptology solutions first have to make legal

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Speaker 1: declarations to France's cybersecurity agency in order to do so.

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Speaker 1: Legally within France. Now, Telegram does offer end to end

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Speaker 1: encryption services, but it's only for one on one communications.

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Speaker 1: Telegram also allows one to many kind of like Twitter

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Speaker 1: and also chat rooms, so those do not have encryption options,

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Speaker 1: and even for one on one communication, encryption is not

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Speaker 1: on by default, you have to turn it on manually.

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Speaker 1: Durov has already posted the five million euro bail money

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Speaker 1: that he was hit with, but he has also received

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Speaker 1: orders not to leave France until this matter has been concluded.

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Speaker 1: His brother Nikolai, who is also a co founder of Telegram,

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Speaker 1: also has a warrant out for his arrest in France.

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Speaker 1: I've got a lot of news relating to Elon Musk

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Speaker 1: and his various companies. I mean a lot, Like a

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Speaker 1: lot happened this week, I think just by coincidence. But

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Speaker 1: let's get through it. First. Up, we have a feud

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Speaker 1: brewing between a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and Elon Musk,

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Speaker 1: which I mean, that's a weird sentence, but Musk has

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Speaker 1: said that this judge, Alexandra de Mores, and I apologize

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Speaker 1: for butchering pronunciation, but that this judge has threatened to

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Speaker 1: incarcerate one of X's legal teams stationed in Brazil. If

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Speaker 1: X did not block some accounts on X that we're

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Speaker 1: operating within Brazil, those accounts, according to this judge, were

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Speaker 1: spreading misinformation and hate speech. Murkying up the waters is

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Speaker 1: the fact that Elon Musk appeared to be very cozy

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Speaker 1: with kind of a hard right leaning leader of Brazil

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Speaker 1: who is no longer the leader of Brazil, and that

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court judge is kind of an opposition to

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Speaker 1: that particular political stance. So there's like some political tension

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Speaker 1: going on here beyond this claim that these accounts are

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Speaker 1: spreading misinformation. Now, Musk ended up replying to this request

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Speaker 1: of Hey, you need to shut this stuff down or

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Speaker 1: I'm going to arrest your lawyers here in Brazil. He

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Speaker 1: responded by shutting down X's offices in Brazil. He just

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Speaker 1: closed those offices outright. However, X is still providing service

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Speaker 1: in Brazil, it just doesn't maintain any offices there. However,

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Speaker 1: that creates a new legal issue for the company because

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Speaker 1: in Brazil, if you are providing a messaging company a

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Speaker 1: messaging service within the nation, you have to have a

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Speaker 1: presence in Brazil as well. There has to be someone

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Speaker 1: who's held accountable in the country, and by shutting down

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Speaker 1: the offices, Musk no longer has that person. So Maraz

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Speaker 1: could order X to be shut down in Brazil entirely.

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Speaker 1: And he also ordered that the bank accounts for Starlink

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Speaker 1: business in Brazil to be frozen. So Starlink is the

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Speaker 1: satellite internet service provider business. It's a branch of SpaceX,

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Speaker 1: which of course is another of Elon Musk's companies. And

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Speaker 1: y'all you know I am not a fan of Elon Musk.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't make that a secret, but it

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Speaker 1: does seem like a pretty drastic case of overreach if

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Speaker 1: you ask me, because X and Starlink are not part

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Speaker 1: of the same company. They may have the same obnoxious

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Speaker 1: dude behind them, but they aren't the same company. And

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Speaker 1: to shut down the assets of one company in order

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Speaker 1: to force a different company to follow your your legal rulings,

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Speaker 1: that strikes me as being very wrong. I also think

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Speaker 1: it's important to remember Elon Musk technically he's not the

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Speaker 1: CEO of X anymore. He hasn't been the CEO of

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Speaker 1: X for ages. It's Yakarino who's the CEO. But everyone

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Speaker 1: essentially assumes he's ultimately the one calling the shots over

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Speaker 1: at X, even if Yakarino is nominally CEO. I hate

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Speaker 1: to even use that phrase. I'm sure Yakarino does a

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Speaker 1: lot of work. I have no idea what her day

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Speaker 1: to day has to be like, nor do I understand

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Speaker 1: what it must be like to work at a company

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Speaker 1: where everyone just assumes that you are a figurehead. And

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Speaker 1: I honestly don't know the extent to which that accusation

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Speaker 1: could be true. It's a crazy world, Elon Musk's world

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Speaker 1: in particular. Well, if the judge orders X to get

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Speaker 1: shut down in Brazil, presumably the way that would work

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Speaker 1: is he would order Brazilian telecommunications companies to just block

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Speaker 1: all traffic to X within the country, because clearly the

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Speaker 1: judge can't force X to shut down operations in Brazil.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know how X would do that to

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Speaker 1: begin with, but he could force the various telecommunications companies

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Speaker 1: to block traffic to X. However, people in Brazil could

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Speaker 1: potentially still get to X by using a VPN service

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Speaker 1: that was based outside of the country. Anyway, X and

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Speaker 1: Starlink have both accused the judge of breaking Brazilian law

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Speaker 1: and say they will escalate legal proceedings within the country.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea how that works, because at least

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Speaker 1: here in the United States, once you get up to

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court level, there's nowhere else to go. That's

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Speaker 1: that's the top. But it definitely seems to me like

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Speaker 1: the judge is going a little judge dread over there.

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Speaker 1: So I'm sure there's a lot more complex issues at

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Speaker 1: play in this story. Maybe I'll do a full episode

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Speaker 1: about it in the future, because I think it does

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Speaker 1: require a nuanced approach to kind of understand everything that's

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Speaker 1: going on. I'm sure it's not a black and white

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Speaker 1: situation for either side, But I don't know that freezing

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Speaker 1: of assets for starlink, it just strikes me as like,

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Speaker 1: how could there be a legal basis for that. I

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Speaker 1: guess if you argue that there was like a single

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Speaker 1: parent company and all these other companies were underneath that,

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Speaker 1: maybe then, but I don't think that's how the corporate

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Speaker 1: structure works between SpaceX and X apart from the fact

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Speaker 1: that they share Elon Musk's you know, obsession with the

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Speaker 1: letter X. Meanwhile, over here in the United States, X,

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Speaker 1: formerly known as Twitter, was kind of a caught out

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Speaker 1: when it marked links to an NPR news story as

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Speaker 1: being unsafe. So, yeah, X will not block accounts in

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Speaker 1: Brazil because that's a free speech issue, but here in

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Speaker 1: the US, it will label NPR stories as being unsafe.

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Speaker 1: So if you try to find out what the deal

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Speaker 1: is between Donald Trump's staff, campaign staff and an employee

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Speaker 1: of Arlington National Cemetery by following a link to an

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Speaker 1: NPR story on the matter, then you're told, hey, you

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Speaker 1: don't want to do that. This is taking you to

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Speaker 1: a bad place. The unsafe marker is typically something that

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Speaker 1: pops up if the link is to a site that's

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Speaker 1: known to host like militious software or sometimes things like

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Speaker 1: outright misinformation. Now, NPR might occasionally play some truly terrible

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Speaker 1: jazz on the radio, but I wouldn't go so far

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Speaker 1: as to call it malicious. The warning was in the

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Speaker 1: form of a pop up as well. It wasn't just

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Speaker 1: like a little label. If you clicked on the link,

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Speaker 1: you would get a pop up and it would say

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Speaker 1: that this link might be unsafe, and then there'd be

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Speaker 1: some text, and underneath that would be a big old

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Speaker 1: blue button that if you clicked on, it would just

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Speaker 1: take you right back to X, so it would, you know,

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Speaker 1: derail you from going to NPR. Beneath that big old

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Speaker 1: blue button is a smaller line of text with a

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Speaker 1: hyperlink that would let you continue on to read the

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Speaker 1: news story. So that is kind of crazy right now.

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Speaker 1: This could just be a simple mistake, but Musk has

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Speaker 1: already shown contempt for NPR because previously he labeled NPR

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Speaker 1: as a state affiliated media outlet. Typically that label indicates

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Speaker 1: a media company that is controlled by a governmental body,

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Speaker 1: like it's a propaganda arm. In other words, that is

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Speaker 1: not what NPR is. NBR receives a little bit of

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Speaker 1: federal funding, but only a tiny little bit. Most of

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Speaker 1: its funding does not come from federal sources, so and

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Speaker 1: there is no federal oversight or control of what goes

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Speaker 1: out over NPR. So this was a very misleading label

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Speaker 1: that Musk applied to NPR. Following that NPR chose to

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Speaker 1: leave X. So, you know, Musk has also over the

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Speaker 1: last few years been promoting more right leaning ideologies and

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Speaker 1: personalities on X, so I think it would be very

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Speaker 1: easy to view this and see it as a purposeful

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Speaker 1: attempt to discourage X users from going to NPR to

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Speaker 1: read up about this incident that happened at Arlington National Cemetery. However,

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Speaker 1: X state that the labeling was actually a false positive,

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Speaker 1: that this was not intentional, it was an honest mistake.

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Speaker 1: Maybe that's true, Like, it's easy for me to believe

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Speaker 1: that it was an intentional move to try and dissuade

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Speaker 1: people from reading up about what happened at Arlington National Cemetery.

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Speaker 1: But it's also very much true that over the last

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Speaker 1: year X has has eliminated so many people from the

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Speaker 1: company payroll that mistakes like this could easily happen simply

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Speaker 1: because they don't have the people to make sure it

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Speaker 1: doesn't happen. So either version could be true. Okay, so

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Speaker 1: we've got stories about X and Starlink. What about Tesla, Well,

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Speaker 1: there's more bad news on that, So Tesla, of course

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Speaker 1: yet another elon Musk company, and Christian Agatti of autoevolution

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Speaker 1: dot Com has an article titled third documented Tesla cybertruck

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Speaker 1: fire in less than a month raises questions woof so

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Speaker 1: a gad points out that in the marketing push for

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Speaker 1: cyber truck, Tesla was really stressing how the cyber truck

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Speaker 1: is a resilient vehicle right now. Granted, in the midst

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Speaker 1: of trying to say the cyber truck could withstand tons

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Speaker 1: of abuse, they accidentally broke some of the cyber truck's

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Speaker 1: windows while trying to show how tough they are. That

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Speaker 1: was a whoopsie, but anyway, the most recent of these

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Speaker 1: fires happened after an accident in which a cyber truck

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Speaker 1: driver hit a fire hydrant. My guess is that then

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Speaker 1: caused the battery inside the cyber truck to experience a

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Speaker 1: short where there was damage to the battery, and that

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Speaker 1: that created a short circuit that led to overheating and

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Speaker 1: then fire. That's my guess. I don't know for sure

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Speaker 1: that that is what happened. There has yet to have

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Speaker 1: been an investigation, or at least results of an investigation

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Speaker 1: shared publicly, so maybe it turns out something else caused

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Speaker 1: the fire. This happened in Harlingen, Texas. Don't know if

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Speaker 1: that's how you say it. There are a lot of

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Speaker 1: places in Texas where I think it's pronounced one way.

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Speaker 1: I am totally wrong. Earlier in the month, however, news

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Speaker 1: which is also in Texas, and In that one, a

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Speaker 1: cyber truck ran into like a concrete ditch trench or

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Speaker 1: something and caught fire. Tragically, there was a fatality, although

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Speaker 1: last I saw, they had not yet determined what actually

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Speaker 1: accident itself, or the fire. The third fire incident that

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Speaker 1: was one where Agady reported that a colleague of his

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Speaker 1: had actually found a burnt cyber truck listed on an

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Speaker 1: online auction site, and the description indicated that the vehicle

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Speaker 1: had been in a wreck and in fact subsequently caught fire,

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Speaker 1: and that this happened in Houston, Texas. So three accidents

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Speaker 1: resulting in fires, all three happening in Texas in the

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Speaker 1: span of a month. Now, I think it's too early

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Speaker 1: to draw any firm conclusions as to whether this means

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Speaker 1: the cyber truck actually is a flawed vehicle in that regard,

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Speaker 1: you know, like if the panels protecting the electric battery

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Speaker 1: aren't sufficient or whatever. I just don't know that that's

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Speaker 1: the case. It could be, but I think we need

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Speaker 1: think that's probably going to happen. I mean, with three

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Speaker 1: at least warranted to take a look and see if

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Speaker 1: there are any common factors here at play. Maybe there aren't.

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Speaker 1: Maybe this is just coincidence and it all happened around

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Speaker 1: the same state and within the same month. That's possible,

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Speaker 1: so we need to investigate to find out. Okay, we

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Speaker 1: got lots more news to get through. Let's take a

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Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsors. We're back, and now

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Speaker 1: we're not done with Elon Musk news items just yet.

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Speaker 1: So over at SpaceX, there was a different kind of setback. Now,

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Speaker 1: while I'm talking about space and SpaceX, I should also

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Speaker 1: give a quick update and mention that we have this

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Speaker 1: ongoing issue of the two astronauts who went up on

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Speaker 1: the Boeing star Liner that then docked with the International

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Speaker 1: Space Station for a couple of months. Now. NASA was

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Speaker 1: hoping to find a way where they could return the

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Speaker 1: astronauts to Earth aboard the star Liner spacecraft. That was

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Speaker 1: something that Boeing was saying would be within acceptable risk parameters,

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Speaker 1: but NASA engineers ultimately disagreed with that. So the official

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Speaker 1: decision is that the Starliner is going to return to

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Speaker 1: Earth empty and the two astronauts will return home early

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Speaker 1: next year aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Now, the SpaceX

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Speaker 1: story I wanted to touch on for this week is

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Speaker 1: that on Wednesday of this week, a Falcon nine first

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Speaker 1: stage booster had a big ol' whoopsie when it returned

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Speaker 1: to land on an ocean platform. Now, as I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you're all aware, one of the big draws for SpaceX's

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Speaker 1: launch vehicles is that they are reusable. This cuts way

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Speaker 1: down on the cost of launch, which is a huge

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Speaker 1: limiting factor for space The first stage booster landed on

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Speaker 1: this ocean platform, but then shortly thereafter it fell over

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Speaker 1: and it burst into flames. Fortunately, there were no reports

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Speaker 1: of any injuries or anything like that. There were no

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Speaker 1: reports of any public damage from this particular incident. However,

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Speaker 1: the FAA has grounded the Falcon nine launch vehicles. SpaceX

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Speaker 1: can investigate the incident and then share its findings and

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Speaker 1: then after any corrective actions have been ordered as a

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Speaker 1: result of that investigation. That means no SpaceX launches until

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Speaker 1: the FAA lifts that order. And that also means there

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Speaker 1: was supposed to be a launch I think today actually

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Speaker 1: that was going to deliver more Starlink satellites into orbit,

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Speaker 1: and that has since been delayed. Actually, the booster that

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Speaker 1: burst into flames, that was part of a mission of

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Speaker 1: sending more Starlink satellites into orbit as well. But the

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Speaker 1: second one that was supposed to happen now has been

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Speaker 1: postponed indefinitely until the ban has been lifted once they

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Speaker 1: figure out exactly what happened with this accident. No telling

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Speaker 1: yet if this is going to impact other upcoming launches.

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Speaker 1: There are a couple that are coming up before too long,

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Speaker 1: But it may be that this whole thing is resolved

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Speaker 1: relatively quickly. We'll just have to keep an eye out.

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Speaker 1: The hits keep on coming though. From us. In Memphis, Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: the Southern Environmental Law Center alleges that Musk's AI company,

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Speaker 1: which of course is called Xai, is using natural gas

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Speaker 1: burning turbines to power the AI facilities. We all know

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Speaker 1: that these AI data centers require a huge amount of

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Speaker 1: electricity in order to work. So one of the things

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Speaker 1: that companies that are using these kinds of power sources

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Speaker 1: that like natural gas burning turbines, one of the things

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to do is file a whole bunch of

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Speaker 1: paperwork to get the right permits to actually operate that

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Speaker 1: kind of machinery, and according to the Southern Environmental Law Center,

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Speaker 1: they say that there's no record that Xai actually followed

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Speaker 1: that process in Tennessee. So in an open letter, the

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Speaker 1: organization claims that Xai has twenty gas turbines operating without

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Speaker 1: first applying for those permits and has called upon the

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Speaker 1: local health department to investigate Xai to determine if, in fact,

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Speaker 1: that is what is going on now. I can't say

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Speaker 1: I would be surprised to hear that a Musk backed

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Speaker 1: company jumped into a situation like that without proper paperwork,

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Speaker 1: but I have to be fair. That is my bias talking,

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Speaker 1: Like just because Musk has proven that, you know, he's

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Speaker 1: done that kind of thing before, it doesn't mean that

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Speaker 1: that's what's happened this time. It could all be totally

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Speaker 1: a misunderstanding, like maybe the paperwork has been filed and

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Speaker 1: they just didn't find record of it. But they are

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Speaker 1: calling for an investigation to find out if the company

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Speaker 1: in fact followed the right process in order to operate

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Speaker 1: this way, because the concern here is that the operation

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Speaker 1: of these twenty gas turbines could contribute to pollution in

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Speaker 1: the Memphis area. Meanwhile, the Center for Countering Digital Hate

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Speaker 1: released the results of a study focusing on the GROCK

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Speaker 1: AI assistant that's the AI assistant connected to YEP, formerly

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Speaker 1: known as Twitter. YadA YadA, YadA so. This study concluded

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Speaker 1: that GROC lacks sufficient guardrails to prevent people from using

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Speaker 1: it to generate misleading images of real public personas, including politicians.

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Speaker 1: The study said that the tool was able to create

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Speaker 1: a convincing fake image of Donald Trump appearing to be

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Speaker 1: very sick in a hospital bed, and another of Kamala

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Speaker 1: Harris appearing to do drugs. The researcher said they tried

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Speaker 1: various methods to generate these images that range from just

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Speaker 1: blatantly giving a text prompt asking for what they wanted

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Speaker 1: to see, to taking a more circumspect route where they

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Speaker 1: used descriptive language to get the same effect, to get

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Speaker 1: the same results they wanted without actually triggering any preventative

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Speaker 1: safety features that otherwise would stop that kind of request

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Speaker 1: from working. I find this particularly frustrating, not just because

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Speaker 1: of the disinformation aspect, which is clearly bad enough alone,

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Speaker 1: but also because Elon Musk like again, I don't like

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Speaker 1: the guy, but he has repeatedly sounded the alarm about

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Speaker 1: the dangers of AI, and I agree AI is potentially

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Speaker 1: very dangerous if it's implemented poorly. And he has argued

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Speaker 1: that AI needs to be developed and deployed responsibly. I

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Speaker 1: agree with that too. I think that AI does need

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Speaker 1: to be developed and deployed responsibly, and that there should

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Speaker 1: be plentiful safety measures in place to prevent AI from

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Speaker 1: causing harm. I agree with that. All of these things

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Speaker 1: I agree with, And yet here is an AI tool

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Speaker 1: on one of Elon Musk's own platforms that clearly fails

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Speaker 1: to follow any of those directives. But then you could

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Speaker 1: also make the same argument that the AI found in

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Speaker 1: Tesla vehicles has at least appeared to be less reliable

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Speaker 1: than the company tends to market to potential customers. So

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Speaker 1: there's that as well. There's also been a recent change

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Speaker 1: to Grock, the AI assistant on it, apparently in response

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Speaker 1: to a complaint letter sent to the company from the

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Speaker 1: offices of five different Secretaries of State, so those states

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Speaker 1: would be Minnesota, New Mexico, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The

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Speaker 1: offices were complaining that Groc was giving incorrect information in

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Speaker 1: response to prompts asking about ballot deadlines in those states.

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Speaker 1: So essentially this is related to election information, and GROC

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Speaker 1: apparently was just giving incorrect responses when people were asking

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Speaker 1: these basic questions about ballots. So now rather than just

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Speaker 1: giving an incorrect answer, GROC will respond to those kinds

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Speaker 1: of requests by urging the visitor to go to vote

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Speaker 1: dot gov for the actual answer, So that I think

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Speaker 1: is a market improvement. Tom David S. Pumpkins Hanks has

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Speaker 1: a message for all of y'all out there, and that

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Speaker 1: message is to not trust drug advertisements that seem to

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Speaker 1: have Tom Hanks voicing the ad copy. So specifically, on Instagram,

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Speaker 1: Hanks posted quote, there are multiple ads over the internet

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Speaker 1: falsely using my name, likeness, and voice promoting miracle cures

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Speaker 1: and wonder drugs. These ads have been created without my consent,

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Speaker 1: fraudulently and through AI. I have nothing to do with

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Speaker 1: these posts, or the productions and treatments, or the spokespeople

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Speaker 1: touting these cures. I have Type two diabetes and I

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Speaker 1: only work with my board certified doctor regarding my treatment.

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Speaker 1: Do not be fooled, Do not be swindled, Do not

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Speaker 1: lose your hard earned money. End quote. Now, if all

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Speaker 1: this sounds a little familiar, that might be because of

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Speaker 1: something that happened around the same time last year, where

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Speaker 1: there was this ad video going around with an AI

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Speaker 1: generated deep fake version of Tom Hanks prom voting a

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Speaker 1: dental plan Lisa needs braces dental plan. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

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Speaker 1: Some episodes of The Simpsons are kind of hardwired into

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Speaker 1: my brain and I just go into like a feedback loop.

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Speaker 1: I have to admit that when I was thinking about

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Speaker 1: how deep fakes were going to spread beyond the creation

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Speaker 1: of pornographic images and video, which is its own thing

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Speaker 1: and it's horrifying and terrible, when I was thinking about

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Speaker 1: how it was going to branch out beyond that, I

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Speaker 1: had not clocked Tom Hanks as being one of the

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Speaker 1: first high profile victims. But here we are. Bloomberg reported

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Speaker 1: that Apple is cutting one hundred positions in its digital

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Speaker 1: services department, and that the affected employees will have two

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Speaker 1: months to find another position within the company or else

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Speaker 1: be struck from the roster entirely. So apparently the main

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Speaker 1: group affected is the books team, which, as Samuel Aksin

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Speaker 1: of Ours Technica has pointed out, has no subscription service

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Speaker 1: attached to that particular product. So it sounds like Apple

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Speaker 1: really wants to redirect energy towards services that more directly

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Speaker 1: impact revenue. Which I mean, you can understand that from

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Speaker 1: a business perspective, right, Like, why would you focus on

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Speaker 1: things that don't impact revenue? Maybe they impact the value

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Speaker 1: or the perception of value, which you could argue is

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Speaker 1: a reasonable reason to keep it going. But yeah, most

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Speaker 1: companies are going to say revenue is way more important.

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Speaker 1: So it appears that Apple is one of those. I

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Speaker 1: hope anyone who has been affected by this will find

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Speaker 1: a new position with a great team as soon as

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Speaker 1: is possible. It's been a pretty long time since I've

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Speaker 1: talked about Uber getting hit with fines, but this next

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Speaker 1: story is quite a doozy. In fact, according to ngadget's

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Speaker 1: Sarah Fielding, it would be the largest fine Uber has

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Speaker 1: ever faced, a whopping two hundred and ninety million Euro penalty.

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Speaker 1: That's the equivalent of around three hundred and twenty four

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Speaker 1: million dollars. So what the heck happened? Well, this has

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Speaker 1: to do with the EU and GDPR. GDPR that's the

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Speaker 1: set of rules that are meant to protect EU citizens'

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Speaker 1: personal data. So one thing that companies are not supposed

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Speaker 1: to do under these rules is to send the personal

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Speaker 1: information belonging to EU citizens outside the EU itself unless

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Speaker 1: you're using appropriate measures to make sure you're protecting their information.

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Speaker 1: This is a thing that a lot of platforms have

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Speaker 1: run into where they were found to be transmitting information

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Speaker 1: to servers in the United States, but the information belonged

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Speaker 1: to EU citizens, and without those protections in place, these

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Speaker 1: companies can't guarantee the safety of that information. Because GDPR

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Speaker 1: is so focused on the safety of personal information, that's

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Speaker 1: a problem. So the Dutch Data Protection Authority or Dutch

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Speaker 1: DPA says that Uber really failed to protect information for

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Speaker 1: Uber drivers and that included stuff like their taxi licenses,

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Speaker 1: their identity documents and lots more other information. That Uber

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Speaker 1: transmitted this info overseas to Uber data servers in the

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00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 1: United States while not using any approved transferred tools that

432
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 1: are meant to ensure the safety of those data transfers.

433
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,880
Speaker 1: The Dutch DPA said this failure to provide adequate protection

434
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 1: is a violation and that Uber subsequently has to pay up.

435
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: And it's notable here that as far as I can tell,

436
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 1: no unauthorized individuals ever got access to this information. This

437
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 1: isn't like a data breach or something, so it's not that,

438
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: you know, Uber failed to protect the info and someone

439
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: got hold of it. It's that Uber was not following

440
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,200
Speaker 1: the approved process to make sure data was handled appropriately,

441
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: so arguably that personal information could have been intercepted or

442
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 1: exploited by other parties. And Uber reps have said that

443
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: the company will of course appeal the fine, so we'll

444
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:10,880
Speaker 1: have to see where this develops from here. Okay, I've

445
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: got some more news stories to talk about. Before we

446
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: get to those, let's take another quick break. Okay, let's

447
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 1: wrap up some of our tech news this week over

448
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: on blue Sky, which, in case you're not familiar with

449
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:36,479
Speaker 1: blue Sky, it's an alternative to Twitter, slash x, along

450
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 1: with other similar tools like Mastodon or threads. So blue

451
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: Sky has added some new anti toxicity features and I

452
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 1: think the features are interesting. I'm not sure that it's

453
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 1: the best approach, but they are interesting. It's hard to

454
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: determine how to best implement anti toxicity measures on a

455
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: platform that allows people to just join up. I mean,

456
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: as platforms get larger, they become more difficult to moderate,

457
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: assuming that you have a platform that's interested in moderation

458
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 1: in the first place. So yeah, I see also Telegram.

459
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: But the big one that I wanted to talk about

460
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: was that users are able now to remove their original

461
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 1: post if someone else quotes that post. So in other words,

462
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: let's say, let's say that you post something that says like,

463
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the Barbie movie, which is awesome. Honestly,

464
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the Barbie movie. But let's say that I'm

465
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 1: not me. Let's say that I am the Evil Mirror

466
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: Universe version of me, and I've decided, because you have

467
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 1: claimed that you enjoyed the Barbie movie, you are deserving

468
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: of criticism and trolling and all that kind of stuff.

469
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 1: So I then quote your post, and I then put

470
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 1: some really nasty commentary underneath about how I think you're

471
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: a dumb dumb for liking a perfectly good movie. And

472
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:08,959
Speaker 1: now you can actually take action on this, so before

473
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: you might just end up being flooded with like toxic notifications,

474
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: let's say that Evil Mirror Universe me has a lot

475
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,840
Speaker 1: more notoriety and a lot more followers on Blue Sky.

476
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 1: So I post this negative takedown of your post and

477
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 1: everyone dogpiles on top of you. Now on Blue Sky,

478
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: you could go in and remove the quoted tweet from

479
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 1: my post. So you know, if my post is centered

480
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 1: around your earlier post, and you remove your earlier post

481
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 1: from mine, then all it's left is the commentary. If

482
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: that commentary is not specific, people don't even know who

483
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 1: I'm referring to as I rant about someone daring to

484
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: like the Barbie movie. So that is effective now, granted,

485
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:00,800
Speaker 1: if in my narrative, if in my common Harry I

486
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 1: have also identified you, then removing your post from the

487
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 1: quotation doesn't really help that much because people can still

488
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: see who I'm talking about. Maybe they don't get a

489
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 1: link to your profile or whatever, but there's limited utility here.

490
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,479
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that that's generally a positive step.

491
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that's the most effective one, but it

492
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: is meant to prevent instances of dog piling. So that

493
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 1: if someone takes your post and then, out of context,

494
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: tries to argue that you're a terrible person or whatever,

495
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: you can just remove the quotation part out of that post.

496
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: Now you can't touch anything else that's in that post, right, Like,

497
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: if in my description, I really drag you. You can't

498
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: go in and change my description, like you can't change

499
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 1: the commentary I have added. You can just remove the

500
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 1: quoted part, which I think makes sense, Like you shouldn't

501
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: have the ability to be able to change what someone's

502
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: post reads, because then it's just chaos. But I think

503
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 1: it is a good step. I just think it's tough,

504
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,440
Speaker 1: like this is a hard problem to fix. Another similar

505
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 1: feature on blue Sky is that you can actually hide

506
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: replies to your posts. So let's say you post something

507
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: and no one's quoting you, but they are replying to you,

508
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: and some of them are being real nasty. You can

509
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:25,240
Speaker 1: actually hide those replies, and you can choose to hide

510
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 1: it just from yourself, which is like blocking or muting someone,

511
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 1: or you can choose to hide that reply from everybody

512
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: so no one can see that this person is just

513
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 1: being nasty towards you. So when someone's being hateful, you

514
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: can hide so that no one sees it. Or maybe

515
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,600
Speaker 1: you just shield yourself and you let it stand for

516
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: everybody else. Blue Sky says it will continue to introduce

517
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: features to make the platform a more safe and welcoming place.

518
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 1: This I think is in stark contrast to X like

519
00:33:55,880 --> 00:34:00,479
Speaker 1: over at X. You don't really see a Musk and

520
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 1: company putting in measures to make X a safer and

521
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,680
Speaker 1: more welcoming place. You do occasionally see stories like the

522
00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 1: one I mentioned about NPR, where it appears that whenever

523
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 1: they do enter into content moderation, it's to suppress any

524
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: any kind of viewpoint that doesn't go into alignment with

525
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,760
Speaker 1: what Musk believes. That at least that's the appearance. Whether

526
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: that's what's really going on or not, I don't know.

527
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: Like I said, it could really be that there was

528
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:33,479
Speaker 1: just an error in a false positive, But yeah, Blue

529
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: Sky strikes me as taking kind of like a maybe

530
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: not a total one to eighty approach from X, but

531
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 1: a substantial deviation from that approach. The Motion Picture Association

532
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 1: announced this week that through partnering with authorities in Vietnam,

533
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 1: they have shut down an online media piracy ring that

534
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:57,800
Speaker 1: had accumulated billions of visits between them from January twenty

535
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 1: twenty three up to June twenty twenty four. So sort

536
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:06,359
Speaker 1: of the hub of this, like the central crux was

537
00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:11,480
Speaker 1: F Movies, and under F Movies, there were several piracy

538
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,760
Speaker 1: sites that were in operation. They included any Wave Flicks

539
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:20,720
Speaker 1: Tours my Flixer and others like that. So the MPa

540
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: referred to f Movies as the mothership of piracy and

541
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,800
Speaker 1: that the takedown had a cascading effect across these various

542
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:34,760
Speaker 1: piracy sites which have been hosting media illegally for years

543
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:39,320
Speaker 1: and distributing it to whomever goes there. Various media companies

544
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:44,720
Speaker 1: and organizations that represent media companies have spent decades fighting

545
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: online piracy, often in ways that end up being outlandishly disproportionate.

546
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 1: Like you might remember, I mean I remember because I

547
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 1: remember the nineties when the RIAA really began to shake

548
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:02,600
Speaker 1: down like service pro like Verizon to hand over the

549
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: identities of customers that the RIAA suspected were guilty of piracy.

550
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:15,200
Speaker 1: There are people who were hit with truly ridiculous, astronomic

551
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:20,920
Speaker 1: fines for piracy. And then there's the various issue of

552
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 1: media organizations arguing that piracy equates to loss of revenue,

553
00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,840
Speaker 1: like if you watch a movie illegally, if you download

554
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: a music track illegally, that means we lost revenue. A

555
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:37,600
Speaker 1: lot of entities, including the United States Government Accountability Office,

556
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 1: say that argument doesn't hold water. At best, it is misleading.

557
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:46,760
Speaker 1: At worst, it is wrong, and that's because it's impossible

558
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 1: to determine if someone who pirated a piece of media

559
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:54,279
Speaker 1: otherwise would have purchased that piece of media legally. Let's

560
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:57,840
Speaker 1: say that piracy was impossible somehow, Like we're in a

561
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: world where it's just impossible to pirate stuff. Someone who

562
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:03,880
Speaker 1: would have pirated things, you can't say that they will,

563
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: though otherwise go out and buy it. Maybe they just

564
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:10,279
Speaker 1: go without. You can't make the argument that a downloaded

565
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 1: piece of media equates to loss of revenue, So a

566
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 1: lost sale isn't the same thing as stolen money. Like

567
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,799
Speaker 1: if I walk up to a movie theater and I

568
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,960
Speaker 1: look at the list of films that are available, and

569
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: I ultimately decide, eh, I don't feel like watching any

570
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,719
Speaker 1: of these, and I walk off. I didn't steal from

571
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: any of the movie companies. So yeah, I think piracy

572
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,560
Speaker 1: is bad. Just to be clear, I do think piracy

573
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,359
Speaker 1: is bad. I do not think you should do it.

574
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 1: Don't be a pirate. However, I think media companies that

575
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:49,480
Speaker 1: take the nuclear option based on unsupportable arguments are bad too.

576
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: No one's in the right in that particular situation. But

577
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 1: you can read more about this particular story about the

578
00:37:56,640 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 1: Motion Picture Association and f movies both On Technica and

579
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:04,080
Speaker 1: The Verge. Both sites have some great articles about this

580
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: recent Hollywood war against online piracy. I recommend you go

581
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:11,799
Speaker 1: check those out now. For other recommended reading this week,

582
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:13,640
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of different pieces I want to

583
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 1: talk about. First up is a paper that was published

584
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 1: in Nature, the science journal Nature. This paper is by

585
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 1: Valentine Hoffmann, Pratyusha rha Kaluri, Dan Jorowski, and Sharise King.

586
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:33,680
Speaker 1: It is titled AI generates covertly racist decisions about people

587
00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 1: based on their dialect. So, as you might suspect, this

588
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 1: paper investigates the issue of bias found within AI models,

589
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:44,959
Speaker 1: but this time with regard to dialect as opposed to say,

590
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 1: physical features. I think it's a really important piece, particularly

591
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 1: since we live in a world in which code switching

592
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:54,720
Speaker 1: is a really important mechanism for navigating different cultural groups

593
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, and if they are switched

594
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 1: into one particular culture, it's entirely possible that an AI

595
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 1: model is going to make some very racist conclusions based

596
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:11,160
Speaker 1: on that anyway. Next up would be a piece by

597
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 1: Heather Knight and Kate Conger of The New York Times

598
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: titled Elon Musk's X is leaving San Francisco. City officials

599
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 1: say good riddance. So this story covers how X, which

600
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 1: has long had its HQ in San Francisco, California, is

601
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:31,359
Speaker 1: now moving to other parts of California, like it's going

602
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,800
Speaker 1: to rely on offices that are in other cities in California,

603
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,919
Speaker 1: but the HQ itself is relocating to Texas, And how

604
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: some people who are in various positions in San Francisco

605
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: government aren't exactly wringing their hands at x's departure. Then finally,

606
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,879
Speaker 1: there's a concerning article in The Texas Observer by Francesca

607
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: du Nunzio titled Texas State Police gear up for massive

608
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:59,279
Speaker 1: expansion of surveillance tech. It serves as a reminder that

609
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: it's very important to hold law enforcement agencies accountable and

610
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:07,320
Speaker 1: to investigate whether their reliance on certain technologies is merited,

611
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 1: particularly since some of those technologies have proven to have

612
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,799
Speaker 1: flaws that can lead to disproportionate harm being done to

613
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:17,880
Speaker 1: vulnerable populations. Specifically, I'm thinking about things like facial recognition

614
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 1: technologies and how that often can disproportionately affect innocent people

615
00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 1: from the black community. We've seen that happen numerous times,

616
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 1: So any surveillance state stuff always makes me nervous. It's

617
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 1: also wild that Texas identity is so strange to me

618
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: because there's kind of ingrained in Texas is this idea

619
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: of independence and being able to stand on your own,

620
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 1: to hike yourself up by your bootstraps, and that you know,

621
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 1: like a lot of the narrative around Texas government is

622
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,800
Speaker 1: about being self sufficient. I mean the state of Texas.

623
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:58,319
Speaker 1: Their power grid is independent of the national power grid

624
00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:01,160
Speaker 1: in the United States, for example. So you've got this

625
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: idea of individualism and self sufficiency, and on the flip side,

626
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 1: you've got this growing surveillance state in law enforcement, and

627
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:17,320
Speaker 1: the two don't really gel together to me, apart from

628
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 1: a slow moved more toward authoritarianism, which I think is

629
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 1: pretty concerning you. But the tech enabling that is really

630
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 1: the feature of that particular article, So check that out.

631
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 1: I hope all of you have a great weekend here

632
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 1: in the United States, the holiday weekend. I hope you

633
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: have a great holiday if you're here in the US.

634
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 1: If you're not in the US, I hope you just

635
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,319
Speaker 1: have a great weekend period. And I'll talk to you

636
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 1: again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For

637
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

638
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,640
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite show still