WEBVTT - Tech News: Twitter 2.0, Son of Musk 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.400 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.200 and how the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:26.120 the Tech News for November twenty second, two thousand twenty two, 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.600 the Tuesday before American Thanksgiving. So the rest of this 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.960 week is going to be reruns and then we'll be 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.760 back next week with all new episodes. But let's get 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.400 to the news today, and you know the drill. We 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.640 need to get the Twitter stuff out of the way first, 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.240 because obviously a ton has happened since our last news 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.800 episode on Thursday of last week. So last Thursday, Elon 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.400 Musk's ultimatum hit. Employees had to sign a form indicating 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.360 whether they would stick it out and work longer, harder 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.080 hours to build what Musk calls Twitter two point oh, 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:01.800 which we'll talk about the it in a second, or 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.640 if they would take a severance package and just walk. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.160 And reportedly a lot of folks, maybe as many as 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.760 a thousand, took that package. It's hard to get a 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.360 real number because I feel some of the reporting has 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.200 been fueled by schadenfreude and also Twitter no longer has 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.039 a public relations office Elon must got rid of that 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.080 early on in the layoffs, so there's no one to 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.920 ask to get official feedback on this stuff. There were 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:34.199 stories about entire departments within Twitter essentially being emptied, including 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.280 departments like payroll, which obviously would create a real hassle 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.200 at the company. One story that proved to at least 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.319 have some substance was that the folks in charge of 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.040 monitoring badge access to Twitter h q had left, and 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.240 since Musk had directed Twitter HQ two essentially go on 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.360 lockdown for this week, the idea being they want to 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:59.440 keep the area safe from disgruntled former employees while things 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.480 settle down. Uh. It also meant that no one, not 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.680 even Musk, could regain access to the building because all 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.960 the people who maintain that had left, So Musk actually 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.040 had to call up a now former employee to come 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.360 in and open the building up again, which is pretty 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:20.160 wild anyway. Tons of people popped on Twitter throughout the weekend, 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.360 waiting to see if it might crash and not come 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.720 back up, you know, kind of like I was there 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.720 when Twitter went away, but for now the site is 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.040 still active. I imagine the people left at Twitter are 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.200 really working super hard to make sure that stays the case. Meanwhile, 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.160 Musk has also sent a memo in Twitter indicating that 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:45.160 many employee perks are now gonzo, as in they are 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.840 no more at least for the time being. And that 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:53.600 includes stuff like company allowances for home internet, employee wellness programs, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.960 training and development programs, daycare, and quarterly team activities, among 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.840 other things. So for the folks who are left behind, 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.400 there are fewer and fewer benefits that they can take 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.160 advantage of while they work longer and longer hours. Of course, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.720 for some employees, working for Twitter is absolutely critical. Some 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.600 are here in the US on work visas and if 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.600 their employment ends, they have to leave the country. Some 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.920 are dependent upon healthcare for ongoing treatments. So even if 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.720 you never use Twitter, or you've never liked Twitter, or 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.960 maybe you hate Twitter now, whatever it might be, please 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.040 send out good vibes for the people who are in 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.280 tough situations that are just continuing to get tougher. I mean, 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.160 for all the people who resigned, who are laid off, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.160 and for the people who are still at Twitter. It 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.360 is a tough time to be in that situation, especially 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.440 right as the holidays are picking up. But wait, there's more. 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.360 After all that drama late last week, this week opened 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.280 with even more drama. Musk announced that he was holding 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.360 even more layoffs, this time specifically targeting twitters sales teams. 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.320 Last week, the company saw the head of ads Ales 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.320 and the VP of Partnerships both get their walking papers. Reportedly, 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.120 these leaders were fired because they refused directives to lay 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.600 off more of their employees. They were trying to protect 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.440 the people who are working in their departments, and they've 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.720 been canned as a result. So must decide that if 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.520 these folks are not going to follow his orders, they 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:23.320 gots to go. And then the head of US Content 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.960 Partnerships left the company. From what I can tell, she 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.880 made that choice on her own. So it's possible that 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:30.760 she saw what was going on in other departments and 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.839 said I can't be a part of this, or maybe 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.640 she had other reasons. I don't know, but she left 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.239 the company as well. So the senior leadership at Twitter 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.479 continues to dwindle. When Musk assumed control of Twitter, the 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:47.120 company had seventy five hundred employees seven thousand, five hundred people. Now, 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.039 The Verge reports that the head count is down to 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.440 around two thousand, seven hundred, and Business Insider is even 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:57.919 more pessimistic. They say it's actually two thousand, three hundred employees. Yesterday, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.159 after the sales team layoffs, must held in all hands 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:06.720 meeting where he announced that he'd be hiring again, specifically 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.760 that he was looking to hire people in engineering, and 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.839 hang on a second, says here sales, you know the 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.560 department where he had just laid people off. Well, details 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.240 are somewhat scarce because you know, again no public relations 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.280 department within the company, so you can't really reach out 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.520 to get comment. But outlets are saying that Musk himself 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.479 was fairly vague about what these people would be doing. So, yeah, 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:32.840 he needs engineers and he needs needs salespeople, but he 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.479 didn't specify what roles he was looking to fill. Um 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.280 And at least as of yesterday, there were no job 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.159 openings listed on Twitter's corporate site, but Musk said, quote, 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.800 in terms of critical hires, I would say people who 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.760 are great at writing software are the highest priority end quote. 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.440 And one recent higher well and in turn is George 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.880 hots H o t Z. If you're not familiar with 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.360 Hotts's name, he's a hacker, and he made his name 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:03.960 doing things like jail breaking iOS devices. Uh. He figured 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.839 out how the PlayStation three works, he reverse engineered it. Uh. Infamously, 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.520 he had a real kind of tiff with Elon Musk. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.320 Musk apparently wanted Hots to come over and work for 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:19.440 Tesla because Hatts was looking to replicate Tesla's auto pilot system, 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.840 but make it like a kit that you could just 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.040 get and install into other machines, like other cars, and 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.680 so Musk reportedly wanted to offer Hots a job, but 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.320 Hots says that while they were sitting down to work 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.160 out terms, they couldn't come to an agreement, and eventually 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.960 Hots split and he got irritated at Musk. But now 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.560 Hots has agreed to spend twelve weeks working at Twitter, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.679 and he says it's his main focus is to work 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:51.680 on search functions for Twitter itself. So what do you 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.920 do after you lay off half of your company, your 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.000 newly purchased company. You then convince another one thousand or 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.719 so folks to resign. You require engineers to come in 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.240 on a weekend to cram on code and keep things afloat, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:09.720 and then you call in all hands, meaning to talk 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.080 about hiring again, well, you also unveil your plan for 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.080 the next incarnation of your company. Musk's Twitter two point 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:21.520 oh is going to have voice calls and video chat 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.320 and encryption for direct messages, according to Elon himself, and 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.960 it's sounding like Musk is merging his vision of Twitter 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.000 with his desire to build and everything app that he 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.680 had previously referred to as X. You may not know this, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.800 but when Musk was first founding UH, I believe it 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.000 was PayPal co founding PayPal, he wanted to call it 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.640 X and ended up not calling it that because they 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.680 thought that probably wouldn't be a viable business name. But 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.560 now he wants to make an everything app called X 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.560 that would be similar to China's we Chat app, and 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.680 we Chat incorporates tons of off like communications, social networking, 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.440 commerce features, all these sort of things. Elon Musk kind 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:10.360 of wants to make a similar app to that, but 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.080 for markets outside of China. Obviously, whether he can do 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.560 that with a team that has been so heavily affected 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.200 by layoffs and resignations remains to be seen. Reportedly, a 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.200 lot of the folks who have left Twitter were ones 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.160 who are senior members of their respective teams, which could 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:29.800 represent a huge loss of knowledge like that alone is 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:31.920 going to set people back when you've got people who 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.800 were sort of the the depositories of knowledge within the 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:41.200 company and they leave. I mean, if the documentation is there, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.160 then you can you can muscle your way through it, 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.360 but it takes time. But the documentation isn't there, then 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.440 it gets increasingly difficult. Elon Musk himself has said that 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.600 several of Twitter's departments are going to need to be 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.680 rebuilt from scratch, which seems to me to be a 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.920 monumental undertaking of itself that where people are going to 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.760 be around to actually tackle. So it definitely sounds like 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.880 it's gonna be a tough time ahead. Um and in 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.719 the meantime, we don't know if any of this is realistic, 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:18.280 even from inside Twitter, because again there's no PR department there. Well, 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.720 that's it for the Twitter dues. Will move on to 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:34.760 some other things after we come back from this quick break. Okay, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:39.120 we're back. So last spring, the National Labor Relations Board, 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.840 or in l RB here in the United States brought 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.560 a lawsuit against Amazon, saying that the company had engaged 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:50.800 in retaliatory actions against employees who are workplace activists, namely 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.280 that Amazon fired former employee Gerald Bryson after Bryson worked 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.560 to organize employees at a warehouse on Staten Island that 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.040 went on to actually vote to unionize. Now, a judge 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.439 has partly ruled in favor of the n l RBS argument. 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:11.320 They have said that Amazon did engage in such behaviors 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.920 and that Amazon needs to knock that crap off in 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.920 the future. However, the judge did not go so far 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.160 as to agree with the n l r B the 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:24.000 Amazon's actions impacted employees efforts to unionize and that the 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.040 company should reinstate Bryson. So, the n l RB said 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.839 Bryson's firing was intended to scare other employees away from organizing, 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.840 because firing Bryson showed that other employees would receive no 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.560 protection during the actual organization process. That yes, once you 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.640 are unionized, you have an organization that can protect you 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:51.440 from the company, but until that happens, you are incredibly vulnerable. 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.880 But the judge determined that employees continue to organize even 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.080 in the wake of Bryson's firing, and so did not 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.680 agree to the request to have Bryson reinstated as an 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.040 Ama on employee. So Amazon does have a cease and 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.320 desist order against it regarding interfering and employee organization efforts, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:09.800 but the company will not have to hire Bryson back 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.920 on the team. As I mentioned last week, Amazon is 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.600 holding layoffs that are expected to hit around ten thousand 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.800 employees before they're all done, and the hardware divisions have 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.960 been affected a lot by this, and Business Insider reports 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.840 that the Amazon Alexa division is in real jeopardy right now. 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.840 My apologies for any of you who have Amazon devices 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.000 in ear shot, but we are going to have to 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.960 say that name a couple of times. The project began 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.440 as a Jeff Bezos backed idea. That is, Alexa was 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.120 like Jeff Bezos's baby for a little while, but after 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.480 a few years of failing to find any way to 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.160 drive revenue via Alexa, the shine on the product has 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.720 really worn off for the company. Of course, Bezos has 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.600 no longer had Hancho at Amazon. You've got Andy Jase 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.720 there as CEO now, and he tends to take a 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:02.600 more pragmatic view of the business. And according to various reports, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.880 a big part of the problem is that while Amazon's 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.320 Echo devices are really popular, they sell really well. The 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.400 company is selling them at cost with the goal of 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.719 making money off of the use of the devices, rather 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.760 than through the sale of devices themselves. So this is 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.120 similar to how companies that make game consoles will sell 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:28.280 those consoles close to the cost of production. So while 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.319 a game console might be hundreds of dollars, that typically 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.600 isn't making the company a lot of profit or any 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.280 profit with each sale. Sometimes companies even take a loss 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.360 on it because their ideas that they'll make their money 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:46.360 by selling you games and services that leverage the console, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.160 the consoles the entry point to making revenue. Well, that's 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.880 how Amazon was looking at the Echo line of products. 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.520 But the problem is the team never quite figured out 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.000 a way to monetize Alexa's use, and so the division 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.280 and accrued more and more financial losses over time, and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.880 according to Ours Technica, that division is headed toward a 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.640 ten billion dollar loss this year billion with a B 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.840 Holy cow. Just to be clear, this problem is not 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.440 unique to Amazon. Apple and Google each have found it 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:25.400 difficult to monetize their digital voice assistant products. People have 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.560 been using them, but there hasn't really been a way 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:32.000 to tap into that use and generate revenue. And that 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.040 could mean that the days of us talking to our 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.480 electronics like we're aboard the starship Enterprise and we're chatting 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.520 with the ship's computer could be living on borrowed time 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.160 across the pond. In the United Kingdom, regulators are taking 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:49.040 a closer look at the mobile operating system landscape. So 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:53.120 the concern is that Google's Android and Apple's iOS represent 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.480 a duopoli, you know, two companies that control pretty much 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.360 the entire mobile operating system landscape. And I don't think 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.800 you can really argue that. I think that's pretty much 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.360 effectively the case. I mean, there's not really that many 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:09.320 operating systems in the laptop desktop universe either. You've got 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.080 a few, but the two dominant ones, really the dominant 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.800 one is Windows and then you've got mac os. There 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.680 are others as well, their Linux systems, their unique systems, 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.280 but those represent such a a small percentage of at 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.640 least a particular slice of computer. Like if we're talking 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.400 about web servers is a totally different thing. But anyway, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:36.200 this do woppoli may have a negative impact on app developers. Specifically, 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.440 the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK or the 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.880 c m A is looking into issues that impact mobile gaming. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.880 So one thing they're looking at is cloud gaming, which 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.200 is where you have servers that run an instance of 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.320 a game and then stream that instance too and in 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:57.360 device like a smartphone. Another is that developers claim Apple 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.520 and Google have failed to address deficiencies in their respective browsers, 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.960 which in turn forces developers to create workarounds to try 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.840 and deal with these shortfalls. So the CMA is going 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.960 to investigate these developer concerns. They're gonna look into this 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.600 and then if they decide that the concerns are merited 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.920 and changes are warranted, they will issue a kind of 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.400 patch response. Now, there is an entire department within the 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.520 UK that is intended to deal with just this kind 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:29.280 of thing, and it's called the Digital Markets Unit. But 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:35.160 the problem is this particular agency lacks any regulatory authority, 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:41.440 Like they have no way of creating any implements of 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:45.479 change because they don't have any authority yet. So that's 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.600 that's an agency that's still kind of forming and until 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.560 it gets some bite to it, it really it really 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.640 can't do much. So the dirty work is following falling 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.800 to other departments for the time being. Alphabet Google's parent 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.240 company appears to be bending to pressure brought against it 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.520 by Sir Christopher Hone, whom you might remember owns some 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.720 six billion dollars worth of steak in the company, and 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:17.160 Hone had argued that Google was overstaffed and that employees 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.680 there are overpaid, which, again I want to say, is 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:25.120 really saying something when you're a freaking billionaire. Okay, when 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.200 you're a billionaire and you're saying other people are overpaid, 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:33.880 maybe rethink your statements a bit, But enough commentary. The 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.640 crux of this story is that Alphabet has directed Google 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.520 managers to identify the low performers in their departments, and 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.960 the bottom six percent or so, which would be around 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.840 ten thousand employees, will presumably be shown the door. And 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.960 it's a really tough time to be working for tech 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:55.520 companies right now. Amazon, Meta, Twitter, infamously, Alphabet and many 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:57.960 others have been laying off thousands of people right at 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.520 the start of the holiday season. So if you're listening 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.840 to the show and you've been affected directly or indirectly 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:05.760 by these layoffs, I just want to say I wish 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.679 you the absolute best. I hope things turn around quickly. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.399 And as for the argument that companies like Alphabet and 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.720 particularly Google have too many employees. Part of that can 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.680 actually be a strategy to scoop up talent so that 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.200 this talent doesn't end up working for a competitor because 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.000 it is a cut road business out in Silicon Valley, y'all. 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:27.919 Just in case my fellow Americans weren't worried enough that 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:32.480 Meta slash Facebook is gathering all of their data, let's 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:37.360 talk about taxes, shall we. So The Markup has published 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:41.879 a piece that says tax services like tax Slayer, tax Act, 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.480 and H and R Block have been transmitting financial information 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.600 from web clients that are coming to do their taxes 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:55.159 online to Facebook. And that information being sent to Facebook 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.840 includes some pretty you know, standard stuff like like person 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.040 names and their email addresses and user names, that kind 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.040 of stuff. But in some cases at least, it also 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:11.680 includes more privileged information like income filing status, refund amounts, 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.760 the actual amount of income a person makes, that kind 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.360 of thing. And you might be saying to yourself, Huh, 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.679 does matter really know how much I make? Do they 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.240 need to know that how much I pay in taxes 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.000 or whether or not I qualify for a refund? Do 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.199 I want Meta to use that kind of information as 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.000 a way to sell more targeted ads to me. I mean, 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.840 you can easily see why Meta would like that information 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.399 in the first place, because advertisers would love to be 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.680 able to more accurately target their customers. At the heart 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.240 of this is the pixel. This is a product that 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.480 Facebook offers up for free for companies to use, and 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.919 installing pixel into a web page allows several things, Like 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.600 on the web page side, it allows for a lot 0:18:55.640 --> 0:19:00.119 of customization of an experience, but the Facebook side, it 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.159 means that users who visit these pages that have the 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:08.080 pixel on it are sending data to Facebook. Facebook gets 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.040 more information about user behaviors, like what websites are they visiting, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.440 how long are they spending time there, what are they 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:21.280 doing in some cases, So in these cases the activities appear, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.520 at least in some instances to include sensitive financial data. Now, 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:30.280 not all tax preparation services have the pixel installed on 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.280 sensitive pages, even if they have used the pixel so 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.440 into its Turbo Tax, which has its own history of issues, 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.560 does use pixel, but it only has it at the 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.080 log in page, which means that the pixel on that 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:49.159 page sends information like user names and how frequently a 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.680 specific device has logged into the service, but it doesn't 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.399 include any financial information or anything like that, and the 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.200 pixel is not included on any pages beyond the log 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:03.000 in page. So Facebook isn't getting any more information about 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:07.760 turbo taxes clients in that case. But for other tax 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.520 preparation preparation services that's not necessarily the case. And if 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.520 you don't live in the US, and you're wondering why 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.360 I'm even talking about all this, because most places outside 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.879 of the US, the government handles all this stuff, and 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.439 really it just comes down to the individual citizen to 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.800 sign off on what the government has found or to 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.640 you know, take issue with it and explain, hey, you 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.480 you missed this thing that should change the amount of 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.720 taxes i owe. US does not do that. The tax 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:41.399 preparation sequences is highly privatized here in the United States. 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.880 Taxes are incredibly complex. If you do have a good 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.480 grounding in how taxes are prepared, you can do it yourself, 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.680 nothing stopping you. But a lot of people find them 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.000 intimidating because the language used, the forms used, they're not 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.520 they're not user friendly. So frequently people turn to professional 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.800 services or web services that that automate A lot of 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.359 the stuff. So that's why this is a huge issue 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.240 here in the United States. And there's a lot more 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:12.520 to this story, but I actually recommend heading over to 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.240 the Verge and reading their article. It's titled tax filing. 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:20.199 Websites have been sending users financial information to Facebook. Go 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.720 check out that article. It's very well done. It's exhaustive, 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.880 it's a very long article and incredibly informative. So check 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:32.560 that out. Okay, we've got a few more news items 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.160 to cover before we conclude, but first let's take one 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:49.360 more break. We're back. Researchers at MISK, that's m Y 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.520 s k are saying that Apple talks the talk, but 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:56.600 does not necessarily walk the walk when it comes to 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:01.680 user activity and privacy on iOS devices. So Apple famously 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.040 handed over more control to iOS users when it comes 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.520 to how their data and behavior can be tracked by 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:11.760 third party apps. This was a huge blow to companies 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.720 like Meta, for example, because users could choose to not 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:20.200 share their behaviors and other private data with Meta, which 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.119 meant that Meta could no longer use that data to 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:28.240 sell targeted ads and have them target you, the user 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.160 more effectively. But MISK says that Apple's first party apps 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:35.640 don't have the same sort of restrictions, which may mean 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.440 Apple is preventing other companies from being able to do 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:43.240 what it itself can continue to do. On iOS. Miss 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:45.960 said that some first party apps use what is called 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.240 a Directory Services Identify R or D s I D, 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.399 and that this identifier, in turn is linked to a 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.119 user's unique I cloud data and Apple I D. So 0:22:57.160 --> 0:22:59.919 while Apple might say our apps are not depending on 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.520 data that can personally identify you, it sounds like it's 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:08.080 at best one degree of separation away from doing just that. Moreover, 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.639 Miss researchers are arguing that other details can converge to 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.679 create a kind of digital fingerprint for a user, so 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:17.600 that while you might be able to say that no 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.199 single point of data points to a specific person, if 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.000 you collectively take all the different points of data, you 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:26.720 can start making very educated guesses as to who that 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.120 user is. We've seen this in the past. It really 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:32.679 takes just a few points of data to kind of 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:37.840 narrow down a person's identity, and you don't need anything 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:43.199 specific to to really, you know, figure that out. You 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.600 just need a few different general points and that's enough 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:49.600 for you to make a really good guess. Now, this 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:52.600 does not necessarily mean that Apple is doing anything with 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:55.600 that data, right, We don't know that. We don't know 0:23:55.640 --> 0:24:00.520 if Apple is actually taking advantage of this data collection 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:04.479 and analyzing it in any meaningful way. Uh. The problem 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.200 is Apple's really quiet when it comes to its data 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:10.720 acquisition and analytics, and that means that we do have 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:14.000 these unanswered questions. We don't know if Apple is actually 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:17.240 doing anything with data. It just seems like Apple could 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:21.400 do something that Apple has that capability because of these 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:25.400 little points of connection. And the problem is we don't 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:29.239