TikTok rival Triller weighs going public

NEW YORK, United States - Triller, an app similar to TikTok that allows users to share short video clips online, is in talks with several companies about a possible merger that would allow them to go public on Wall Street, a source close to the discussions said Monday. 

The group was looking to raise capital from private investors when it was approached by several special purpose acquisition companies, a kind of publicly listed shell company that aims to merge with promising start-ups, the source told AFP. 

The sudden interest coincided with a crackdown on TikTok by President Donald Trump, who has threatened to ban the Chinese-owned social media giant if it doesn't hand over control of its US business to an American company by Nov. 12, citing national security concerns.

TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance is in negotiations with Silicon Valley company Oracle and retail giant Walmart over its US operations, which include some 100 million users.

The talks are taking place against a backdrop of increasing friction after Trump accused the company, without providing proof, of spying on US users for Beijing. 

Triller, launched in 2015, says it currently has 65 million monthly users around the world.

Its subscribers, which include celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg, can easily pick music to go with a video clip.

The Los Angeles-based company is being advised by the merchant bank Farvahar Partners.

Its main shareholder is Proxima Media, which is currently valued at $1.25 billion, according to the same source.

The business is evaluating its various options, and there is no guarantee it will go public, the source said.

Neither Triller nor Farvahar Partners responded to an AFP request for comment.

Agence France-Presse

The woman taking over TikTok at the toughest time

Six weeks ago, as TikTok grappled with escalating tensions between the United States and China, the social media app’s top executives huddled together to figure out their next steps.

Vanessa Pappas, 41, was worried. TikTok’s North American business, which she has run since 2018, was dealing with an uproar. President Donald Trump had threatened to ban TikTok because of its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and many of the more than 100 million people who use TikTok in the United States were up in arms.

So in the early hours of Aug. 1, Pappas recorded a 59-second video from her home office in Los Angeles to calm the creators on TikTok and its fans. “We’ve heard your outpouring of support, and we wanted to say thank you,” she said in the video, which quickly went viral under the hashtag #SaveTikTok. “We’re not planning on going anywhere.”

Pappas is now repeating that message as she lands in an even hotter hot seat. Last month, Kevin Mayer, TikTok’s chief executive, said he was leaving the company, citing its uncertain political status. Pappas was appointed TikTok’s interim global head, just as the app faces an even murkier future.

Under an executive order from Trump, ByteDance must essentially strike a deal to sell off TikTok’s U.S. operations by Sept. 20; it will have a few weeks after that to close a sale. Yet after weeks of negotiations with potential buyers such as Microsoft, Walmart and Oracle, the discussions were thrown into disarray when the Chinese government signaled that it would weigh in on TikTok’s future.

In a recent 30-minute interview over Zoom from her home, Pappas said TikTok’s predicament was “unique” and described what it was like to navigate it through “a challenging time.” She declined to discuss specifics about TikTok’s deal talks and said she was not involved in them.

Instead, Pappas said, she is focused on what TikTok’s future could look like if the app’s ownership is bifurcated. Most of all, she said, she is doubling down on putting TikTok’s community of creators and users — ranging from those who post videos of cake decorating to those who break dance — first. Pappas later added that she regularly talked to Zhang Yiming, ByteDance’s founder and chief executive, about all of these issues.

To focus on its community, TikTok in July formed a Creator Fund, where creators can earn cash for views, starting with $200 million. And with the pandemic forcing people indoors for the foreseeable future, Pappas said she and her team were working on making TikTok an uplifting place to visit. Last month, the company launched a largest national advertising campaign on television and digital media, highlighting more than 30 popular creators under the tagline “It starts on TikTok.”

“We’ve built this product for hundreds of millions of people, and we’re not looking for that to change,” said Pappas, a former YouTube executive.

But keeping TikTok’s community happy in such a turbulent period may be challenging. Some creators and fans have been rattled by Trump’s moves against the app. Since his executive order, people in the United States have installed TikTok about 6.5 million times, down 13% from a year earlier, according to Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm.

Competitors have also pounced. Facebook introduced Reels, a TikTok clone inside Instagram, in August. The social network has also doled out millions of dollars to some of TikTok’s biggest stars to lure them over to using Reels.

Pappas said she wasn’t worried about Facebook and Instagram Reels. “You can certainly copy a feature, but you can’t copy a community,” she said. “I think that’s really hard to replicate.”

Tom Keiser, chief executive of Hootsuite, a social media management company, said TikTok was right to make its power users a priority.

“They need to be investing in those folks,” he said. “There’s so many things out of their control, but their future growth is based on influencers and content creators continuing to evolve and grow and leverage the new capabilities TikTok is rolling out.”

Pappas has worked in the online influencer world since some of its earliest days. Half Greek by birth, she grew up in Australia and speaks with an Aussie twang. She moved to London when she was 20, and eventually migrated to New York. In 2007, she joined Next New Networks, a company that helped web video creators earn money from their efforts.

YouTube bought Next New Networks in 2011. Pappas joined YouTube and quickly rose through the ranks. She was YouTube’s first audience development lead, a role that led her to connect with video makers. Her division at YouTube developed and popularized the term “creator” and helped transform video blogging, or vlogging, into a full-time job.

Pappas also wrote a book, “The YouTube Creator Playbook,” on how creators could make money from their followings, in 2011. She went on to develop YouTube’s Creator Academy, an educational content portal that teaches creators how to build a business on YouTube, and a channel certification program, which teaches creators about digital rights management, legal issues and advanced analytics.

TikTok lured her from YouTube at the end of 2018 to be its general manager and head of North America, based in Los Angeles. At the time, TikTok had just expanded globally. It was a new challenge for Pappas, who said she had wanted to get in on the ground floor of the next big creator movement.

Pappas said that unlike Facebook or Twitter, TikTok wasn’t wholly dependent on one’s social graph, or how many friends someone had. The app’s discovery algorithm instead surfaces popular trending content from people with followings both large and small, keeping users in the app longer and coming back more frequently.

“Anyone feels like they can be a creator,” said Greg Justice, TikTok’s head of content programming. “I’ve had friends with only a few followers who have gone viral.”

Justice, who works closely with Pappas, said that her leadership style was driven by data and that she often asked people to provide information to back up their projects and proposals. That helped the company avoid allowing dominant personalities and workplace politics dictate the way it was run, he said.

“She really democratizes the decision-making and leads to more objectivity at the company,” Justice said.

The American entertainment industry soon began reorienting itself around TikTok. Top Hollywood agents, casting directors and modeling scouts scoured the app for up-and-coming stars. Brands paid millions of dollars to tap into TikTok’s coveted Gen Z audience. Thousands of TikTok creators have made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles to live full time as creators.

The coronavirus has strengthened the ties among the TikTok community, Pappas said. Videos have trended under the #HappyAtHome hashtag, as creators riff off one another’s indoor experiments.

But Pappas has also had to deal with TikTok videos that are not all sunshine and rainbows. This month, a woman spoke out against TikTok for a viral meme in which thousands of users — including parents and their children — mocked people with physical disabilities across the platform.

TikTok noted that its community guidelines prohibit bullying and harassment, and encouraged its users to “exercise care and good judgment when it comes to the content they post, including parents and others who set an example through their behavior,” a spokeswoman said.

Nick Tangorra, 22, a TikTok creator with 1.2 million followers, said he had met Pappas only once but believed that she was the only tech leader who understood the creator community’s needs.

“It starts at the top,” he said. “TikTok knows fully that this app is what it is because of its creators. Vanessa is putting such an emphasis on creators, making sure we feel supported by the platform.”

-Mike Isaac and Taylor Lorenz, New York Times-

Epic Games asks court to force Apple to reinstall Fortnite

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Epic Games is trying to convince a California court to reinstate Fortnite on the Apple App Store pending legal proceedings, arguing that doing so is in the "public interest," court documents show.

If not, the game could suffer "irreparable harm," the company's lawyers said in a new lawsuit delivered Friday.

The gambit comes amid a battle over whether Apple's tight control over the App Store, and its 30 percent cut of revenue, counts as monopolistic behavior.

Apple pulled Fortnite from its online mobile apps marketplace on Aug. 13 after Epic released an update that dodges revenue sharing with the iPhone maker.

Last month a US court rejected Epic's bid to have Fortnite reinstated on the App Store, saying its eviction by Apple was a "self-inflicted wound."

"Over 116 million registered users have accessed Fortnite through iOS — more than any other platform," Epic says in the new complaint.

"By eliminating many of these players from Fortnite, and blocking Fortnite's ability to access over a billion iOS users, Apple is irreparably harming Epic's chances," it continues.

Daily active users have dropped by more than 60 percent since Fortnite was removed, it says, while Epic's reputation has also taken a hit.

"Epic may never see these users again," the lawsuit says.

But it did not back down from its fight against Apple, stating that the tech giant "is a monopolist."

Due to the legal row, Fortnite fans using iPhones or other Apple products no longer have access to the latest game updates, including the new season released at the end of August.

Apple does not allow users of its popular devices to download apps from anywhere but its App Store.

Agence France-Presse

Google-backed groups criticize Apple's new warnings on user tracking

SAN FRANCISCO, United State - A group of European digital advertising associations on Friday criticized Apple Inc's plans to require apps to seek additional permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites.

Apple last week disclosed features in its forthcoming operating system for iPhones and iPads that will require apps to show a pop-up screen before they enable a form of tracking commonly needed to show personalized ads.

Sixteen marketing associations, some of which are backed by Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, faulted Apple for not adhering to an ad-industry system for seeking user consent under European privacy rules. Apps will now need to ask for permission twice, increasing the risk users will refuse, the associations argued.

Facebook and Google are the largest among thousands of companies that track online consumers to pick up on their habits and interests and serve them relevant ads.

Apple said the new feature was aimed at giving users greater transparency over how their information is being used. In training sessions at a developer conference last week, Apple showed that developers can present any number of additional screens beforehand to explain why permission is needed before triggering its pop-up.

The pop-up says an app "would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies" and gives the app developer several lines below the main text to explain why the permission is sought. It is not required until an app seeks access to a numeric identifier that can be used for tracking, and apps only need to secure permission once.

The group of European marketing firms said the pop-up warning and the limited ability to customize it still carries "a high risk of user refusal."

Apple engineers also said last week the company will bolster a free Apple-made tool that uses anonymous, aggregated data to measure whether advertising campaigns are working and that will not trigger the pop-up.

"Because it's engineered to not track users, there's no need to request permission to track," Brandon Van Ryswyk, an Apple privacy engineer, said in a video session explaining the measurement tool to developers.

-reuters-

Puregold expands online grocery footprint for new normal

MANILA - Puregold Price Club Inc said Wednesday it would expand its online grocery service as consumers take their purchases online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At least 100 Puregold stores from the current 40 stores on its mobile app will offer online shopping by the end of 2020, the supermarket chain operator said in a statement.

"This will provide our shoppers better convenience especially now that travel is limited due to quarantine," Puregold said.

Puregold in January launched its mobile app where consumers can order and pay for grocery items anytime, anywhere. Paid items are available for pickup in designated lanes, skipping long lines, the operator earlier said.

The group reported consolidated core net income of P6.75 billion in 2019, up 16 percent compared to the P5.82 billion the previous year.

As of December, Puregold has 436 stores nationwide.

news.abs-cbn.com

Qatar virus tracing app stirs rare privacy backlash

DOHA - Privacy concerns over Qatar's coronavirus contact tracing app, a tool that is mandatory on pain of prison, have prompted a rare backlash and forced officials to offer reassurance and concessions.

Like other governments around the world, Qatar has turned to mobile phones to trace people's movements and track who they come into contact with, allowing officials to monitor coronavirus infections and alert people at risk of contagion.

The apps use Bluetooth radio signals to "ping" nearby devices, which can be contacted subsequently if a user they have been near develops symptoms or tests positive, but the resultant unprecedented access to users' location data has prompted fears about state surveillance.

Qatar's version goes considerably further -- it forces Android users to permit access to their picture and video galleries, while also allowing the app to make unprompted calls.

"I can't understand why it needs all these permissions," wrote Ala'a on a Facebook group popular with Doha's large expat community -- one of several such forums peppered with concerns over the app. 

Justin Martin, a journalism professor based in Qatar, warned authorities in a tweet not to "erode" trust by enforcing "an app with such alarming permissions".

The government launched the "Ehteraz" app, meaning "precaution", in April and on Friday it became mandatory for all citizens and legal residents to install it on their phones.

Non-compliance is punishable by up to three years in jail -- the same term as for failing to wear a mask in public -- in a state battling one of the world's highest per capita infection rates.

'HIGHLY INVASIVE'

Almost 44,000 of Qatar's 2.75 million people have tested positive for the respiratory disease -- 1.6 percent of the population -- and 23 people have died.

Security forces manned checkpoints across Qatar on Sunday to ensure use of the app, local media reported, alongside checking for use of masks.

Criticism of the government is rare in Qatar and laws prohibit disrespect towards officials.

However, officials have said that the law on the app will be enforced with "understanding".

The app's simple interface displays colored bar-codes containing the user's ID number -- green for healthy, red for COVID-19 positive and yellow for quarantined cases. Grey indicates suspected cases or those who have come into contact with infected individuals.

Mohamed bin Hamad Al-Thani, a director at Qatar's health ministry, said that data gathered is "completely confidential".

"There will be an update for the Ehteraz app to address the issues of concern and further improve its efficiency," he added in an interview on state television on Thursday.

A new version of the software was duly released for Apple and Android on Sunday, promising "minor bug fixes", but without indicating that the invasive aspects had been removed.

The app was introduced just as authorities across the Muslim world warned that gatherings during Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of the holy fasting month could lead to a surge of infections.

'BURNER' PHONES

"There are two key concerns... with the app," said Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin.

It "is highly invasive, with a range of permissions allowing the government access to things that are not needed for the purpose of contact tracing, permissions that are unnecessary and present a concerning invasion of privacy."

But also "many migrant workers in the country don't have compatible phones that would allow them to download the app and comply". 

Online reviews have also complained that the app drains battery power and cannot be installed on older iPhone handsets. 

Some have looked for ways around the policy.

"People are spending money and waiting in queues just to get burner phones to protect their privacy," wrote expat engineer Janko on one forum, referring to cheap handsets that could subsequently be disposed of.

There have been reports of a few users being wrongly classified as "quarantined" or "suspected cases".

"There's no need for photo access and other things. But it could be a good tool. It is a good way to prioritize whom to test," technology lawyer Rahul Matthan told AFP.

But "to work, they need a large number of people to use it. If people are dissuaded because of the app's overreach, then that would be a worry."

Agence France-Presse

In U-turn, Germany backs Google and Apple on virus app

FRANKFURT - The German government on Monday switched to backing a coronavirus-tracing app using technology supported by Google and Apple, ditching a German-led alternative that had come under fire over privacy concerns.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn and Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun said Berlin was now in favor of a "decentralized software architecture" that would see user data stored on people's own phones instead of on a central database.

"Our goal is for the tracing app to be ready for use very soon and with strong acceptance from the public and civil society," Spahn and Braun said in a joint statement.

The rollout of an app that would use bluetooth to alert smartphone users when they have been in contact with someone infected with the virus is considered crucial in the fight against the pandemic as countries like Germany relax their lockdowns.

Berlin has until now thrown its weight behind a pan-European app known as PEPP-PT being developed by some 130 European scientists, including experts from Germany's Fraunhofer research institute and Robert Koch Institute public health body.

But the proposed app had faced growing criticism over its plan to store data on a central server.

Critics said it would allow governments to hoover up personal information and could lead to mass state surveillance.

In an open letter earlier this week, some 300 leading academics urged governments to dismiss the centralized approach, saying it risked undermining public trust.

They said an approach being developed by Apple and Google, whose operating systems run most of the world's smartphones, was more privacy friendly.

The tech giants plan to collaborate with apps, like the Swiss-led DP-3T, that use a decentralized system, which would see data stored on individual devices.

The European Commission has also recommended that data harvested through coronavirus contact-tracing apps should be stored only on users' own phones and be encrypted.

The German government has repeatedly stressed that the use of any coronavirus app would be voluntary and anonymous, in a country still haunted by the spying of the Nazi era and the former East German secret police.

Agence France-Presse

Australia launches controversial COVID-19 tracking app

MELBOURNE - The Australian government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app on Sunday and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing.

Australia and neighboring New Zealand have both managed to get their coronavirus outbreaks under control before it strained public health systems, but officials in both two countries continue to worry about the risk of another flareup.

"We are winning, but we have not yet won," Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said at a televised briefing announcing the app's launch

The app, which is based on Singapore's TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another. It has been criticized by civil liberties groups as an invasion of privacy.

The Australian government, which wants at least 40% of the population to sign up to make the effort effective, said the voluntary app, which would not track location, is safe.

The app's stored contact data will enable health officials to trace people potentially exposed to infections.

"It will help us as we seek to return to normal and the Australian way of life," Hunt said. "No one has access to that, not even yourself ... only a state public health official can be given access to that data."

A legislative directive ensuring that will be proposed to the parliament in May, the health ministry said on the app's website on Sunday.

A few countries, including South Korea and Israel, are using high-tech methods of contact tracing which involves tracking peoples' location via phone networks, though such centralized, surveillance-based approaches are viewed as invasive and unacceptable in many countries.

Trust in governments in Australia and New Zealand has risen since the start of the pandemic, opinion polls show, with leaders of both countries - ideologically opposite - hailed for their management in suppressing the coronavirus.

The rate of increase in new cases has been below 1% for two weeks now in both countries - much lower than in many other countries.

On Sunday, Australia's states of Queensland and Western Australia said they would slightly ease social distancing rules this week to allow for larger outdoor public gatherings, among others, but officials in Victoria, second most populous state, said they were not ready to relax the state's hardline restrictions.

Australia reported 16 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, which took its total to 6,703, according to health ministry data. There have been 83 deaths.

In New Zealand, there were four new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 1,121. Eighteen people have died, health ministry data showed.

On Monday, New Zealand will start to ease some of the world's strictest lockdown measures, and is also set to roll out a tracing app soon, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has warned this is not the only panacea.

"We have been very clear on from the beginning that no tracking app provides a silver bullet," Ardern said earlier this month.

-reuters-

The virtual doctor is in: Contactless consultations in the time of COVID-19

MANILA -- Her finger painful and swollen, Yazhmin Malajito tapped on her smartphone for a cure, mindful that she needs to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a few minutes, a doctor told her exactly what she needed to do.

The doctor on the app sent a prescription for antibiotics via email and instructed her to go to the hospital for a minor procedure. The 23-year-old copywriter recalled opening the app at around 10:30 p.m. and had a response from a nurse in 10 minutes.

"Di ko na kaya ‘yung pain at iba na appearance ng finger ko. I wanted to go to a hospital kahit risky, but I remembered an email from our HR about this virtual doctor nga,” Malajito said.

(I can't take the pain anymore and my finger's appearance is different)

"Parang nasa ospital lang, except walang personal interaction (it was just like I was in a hospital, except there was no personal interaction)," she said.

Like groceries, food and services affected by the lockdown, healthcare is being delivered online, offering millions under home quarantine to see a doctor, albeit on their smartphones.

Malajito said the online consult cost P450 and it was covered by her health card.

VIRTUAL DOCTORS

Despite being around for years, apps that offer virtual consultations gained wider traction due to the Luzon lockdown, MEDIFI CEO and co-founder Jay Fajardo told ABS-CBN News.

MEDIFI, a telehealth platform that connects doctors and patients remotely, was launched in 2015 to relieve the "overburdened" healthcare system. It's new version went online last November 2019, Fajardo said.

Users and doctors on the platform grew "exponentially" after the enhanced community quarantine was announced, he said. The app now has 1,280 doctors and 6,261 patients with over 300 daily sign-ups.

Currently, the app caters to over 120 consultations per day, he said.

"The benefits of telehealth, which had so far been mere theoretical in the past 5 years, were now made apparent by the limits a total lockdown posed on traditional doctor patient consultations," Fajardo said.

"We did indeed experience an exponential surge because of the quarantine," he added.

Patients need to choose a doctor on the app based on specialization and their consultation fees. Once confirmed, virtual consultations can be done through chat and video calls with media, document sharing and e-prescriptions, Fajardo said.

"By being able to choose the doctors based on their economic capacity, we’re able to serve a wider market, even those who have long been hesitant to tap healthcare services because of cost," he said.

There has been a surge in use by millennials like Malajito, which could be due to their "being in the sweet spot of being the market for healthcare while possessing progressive attitudes toward technology," Fajardo said. 

The app has seen higher volumes of requests for Pediatrics and OB-Gyn consultations, Fajardo said.

Although there is a confidentiality clause, they observed requests for pulmonary specialists which could be triggered by respiratory illnesses related to COVID-19, he said.

It took a coronavirus pandemic for Malajito and for the other Filipinos to trust virtual consultations.

"Nakakakaba kasi (it's scary) what if the doctor didn't really understand my problem? What if photos weren't enough? Swerte lang 'yung condition ko in a way kasi pwedeng mapicturan...Super thankful for these apps and the frontliners behind them. They're medical professionals after all," she said.

Due to e-commerce and online payments, more and more Filipinos are becoming confident to use telehealth services, Fajardo said. 

"The key word now is convenience and the time is right for MEDIFI to provide the same experience as these services, with a keen focus on healthcare," Fajardo said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Taiwan tells agencies not to use Zoom on security grounds

Taiwan's cabinet has told government agencies to stop using Zoom Video Communications Inc's conferencing app, the latest blow to the company as it battles criticism of its booming platform over privacy and security concerns.

Zoom's daily users ballooned to more than 200 million in March, as coronavirus-induced shutdowns forced employees to work from home and schools switched to the company's free app for conducting and coordinating online classes.

However, the company is facing a backlash from users worried about the lack of end-to-end encryption of meeting sessions and "zoombombing," where uninvited guests crash into meetings.

If government agencies must hold video conferencing, they "should not use products with security concerns, like Zoom," Taiwan's cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday. It did not elaborate on what the security concerns were.

The island's education ministry later said it was banning the use of Zoom in schools.

Zoom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Taiwan would be the first government formally advising against use of Zoom, although some US schools districts are looking at putting limits on its use after an FBI warning last month.

Zoom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan last week apologized to users, saying the company had fallen short of the community's privacy and security expectations, and was taking steps to fix the issues.

Zoom competes with Microsoft's Teams, Cisco's Webex and Google's Hangouts.

Taiwan's cabinet said domestically-made conferencing apps were preferred, but if needed, products from Google and Microsoft could also be considered.

Zoom's shares dipped 1 percent in premarket trading on the Nasdaq. They have lost nearly a third of their market value since touching record highs late March.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple investor vote sounds 'warning' over China app takedowns

An Apple Inc shareholder proposal critical of the company's app removals in China received a relatively high level of support at the iPhone maker's annual meeting on Wednesday, enough to push the company to respond, experts said.

The proposal, which called for Apple to report whether it has "publicly committed to respect freedom of expression as a human right," was defeated, but 40.6 percent of votes cast supported the measure, according to company figures.

The proposal highlighted Apple's 2017 removal of virtual private network apps from its App Store in China. Such apps allow users to bypass China’s so-called Great Firewall aimed at restricting access to overseas sites, and Apple's action was seen as a step to preserve access to the country's vast market.

Wednesday's vote stood in contrast to previous years when critics made little headway with big investors on the issue.

"A total this high is a striking warning — and it must have come from big institutional investors, not just retail shareholders — that Apple’s human rights policy in China has become a material risk for the company’s reputation," said Stephen Davis, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on Corporate Governance.

"Apple will be under great pressure to respond rather than ignore this vote," Davis said.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the results. Apple had opposed the proposal, saying it already provides extensive information about when it takes down apps at the request of governments around the world and that it follows the laws in countries where it operates.

SumOfUs, the group that put the measure on the ballot, celebrated the totals.

"Apple’s investors have sounded the alarm that Tim Cook needs to listen to the concerns raised by frontline communities such as Tibetans and Uighurs who have long suffered under a tech dystopia," said Sondhya Gupta, a campaign manager for the group.

Cook is Apple's chief executive.

In the past, Apple shareholders have voted down human rights measures related to China by much larger margins. A 2018 proposal that urged Apple to create a human rights panel to oversee issues such as workplace conditions and censorship in China was defeated, with 94.4 percent of votes cast against it.

Sentiment appears to have shifted, experts said.

"Given the high level of support received for the proposal, we expect to see the company engage with its shareholders on the issue and report to shareholders about what happened in the engagements, including any potential actions it intends to take as a result," said Kern McPherson, vice president of research and engagement for proxy advisory firm Glass, Lewis & Co, which supported the measure.

Apple has signaled it is considering action. In a letter earlier this month to Access Now, an open-internet advocacy group, Apple's senior privacy director, Jane Horvath, wrote: "Apple has and always will consider freedom of expression a fundamental human right." The company, she said, "will consider providing additional details on our commitment in the future." The proposal was one of six topics to be voted on at Wednesday's shareholder meeting. By wide margins, shareholders approved Apple's executive pay, existing board of directors and the retention of Ernst & Young as its accounting firm, results that were widely expected.

A "proxy access" proposal to allow shareholders to nominate more than one director to Apple's board was defeated, with 68.9 percent of votes cast against. Also voted down was a measure to tie executive compensation to environmental sustainability metrics, with 87.9 percent of votes cast against it, according to the company.

Shareholders defeated a "proxy access" proposal to allow shareholders to nominate more than one director to Apple's board, with 68.9 percent of votes cast against. They also voted down a measure to tie executive compensation to environmental sustainability metrics, with 87.9 percent of votes cast against it, according to the company.

Apple had opposed both proposals.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Huawei, Chinese giants to take on Google's Play store: sources

SHENZHEN -- China's Huawei Technologies, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are joining forces to create a platform for developers outside China to upload apps onto all of their app stores simultaneously, in a move analysts say is meant to challenge the dominance of Google's Play store.

The four companies are ironing out kinks in what is known as the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA). The platform aims to make it easier for developers of games, music, movies and other apps to market their apps in overseas markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The GDSA was initially aiming to launch in March, sources said, although it is not clear how that will be affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak.

A prototype website says the platform will initially cover 9 "regions" including India, Indonesia and Russia.


Oppo and Vivo are both owned by Chinese manufacturer BBK Electronics. Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi confirmed they jointly developed the GDSA as a way to upload apps to their stores simultaneously.

A Xiaomi spokesman said the alliance was not intended to challenge Google and denied Huawei's involvement with it, but Oppo and Vivo made no mention of Huawei in their statements. Huawei declined to comment.

Google, whose services are banned in China, earned about $8.8 billion globally from the Play store in 2019, said Katie Williams, an analyst at Sensor Tower. Google also sells content such as movies, books and apps on the Play store and collects a 30 percent commission.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

"By forming this alliance each company will be looking to leverage the others' advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi's strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe," said Nicole Peng, the VP of Mobility at Canalys.

"Secondly, it's to start to build some more negotiation power against Google," she added.

Together the 4 companies made up 40.1 percent of global handset shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the consultancy IDC. While Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have full access to Google services in international markets, Huawei lost access for new devices last year after the United States barred American suppliers from selling goods and service to it, citing national security.

Chinese vendors are trying to capture a greater share of software and services as hardware sales slow, said Will Wong, a smartphone analyst with IDC.

"App store, pre-loading apps, advertisements and gaming are areas that could generate new revenue," he said.

Huawei is also moving away from Google by developing its own Harmony OS as an alternative.

The GDSA's website includes the logo of Wanka Online, a Hong Kong-listed Android "ecosystem" platform next to a contact for the GDSA's General Secretariat. Wanka declined to confirm its involvement.

The GDSA might be able to lure some app developers by providing more exposure than the already crowded Play store, and the new platform could provide better monetary incentives, analysts said.

"By making it simple for developers to increase their reach across multiple app stores, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi stand to attract more developers and, ultimately, more apps," said Williams.

However, managing the alliance may be a challenge Peng said. "The execution is difficult as its hard to say which company is pulling more weight and investing more in it. We haven't seen the alliance model work well in the past."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Google Maps turns 15, offers AI-powered way to beat traffic pain

MANILA -- A swarm of near-stationary smartphones on a main road tells Google's artificial intelligence (AI) that there's a gridlock. Maps then offers a homebound commuter to take a different route or wait out the traffic jam at a new bar that he or she might like.

On its 15th birthday, Google Maps is evolving into more than just a digital compass to get from point A to point B. In an update that will roll out starting 7 p.m. Thursday, app users will start to receive new features, including a new commute tab and suggested locations, officials said.

The commute tab will include routes for two-wheeled vehicles such as motorbikes, which is an emerging transportation segment in Southeast Asia where motor taxi-hailing apps like Angkas, Joyride and Go-Jek have become an alternative for commuters.

Google Maps wants to make it easier for users to pick their mode of transportation based on speed and cost, said Google Maps Senior Vice-President Jen Fitzpatrick.

"People can more easily make the decision: What route is best for me? What mode of transportation is best for me? What are the tradeoffs? Which is cheaper, much faster?" she told Asian journalists in a conference call from Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

"Should I leave 30 minutes later? We have that flexibility because traffic is gonna get better. We hope people can make their trips better with Google Maps," she said.

Google's machine learning gathers data from users to help determine in real time which areas are choked in traffic, officials said. Google Maps harnesses data from users in 220 countries who drive a combined 1 billion kilometers per day or the equivalent of 25,000 trips around the world.

Including routes for motorbikes and scooters recognizes evolving transportation trends, said Google Maps Vice-President for Product Dan Glasgow. Two-wheelers move faster and can split lanes unlike four-wheeled vehicles, he said.

"Phones are sitting still. That's a big sign that there's a traffic jam or traffic is really slow or if there's a road closure," said Fitzpatrick, who has been with Google Maps since its inception. "The algorithm is not country-specific. It's meant to reflect all different forms of traffic patterns."

NEW LOOK MAPS

The redesigned Google Maps will roll out worldwide with a refreshed icon—a location pin—to reflect what Google said was consumers searching for experiences and places.

The new features will be rolled out in phases depending on the country, Google said.

The bottom navigation tab on the Google Maps interface was expanded to 5 from just 3. Explore will gather information and ratings on some 200 million places around the world, Google said.

The Commute tab will have real-time traffic updates and travel times. The Saved tab will collect users' favorite locations. Google said users saved some 6.5 billion places on the app.

The Contribute tab will be a place for users to share reviews, photos and information on missing places on the app. Updates will suggest places that a user might like based on navigation history.


It will also be easier for users to go "incognito" while using Google Maps, stopping the platform from sharing their data, officials said. It will be available by swiping from the left side of the screen.

Google is working to integrate its augmented reality tech to Maps, Fitzpatrick said. A feature being tested deploys a bot to call establishments to check common but simple questions such as will a restaurant be open on a holiday, she said.

In the last year alone, through machine learning, Google Maps added more buildings than in the previous 10 years, she said.

"The real world is constantly changing and that pushes us to think about how the Maps experience needs to evolve," she said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple unveils revamped map app to challenge Google

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple on Thursday said it has finished rolling out an overhauled map app in the US in another attempt to challenge Google's popular smartphone navigation software.

Apple spent years rebuilding the application, its cars traveling millions of miles to map roads, after a version launched in 2012 was so problematic it prompted a rare public apology from chief executive Tim Cook.

Mapping programs on mobile devices is seen as a way to stay in tune with smartphone lifestyles and pursue opportunities to make money connecting people with nearby offerings such as restaurants, theaters, clothing shops and other businesses.

Apple said the redesigned "Maps" program is fast, accurate, and comprehensive, even weaving in transit options in some locations.

Maps is to begin rolling out in Europe in coming months.

"We set out to create the best and most private maps app on the planet that is reflective of how people explore the world today," Apple senior vice president of internet software and services Eddy Cue said in a release.

"It is an effort we are deeply invested in and required that we rebuild the map from the ground up to re-imagine how Maps enhances people’s lives — from navigating to work or school or planning an important vacation — all with privacy at its core."

Apple Maps had some features similar to those in Google Maps, such as pictures of locations taken at street level and artificial intelligence to check the status of flight reservations noted in email boxes or on calendars.

As with other products, Apple stressed work done to protect user privacy, such as obscuring search terms, routing, and other data, according to the company.


Agence France-Presse 

Tinder unveils 'panic button' for emergency response

WASHINGTON - Tinder announced Thursday that US users would soon have a "panic button" to alert authorities to potentially dangerous situations as part of a stepped up safety initiative by the popular dating app.

A new feature unveiled by Tinder will allow users to opt into the personal safety app Noonlight, which connects users to personal emergency services.

A Tinder spokesperson said the feature would roll out in the coming days in the United States and connect users to "trained dispatchers who contact authorities on behalf of the user."

The new safety feature "acts as a silent bodyguard in situations when you're alone or meeting someone for the first time," said Brittany LeComte, co-founder of Noonlight.

Tinder is also adding photo verification, to compare using artificial intelligence a posed photo taken in real-time to profile photos.

Members with authenticated pictures will get a "badge" that verifies their images are authentic. The photo feature is being tested "in select markets" and will be widely available later this year.

Tinder, known for giving users the option to "swipe" right or left to accept or reject a date, is the largest of the apps in Match Group, operating in 190 countries, claiming to facilitate one million dates per week.

To help allay concerns on personal risks, Tinder said it is launching a safety center within the app to keep users informed of its resources.

This feature is being launched in the United States, Britain, France and Germany and will be "localized" for additional markets throughout the year.

Tinder and its online dating siblings including PlentyOfFish, OkCupid and Hinge, which make up the Match Group, will be spun off as an independent company this year, according to parent firm IAC.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Grindr, Tinder spread personal details, study says

Popular dating services like Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder are spreading user information like dating choices and precise location to advertising and marketing companies in ways that may violate privacy laws, according to a new report that examined some of the world’s most downloaded Android apps.

Grindr, the world’s most popular gay dating app, transmitted user-tracking codes and the app’s name to more than a dozen companies, essentially tagging individuals with their sexual orientation, according to the report, which was released Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government-funded nonprofit organization in Oslo.

Grindr also sent a user’s location to multiple companies, which may then share that data with many other businesses, the report said. When The New York Times tested Grindr’s Android app, it shared precise latitude and longitude information with 5 companies.

The researchers also reported that the OkCupid app sent a user’s ethnicity and answers to personal profile questions — like “Have you used psychedelic drugs?" — to a firm that helps companies tailor marketing messages to users. The Times found that the OkCupid site had recently posted a list of more than 300 advertising and analytics “partners” with which it may share users’ information.

“Any consumer with an average number of apps on their phone — anywhere between 40 and 80 apps — will have their data shared with hundreds or perhaps thousands of actors online,” said Finn Myrstad, the digital policy director for the Norwegian Consumer Council, who oversaw the report.

The report, “Out of Control: How Consumers Are Exploited by the Online Advertising Industry,” adds to a growing body of research exposing a vast ecosystem of companies that freely track hundreds of millions of people and peddle their personal information. This surveillance system enables scores of businesses, whose names are unknown to many consumers, to quietly profile individuals, target them with ads and try to sway their behavior.

The report appears just two weeks after California put into effect a broad new consumer privacy law. Among other things, the law requires many companies that trade consumers’ personal details for money or other compensation to allow people to easily stop the spread of their information.

In addition, regulators in the European Union are stepping up enforcement of their own data protection law, which prohibits companies from collecting personal information on religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex life and other sensitive subjects without a person’s explicit consent.

The Norwegian group said it planned to file complaints Tuesday asking regulators in Oslo to investigate Grindr and 5 ad tech companies for possible violations of the European data protection law. A coalition of consumer groups in the US said it was also sending letters to American regulators, including the attorney general of California, urging them to investigate whether the companies’ practices violated federal and state laws.

In a statement, the Match Group, which owns OkCupid and Tinder, said it worked with outside companies to assist with providing services and shared only specific user data deemed necessary for those services. Match added that it complied with privacy laws and had strict contracts with vendors to ensure the security of users’ personal data.

In a statement, Grindr said it had not received a copy of the report and could not comment specifically on the content. Grindr added that it valued users’ privacy, had put safeguards in place to protect their personal information and described its data practices — and users’ privacy options — in its privacy policy

The report examines how developers embed software from ad tech companies into their apps to track users’ app use and real-life locations, a common practice. To help developers place ads in their apps, ad tech companies may spread users’ information to advertisers, personalized marketing services, location data brokers and ad platforms.

The personal data that ad software extracts from apps is typically tied to a user-tracking code that is unique for each mobile device. Companies use the tracking codes to build rich profiles of people over time across multiple apps and sites. But even without their real names, individuals in such data sets may be identified and located in real life.

For the report, the Norwegian Consumer Council hired Mnemonic, a cybersecurity firm in Oslo, to examine how ad tech software extracted user data from 10 popular Android apps. The findings suggest that some companies treat intimate information, like sexual orientation or drug habits, no differently from more innocuous information, like favorite foods.

Among other things, the researchers found that Tinder sent a user’s gender and the gender the user was looking to date to two marketing firms.

The researchers did not test iPhone apps. Settings on both Android phones and iPhones enable users to limit ad tracking.

The group’s findings illustrate how challenging it would be for even the most intrepid consumers to track and hinder the spread of their personal information.

Grindr’s app, for instance, includes software from MoPub, Twitter’s ad service, which can collect the app’s name and a user’s precise device location, the report said. MoPub in turn says it may share user data with more than 180 partner companies. One of those partners is an ad tech company owned by AT&T, which may share data with more than 1,000 “third-party providers.”

In a statement, Twitter said: “We are currently investigating this issue to understand the sufficiency of Grindr’s consent mechanism. In the meantime, we have disabled Grindr’s MoPub account.”

AT&T did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The spread of users’ location and other sensitive information could present particular risks to people who use Grindr in countries, like Qatar and Pakistan, where consensual same-sex sexual acts are illegal.

This is not the first time that Grindr has faced criticism for spreading its users’ information. In 2018, another Norwegian nonprofit group found that the app had been broadcasting users’ HIV status to 2 mobile app service companies. Grindr subsequently announced that it had stopped the practice.

The report’s findings also raise questions about the extent to which businesses are complying with the new California privacy law. The law requires many companies that benefit from trading consumers’ personal details to prominently post a “Do Not Sell My Data” option, allowing people to stop the spread of their information.

But Grindr’s stance challenges that idea. By agreeing to its policy, its site says, users “are directing us to disclose” their personal information “and, therefore, Grindr does not sell your personal data.”

Myrstad said many consumers were comfortable sharing their data with apps they trusted. “But this study clearly shows that many apps abuse that trust,” he said. “Authorities need to enforce the rules we have, and if they are not good enough, we have to make better rules.”


2020 The New York Times Company

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Apple News users reach 100 million, App Store sales rise

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Inc's news service has reached 100 million monthly active users and customers spent more than $1.4 billion in the App Store between Christmas and New Year, the latest signs of growing revenue from the iPhone maker's services business.

With demand for smart phones and other hardware peaking, Apple has been striving to boost sales from purchases of apps and subscription services like its newly launched Apple TV+ streaming service or Apple Care maintenance packages.

The company said that between Dec. 24, 2019, and Jan. 1, 2020, its customers spent $1.42 billion in the App Store, a 16 percent increase over the previous year, and $386 million on Jan. 1 alone, a 20 percent increase.

The number of users of the News app rose nearly 18 percent from a year ago, although the company did not break out subscriber numbers for the Apple News+ service, which costs $9.99 per month.

The numbers also point to a big shift in spending in the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season in the United States, with consumers splurging on apps and online shopping rather than in brick-and-mortar stores.

Mastercard Inc's data tracking retail sales from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve showed US shoppers spent almost a fifth more online during this year's holiday shopping season than a year ago, accounting for 15 percent of all retail sales.

The App Store growth numbers were roughly in line with the overall trend for Apple's services segment revenue, which rose 16 percent to $46.3 billion in its most recent fiscal year ended in September. In comparison, iPhone sales fell 14 percent to $142.4 billion in the same period.

Apple keeps between 15 percent and 30 percent of the sales through its App Store, depending on whether users buy software as a one-time purchase or recurring subscription.

The company launched several new services in 2019, including the streaming service, a video game service and a credit card.

Shares of the company were marginally down in early trading.

Agence France-Presse

SoftBank, Line Corp seek to create Japanese internet giant

TOKYO — Two weeks ago, SoftBank Group of Japan announced it had lost billions on soured investments in some of the world’s biggest tech startups. On Monday, it said it was ready to roll the dice again.

The company announced an agreement to merge its Yahoo Japan subsidiary with Line, a dominant messaging app company, to create a Japanese internet goliath that would be able to compete against bigger and better-financed tech firms in the United States and China.

The combination would bring together two prominent Japanese companies that have seen better days. Yahoo Japan, formed in 1996 as a joint venture with Yahoo, offers a range of services including online shopping and news, but has struggled to make the move from desktops to mobile phones.

Line’s chat app has 82 million users in Japan, but has struggled to expand its user base. The company fell into the red last year and has continued to book losses.

Line’s chief executive, Takeshi Idezawa, said at a news conference Monday that the merger would help make Japan more competitive globally in the industries of the future.

The tech world is becoming “winner take all,” said Idezawa, who noted that the leading global companies were developing monopolies on everything from human resources to finance.

Competitors’ “strengths are growing even stronger, and the gap between those companies and the rest is widening,” he said. “As every industry becomes increasingly digital, the effect of that on national power and cultural diversity is an important issue.”

The deal requires approval from shareholders and government regulators, who are likely to give close scrutiny to a linkup of two of Japan’s most powerful internet firms. The companies said they plan to complete the merger by October.

SoftBank and Naver, the South Korean company that owns a majority stake in Line, said Monday that they had reached a memorandum of understanding to take Line private as the first step in a complex financial arrangement that would result in Yahoo Japan and Line being held by Z Holdings, the publicly listed company that operates Yahoo Japan.

Z Holdings and Naver are considering an offer to Line’s minority shareholders of 5,200 yen, or $47.78, per share. At that price, each firm would spend more than $1.5 billion on the transaction.

By adding Line to its portfolio, SoftBank would get access to the messaging service’s users in Japan, and tens of millions more elsewhere in Asia, including Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.

In theory, that would allow the companies to merge their various offerings to create a super app that could serve as a gateway to all of their services. With the government pushing to move Japan away from its stubborn attachment to cash, the deal also sets SoftBank up to cement its control over the country’s small but growing mobile payment industry by combining its company PayPay, which leads the market, with Line’s service, Line Pay.

Analysts and investors hailed the deal.

“There are a lot of synergies,” said Mitsunobu Tsuruo, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan.

“Line is the strongest messaging company, and Yahoo is a strong domestic media company,” he added. “There are very few overlapping areas.”

Those synergies will be critical if the companies hope to stay competitive in their domestic market.

Line had one of the biggest public offerings of 2016, with investors flocking to the company based on its high revenue from advertising and sales of digital cartoon stickers that users can send to their friends.

The illustrations, which cost a little over $2, include Disney characters and Line’s own mascots, which have become popular enough that they have their own shop in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku neighborhood.

But since then, the company has lost money as it works to promote its mobile payment service.

SoftBank, too, is facing tough times.

Just weeks ago, SoftBank Group posted a $4.6 billion loss from its investment in WeWork, the embattled office space company. WeWork’s value has crumbled after its attempt at a public offering collapsed under scrutiny of the company’s business model and accusations of self-dealing by its founder, Adam Neumann.

SoftBank, which is the world’s largest tech investor, has used its $100 billion Vision Fund to pick winners and losers in the startup world. But its investment model has come under increasing scrutiny over its large and sometimes quixotic bets on loss-making companies like Uber and the on-demand dog walking company Wag.

At a news conference after the announcement of SoftBank’s financial results, the company’s chief executive, Masayoshi Son, said that he regretted some of his decisions involving WeWork, but that he would not change his company’s underlying strategy of placing big wagers on companies that he believed had the potential to transform entire industries.


2019 The New York Times Company

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