A glitch that led to Amazon exposing customer email addresses wasn't a breach of its website or its systems, an Amazon spokesman emailed us Wednesday. “We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted,” he said. A technical error caused the website to inadvertently disclose email addresses and names, he said, and Amazon emailed those customers Tuesday informing them of the issue, advising caution. The spokesman didn’t respond to our questions on the number of addresses affected or the cause of the error.
Nuance Communications will spin off its automotive voice-control business as a separate publicly traded company in late 2019 and “wind down” its subscription revenue services and consumer device operations because they're “non-core” to Nuance’s artificial intelligence “strengths” in “conversational AI solutions,” said CEO Mark Benjamin on an earnings call. The company will manage royalty contracts in consumer devices “and seek opportunities to monetize IP and source code in one-time deals,” he said Monday. Its voice and virtual assistance technology for car infotainment and communication systems is in more than 50 million new cars yearly “and can be found in more than 200 million cars,” said Benjamin.
Expect the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Apple in a case deciding whether customers, not just app developers, can sue for antitrust damages (see 1811050033), Cowen analyst Paul Gallant said Tuesday. The court under Chief Justice John Roberts historically has been pro-business, and the solicitor general sided with Apple in this case, Gallant said. Oral argument is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.
Carriers didn’t respond substantively to a reconsideration petition by Smart Communities and Special Districts Coalition, the coalition replied Monday in docket 17-84. Verizon’s 29 pages violated the FCC’s 25-page limit for oppositions for recon petitions, while NCTA and NTCA failed to serve the group with their oppositions as required, the local group added. Broadband interests last week opposed the coalition’s request to revisit an FCC August decision that included pre-empting local moratoriums on broadband deployment (see 1811130048). CTIA and Verizon “merely reiterate the same conclusions already adopted by the Commission and often cite solely to the Ruling being challenged here as sole support for those assertions,” the coalition said.
The FTC finalized settlements over allegations IDmission, mResource, SmartStart Employment Screening and VenPath “falsely claimed certification under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework” (see 1809270057), the agency said Monday. Commissioners voted 4-0-1, with Christine Wilson recused because she didn’t participate when the agency sought comment.
BlackBerry's buying artificial intelligence cybersecurity company Cylance for $1.4 billion cash in BlackBerry's biggest deal adds AI expertise to secure more devices, executives at both companies said Friday. BlackBerry can use the technology in its products, said CEO John Chen Friday. The deal is expected to close by Feb. 28. Cylance technologies require “a minimum amount of code, resulting in us using less memory and power ... a very key point going forward for our smart platform,” he said. The companies' vision "is to secure and connect every endpoint,” said Cylance CEO Stuart McClure. Humans still have a cybersecurity role, though. If an attack should “bypass” Cylance’s AI, it's “the human’s job to understand what happened, how it was bypassed, and what new features or characteristics we need to train the machines on,” he said.
Most stakeholders support the proposed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in allowing individual countries to set privacy laws while promoting Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation privacy rules, Wiley Rein international trade attorney Stephen Claeys blogged Thursday. USMCA goes “farther than those in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in requiring data protection and promoting compatibility.”
The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee meets Dec. 6-7, starting a 9 a.m., in the Commission Meeting Room. The BDAC "will continue considering and will vote on the Model Code for States and hear a status report from the Disaster Response and Recovery Working Group," said a public notice Wednesday in docket 17-83, noting the agenda could be modified.
CES, which begins Jan. 8, will showcase "companies and industries that you really wouldn't expect," said Karen Chupka, CTA executive vice president-CES, during a news conference Q&A. That includes first-time exhibitor Procter & Gamble, which scheduled a news conference Jan. 6 on the first media day. Connectivity and personalization "have changed the way consumers interact with nearly every product and service, and consumer packaged goods are no different," emailed P&G Friday. "As a first time exhibitor at CES, we will showcase new products that address changing consumer desires, using technology to transform everyday experiences. These technologies fall within our grooming, beauty, oral and home care."
Netflix signed a long-term lease for 355,000 square feet at the Academy on Vine project Kilroy Realty is developing in Hollywood, said the developer Tuesday. On Vine St. about a half-mile south of Hollywood Blvd., it will include offices and a 20-story apartment building, slated for occupancy in mid-2020, said Kilroy. It acquired the 3.5-acre site from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences five years ago, it said. Outgoing Netflix Chief Financial Officer David Wells said the lease “further deepens our connection with the Los Angeles and Hollywood communities.”