WEBVTT - Tech News: Netflix Targets Shared Passwords 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.560 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.079 And how the tech are Yet, it's time for the 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:26.680 tech news or Thursday, October twenty two and surprisingly we 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.040 got a lot to go through. So last week, Netflix 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:34.519 unveiled the long anticipated plan to offer an AD subsidized 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.320 subscription tier, which rolls out here in the United States 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.960 and early November. Subscribers at that tier will get access 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.519 to most, but not all, of netflix is streaming content. 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.160 They will be able to view it at a maximum 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:53.720 resolution of seven, which is at the base level of 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.920 high definition. Subscribers will get ADS obviously, and in return, 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.320 their subscription will cost just x dollars nine nine cents 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:05.040 per month. Also, they will only be allowed to watch 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.400 Netflix on one supported device at a time, so there's 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.440 no simultaneous viewing option there. If someone else in the 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.520 house wants to watch Netflix, tough luck, they have to 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.800 get their own account. The other tiers of service will 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.600 include Basic that has no ADS, so there's Basic with 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.800 ads and Basic without ads. Basic without ads has the 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.280 same sort of limitations as Basic. When it comes to resolution, however, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:34.040 it should have access to the full Netflix catalog, so 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.399 you won't have the same limitation there. It will cost 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:43.080 nine dollars nine cents per month. Then you've got Standard tier, 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.600 this is at fifteen dollars for nine cents per month. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.280 At that one you actually get a resolution of up 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.160 to ten eighty So full HD also allows up to 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.880 two devices to access the service at the same time. 0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:00.120 Then you've got Premium that's nineteen nine per month and 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.800 that allows for streaming an ultra h D and it 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.840 can support up to four devices with simultaneous viewing. In 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.320 addition to that, this week, Netflix announced that in early 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.919 it will roll out a program to address password sharing. Now, 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.440 the company has been piloting this already in various Latin 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.200 America countries for several months. The ideas that Netflix will 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.800 identify households that have shared user names and passwords with 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.440 other people outside that household, and then they will give 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.480 those people and a chance to add sub accounts to 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:39.720 their subscription. So each sub account will require an additional 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.919 monthly fee, which is likely to be somewhere between three 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.120 dollars fifty cents and four dollars per month. Netflix has 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.440 not actually shared that yet. Folks who have been using 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.640 someone else's password uh and who have established a profile 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.480 will still have that profile maintained. Their watch history will 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.600 still be there under this plan. So if you are 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.600 someone who's been piggybacking on someone else's account and you've 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.000 created your own viewing profile in their account, that will 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:12.919 still be preserved, assuming that the primary account holder agrees 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.760 to pay this extra amount. Otherwise it's gonna get shut down. 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:21.000 So Netflix is kind of giving people an option to 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.720 subscribe in a much lower amount if they're piggybacking onto 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.480 someone else's account. This is all part of the company's 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.040 strategy to address problems that it encountered earlier this year, 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:33.799 when the company revealed in an earnings call that had 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.640 lost more subscribers than it had added for the first 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:41.400 time in Netflix's history. The stock price for Netflix plummeted 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.200 after that announcement, and we've seen ripples go throughout the 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.840 entire streaming ecosystem, not just Netflix, but well beyond, and 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.600 I think part of that stems from Netflix's own kind 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.760 of a stumble earlier this year. So Netflix is now 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.280 pushing back. It's recently announced it added more subscribe brs 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.360 and the stock price jumped again. And now has these 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.800 additional revenue sources ready to launch, and I suspect Netflix 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:11.240 will adjust its production strategy moving forward as well. The 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:16.400 company had already dissolved several production departments. I would not 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.600 be surprised to see Netflix take a more conservative approach 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.960 to producing exclusive content in the future. We've already seen 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:28.440 David zaslav Over at Warner Brothers Discovery make announcements that 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.960 indicate that company is definitely taking a more conservative approach 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:40.320 and reserving higher production value stuff for venues like movie theaters. 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.720 So this might be part of the transition into the 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:48.760 new era of streaming services where Netflix no longer can 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:54.039 command the entire landscape and has too many competitors, and 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.440 once you grow to a certain amount, you can't really 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.880 grow much more like you hit you hit uh saturation 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.840 at that point. Uber has announced that the company has 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.760 formed an advertising department and that before too long, Uber 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.040 users will have the pleasure of encountering ads at pretty 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.280 much every stage of using Uber, as well as Uber 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:20.400 eats yea. So here's the skinny Uber plans. What are 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.280 called journey ads for passengers, and these ads will take 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.200 into account at least some of the personal data of 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.840 users who are making use of Uber in order to 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.560 target them with advertising, because we all know targeted advertising 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:42.600 is way more valuable than just blanket ads. So presumably 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.359 this is going to include geolocation data so that you 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:50.239 get geo relevant ads beamed at you when you're using Uber, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.479 and that can get into some really tricky territory that 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.560 I'll talk about in a second. But the idea is 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.560 that let's say you hail a ride and you are 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:05.120 going to I don't know, an entertainment destination, and you 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.320 will get ads through that whole process of using Uber. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.400 You'll get them while you wait for your ride, You'll 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.719 get them as you ride to your destination. We have 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.839 seen Lift start to outfit cars with tablets. It's very 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.760 likely the Uber is doing the same thing, so that 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.680 you will have screens around you, and it means you 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.240 don't really have the option to, you know, not watch 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.080 the ad, because of course, if you have it on 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:33.120 your phone, you can just make your phone go dark 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.920 and not pay attention to the ad that way, though, 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.440 I mean I always monitor my ride because I don't 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.080 know there's a little bit of paranoia in me to 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.960 make sure that the driver is not, you know, taking 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.320 me out to the back country to off me or something. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.960 So yeah, it looks like you're gonna be seeing ads 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.800 no matter what you do, and the ads are going 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.840 to come from a single source per transaction, which I 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.960 think is actually interesting. You're not gonna get, you know, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.360 like an ad for toilet paper one second and then 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.680 car insurance the next. Rather the ad should in theory 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.880 be targeted at you and presumably will take into account 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.640 either your destination or your starting point or both. So 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.520 if you're using Uber to say, go to the theater district, 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.120 maybe you start to get ads for a local restaurant 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.680 or something like that. Similarly, Uber eats will be able 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.480 to display ads pretty much through the whole process of 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:33.640 using that app as well, including promoting certain restaurants above others. Uh. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.880 I always look for that when I use a delivery service, 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.840 because I would rather get the highest rated options like 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:43.480 customer ratings, rather than an option that paid to be 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:47.760 promoted over everybody else. Anyway, I mentioned the geolocation data 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.800 earlier being an issue, and here's a very real and 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.680 scary example that could happen. Women who want to use 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.160 a ride haling app to go to a reproductive healthcare 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.520 clinic are likely going to desire and expect a level 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.120 of privacy, and specifically in the wake of the Supreme 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.720 Court striking down the protections of Row versus Wade, keeping 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.600 the information private is important to women's health and security, 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.880 and we've got states that have threatened to prosecute women 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.440 even if they go outside the state in order to say, 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:24.760 seek an abortion. So having a service that is using 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.160 geolocation data in such a way as to target people 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.480 potentially could have other consequences down the line. Now, for 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:36.679 its part, Uber claims that it aggregates information that doesn't 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.280 get as granular as specific individuals, but there's still a 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.960 massive concern about this kind of process and what it 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.160 means to privacy and security. Uber reps have said that 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.520 as the program rolls out, it could make the cost 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.640 of Uber less expensive because it will now be subsidized 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.280 by ads, but so far, no one has actually mentioned 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.079 any sort of ballpark estimate about you know, how much 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.199 of a discount folks should expect. So, yeah, I'm seeing 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:06.280 a lot of negative reaction to this announcement, which I 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.840 totally understand and I don't disagree with I also feel 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.319 a key about this, but we'll have to see what 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.320 what what it's like once it actually manifests. This next 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:24.000 story should go into our Spooky Episodes series. The f 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.640 a A as the Federal Aviation Administration here in the 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:30.920 United States, is looking into a case of GPS interference 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.400 that affected the Dallas Fort Worth Airport earlier this week. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:40.240 The interference affected about forty miles of airspace that we're 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.920 close to d f W. That's Dallas Fort worths Airport. 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.920 While GPS navigation isn't critical for air travel, it is 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.079 a tool that pilots rely on pretty regularly. Without GPS, 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.840 pilots have to use older methods and navigation, and these 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.800 older methods still work and everything. They're just us convenient. 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:05.880 So as a result, GPS interference can lead to delays 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.880 and flight cancelations and that kind of thing. So this 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.040 is a fairly big deal. It can impact air travel. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.679 It's just it's not it's not like a life endangerment 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.280 kind of thing. Moreover, as of this recording, no one's 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.840 really sure what actually caused this GPS interference in the 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:28.960 first place. Now, sometimes military exercises can affect GPS, but 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.600 these usually last a fairly short while, and no one's 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.120 really come forward to say that's what happened in this case. 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.680 And this case lasted from Monday afternoon from around one 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:44.280 pm local time to Tuesday night around eleven pm local time, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.960 so more than a full day. Now, it's possible the 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:51.880 interference was accidental, but it's also possible that this was 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.680 a purposeful act. GPS jamming is a real thing, but 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.520 with a distinct lack of evidence, there's no sense in 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:04.440 jumping to any conclusions. Yet, a similar situation happened in 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.319 Denver at the beginning of two and I wouldn't call 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.720 this like an alarming trend of jamming attacks or anything 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.640 like that, or just mysterious interference. I wouldn't call it 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.640 a trend at all, but it does indicate that more 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:22.640 investigations are needed to determine what is causing these events, 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.760 Is there a common cause, are they very different incidents, 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:30.559 and how might we prevent future ones from happening, particularly 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.440 since we are so you know, at least used to 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.720 having GPS as an option, if not dependent upon it. 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.720 Once again, just to reiterate, worst case scenario. Aircraft really 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.920 just switched to a different navigation method. So I don't 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.080 want to give anyone anxiety if they've got an upcoming, 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.440 you know, air trip. It's not like it's not that 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:56.040 big a deal, and most it would cause an inconvenience. 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.319 All right, we've got more news to cover, but first 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:10.839 let's take a quick break. Before the break, we were 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.199 talking about air travel. We get a little bit more 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.000 to talk about here, at least if you are in 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:21.400 a very exclusive tax bracket. Starlink, the satellite internet provider 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:27.000 arm of SpaceX, has announced Starlink Aviation this week. Now, 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.440 this is a service that Starlink is going to offer 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.720 to private aircraft, So we're talking about stuff like private 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:38.520 jets owned by disgustingly rich people and that kind of thing. 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.240 Starlink is promising speeds of up to three fifty megabits 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:47.240 per second. That's really impressive for air travel. Business Insider, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.920 by the way, erroneously reported this as three hundred fifty 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:55.040 megabytes per second. That's not the same thing. The literal 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.920 jet setters out there are gonna have to cough up 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.560 some serious dough in order to use this technology. Starlink 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.680 announced it will cost a hundred fifty thousand dollars to 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.160 install the Starlink receiver and aircraft. It's not, you know, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.760 a satellite dish the way a terrestrial consumer would have. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.800 It's going to have a different form factor. And on 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.520 top of that hundred fifty dollar installation cost, there's going 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.840 to be a monthly service fee that will range between 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.120 twelve thousand, five hundred to twenty five thousand dollars. That's 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.840 per month, So potentially three months of service could set 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.400 someone back seventy five dollars, which is way more than 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:35.160 what a lot of my friends make in a year. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.240 What a country anyway. Starlink says the service will launch 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.960 in mid twenty twenty three, and that those with private 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.320 jets who are interested in reserving a system will need 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.280 to PLoP down a five thousand dollar deposit in order 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.559 to get a reservation. I will not be one of those. 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:52.760 I don't have a private jet. I'm not in that 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.480 tax bracket. The state of Illinois here in the US 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.480 has hit telecommunications and media conglomerate A T and T 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:06.280 with a twenty three million dollar fine. Why because an 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.840 investigation uncovered that a lobbyist working on behalf of A 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.680 T and T had bribed the ally of a state 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.440 lawmaker to try and sway a policy vote in A 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.679 T and T s favor. A T and T is 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:23.320 no stranger to political lobbying. In fact, much of the 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:28.240 internet landscape and telecommunication landscape from a legal perspective is 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.280 the way it is because of companies like A T 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:35.080 and T using their lobbying pressure to guide policy. It's, 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.800 you know, one of the reasons why net neutrality is 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.160 in the state that it's in. A T and T 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.240 is also no stranger to getting fined, having previously been 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.040 hit with punishments for doing stuff like creating a rather 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:51.320 dubious definition of unlimited data like calling it unlimited when 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:56.440 it was in fact limited, or launching programs that reportedly 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:02.000 took advantage of the hearing impaired. That's awesome. Tech Dirt 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.520 has a partial rundown on the various offenses A T 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.800 and T has committed, as well as more details about 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.160 this recent fine from Illinois. It's in an article titled 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.320 A T and T hit with twenty three million dollar 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.440 fine for bribing Illinois lawmaker, and as Carl Bode of 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.680 tech Dirt pointed out, we've seen a gradual shift in 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.120 the United States when it comes to how the government 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:30.280 and regulators are dealing with big tech companies, particularly telecommunications companies. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:35.560 There's there's been a response long long overdue in my mind, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:40.880 two anti competitive practices within the various industries. So we're 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.720 starting to see a shift, uh and more attention and 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.960 pressure put to these companies as they had been used 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.080 to kind of running rampant for for a couple of decades. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.440 This next news item is disturbing. So I want to 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.280 give a quick trigger warning to folks out there who 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:05.360 are sensitive to stories about police misconduct, blackmail, and exploitation. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.560 This one has all of those. You might want to 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:11.520 skip this news item, all right, So here goes. A 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:17.000 former police officer named Brian Wilson in Louisville recently pled 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.040 guilty to charges that he had misused a tool called Accurant, 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:26.040 which is from Lexus Nexus Risk Solutions. So Accurran is 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.720 meant for investigative purposes and it can help draw connections 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.840 between people that otherwise you might not be able to determine. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.880 So let's use an example, like a hypothetical example. Let's 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.760 say that the police had identified a suspect that they 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.080 believed to be involved in a crime organization, but they 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.480 don't know who this person's contacts are. They don't know 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.640 the identities of anyone else. They just have this suspicion. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.400 So they might use a tool like Accurant to find 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.160 out who the suspect is regularly in contact with on 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.200 the Internet in order to help the investigation. Like, one 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.720 of the things we have learned recently is that you 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:11.240 don't even need access to the content of messaging between 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:16.119 people to start drawing conclusions. Just knowing that two specific 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.760 people are in contact with each other might be enough 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:24.080 for you to start looking into a person's behaviors. So 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.000 that's a quote unquote legitimate use of this technology. Now, 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.439 x cop Wilson used the same technology to identify and 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:38.280 target women who were sharing explicit content online with other people. 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.000 Wilson then engaged the services of a hacker and gave 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.640 that hacker some of this information in order to get 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.320 access to that kind of content. Wilson then would reach 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.480 out to these targeted women and threatened to share the 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:58.360 pirated content with the targets family and friends and employers 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:04.080 unless the target iterrated more explicit material for Wilson so 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:08.640 a real scumbag. It was horrifying and disgusting. And yes, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.199 I know I'm editorializing, but I feel pretty confident in 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:18.080 saying that. Anyway, Wilson did send explicit materials to people, uh, 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.240 you know, maybe to show that he was following through 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.720 in his threats, maybe to gloat. And he was caught, 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.320 and he was charged, and as I said, he pled 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.359 guilty to those charges. Yesterday, a court sentenced him to 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.000 thirty months in prison, followed by three years of supervision 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:38.520 and one hours of community service. Interestingly, the prosecution had 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.800 argued that because he had agreed to plead guilty, he 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.320 should receive the shortest sentence possible because he could have 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.439 been facing as much as fifteen years in prison. But 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.720 instead he gets thirty months for targeting women, coercing them 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.440 to share explicit material or otherwise have their lives completely 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.040 upended because he would share the stuff they had been 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.520 sending in private with no intent to release it publicly 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.719 with their loved ones. Great. Oh, Also, he participated in 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:13.959 something called slushy Gate, which is incredibly entertaining. So that 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.440 was this fun activity in which cops would hurl cups 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:22.200 of beverages like slushies at people as they drove by, 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.520 you know, real serve and protect kind of stuff. I'm sorry, 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:31.000 this news makes me furious. It gets me so mad. 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:33.159 But let's get back to the tech angle, because this 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.200 is tech stuff. I know you didn't tune in to 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:41.320 hear Jonathan go nuts about law enforcement behaving so reprehensively. 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.919 The reason I am covering this story is because it 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.840 is another example of a long list of examples of 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.320 how authority figures have misused technology that was intended for 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.640 official investigations. This is by far not the first time 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:02.119 this has happened. There have been numerous incidents. Let me 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:07.240 talk about two that were discovered in so in the 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.480 state of Minnesota ran an audit on their systems. They 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.199 found out that more than half, more than half of 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:18.760 the eleven thousand law enforcement officials at the state level 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.639 had misused their data reserves from driver information. They were 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.240 using it to look up stuff like former romantic partners 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.640 and that kind of thing. We also saw the same 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:31.879 thing in two thousand thirteen with the n s A 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.560 because an internal watchdog within the n s A, the 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:39.199 National Security Agency, revealed that several agents had used the 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:43.240 n s as extensive surveillance systems to spy on ex 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.040 spouses and that kind of thing. Now, in my mind, 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.639 this is a really good argument against allowing these kinds 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.560 of systems to be used by authorities in the first place, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.160 or the very least. It's a great argument for instituting 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.600 stricter controls that limit the use and hope of these 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:06.000 tools and hold people who abuse them accountable and have 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:11.359 like actionable punishments that directly relate to that and go 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:16.560 beyond just cyber stalking accusations, which is what Wilson was 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:21.000 initially was ultimately charged and pled guilty to with cyber stalking. 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.040 So that's why I wanted to cover it in tech stuff, 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.800 because it is a gross overreach of authority to use 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.040 these kind of tools in this way. Okay, let's move 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:36.080 on to something else. This is actually not upsetting at all. 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:38.960 It's kind of interesting. A couple of legislators in New 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:43.000 Jersey are introducing a proposal to ban car companies from 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:47.040 offering certain subscription services. This relates to other stories that 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:49.680 we've talked about on this show this year involving car 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:55.000 companies that lock certain features like heated seats behind a subscription. 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.879 So this proposed bill would ban any service that quote 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.719 utilizes components and hardware already installed on the motor vehicle 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.680 at the time of purchase end quote. So in other words, 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:10.720 if the car is capable of doing the thing, you 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.679 cannot lock the thing behind a subscription. Now, there is 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:18.000 an important exception to this. The bill makes an allowance 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:22.639 for features that have an ongoing cost associated with the features. 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:26.240 So if the car manufacturer has to pay to maintain 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.200 this feature, like let's say it's a navigation tool, and 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.080 the company behind it obviously has to spend money to 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:36.680 keep that navigation tool up to date to deal with 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.439 things like when there are changes in roads and that 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:43.080 sort of stuff. Well, those sort of features can be 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.480 locked behind a subscription because there's this ongoing cost for 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:50.800 the company. Now you might think, ha, well, that probably 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:54.320 means that if this bill does become a law, car 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:59.040 companies will argue that any subscription feature they offer has 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:03.040 an ongoing cost associated with it, even if it's something 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.240 like heated seats, And technically a lot of them probably 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:10.480 do have at least a minimal ongoing cost for stuff 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.720 like firmware updates, right, So wouldn't they just use that 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.480 to try and bypass the law and ignore it. And 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:19.760 you know what, I think you're probably around the money there. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:22.159 I'm pretty sure that that is something that will happen 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:26.800 if this bill does become law. But you know, it's 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:30.280 just a proposal right now. Maybe the language will actually change, 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.680 and maybe if it's adopted, it will have more specificity 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:40.200 built in to prevent edge cases where car companies try 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:46.720 to argue that a tiny occasional cost amounts to them 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:50.040 getting the exception to this law. At the very least, 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:52.800 it sounds like legislators are listening and looking out for 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:59.080 the consumers. So I find that to be, uh, you 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:01.600 know good. I'm glad to see that. I'm glad to 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.719 see lawmakers look out for consumers as opposed to the 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:09.920 companies that that cater to consumers. But you know, again, 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:12.440 it's just a proposal. We'll have to see if this 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:14.800 comes a lot. And again it's only for New Jersey. 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:17.520 This isn't for the full United States, but it could 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:20.040 set a precedent that we see other states follow in 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:22.080 the future. We'll just have to keep our eyes on it, 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:25.680 all right. We've got a few more stories to cover 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.320 before we do that. Let's go and take another break. 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:42.119 We're back. As I mentioned on Tuesday, YEA, formally, Kanye 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:48.000 West is purchasing Parlor, the right wing conservative messaging service. 0:24:48.320 --> 0:24:51.800 Technically it's a free speech messaging service, but it was 0:24:52.480 --> 0:24:58.080 largely adopted by right wing conservatives already. That acquisition process 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:01.879 has had a bit of a rocky aren't. Because Parlor's 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:06.680 PR team was super happy about this purchase, and so 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:10.480 they decided to send out an email to a shortlist 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:14.560 of v I P account holders announcing years purchase of 0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:18.000 the platform. But there was a little problem because they 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:22.879 had accidentally, I assume, put everyone's email in the C 0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:27.280 C field, not the B C C field, so not 0:25:27.400 --> 0:25:32.159 the blind copy field. But that meant everyone on that 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:35.440 list who received the email could see the email addresses 0:25:35.480 --> 0:25:40.680 of everyone else who got that email, So effectively, these folks, 0:25:40.720 --> 0:25:44.840 who again represent the most prominent of Parlor's account holders, 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:49.920 were dockxed by Parlor. Now, granted, in most cases we're 0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:53.399 talking about movers and shakers on the conservative side, and 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:55.760