The FTC’s order against Everalbum “reflects a change that has already taken place,” a company spokesperson emailed in response to Monday’s settlement (see 2101110027). The Ever app was shuttered in August, and the company “has no plans to run a consumer business moving forward,” the spokesperson wrote. “In September 2020, Paravision released its latest-generation face recognition model which does not use any Ever users’ data.”
Samsung is using artificial intelligence to make consumer content “better," said Sebastian Seung, head-Samsung Research. AI upscaling takes HD content on TV and coverts it to 8K quality via the Quantum AI processor, he said in a prerecorded CES media session Monday. Giving a glimpse of the “not-so-distant future,” he showed an extendable robot with “arms” for the home. Samsung is working on upcycling, where end-of-life products aren’t pulled apart and recycled but used as “building blocks” for new devices and services, said Sandeep Rana, European sustainability manager. A Samsung Galaxy upcycling program “reimagines phones into new roles.” The company created portable eye exam devices with used Galaxy phones. This year, Rana said, Samsung is updating software in used Galaxy phones and launching the Galaxy Upcycling at Home program.
Everalbum “deceived consumers” about face scanning technology and retention of user photos and videos, the FTC alleged in a 5-0 settlement with the photo app developer, which the agency called a first-of-its-kind enforcement action. The developer enabled face scanning by default for all mobile app users when it launched a 2017 feature and misled users from 2018-19 about consent, feature activation and turning it off, the FTC alleged. The company allegedly failed to delete photos and videos from deactivated accounts when it promised to remove the content. The company faces a $43,280 fine per future violation and is required to delete content from deactivated accounts. The agency should “take further steps to trigger penalties, damages, and other relief for facial recognition and data protection abuses,” said Commissioner Rohit Chopra. He suggested the commission could issue a rule under Section 18 of the FTC Act to better seek first-offense penalties. He noted users in Illinois, Texas and Washington were “treated with greater care, due to state protections on facial recognition.”
Equifax agreed to buy Kount, a supplier of artificial intelligence-based fraud prevention and digital identity solutions, for $640 million. “Businesses require new ways to establish digital identity trust in real time to fight the growing problem of online fraud while reducing customer friction,” said Equifax Friday. This will expand its global “footprint” in fraud prevention and “identity trust,” it said. The transaction is expected to close this quarter.
U.S. District Court in Washington will consolidate antitrust cases from DOJ and Colorado against Google for pretrial purposes (see 2012180047), Judge Amit Mehta ordered (in Pacer) Thursday: Future filings “shall be made exclusively on the DOJ Action docket.” Colorado can request consolidation for the trial after the “close of expert discovery and resolution of any motions for summary judgment.”
Tapjoy duped consumers and failed to provide promised in-game rewards, the FTC alleged in a 5-0 settlement Thursday. The mobile ad company is “prohibited from misleading users” about rewards and “must monitor” third-party ad partners to “ensure they do what is necessary to enable Tapjoy to deliver promised rewards to consumers.” There was no monetary penalty, but the company faces fines up to $43,280 for subsequent violations of the consent order. “The settlement proposed today should help reverse the lax policing practices that led hundreds of thousands of gamers to file complaints,” said Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter: The agency must address “deeper structural problems” and should continue to scrutinize ad middlemen and app stores. An attorney for the company didn’t comment.
Harman, Continental and Bosch are market leaders in the connected vehicle infotainment systems segment that generated $32 billion in 2019 revenue, reported ABI Research Wednesday. ABI ranks Harman as “the clear leader,” with Continental a distant second and Bosch “a close third.” They collectively have about 30% of worldwide revenue, it said. Harman leads the ranking “because it has redefined its market positioning as a premium infotainment provider to develop global cockpit solutions with a scalable approach ranging from mass-market to premium OEMs,” said ABI.
With a full holiday shopping season wrap slated for Tuesday, Adobe Analytics reported the November-December period had a total online spend of $188.2 billion, up 32% over 2019, to a record. Cyber Week sales were slower compared with the overall season, with Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday growing 21% year on year, Adobe emailed Wednesday. For the first time, more than half of online spending came from smartphones Christmas Day. Average daily online revenue topped $3.1 billion during the season vs. $2.3 billion in 2019, and for the first time, every day of the two-month season exceeded $1 billion in sales. Fifty days had revenue over $2 billion, nine days passed $4 billion, and Thanksgiving Day sales exceeded $5 billion. Curbside pickup orders were up 36% overall but dropped to 26% in the seven days leading up to Christmas. Smartphones were 40% of the season’s e-commerce growth.
Facebook said it’s too soon to merge states’ and the FTC’s antitrust lawsuits. “Facebook does not oppose reassignment to a common judge,” but “actual consolidation of these separate government cases ... is premature and unnecessary at this initial stage of the proceedings,” Facebook said (in Pacer) Monday at U.S. District Court in Washington. The FTC and 48 bipartisan attorneys general sought remedies last month, including possible divestitures of Instagram and WhatsApp (see 2012100003).
A “broader set of video decoding standards” to promote the “wider availability” of 8K streaming content highlights the “updated performance specification” an 8K TV must meet to qualify for the 8K Association’s certification logo, said the group Monday. Samsung, which has downplayed its role as the 8KA’s brainchild, posted the announcement on its own website. The updated spec also requires that 8K TVs “enable access to advanced multi-dimensional surround sound formats,” said 8KA. In keeping with past 8KA practice, only group members are privy to the specifics about the updated certification criteria, emailed Executive Director Chris Chinnock: “We left it intentionally vague as it is still a members-only document but wanted to advise that we continue to add features and try to raise the bar each year a little bit.”