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Facebook moves to shrink its legal liabilities under GDPR

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Facebook has another change in the works to respond to the European Union’s beefed up data protection framework — and this one looks intended to shrink its legal liabilities under GDPR, and at scale.

Late yesterday Reuters reported on a change incoming to Facebook’s T&Cs that it said will be pushed out next month — meaning all non-EU international are switched from having their data processed by Facebook Ireland to Facebook USA.

With this shift, Facebook will ensure that the privacy protections afforded by the EU’s incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — which applies from May 25 — will not cover the ~1.5BN+ international Facebook users who aren’t EU citizens (but current have their data processed in the EU, by Facebook Ireland).

The U.S. does not have a comparable data protection framework to GDPR. While the incoming EU framework substantially strengthens penalties for data protection violations, making the move a pretty logical one for Facebook’s lawyers thinking about how it can shrink its GDPR liabilities.

Reuters says Facebook confirmed the impending update to the T&Cs of non-EU international users, though the company played down the significance — repeating its claim that it will be making the same privacy “controls and settings” available everywhere. (Though, as experts have pointed out, this does not mean the same GDPR principles will be applied by Facebook everywhere.)

Critics have couched the T&Cs shift as regressive — arguing it’s a reduction in the level of privacy protection that would otherwise have applied for international users, thanks to GDPR. Although whether these EU privacy rights would really have been enforceable for non-Europeans is questionable.

At the time of writing Facebook had not responded to a request for comment on the change. Update: It’s now sent us the following statement — attributed to deputy chief global privacy officer, Stephen Deadman: “The GDPR and EU consumer law set out specific rules for terms and data policies which we have incorporated for EU users.  We have been clear that we are offering everyone who uses Facebook the same privacy protections, controls and settings, no matter where they live. These updates do not change that.” 

The company’s generally argument is that the EU law takes a prescriptive approach — which can make certain elements irrelevant for international users outside the bloc. It also claims it’s working on being more responsive to regional norms and local frameworks. (Which will presumably be music to the New Zealand privacy commissioner‘s ears, for one…)

According to Reuters the T&Cs shift will affect more than 70 per cent of Facebook’s 2BN+ users. As of December, Facebook had 239M users in the US and Canada; 370M in Europe; and 1.52BN users elsewhere.

The news agency also reports that Microsoft -owned LinkedIn is one of several other multinational companies planning to make the same data processing shift for international users — with LinkedIn’s new terms set to take effect on May 8, moving non-Europeans to contracts with the U.S.-based LinkedIn Corp.

In a statement to Reuters about the change LinkedIn also played it down, saying: “We’ve simply streamlined the contract location to ensure all members understand the LinkedIn entity responsible for their personal data.”

One interesting question is whether these sorts of data processing shifts could encourage regulators in international regions outside the EU to push for a similarly extraterritorial scope for their local privacy laws — or face their citizens’ data falling between the jurisdiction cracks via processing arrangements designed to shrink companies’ legal liabilities.

Interesting example of Delaware effect, however if other jurisdictions are smart they will have their own art 3 GDPR, that would be Brussels effect. Be sure the lobbying has started. Now if ever we need thinkers (who are also doers) like @linnetelwin

— Mireille Hildebrandt (@mireillemoret) April 19, 2018

Another interesting question is how Facebook (or any other multinationals making the same shift) can be entirely sure it’s not risking violating any of its EU users’ fundamental rights — i.e. if it accidentally misclassifies an individual as an non-EU international users and processes their data via Facebook USA.

Keeping data processing processes properly segmented can be difficult. As can definitively identifying a user’s legal jurisdiction based on their location (if that’s even available). So while Facebook’s contract change for international users looks largely intended to shrink its legal liabilities under GDPR, it’s possible the change will open up another front for individuals to pursue strategic litigation in the coming months.

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Facebook moves to shrink its legal liabilities under GDPR

[dalepwithchari]

Report: Smartphone usage set to overtake time spent watching TV in China

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2018 is the year that smartphone usage eclipses time spent watching TV in China and it’s all down to the growth of digital video platforms, according to a new report from eMarketer.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this had already happened in China, which happens to be the world’s largest smartphone market, but eMarketer forecasts that the momentous moment is about to arrive.

According to the report, the average adult in China is set to spend 2 hours and 39 minutes per day on a mobile device this year, up 11.1 percent on 2017. Watching TV, meanwhile, is set to fall by two percent to reach 2 hours 32 minutes daily.

eMarketer said that the growth of digital video services is “a key driver” in this change. The company forecasts that online video time per day will leap 26 percent year-on-year to reach 58 minutes per adult on average. It is further predicting that by 2020 China’s adult population will spend one-third of their time online watching videos.

The signs have been pointing to digital media’s charge in China for some time, with the country’s top firms putting considerable cash behind the leading players.

Alibaba acquired Youku Tudou in a 2015 deal that valued the YouTube-like service at $4.6 billion, while rival Tencent has its own ‘Tencent Video’ service and Baidu — the third part of China’s traditional tech power trio — incubated video service iQiyi before taking it public in a U.S. IPO that raised $1.5 billion earlier this year. All three of these streaming platforms combine user-generated video with produced series, some of which comes from Netflix.

Beyond those three, there are also vertical focused video services which include animation platform Bilibili (which just went public in the U.S.), live-video platforms such as Tencent-backed Kuaishou, and Chushou, which focuses on e-sports and landed investment from Google earlier this year.

Video may be the key driver, but it is far from the only reason that keeps Chinese people glued to their phones. Chat app WeChat is the stickest of all mobile apps in China. It claims to have over 900 million active users who send 38 billion messages and over 205 million phone calls via the app each day.

WeChat also includes offline payments which are another major use for smartphones in China. Alongside WeChat Pay, Alibaba’s Alipay claims over 520 million users who use its service instead of cards or cash when paying for goods.

Ant Financial, Alipay’s parent company, is being tipped to raise $9 billion in new funding at a valuation that could reach as high as $150 billion.

Hat tip @sirsteven

[Read More …]

Report: Smartphone usage set to overtake time spent watching TV in China

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Qualcomm extends NXP deal deadline following concern from Chinese government

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The ongoing saga continues. Qualcomm has once again postponed the deadline for completing its proposed acquisition of NXP following concerns voiced by the Ministry of Commerce in China.

The deal was first announced in October 2016 and things seemed to be progressing when Qualcomm raised its offer this past January to take the value of the deal from $38 billion to $44 billion. The company sought to close the transaction by April 25, but that has now been extended to July 26 as Qualcomm has been forced to refile for approval in China.

The deal is critical for Qualcomm in order to diversify its business beyond mobile and its traditional licensing model, and NXP has been identified as a must-buy thanks to its strong footprint in automotive and other growth segments.

Yet despite approval from the Federal Trade Commission, which Qualcomm pointed out has now been renewed, things could get a little complicated given the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.

Over the past month, President Trump announced trade tariffs on about $60 billion of Chinese goods, a sizeable chunk of which are the within the high-tech industry.

Deals-wise, the Trump administration countered Alibaba’s attempt to buy MoneyGram for $1.2 billion (despite Jack Ma cozying up to Trump ahead of time) and it also shot down Broadcom’s efforts to acquire Qualcomm on account of national security, with Qualcomm itself keen on chopping the deal.

The U.S. has also made strong moves against Chinese equipment makers, again in the name of security. Huawei has reluctantly backed off the U.S. market after losing out on previously arranged carrier deals, while this week the government banned U.S. companies from selling components to ZTE.

All of this activity raises the possibility that China may use the Qualcomm-NXP deal to strike back. Comments from the Chinese ministry —  reported by the FT — doesn’t exactly pour cold water on that scenario.

“This deal has a wide influence, and may have a negative impact on market competition,” a ministry spokesman said, adding that “an initial investigation shows Qualcomm’s plan cannot easily solve the problems relating to market competition.”

Qualcomm has suffered problems in China before. Two years ago it was fined nearly $1 billion for alleged anti-competitive practices. The company has since signed deals with a range of Chinese phone makers that include Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo, but this time it needs the government’s full buy-in.

This issue isn’t new but Qualcomm’s move to refile shows it is very real. TechCrunch’s Danny Crichton explored China’s role in Qualcomm-NXP last month, ultimately concluding that the deal may well be passed but with concessions that further China’s own semiconductor ambitions:

Ultimately, I predict the NXP transaction to be approved. For all of the trade negotiations and complex strategies going on here, China needs to be seen as a place open to doing business, now more than ever as its trade practices are placed in the spotlight. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t exact serious concessions from Qualcomm, which could further erode the company’s revenues and standing in China.

It’s going to be a pivotal couple of months for Qualcomm.

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Qualcomm extends NXP deal deadline following concern from Chinese government

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Uber denies its CTO met with Cambridge Analytica

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Uber has denied that its sitting CTO, Thuan Pham, met with Cambridge Analytica — the controversial political consultancy at the center of a Facebook user data misuse scandal.

But it has not been able to confirm that no meetings between anyone else on its payroll and Cambridge Analytica took place.

“I’m not sure who they think they met with, but I can confirm our CTO never met with them and we don’t have a relationship with them,” an Uber spokeswoman told us.

Giving evidence to the UK parliament earlier this week, former Cambridge Analytica staffer, Brittany Kaiser, had claimed that CA executives met with the Uber CTO in the past two years. Although she did not explicitly name Pham — just citing the CTO job title.

The UK parliament’s DCMS committee is running an enquiry into disinformation online.

Asked by the committee whether she had ever come across Uber data being used for any of the political campaigns that CA worked on, Kaiser replied “no”.

However she qualified her answer, adding: “Although Cambridge Analytica definitely had meetings with the CTO of Uber in California — about 1.5 to 2 years ago. 

“I don’t believe anything came of that but a conversation was had,” she also said.

The committee did not query her on the intent of the meetings with Uber — although later she was asked if she’d had any contacts with other “big data companies”, including Google.

Responding on that Kaiser confirmed she had had contacts with “Microsoft, Google and a few other companies of that nature, and Facebook” — though she said this was only in a standard business capacity, noting that CA was a client “purchasing digital advertising space through them”.

On Facebook she added: “They had two different political teams in the United States — so they had their Republican team and their Democrat team, who usually inhabited separate offices on separate floors. My consultants in Washington DC would work closely with the Republican team on how we would use their tools to the best benefit for our clients.”

Last month the committee also asked another ex-CA employee, whistleblower Chris Wylie, whether the company had access to Uber data — apparently concerned that a 2016 Uber data breach, affecting 57 million riders and drivers (which the company only disclosed in November last year) could have been another data source for CA.

“To my knowledge Cambridge Analytica has not used Uber data,” responded Wylie.

Uber told Congress last year that one of the hackers behind the 2016 breach was located in Canada — and that this hacker had first contacted it in November 2016 to demand a six-figure payment for the breached data.

Also located in Canada: Aggregate IQ, a data firm that has been linked to CA — which Wylie has described as the Canadian affiliate of CA’s parent entity, SCL — and which has been credited with playing a major role in the UK’s brexit referendum, receiving £3.5M from leave campaign groups in the run up to the 2016 referendum. (AIQ has denied it has ever been a part of Cambridge Analytica or SCL.)

The question of where this small Canadian firm obtained data on UK citizens to carry out microtargeted political advertising has been another line of enquiry pursued by the committee.

“[W]here did [AggregateIQ] get the data?” queried Wylie last month in his evidence session, discussing AIQ’s involvement in the UK’s Brexit campaign. “How do you create a massive targeting operation in a country that AIQ had not previously worked in in two months? It baffles me as to how that could happen in such a short amount of time.

“That is a good question. It is unfortunate that AIQ hides behind jurisdictional barriers and does not come here and answer those questions. But it is something that hopefully can be looked at as to how did it actually work.”

Wylie has also alleged that AIQ “worked on projects that involved hacked material and kompromat” as well as distributing “violent videos of people being bled to death to intimidate voters”.

“This is the company that played an incredibly pivotal role in politics here. Something that I would strongly recommend to the Committee is that they not only push the authorities here, but give them the support that they need in order to investigate this company and what they were doing in Brexit,” he added.

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Uber denies its CTO met with Cambridge Analytica

[dalepwithchari]

Amazon’s new ‘Alexa Blueprints’ let anyone create custom Alexa skills and responses

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Amazon this morning is introducing “Alexa Blueprints,” a new way for any Alexa owner to create their own customized Alexa skills or responses, without needing to know how to code. The idea is to allow Alexa owners to create their own voice apps, like a trivia game or bedtime stories, or teach Alexa to respond to questions with answers they design – like “Who’s the best mom in the world?,” for example.

You could also create a skill that includes helpful information for the babysitter, which could be triggered by the command, “Alexa, open My Sitter,” Amazon suggests.

“Alexa Skill Blueprints is an entirely new way for you to teach Alexa personalized skills just for you and your family,” explained Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa, in a statement about the launch. “You don’t need experience building skills or coding to get started—my family created our own jokes skill in a matter of minutes, and it’s been a blast to interact with Alexa in a totally new and personal way.”

To build your own skill or custom Alexa response, users will visit the website blueprints.amazon.com and select a template.

At launch, there are over 20 templates across categories like Fun & Games, At Home, Storyteller, and Learning & Knowledge.

The templates are designed so you can just fill in the bits and pieces that make them personalized to your needs. You won’t need to go through a series of complicated steps, and no technical knowledge is required. The templates are even pre-filled and work as is, if you just want to try them out before making your own.

After you’ve filled in your own content, you name it and publish with a click. This makes the skill or response available to all Alexa-enabled devices associated with your own Amazon account. But it’s not available to the public or the Alexa Skills Store.

Families with Echo devices, in particular, seem to be a heavy focus for Alexa Blueprints. Kids have readily taken to Alexa, and today there are nearly 500 public Alexa skills built for kids alone. Families also often have private jokes and bedtime rituals where Alexa could come in – offering to “tell a Dad joke” or “start Anna’s story,” for instance. Plus, Alexa is designed as a home companion – controlling smart devices, playing music, setting timers, and offering information like news and weather, among other things.

But families aren’t the only ones would could take advantage of Alexa Blueprints. College students could use the flash cards custom skill when studying, while a group of friends or roommates could design their own trivia games. And Airbnb owners could set up a skill for their houseguests.

After you’ve created the custom skill, it will be available in the Skills You’ve Made webpage on the Blueprints site. You’ll also be able to enable, disable and delete your skills.

The feature could give Amazon an edge in selling its Echo speakers to consumers, as it’s now the only platform offering this level of customization – Apple’s HomePod is really designed for music lovers, and doesn’t support third-party apps. Google Home also doesn’t offer this type of customization.

All three are competing to be the voice assistant people use in their home, but Alexa so far is leading by a wide margin – it still has roughly 70 percent of the smart speaker market.

Alexa Blueprints are available today in the U.S. only.

The full list of Alexa Blueprints available at launch is below:

At Home

Custom Q&A: Customize responses to your questions

Houseguest: Make your guests feel at home with quick access to important info

Babysitter: Help your sitter find things, remember steps and get important info

Pet Sitter: Help your pet sitter care for your favorite animal

Fun & Games

Family Jokes: Create a list of your favorite jokes for when you need a laugh

Trivia: Create your own multiple choice trivia game on any topic

Inspirations: Curate a list of your favorite inspirational quotes

Family Trivia: Play together and brush up on family history

Bachelorette Party: Play to find out how well the bride’s friends know her

Birthday Trivia: Play to see who knows the birthday girl or boy best

Burns: Roast your friends and family with lighthearted burns

Compliments: Flatter your favorites with a list of custom compliments

Double Trouble: Find out which couple knows each other best with this customizable game

First Letter: Play a game of categories starting with a certain letter

Storyteller

Adventure: Write an adventure story where your child is the hero

Fairy Tale: Customize an interactive prince and princess-themed tale

Sci-Fi: Create an interactive story with a far-out theme

Fable: Create a short narrative with a moral of the story

Learning & Knowledge

Flash Cards: Study, test yourself, and master any subject by voice

Facts: Keep a list of facts on your favorite topic, all in one place

Quiz: Challenge yourself and others with a customizable quiz

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Amazon’s new ‘Alexa Blueprints’ let anyone create custom Alexa skills and responses

[dalepwithchari]

See you next week in New York

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I’ll be helping build a larger meetup focused on pre-ICO companies in New York on April 23 and I’d love to see you there. It will be held at Knotel on April 23 at 7pm and will feature a pitch-off with eight startups  and two panels with some yet-unnamed stars in the space. Let’s get together and talk about the hottest – and most controversial – topic in investing.

I’d love to see you there, so please sign up here. Early bird tickets are sold out and the regular tickets are going fast.

The event will be held at 551 Fifth Avenue on the 9th Floor and you can sign up to pitch here. This is still an experimental format and industry so let’s see how it works.

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See you next week in New York

[dalepwithchari]

TheWaveVR wraps $6M Series A to fuel its immersive, social VR music app

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Music and visual art creation VR startup TheWaveVR just wrapped a $6 million Series A round and when all was said and done, it seemed appropriate for the team to actually sign the term sheet with their lead investor inside virtual reality.

The round, led by RRE Ventures, brings the startup’s total funding to $10 million. Upfront Ventures, KPCB, Greycroft VR Gaming Tracker Fund and The VR Fund also participated in the raise.

The whole gist of the startup is that it’s one big futuristic music festival that never sleeps inside virtual reality. DJs can craft a set on stage and users can teleport around a giant “outdoor” venue while watching light shows that blow up the sky night-after-night.

The Austin-based company had a huge opportunity recently at SXSW where it hosted one of the largest promo events for Stephen Spielberg’s Ready Player One film, a massive virtual reality concert straight out of the movie, filled with Warner Brothers IP and featuring a live DJ set led by the film’s star, Tye Sheridan.

At a time when many VR startups are still trying to live up to the sky-high expectations that films like Ready Player One have set, TheWaveVR remains one of the few that takes on those expectations and still manages to dazzle, delivering an experience that feel distinctly futuristic while drenching users in souped-up visuals that intertwine the emotion and connectedness of social VR with music that’s actively being created within the app.

The challenge for the startup will likely be growing their product in a way that stays true to the core mission while chasing a larger presence inside an already-tight, niche community. The company’s “Wave Builder” feature allows users to bring in 3D models, animations and made-in-VR content to create visual experiences that can accompany the musical performances inside the app.

“We spent last year nailing down the format for these fully interactive concerts and proved people love our experience; this year we’re focused on how that content gets created and shared,” CEO Adam Arrigo said in a release.

The team is maintaining a lean existence as it aims to keep enough cash on hand to weather another few years in the growth phase of VR. While the startup’s seed round came at a time where a host of virtual reality companies were seeming to get funded every other day, slower-than-expected headset sales have made investor cash a bit harder to come by in 2018.

Arrigo seems optimistic that the timelines are finally starting to grow more solid, and that already-announced standalone products from companies like Oculus and HTC will begin to broaden appeal and shape VR into something more friendly and accessible.

In the meantime, it’s business as usual, which for TheWaveVR means hanging out with flying cats and raving to EDM light shows.

[Read More …]

TheWaveVR wraps $6M Series A to fuel its immersive, social VR music app

[dalepwithchari]

Lyft invests millions of dollars to offset its effect on climate change

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Lyft, recognizing the impact of its ride-hailing platform on the environment, is making a “multi-million” dollar investment in carbon offsets. Within the first year of this effort, Lyft says it expects to be able to offset about one million metric tons of carbon.

“The stark reality is that transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions,” Lyft co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer wrote in a blog post. “As a growing part of the transportation ecosystem, we are holding ourselves accountable to being part of the solution.”

Lyft is doing this in partnership with 3Degrees. In general, some carbon offset solutions entail capturing and destroying methane from landfills and animal manure, as well as sustainable forestry that absorbs carbon from forests. Lyft, however, is specifically putting its money toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions from an automotive parts manufacturing process in Michigan, hydrodec oil recycling in Ohio and other projects.

For a lot of people, Lyft, Uber and other ride-hailing companies effectively act as stand-ins for public transport, biking or even walking. In New York City, the volume of people using Lyft, Uber and other ride-hailing apps tripled to 500,000 rides per day since 2015, according to a 2016 report from Schaller Consulting. That increased trip volume and mileage resulted in the addition of about 550 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the equivalent of energy consumption emissions from more than 26,000 homes in one year.

Until autonomous ride-hailing networks hit the mainstream, more rides means more miles driven, which means a greater carbon footprint.

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Lyft invests millions of dollars to offset its effect on climate change

[dalepwithchari]

Open Mineral plans to disrupt commodities trading with blockchain

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Commodity trading is a very old industry which focuses on raw materials, like lead or copper, that are worth hundreds of billions. These materials are constantly moving from producers to consumers in a global market worth about $80bn, but it often lacks efficiency and transparency. Meanwhile, intermediaries make a lot of money just by acting as the middlemen. That’s where blockchain could, in theory, be applied, but introducing great transparency.

Open Mineral, a physical commodities trading platform, has now closed an investment round ($2.25 million) to do just that.

The idea is to increase the efficiency of the market for base and precious metal raw materials using blockchain. Its digital platform, Open Mineral Exchange, will bring together sellers and buyers, mining and metals companies, allowing them to transact directly and securely, without intermediaries. It will also digitize and streamline the complicated and paper-heavy process.

These newer trading platforms for physical commodities have been appearing in the last couple of years. Tradecloud, for example, addresses the refined metal market, while Metalshub focuses on ferroalloys. None of the current platforms use blockchain. The Open Mineral model will rely on a success-based fee which will depend on the value/chemical composition of the material and the volume transacted. The platform currently focuses on zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver concentrate markets, but could expand into other concentrates in the future. Open Mineral became the first startup to join Thomson Reuters Incubator based in Zug, which is famously spinning out blockchain startups. Investors include Goldcorp, Canadian gold mining company, and Xploration Capital. The company is founded by Boris Eykher and Ilya Chernilovskiy. Before co-founding Open Mineral, Eykher and Chernilovskiy both worked at Glencore, the largest commodity trading house in the world. The company is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland with operations in Beijing, Lima, and Moscow.

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Open Mineral plans to disrupt commodities trading with blockchain

[dalepwithchari]

Intel abandons Vaunt smart glasses project

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It might just be time for Intel admit that’s not great at this whole wearables thing. A few months after their flashy online debut, the Vaunt smart glasses are dead, the chipmaker has confirmed. Some things, it seems, are just too beautiful to live — or receive sufficient investment from their parent company.

The news originally surfaced via a report from The Information, which also notes that this reportedly marks the final nail in the long, drawn out of death of the company’s New Devices Group.

The department appears to have been struggling for a while now — in late 2016, the group was hit with layoffs, and ultimately some key projects in its hardware pipeline, including the latest Basis fitness tracker. This latest move is likely to result in “some layoffs” to the 200 person team, according to the source.

The company confirmed the end of Vaunt (codenamed Superlight) in a statement offered to TechCrunch.

“Intel is continuously working on new technologies and experiences. Not all of these develop into a product we choose to take to market,” Intel writes. “The Superlight project is a great example where Intel developed truly differentiated, consumer augmented reality glasses. We are going to take a disciplined approach as we keep inventing and exploring new technologies, which will sometimes require tough choices when market dynamics don’t support further investment.” 

It is, indeed, a tough call to make. Intel’s been pretty open about its failure to sufficiently embrace mobile the first time around, losing significant marketshare to companies like Qualcomm. Intel has certainly made its share of investments in hopes of owning a share of wearable tech, but none have really paid off, and with the category plateauing a bit over the past year, it’s probably a good time to cut its losses.

The Vaunt seemed promising, but the online glimpse we got of the product of one didn’t appear to be fully thought out. Of course, companies experiment with hardware prototypes all the time — but most of these things never see the light of day.

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Intel abandons Vaunt smart glasses project

[dalepwithchari]

Login With Facebook data hijacked by JavaScript trackers

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Facebook confirms to TechCrunch that it’s investigating a security research report that shows Facebook user data can be grabbed by third-party JavaScript trackers embedded on websites using Login With Facebook. The exploit lets these trackers gather a user’s data including name, email address, age range, gender, locale, and profile photo depending on what users originally provided to the website. It’s unclear what these trackers do with the data, but many of their parent companies including Tealium, AudienceStream, Lytics, and ProPS sell publisher monetization services based on collected user data.

The abusive scripts were found on 434 of the top 1 million websites including freelancer site Fiverr.com and cloud database provider MongoDB. That’s according to Steven Englehardt and his colleagues at Freedom To Tinker, which is hosted by Princeton’s Center For Information Technology Policy.

Meanwhile, concert site BandsInTown was found to be passing Login With Facebook user data to embedded scripts on sites that install its Amplified advertising product. An invisible BandsInTown iframe would load on these sites, pulling in user data that was then accessible to embedded scripts. That let any malicious site using BandsInTown learn the identity of visitors. BandsInTown has now fixed this vulnerability.

TechCrunch is still awaiting a formal statement from Facebook beyond “We will look into this and get back to you.” After TechCrunch brough the issue to MongoDB’s attention this morning, it investigated and just provided this statement “We were unaware that a third-party technology was using a tracking script that collects parts of Facebook user data. We have identified the source of the script and shut it down.”

BandsInTown tells me “Bandsintown does not disclose unauthorized data to third parties and upon receiving an email from a researcher presenting a potential vulnerability in a script running on our ad platform, we quickly took the appropriate actions to resolve the issue in full.” Fiverr did not respond before press time. [Update: Another company listed by the researchers has confirmed it did not host any exploitative trackers, so they’ve been removed from this article.]

  The discovery of these data security flaws comes at a vulnerable time for Facebook. The company is trying to recover from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg just testified before congress, and today it unveiled privacy updates to comply with Europe’s GDPR law. But Facebook’s recent API changes designed to safeguard user data didn’t prevent these exploits. And the situation shines more light on the little-understood ways Facebook users are tracked around the Internet, not just on its site.

“When a user grants a website access to their social media profile, they are not only trusting that website, but also third parties embedded on that site” writes Englehardt. This chart shows that what some trackers are pulling from users. Freedom To Tinker warned OnAudience about another security issue recently, leading it to stop collecting user info.

Facebook could have identified these trackers and prevented these exploits with sufficient API auditing. It’s currently ramping up API auditing as it hunts down other developers that might have improperly shared, sold, or used data like how Dr. Aleksandr Kogan’s app’s user data ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica. Facebook could also change its systems to prevent developers from taking an app-specific user ID and employing it to discover that person’s permanent overarching Facebook user ID.

Revelations like this are likely to beckon a bigger data backlash. Over the years, the public had became complacent about the ways their data was exploited without consent around the web. While it’s Facebook in the hot seat, other tech giants like Google rely on user data and operate developer platforms that can be tough to police. And news publishers, desperate to earn enough from ads to survive, often fall in with sketchy ad networks and trackers.

Zuckerberg makes an easy target because the Facebook founder is still the CEO, allowing critics and regulators to blame him for the social network’s failings. But any company playing fast and loose with user data should be sweating.

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Login With Facebook data hijacked by JavaScript trackers

[dalepwithchari]

Login With Facebook data hijacked by JavaScript trackers

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Facebook confirms to TechCrunch that it’s investigating a security research report that shows Facebook user data can be grabbed by third-party JavaScript trackers embedded on websites using Login With Facebook. The exploit lets these trackers gather a user’s data including name, email address, age range, gender, locale, and profile photo depending on what users originally provided to the website. It’s unclear what these trackers do with the data, but many of their parent companies including Tealium, AudienceStream, Lytics, and ProPS sell publisher monetization services based on collected user data.

The abusive scripts were found on 434 of the top 1 million websites including freelancer site Fiverr.com and cloud database provider MongoDB. That’s according to Steven Englehardt and his colleagues at Freedom To Tinker, which is hosted by Princeton’s Center For Information Technology Policy.

Meanwhile, concert site BandsInTown was found to be passing Login With Facebook user data to embedded scripts on sites that install its Amplified advertising product. An invisible BandsInTown iframe would load on these sites, pulling in user data that was then accessible to embedded scripts. That let any malicious site using BandsInTown learn the identity of visitors. BandsInTown has now fixed this vulnerability.

TechCrunch is still awaiting a formal statement from Facebook beyond “We will look into this and get back to you.” After TechCrunch brough the issue to MongoDB’s attention this morning, it investigated and just provided this statement “We were unaware that a third-party technology was using a tracking script that collects parts of Facebook user data. We have identified the source of the script and shut it down.”

BandsInTown tells me “Bandsintown does not disclose unauthorized data to third parties and upon receiving an email from a researcher presenting a potential vulnerability in a script running on our ad platform, we quickly took the appropriate actions to resolve the issue in full.” Fiverr did not respond before press time. [Update: Another company listed by the researchers has confirmed it did not host any exploitative trackers, so they’ve been removed from this article.]

  The discovery of these data security flaws comes at a vulnerable time for Facebook. The company is trying to recover from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg just testified before congress, and today it unveiled privacy updates to comply with Europe’s GDPR law. But Facebook’s recent API changes designed to safeguard user data didn’t prevent these exploits. And the situation shines more light on the little-understood ways Facebook users are tracked around the Internet, not just on its site.

“When a user grants a website access to their social media profile, they are not only trusting that website, but also third parties embedded on that site” writes Englehardt. This chart shows that what some trackers are pulling from users. Freedom To Tinker warned OnAudience about another security issue recently, leading it to stop collecting user info.

Facebook could have identified these trackers and prevented these exploits with sufficient API auditing. It’s currently ramping up API auditing as it hunts down other developers that might have improperly shared, sold, or used data like how Dr. Aleksandr Kogan’s app’s user data ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica. Facebook could also change its systems to prevent developers from taking an app-specific user ID and employing it to discover that person’s permanent overarching Facebook user ID.

Revelations like this are likely to beckon a bigger data backlash. Over the years, the public had became complacent about the ways their data was exploited without consent around the web. While it’s Facebook in the hot seat, other tech giants like Google rely on user data and operate developer platforms that can be tough to police. And news publishers, desperate to earn enough from ads to survive, often fall in with sketchy ad networks and trackers.

Zuckerberg makes an easy target because the Facebook founder is still the CEO, allowing critics and regulators to blame him for the social network’s failings. But any company playing fast and loose with user data should be sweating.

[Read More …]

Login With Facebook data hijacked by JavaScript trackers

[dalepwithchari]

Another day, another $50 million ICO exit scam

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

Savedroid, a German company that purportedly raised $50 million in ICO and direct funding, has exited with a bang. The site is currently displaying the above image and the founder — one Dr. Yassin Hankir — has posted a tweet thanking investors and saying “Over and out.”

Thanks guys! Over and out … #savedroidICO pic.twitter.com/PMRtjlbEdD

— Yassin Hankir #savedroidico (@YassinHankir) April 18, 2018

A reverse image search found Hankir’s photo on this page for Founder Institute, and he has pitched his product at multiple events, including this one in German:

Savedroid was originally supposed to use AI to manage user investments and promised a crypto-backed credit card, a claim that CCN notes is popular with scam ICOs. It ran for a number of months and was clearly well-managed as the group was able to open an office and appear at multiple events.

One Reddit user visit SaveDroid’s offices and recorded this desolate scene:

Still another wrote: “The CEO on their twitter feed posted this several times ‘contribute now to participate in our #Airdrop and become a #Crypto Millionaire.’ Not about technology, its all about GIVE US MONEY AND WE WILL MAKE YOU A MILLIONAIRE. Anyone who fell for this despite all the warning signs can blame no one but themselves.”

The beer Hankir is holding in that image is Egyptian, and one can assume that the backdrop is easily recognizable and designed to throw pursuers off the trail… for good reason.

It would be smart for investors to crowdfund to hire #hitman

— crypto_prophet (@cryoto_prophet) April 18, 2018

[Read More …]

Another day, another $50 million ICO exit scam

[dalepwithchari]

Another day, another $50 million ICO exit scam

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

Savedroid, a German company that purportedly raised $50 million in ICO and direct funding, has exited with a bang. The site is currently displaying the above image and the founder — one Dr. Yassin Hankir — has posted a tweet thanking investors and saying “Over and out.”

Thanks guys! Over and out … #savedroidICO pic.twitter.com/PMRtjlbEdD

— Yassin Hankir #savedroidico (@YassinHankir) April 18, 2018

A reverse image search found Hankir’s photo on this page for Founder Institute, and he has pitched his product at multiple events, including this one in German:

Savedroid was originally supposed to use AI to manage user investments and promised a crypto-backed credit card, a claim that CCN notes is popular with scam ICOs. It ran for a number of months and was clearly well-managed as the group was able to open an office and appear at multiple events.

One Reddit user visit SaveDroid’s offices and recorded this desolate scene:

Still another wrote: “The CEO on their twitter feed posted this several times ‘contribute now to participate in our #Airdrop and become a #Crypto Millionaire.’ Not about technology, its all about GIVE US MONEY AND WE WILL MAKE YOU A MILLIONAIRE. Anyone who fell for this despite all the warning signs can blame no one but themselves.”

The beer Hankir is holding in that image is Egyptian, and one can assume that the backdrop is easily recognizable and designed to throw pursuers off the trail… for good reason.

It would be smart for investors to crowdfund to hire #hitman

— crypto_prophet (@cryoto_prophet) April 18, 2018

[Read More …]

Another day, another $50 million ICO exit scam

[dalepwithchari]

Solar project lending startup Wunder Capital raises $112 million as renewable energy shines

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

As renewable energy continues to gobble up more and more of the new energy capacity coming online, the solar project lending company Wunder Capital has raised $112 million in primarily debt financing to boost its business.

The 90 percent debt and 10 percent equity commitment came from the multi-strategy investment firm Cyrus Investments, which has backed renewable energy projects for years through its investment in RePower Group.

“The debt component is going to blow out the lending opportunity,” says Wunder chief executive Bryan Birsic.

Wunder chose to consolidate the debt and equity round with a single lead investor to simplify the negotiation process on both sides of the table, Birsic said. “Since Cyrus is an equity holder in the company we can come to better terms,” on debt facilities and repayment, he said. 

Wunder lends money to commercial solar energy development projects throughout the U.S. and its business has been buoyed by a flood of demand for new solar energy projects coming online.

Since its launch in 2016, the company has financed more than 180 projects throughout the U.S., which are generating somewhere in the range of 50 megawatts (or enough electricity to power roughly 32,500 homes).

The Boulder, Colo.-based company makes money in three ways: It charges closing fees, a servicing fee and annual interest rate on the debt it provides — typically Wunder will pull in between 4 percent and 5 percent off of each loan it provides to a project.

And business… for renewable energy… is booming.

For instance, the industry appears to have shaken off concerns over price increases stemming from the tariffs imposed on solar panels as part of broad punitive measures President Trump has taken against China (which supplies most of the world’s solar panels).

“It was really pleasant to see that folks were less reactionary and more responsive to the data,” says Birsic. The headlines, Birsic explains, were worse than the reality for the industry. The headlines in January predicted a 30 percent tariff on solar panels, but banks thought those increases would ultimately result in a 3 percent price increase for residential solar installations and a 4 percent price increase for commercial solar.

Those price increases would only bring costs in line with what they were at the end of 2017, since over the course of the year prices on installations declined 10 percent, Birsic says.

“We’re very cool with the economics as it existed in 2017,” he said. 

  [Read More …]

Solar project lending startup Wunder Capital raises $112 million as renewable energy shines

[dalepwithchari]

Solar project lending startup Wunder Capital raises $112 million as renewable energy shines

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

As renewable energy continues to gobble up more and more of the new energy capacity coming online, the solar project lending company Wunder Capital has raised $112 million in primarily debt financing to boost its business.

The 90 percent debt and 10 percent equity commitment came from the multi-strategy investment firm Cyrus Investments, which has backed renewable energy projects for years through its investment in RePower Group.

“The debt component is going to blow out the lending opportunity,” says Wunder chief executive Bryan Birsic.

Wunder chose to consolidate the debt and equity round with a single lead investor to simplify the negotiation process on both sides of the table, Birsic said. “Since Cyrus is an equity holder in the company we can come to better terms,” on debt facilities and repayment, he said. 

Wunder lends money to commercial solar energy development projects throughout the U.S. and its business has been buoyed by a flood of demand for new solar energy projects coming online.

Since its launch in 2016, the company has financed more than 180 projects throughout the U.S., which are generating somewhere in the range of 50 megawatts (or enough electricity to power roughly 32,500 homes).

The Boulder, Colo.-based company makes money in three ways: It charges closing fees, a servicing fee and annual interest rate on the debt it provides — typically Wunder will pull in between 4 percent and 5 percent off of each loan it provides to a project.

And business… for renewable energy… is booming.

For instance, the industry appears to have shaken off concerns over price increases stemming from the tariffs imposed on solar panels as part of broad punitive measures President Trump has taken against China (which supplies most of the world’s solar panels).

“It was really pleasant to see that folks were less reactionary and more responsive to the data,” says Birsic. The headlines, Birsic explains, were worse than the reality for the industry. The headlines in January predicted a 30 percent tariff on solar panels, but banks thought those increases would ultimately result in a 3 percent price increase for residential solar installations and a 4 percent price increase for commercial solar.

Those price increases would only bring costs in line with what they were at the end of 2017, since over the course of the year prices on installations declined 10 percent, Birsic says.

“We’re very cool with the economics as it existed in 2017,” he said. 

  [Read More …]

Solar project lending startup Wunder Capital raises $112 million as renewable energy shines

[dalepwithchari]

UK’s Open Cosmos raises $7M Series A to democratize satellites

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

As you can probably imagine, launching satellites is a complicated business. To get into the game, companies must often go to the biggest players, like NASA. It puts the opportunity for small companies to participate in the benefits of satellite usage completely out of reach. Until recently. Mini or nano-satellites are proliferating, and so are the startups producing them. But even in this newer scenario, there are many moving parts, from manufacturing to launching, to the systems that might capture the data you want.

But an innovative startup thinks it has the solution: create a turnkey, end-to-end system that is a one-stop-shop. That company is the U.K.’s Open Cosmos.

It’s now raised $7 million in a Series A funding round as part of its mission to make satellites more affordable and more accessible to everyone. The round was led by BGF Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe, Entrepreneur First, TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus and Microsoft’s former head of corporate strategy, Charlie Songhurst.

Founded by aerospace engineer Rafael Jordà Siquier (pictured), the company plans to democratize satellites in the same way that computers became easier to use in the 1980s. It plans to manufacture 30 satellites a year and provide a full, end-to-end service.

He said: “The space industry is ripe for the same disruption. We believe that our end-to-end service based on smaller, more affordable, more accessible satellites, will enable new applications to emerge.”

Currently, to put a satellite into space you must have millions in funding, wait for years and assemble many providers. But Open Cosmos is offering entire missions that start from £500,000 ($700,000) and can be delivered in less than a year. Once satellites are in orbit, Open Cosmos takes full control of them. Data collected by the satellite will be sent to the customer.

The company’s satellites, which range from 4kg to 30kg, follow a standardized modular design that makes it easy to integrate sensors; the idea being that space agencies and large or small companies can test new technologies, carry out research or provide services to their own customers.

It’s now signed a $2 million “Pioneer” contract with the European Space Agency and will be providing an entire mission (satellite, launch procurement and operations) to demonstrate in orbit an innovative telecommunications transceiver.

Wendy Tan White, BGF Ventures advisor, said: “Rafael is an exceptional entrepreneur. We are excited and confident that Raf and his team are going to revolutionize the satellite industry in the coming years and we look forward to seeing what kind of applications entrepreneurs can build when they have relatively cheap access to satellite data and an easily accessible operations stack.”

Located in Oxford, England, the company has a team of 22, which it now intends to scale up.

[Read More …]

UK’s Open Cosmos raises $7M Series A to democratize satellites