WEBVTT - Tech News: Tesla Gets Downsized 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.120 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.200 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.880 tech are you. It's time for the tech news for 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.079 the week ending on Friday, May third, twenty twenty four. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:30.240 And kicking things off, we've got a devastating story involving 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.839 ransomware hackers and the largest health insurance company in the world, 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:39.479 at least as measured by revenue. We're talking about United Health, 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:44.440 and that company's CEO, Andrew Whitty, faced some pretty tough 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:48.800 questions from US senators this week due to hackers stealing 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:54.440 a quote unquote substantial amount of sensitive medical data belonging 0:00:54.480 --> 0:01:00.000 to anywhere from one third to half of all Americans, 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.960 which is a big o' yaalza. Okay. So United Health 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.960 is obviously a huge player in health insurance, the hugest 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.000 you could argue. And on top of that, back in 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:17.040 early twenty twenty three, United Health acquired another health company. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.560 It's a company that was called Change Healthcare. Now, this 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:25.000 company specialized in payment platforms for health services and in 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:30.959 fact handled payments for like fifty percent of all medical 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:36.000 payments in the United States, but apparently Change Healthcare's computer 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:42.120 systems weren't really hardened properly against hacker intrusions, and sure enough, 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.160 some folks from the infamous hacker group Alpha, which is 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.040 the same group that helped infiltrate MGM resorts last year, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.400 they managed to use some stolen credentials to access a 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.559 Change Healthcare server in February of this year. And then 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.440 that we go from there. So they apparently took a 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.840 crap ton of data and whity claimed that the server 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.000 had been scheduled to be upgraded to bring it security 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.560 up to par, that this wasn't really United Health's fault, 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.440 This was an issue with Change Healthcare, you know, the 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.760 company that now was part of United Health, and that 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.640 this group of servers were meant to be upgraded so 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.600 that they would be brought on par with United Health 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.640 security practices. And you know that might be true, but 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.359 we all know you're only as secure as your weakest link, 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.160 which makes me wonder why United Health didn't hold off 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.920 on integrating the Change Healthcare servers into their overall system 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.040 until after these security upgrades took place. I mean, that 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.399 to me would make sense right, like, you don't want 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.120 to incorporate that and bring it under the umbrella of 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:57.359 everything else. Even if it only affected change healthcare systems, 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.680 that would have been enough. But to potentially get access 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.640 to other things is even worse. So this is not 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.240 as bad as what would follow. In my opinion, maybe 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.840 it is as bad. This is equally as bad, I'll say, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.280 because United Health went ahead and paid the ransom twenty 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.799 two million dollars worth of cryptocurrency. Now, I know I'm 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.160 a broken record about this, but paying ransoms is a 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:27.359 bad idea. It reinforces that this kind of attack is profitable, 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.520 that it works if you pay them. That just sends 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.080 the message of hey, this is a way to get 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.640 stink and rich. This means that we're just going to 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.480 see more of these attacks in the future. It just 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.520 encourages future attacks. It doesn't help. And worse than that, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.240 as United Health is now discovering, paying the ransom doesn't 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.800 necessarily mean that the attackers are going to play ball 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.960 and make good on their promises. So lawmakers grilled Witty 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.000 about the potential disruptions in American health care that can 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.600 result due to this attack, not to mention the implications 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:59.760 of all that data that was stolen. You know, you 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.640 got to remember this is the same governmental body that 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:07.000 recently came down hard on TikTok for potentially siphoning American 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.640 data to China. Now, when you think about the stuff 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:12.640 that's on TikTok, you're like, Okay, well that could be 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.760 like location data things like that. But most of the 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.160 content on TikTok and stuff like Prank's stunts and dances, 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:23.440 so at least on a surface level, it seems pretty harmless. 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.640 But now we're talking about a case where sensitive medical 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.520 data had been stolen, So you figure this has got 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:31.920 to be a much bigger deal, right, This is way 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:38.040 worse than potentially a siphon line of data to China. 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.159 You got to have your priorities. Something tells me that 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.560 Whitty is going to end up just being fine by 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.760 the end of the day. I mean, he's the CEO 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.680 of one of the largest companies in the world by revenue. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.480 But hey, I'm willing for the Senate to prove me wrong. Now. 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.520 In the ongoing tale of consolidating media companies, Sony Pictures 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.680 Entertainment has made a move to acquire Paramount Global for 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:05.920 the princely sum of twenty six billion dollars cash. That's 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.160 billion with a B. Sony is doing this in partnership 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.560 with Apollo Global Management, which is a retirement solutions and 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.279 asset management company. Honestly, when I read a description like 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.640 that for what a company does, it's so vague. It 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:20.479 makes me think of a friend of mine who used 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.920 to say his family was in quote unquote waste management business, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.800 and he would actually do the air quotes while saying it. 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.680 So a shout out to you, Frankie big House. Interestingly, 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.719 Paramount is already in acquisition talks with another media company 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.760 called sky Dance. As I understand it, the date for 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.880 that agreement, whether it goes forward or not, ends today. 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.400 Sky Dance, in the Grand Scheme of Things, is a 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.800 relatively upstart media company. It traces its history back to 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.440 two thousand and six. Sky Dance in Paramount and I 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.039 have been in partnership on and off for many years. 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.120 They've worked together quite a bit. But anyway, Paramountain has 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.240 been going through quite the shakeup recently. Earlier this week, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.840 the media conglomerate said goodbye to its now former CEO, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.400 Bob Bakish and replaced him with a triumvirate of executives 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.960 that includes George Cheeks, who's president and CEO of CBS, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.479 Chris McCarthy who's the head of MTV and Showtime and 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.159 several other networks, and Brian Robbins, the studio chief of 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.000 Paramount Pictures. Now, the industry as a whole, of traditional 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.640 media has clearly really been struggling. You know. Cord cutters 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.400 have been ditching cable packages and streaming services are trying 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.800 to find a way to stand out from the crowd 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.800 while also creating a profitable business, which is really hard 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.839 in that space. I wouldn't necessarily call either Paramount or 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.919 Sony a sinking ship. I think that's overstating things. But 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.799 considering the volatility that's in the media landscape right now, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.560 this feels kind of like a bunch of big boats 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.279 that are caught in very rough seas hoping that by 0:06:55.360 --> 0:07:00.560 lashing themselves together they might weather the storm more effectively. Plus, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.560 we can't let Disney own everything. Right over at Tesla, 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.839 Elon Musk has been making some brutal cuts in personnel. 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.640 As QZ dot COM's William Gavin puts it, the cuts 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.680 have affected quote almost every corner of the company, from 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:21.480 senior level executives to summer interns just weeks away from employment. 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.320 In the quote that's from an article that's titled not 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.280 even Tesla interns are saved from elon Musk's cost cutting. 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.040 The cuts are in line with Musk's announcement that the 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.960 company would downsize by around ten percent, and that in 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.800 itself reportedly is a much smaller cut, like half of 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.440 what Musk initially wanted to do. One department that was 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:49.200 absolutely eliminated by these cuts is Tesla's supercharger division. That 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.280 alone is a group that had five hundred people in it. 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.160 This is the department that created the standards for charging 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.160 Tesla's They secured build out for hundreds of charging stations. 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.880 They worked with other auto manufacturers to get them to 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.920 adopt Tesla's charging methodology as something kind of like an 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.880 industry standard. Not only did Tesla shut down that whole department, 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.080 it has also backed out of agreements to build charging 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.000 stations and crucial areas such as New York City. To 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:20.320 completely eliminate the supercharger group seems a bit perplexing. Tesla 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.320 arguably had a dominant position in charging technologies and could 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.640 have leveraged that moving forward. It could have been a 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.960 really big cornerstone of Tesla's business. So why make such 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.960 drastic cuts. Well, Tesla as a whole has seen a 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.280 pretty dramatic decline in sales numbers recently, and cynically. There's 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.719 also the matter of Elon Musk's pay package. That's a 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.200 forty seven billion dollar compensation package on the line, and 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.720 Musk could be looking at making these cuts until you know, 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.480 like Tesla is bleeding from a thousand cuts in an 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.880 effort to secure that MOO law shareholders will actually get 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:57.920 to vote on that later this year, and I can 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.360 kind of understand that motivation. He essentially lit a pile 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.360 of forty four billion dollars of cash on fire after 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.760 he bought Twitter and then did his best to reduce 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.760 its value to nothing, so he needs to refresh the 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.439 cash pile somehow. Plus judges keep having this nasty habit 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.760 of striking down his compensation package and denying him billions 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.480 of dollars. Anyway, I'm not going to spend any time 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.720 worrying about Elon Musk's financial future. I'm wishing all the 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.840 folks who are affected by these recent cuts the absolute 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:33.480 best of luck in finding gainful and satisfying employment elsewhere. Okay, 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.360 we've got several other news stories to get through before 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:48.840 we get to that. Let's take a quick break. We're back, 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.120 and you know. Tesla is not the only big tech 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:54.719 company cutting jobs this week. CNBC reports that Google is 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.800 laying off hundreds of core employees from around two hundred. 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.080 It sounds like and for some of these roles, Google 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.960 will shift responsibilities to new team members, except these team 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.160 members will be in places like Mexico and India. This 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.520 falls in line with earlier cuts across Alphabets companies. Just 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.120 a reminder, Alphabets, the holding company that sits above Google, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.600 as well as other companies like YouTube and Google. Management 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.680 has messaged that quote announcements of this sort may leave 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.480 many of you feeling uncertain or frustrated end quote, which 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:30.320 is both an understatement and definitely true. But management has 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.800 also said these changes are supposed to be aligned with 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.480 the company's mission and goals. And I suppose if the 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.280 mission is to shift work to labor forces that work 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.680 for much lower salaries. This is true because labor is 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.720 far less expensive in Mexico and India than in the 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:48.280 United states, Google is giving affected employees the chance to 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.920 apply for other jobs within the company or to use 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.880 outplacement services. So you know, I guess that's something. Speaking 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.240 of Google, one of the company's massive anti trust lawsuits, 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.880 and yes there's more than one, is wrapping up with 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.760 closing arguments today. It's the second day of closing arguments. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.319 It's the conclusion of this long trial. This particular lawsuit 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.760 revolves around Google Search and the various ways Google has 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:16.000 maneuvered to get Search featured as the default search engine 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.080 on as many platforms as is possible. So the US 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.240 Department of Justice argues that Google used its considerable advantage 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:28.000 to restrain other competitors from serving as actual competition, thus 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.840 a monopolistic move. One example is how Google secures contracts 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.240 with handset manufacturers to make Google Search the default search 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.360 engine on the device. Now, Google's counter argument is that 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.120 it's possible to change default settings, So this really isn't 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.679 the big deal everyone says it is. But then if 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.760 it's not a big deal, why would Google spend billions 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:53.160 of dollars to secure these agreements? And it does spend billions, 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.560 and The New York Times revealed that in twenty twenty 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.040 one alone, Google forked over around eighteen billion dollars to 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.640 Apple in return for being the default search engine on 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:07.280 iOS devices. That's a lot of money. And while Google 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.720 has claimed that the reason why other companies agreed to 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.439 have Google as the default is that Google Search is 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.360 the best search engine out there, they're saying, hey, we're 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.160 not being unfair, we just happened to make the best product. 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.160 The counter to this is that even if there were 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.559 a search engine out there that would be as good 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.480 as Google, the use of that alternative is unlikely because 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:33.800 Google is offering these massive deals, right, these huge billion 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.720 dollar deals to have Google as the default search engine. 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.040 So if you had one that was as good or 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.480 maybe even superior to Google Search, companies still wouldn't go 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.800 with that because it doesn't come along with billions of dollars. Now, 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.959 by the time you hear this episode, the arguments may 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.760 have concluded and the judge will decide if the accusations 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.640 have merit, and if that happens, then a separate case 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.480 will be launched to decide what repercussions are to follow. 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.000 So we will continue with this later on. Plus, hey, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.880 we still have another anti trust lawsuit to talk about 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.600 in the future switching to telecommunications companies. The US Federal 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:14.000 Communications Commission, or FCC, has handed down large fines to 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:19.240 four big telecom companies, specifically Verizon, AT and T, Sprint 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.520 and T Mobile, the big four in the United States. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.800 So why are these companies facing huge fines while they 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:32.000 are alleged to have illegally shared geolocation data of their users, 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:36.080 their customers, essentially to third parties without first getting the 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.960 consent of those customers. More specifically, the charges that the 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.800 carriers sold geolocation data to aggregator companies, and these aggregators 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.000 then turned around and sold the information to other third 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.679 party data brokers. And according to the FCC, the telecoms 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:53.920 were trying to pass the buck as far as gaining 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.960 consent from users is concerned. Their strategy was to essentially 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.480 shift that responsibility further downstream to the data aggregators, which 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.959 you know didn't get that consent. The individual fines ranged 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.240 from twelve million that's for Sprint they pay the least 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.880 up to eighty million, which is for TE Mobile. And 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:18.839 now we get into the actually crime does pay quite well. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.800 In fact, part of our news stories. First up, we 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.120 have the crime of tax evasion and mail fraud. The 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:29.840 accused is Roger Vere. He has the charming nickname of 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.760 Bitcoin Jesus, and as that name implies, Ver holds quite 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:38.120 a lot of bitcoin. Back in twenty fourteen, Ver renounced 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.400 his US citizenship to become a citizen of Saint Kitts 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.360 and Nevis. However, at the time when he did this, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.440 at least according to the indictment, he happened to hold 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.760 more than one hundred and thirty thousand bitcoins and yet 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.360 did not report this to the United States before ditching 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.720 the country for the Tropics. And the US government really 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.760 likes to take its share of tax and Ver's share 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.160 reportedly is somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.520 So Spanish authorities arrested Verre on behalf of the United 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.600 States last weekend while Ver was in Spain, and now 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.400 the US wants to extradite him back to the United 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.200 States and hold him accountable for skipping town without paying 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.640 the fees. First, Honestly, I think Ver's going to be 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:21.920 just fine. I mean, at least assuming he still has 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.760 that significant cash of bitcoins, because if you take it 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.400 by today's value. You're talking about more than seven billion 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.760 dollars worth of money or wealth if you prefer, then 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:37.080 so fifty million, while a not inconsiderable sum, is barely 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.720 a drop in the bucket compared to the overall wealth 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:45.360 this guy has. Here's another crime that seemed to pay well, 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.400 at least up to a point. Story. It's a story 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.680 about owner oxoy. He lives in Miami, Florida, and now 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.240 he has been sentenced for his crime of passing off 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:00.920 shoddy technology as genuine networking gear from the company Cisco. 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.440 So Cisco has a valuable brand, right like they have 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.560 a reputation for their work their products. So Oxoi was 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.080 arrested way back in twenty twenty two for running a 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.640 scam that had lasted for several years. He would buy 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:20.040 up cheap components from places like China, cram these components 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.440 into cases that look like legitimate Cisco hardware, and then 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.320 sell this junk off to various customers for way more 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.520 than what he paid, though presumably under the market price 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.920 for actual legitimate Cisco hardware. And he did this from 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.800 twenty fourteen to twenty twenty two. He made hundreds of 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.160 millions of dollars in the process. Among his clientele was 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.160 the US military, and that's really where he stuck his 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.880 nose in it, because once his crimes were discovered, the 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.840 US government really began to close in on him, though 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.280 they did take their time anyway. The whole drama has 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.040 now played out because Oxoy faces six and a half 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.880 years in prison, one hundred million dollars in fines to Cisco, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.720 and an under termined amount that will be paid to 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.320 the various customers he hoodwinked with shoddy imitations of Cisco hardware. 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.840 But hey, he had a pretty good run on the 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.159 flip side of crime. Let's talk about how Microsoft has 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.640 made it clear that police departments are not to use 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:18.400 products relying on Azure Open Eye services for the purposes 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.840 of facial recognition technology. So essentially, Microsoft is saying it 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:23.600 doesn't want to be a party to that kind of 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:27.280 thing and added languages in its terms and services that 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.159 make it clear that police forces around the world are 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.840 not authorized to leverage AI technologies running on Azure services 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.920 for the purposes of facial recognition. That's interesting to me 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.399 in a couple of ways. We all probably know that 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.760 facial recognition technologies as a whole have a lot of problems, 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.600 including false positives for people who belong to certain ethnic groups, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:53.480 typically non white ethnic groups, and that facial recognition technology 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.760 therefore contributes to a real social problem of authorities unfairly 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:03.040 and unjustifiably placing hard chips on these populations. But this 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.480 also means Microsoft is kind of tacitly implying that there's 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.439 a real weakness in a technology that the company is 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:14.000 simultaneously spending billions of dollars developing, which is kind of 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.639 like saying, hey, AI is the future, but uh, you know, 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.440 don't use it for real important stuff because bad things 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.600 can happen. It seems like mixed messages, is what I'm saying. 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.600 But anyway, you could argue this is the responsible thing 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.520 to do, or you could be more cynical and probably 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.960 more realistic and say that Microsoft adding this language and 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.160 is really just an effort for the company to follow 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.920 the old CYA strategy. You know, if the company says 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.879 police are not supposed to use this for facial recognition, 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.720 then it's not Microsoft's fault if and when some police 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.720 force does exactly that, because they can say we told 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.439 them not to and I've got some reading recommendations for 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:54.800 you all before I sign off. First up is Sharon 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.400 Harding's piece for Ours Technica titled all the Ways Streaming 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.520 Services are aggravating their sscribers this Week. Obviously, the piece 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:06.199 highlights some frustrating decisions that the operators of various streaming 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.919 services have made that seem designed to alienate their customers, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.720 while more traditional forms of media continue to circle the 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.040 drain fun times. Secondly, I recommend the piece by Andrew 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.040 Griffin of The Independent. It is titled humans Now share 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:24.120 the Web equally with bots, report warrens amid fears of 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.520 the dead Internet now. I mentioned in a recent Tech 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.199 Stuff that a report from a cybersecurity firm says that 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:34.280 around forty nine point six percent of all traffic on 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.159 the Internet in twenty twenty three came from bots. So 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.560 this article explores what that actually means, including the so 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.480 called dead Internet theory, which I may have to do 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.479 a full episode on in the near future. And it 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.000 just is this idea about the Internet becoming this weird 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.920 place where bots are creating and trafficking and consuming all 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.640 the information across the system, and it becomes increasingly useless 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:00.000 for actual human people. That's it for me for this week. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.680 I hope you are all well, and I'll talk to 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:13.640 you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:19.000 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.119 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.