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A rare privacy penalty for Apple: France’s data protection watchdog, the CNIL, has announcedit imposed a sanction of €8 million (~$8.5M) on the iPhone maker for not obtaining local mobile users’ consent prior to placing (and/or reading) ad identifiers on their devices in breach of local data protection law.

The sanction decision was issued on December 29 but only made public yesterday (the text of the decision is available here in French).

The CNIL is acting under the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive — which allows for Member State level data protection authorities to take action over local complaints about breaches, rather than requiring they be referred to a lead data supervisor in the country where the company in question has its main EU establishment (as happens with the EU’s newer General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR).

While the size of this ePrivacy fine isn’t going to cause any sleepless nights in Cupertino, Apple leverages claims of peerless user privacy to polish its premium brand — and differentiate iPhones from cheaper hardware running Google’s Android platform — so any dent in its reputation for protecting user data should sting.

The CNIL says it was acting on a complaint against Apple for showing personalized ads on its App Store. The action relates to an older version (14.6) of the iPhone operating system, under which — after the watchdog investigated in 2021 and 2022 — it found the tech giant had not obtained prior consent from users to process their data for targeted advertising that was served when a user visited Apple’s App Store.

CNIL found that v14.6 of iOS automatically read identifiers on the user’s iPhone — which served a number of purposes, including powering personalizing ads on the App Store — and that processing occurred without Apple obtaining proper consent, in the regulator’s view, as consent was being gathered via a setting that was pre-checked by default. (NB: 2019 CNIL guidance on the ePrivacy Directive stipulates that consent is necessary for ad tracking.)

From the CNIL’s press release [translated from French with machine translation]:

Due to their advertising purpose, these identifiers are not strictly necessary for the provision of the service (the App Store). Consequently, they must not be able to be read and/or deposited without the user having expressed his prior consent. However, in practice, the ad targeting settings available from the iPhone’s ‘Settings’ icon were pre-checked by default.

In addition, the user had to perform a large number of actions to successfully deactivate this parameter since this possibility was not integrated into the initialization process of the telephone. The user had to click on the ‘Settings’ icon of the iPhone, then go to the ‘Privacy’ menu and finally to the section entitled ‘Apple Advertising’. These elements did not make it possible to collect the prior consent of users.

The CNIL said the level of fine reflects the scope of the processing (which it notes was limited to the App Store); the number of French users affected; and the profits Apple derives from ad revenue indirectly generated from the data collected by the identifiers — as well as the regulator factoring in Apple having since brought itself into compliance.

Apple was contacted for comment on the CNIL sanction. A company spokesman confirmed it plans to appeal — sending us this statement:

We are disappointed with this decision given the CNIL has previously recognized that how we serve search ads in the App Store prioritizes user privacy, and we will appeal.Apple Search Ads goes further than any other digital advertising platform we are aware of by providing users with a clear choice as to whether or not they would like personalized ads. Additionally, Apple Search Ads never tracks users across 3rd party apps and websites, and only uses first-party data to personalize ads. We believe privacy is a fundamental human right and a user should always get to decide whether to share their data and with whom.

It’s not the first time Apple has faced critical scrutiny over privacy double standards. Back in 2020, European privacy rights campaign group noyb filed a series of complaints with EU data protection watchdogs about an Identifier for Advertisers (aka IDFA) baked into the iPhone by default by Apple, arguing the existence of the IDFA was a similar breach of the prior consent to tracking principle.

The company has also been accused of privacy hypocrisy in recent years over its different treatment vis-a-vis the tracking of iPhone users’ app activity to serve its own ‘personalized ads’ vs a recently introduced requirement that third party apps obtain consent from users — after it introduced the App Tracking Transparency feature (aka ATT) to iOS back in 2021.

Apple has continued to dispute these lines of arguments — claiming it complies with local privacy laws and offers a higher level of privacy and data protection for iOS users than rival platforms.

France, meanwhile, has been very active in enforcing breaches of ePrivacy against tech giants in recent years, with another example just last month when it hit Microsoft with a €60 million penalty over dark pattern design in relation to cookie tracking — after finding the company had not offered a mechanism for users to refuse cookies that was as easy as the button it presented to them for accepting cookies.

Amazon, Google and Meta (Facebook) have also all been hit with CNIL sanctions for cookie-related breached since 2020. And last year Google went on to update its cookie consent pop-up across the EU to (finally) offer a simple ‘accept all’ or ‘refuse all’ option offered at the top level.

tl;dr: Regulatory enforcement of privacy works.

The steady flow of enforcements and corrections that the CNIL’s interventions have been able to achieve for users in France via ePrivacy — a much older EU directive than the GDPR — has cast further critical light on the operation of the latter flagship privacy regulation where scrutiny and enforcement on tech giants continues to be bogged down by forum shopping, associated procedural bottlenecks and resourcing issues, as well as by disputes between regulators over how to settle these cross-border cases.

But while a GDPR complaint against a tech giant can take years, plural to get enforced — such as the ~4.8 years it took to finalize ‘forced consent’ advertising complaints against two Meta properties, Facebook and Instagram, and still with likely years of appeals of that decision ahead (and with other even longer-standing complaints still inching painstakingly toward a final decision) — the difference between an EU directive and a regulation means that enforcement is pan-EU by default, rather than being localized to the jurisdiction of the enforcing DPA. That means, with ePrivacy, any wider compliance rollouts are at the discretion of a sanctioned entity — so the impact for users may be more localized.

Additionally, any (eventual) GDPR penalties may also be more substantial than ePrivacy stings — with the GDPR allowing for fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover, while ePrivacy is stuck with an older regime that leaves it up to Member States to set “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” penalties. (Ergo, user rights here are tethered to local politics.)

Although corrective orders can have far more bite for big tech than financial sanctions given how much revenue these giants pull in — as even fines that run to hundreds of millions or more may be written off as just a cost of doing business. Whereas orders to change practices to comply with privacy laws can force meaningful reforms.

It’s worth noting that the EU has been attempting — for years — to replace the now more-than-two-decades-old ePrivacy Directive with an updated ePrivacy Regulation. However big tech lobbying and lawmaker disputes over a 2017 Commission proposal have conspired to stall the file for most of this period.

Member States did, at long last, agree a common negotiating position in February 2021 — finally enabling trilogue negotiations to kick off. But debates between the EU’s co-legislators over big and small details continue — and it’s not clear when (or even if) a consensus can be hashed out.

And that means the veteran ePrivacy Directive may still have years more working life — and millions more in big tech fines — ahead of it.

France fines Apple over App Store ad targeting ePrivacy breach by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch

Amazon has announced that it will be “eliminating” more than 18,000 roles at the company, extending a previously-announced round of layoffs that was set to impact some 10,000 workers.

The announcement is significant in terms of the number of people impacted, though it represents just 1.2% of Amazon’s 1.5 million global headcount.

In a memo to employees early this morning, CEO Andy Jassy said that in addition to the roles affected in its Devices and Books businesses during its previous announcement back in November, the majority of the roles hit by the latest cutbacks will be in its People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) and Amazon Stores businesses.

Layoffs continue

The news comes just a day after Salesforce announced that it was cutting around 10% of its workforce, impacting more than 7,000 employees, and continues a trend that saw countless companies throughout 2022 scale back their workforces to counter economic headwinds. Data from layoff-tracking website Layoffs.fyi suggests that tech companies cut more than 150,000 positions in 2022.

Today’s announcement was seemingly made earlier than Amazon had intended after a Wall Street Journal report got hold of preliminary details via a leak, which is why Amazon said that it has yet to inform those that will be impacted — but it plans to do so starting on January 18.

“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted,” Jassy wrote. “However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me.”

This also means that Amazon has yet to announce what kind of severance packages it will provide, though Jassy said it will provide a “separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.”

Amazon to cut 18,000 jobs as tech layoffs continue by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

Microsoft plans to collaborate with the Indian space agency to give Indian space tech startups free access to cloud tools, the two said Thursday, the latest in the U.S. tech giant’s attempts to deepen its ties with young firms in the South Asian market.

As part of a memorandum of understanding that Microsoft has signed with the Indian Space Research Organization, the firm will also provide space tech startups with go-to-market support and help them become enterprise ready, it said.

Startups handpicked by ISRO will be onboarded to Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub platform, where they will receive free access to several tools and resources. These tools include help with building and scaling on Azure, as well as GitHub Enterprise, Visual Studio Enterprise, Microsoft 365 and Power BI and Dynamics 365.

“ISRO’s collaboration with Microsoft will greatly benefit space tech startups in their analysis and processing of vast amounts of satellite data for various applications, using cutting-edge methods like AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning,” said S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, in a statement.

“The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a useful platform for bringing together startups and providers of technology solutions to support the national space technology ecosystem. We are pleased to work together to assist and support entrepreneurs, to in turn benefit the Indian economy as a whole.”

Indian space tech startups are having a moment.

In June 2020, the Indian government passed the space sector reforms and established the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) to allow private companies to use ISRO’s infrastructure. The government also set up NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) as the commercial arm of the space agency to work closely with private companies and startups.

In November last year, ISRO successfully launched the Vikram-S after much anticipation in a boost to the private sector. The Vikram-S, developed by four-year-old startup Skyroot Aerospace, is a single-stage, spin-stabilized solid-propellant rocket with a mass of around 550 kilograms. It carries three customer payloads, including one from a customer outside India.

The South Asian country has over 100 space startups registered on the In-SPACe platform. Startups such as GIC-backed Skyroot Aerospace and Rocketship.vc-invested Agnikul are into developing launch vehicles, while Blume Ventures and Lightspeed Partners-backed Pixxel and ANIC-ARISE and Kalari-invested Digantara are building satellites.

Indian space startups raised over $245.35 million, with $108.52 million infused in 2022 alone, according to the data shared by the Indian Space Association (ISpA) with TechCrunch.

Microsoft has made scores of announcements in India this week as chief executive Satya Nadella visits the South Asian market. The company said earlier this week that HDFC Bank and Yes Bank have signed up to use Azure and other Microsoft cloud services.

Microsoft partners with India space agency to work with startups by Jagmeet Singh originally published on TechCrunch

At a preview event at CES in Las Vegas today, baby-sleep experts Halo showed off a wearable for babies, which can track four measurements in real-time: heart rate, rollover, skin temperature, and movement. The hope is that, with easier access to this info, parents can rest at ease while their babies rest, at ease.

The company claims it is the first smart monitor that lets parents customize alerts to deliver the information they find most helpful through their baby’s developmental stages. These alerts, combined with the historical sleep data SleepSure records, provide valuable insights so parents or caregivers can adjust their baby’s environment for more optimal sleep.

“Our deep expertise in the sleep category has allowed us to really understand parents’ everyday struggles when it comes to helping their baby sleep.” says Halo CEO Doug Gillespie. “For example, when we surveyed our parent testers, a big concern for everyone was their baby getting warm or cold during sleep. SleepSure’s skin temperature measurement is designed to directly address this universal pain point and make it easier for parents to understand how to help their baby.”

SleepSure is designed for babies 0 to 18 months, and costs around $250. It includes a wearable monitor with three differently-sized fabric bands so a growing baby can keep wearing it. There’s also a base station and a Halo app which – refreshingly enough – doesn’t require an additional subscription. The company expects to start shipping to customers ordering from its website by the end of the month, and available more widely in the next couple of months.

Halo’s SleepSure is a baby wearable to keep an eye on the little one by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

BMW revealed a prototype for the i Vision Dee concept car during the automaker’s keynote at CES on Wednesday evening. The four-door sedan came out on stage in a crisp white, but later morphed into a variety of colors and patterns to show off Dee’s E-Ink technology, which will allow car owners to configure the car’s exterior with 32 different colors.

Dee, while a concept car, is emblematic of BMW’s next generation platform, Neue Klasse, which the company said will launch in 2025 starting with a dynamic sedan and a sporty activity vehicle.

The reveal featured a cutesy video involving Arnold Schwarzenegger reminiscing about the relationship people had with their cars in the 1980s while the voice of Dee (which by the way stands for Digital Emotional Experience) tried to convince the actor/politician that the cars of the future are really the ultimate companions.

Throughout the keynote, Dee’s voice served to personalize and humanize the car. At one point, BMW said that Dee has a “digital soul, a personality not only with a voice but with facial expressions, too.” This point was really driven home by the following quote from the film “The Terminator”: “The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope, because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.”

So what is BMW trying to tell us here? Well, Oliver Zipse, BMW’s CEO, went so far as to call Dee “the next level of human-machine interaction, a concept that cannot be simply dismissed as science fiction because it will inspire our Neue Klasse.”

Ever since the “software-defined vehicle” began to take hold, automakers have been angling for new ways to use that software to create a more personalized experience for drivers and passengers. CES always provides a smorgasbord of examples. Last year it was all about Amazon Fire streaming coming to vehicles and Google Home integrations, this year it seems to be about in-car gaming. But BMW is taking it up a notch by positing not just an emotional connection between human and car, but also a car that has emotions of its own.

One way BMW hopes to turn that vision into reality is by combining software and hardware development for a seamless digital experience, according to Zipse. This idea manifests in Dee’s head-up display, featuring four levels of interaction, which BMW calls its “mixed reality slider.”

Level one brings all the drive and navigation data a driver would need. Level two helps with communication by showing text messages and calls. Level three brings the features of Levels one and two and augments the navigation data to your windshield, including collision warnings and possible obstacles highlighted. It also visualizes social media.

Level four goes “way beyond reality.” What does that actually mean? We’re not fully sure, but the talking Dee said that you could bring all your friends into your car virtually.

“Your friends, your family, even your pets without one single animal hair on the seat, which I absolutely love, in an endless virtual world,” she (?) said. “You can meet play, talk, love, hate. You can even go sightseeing together, right inside your car. You wouldn’t believe what fits in your car in the future. It’s like being in your own personal drive in cinema. But the movie is your life.”

Of course, this would likely be in a world where the windows could be blacked-out and the car drives autonomously.

The point, though, is that BMW, like other automakers, is trying to add so much impressive, seamless tech to its vehicles that people really do start seeing their cars as their ultimate companions — friend, living room, personal assistant and fashion aid all in one. Freaky, isn’t it?

BMW unveils Dee prototype, “the next level of human-machine interaction” by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

Who doesn’t like a good CES success story? For Aeolus Robotics, it was the 2018 show where things really clicked in. Exhibiting at the event garnered interest from folks looking for a solution to help out around hospitals, nursing homes and school. The company was more than happy to help.

Japan in particular was taken with the product — elder care robots, after all, have been a booming industry in the country for some time, due to its aging population.

Aeo has autonomous navigation, using a slew of cameras and IR sensors on its base. It can move around a space, use its maneuverable right arm to open doors and ride elevators, while disinfecting surfaces using the UV light on its left ( a big hit during the pandemic). It can be used for patrolling, security and delivering food. The robot can also be operated remotely when necessary, though the firm says few instances call for that level of control.

Aeolus says the robot is largely made of proprietary components, including the arm. While common wisdom says that building your own robot arm is a bit of a fool’s errand in this day and age, there were certain tasks that required starting from scratch.

The robot is currently available through a RaaS (robotics as a service) subscription model. Presently, Japan is the only market where the robot is in real use, though the firm is actively seeking more customers in more markets. Perhaps CES 2022 will do the trick.

The Aeo robot is designed to patrol and disinfect hospitals by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Profet AI, a Taiwanese startup that makes auto machine learning software for manufacturers, announced today it has raised $5.6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Darwin Ventures. Returning investors Hive Ventures, AUO and SVTI also participated, along with Harbinger VC and Jensen Capital Management.

Founded in 2018, Profet AI’s customers include Foxconn, Advantech and ASE Group, and it says it doubled its revenue in 2022. The funding will be used on Profet AI’s expansion in Japan, Southeast Asia and China, with plans to sign joint ventures with overseas partners.

Profet AI’s software lets users build prediction models and industrial AI apps for production and digitalization, even if they only have basic knowledge of machine learning.

The company’s flagship products are its AutoML Virtual Data Scientist Platform and Ready To Go Applications. They are intended for use by clients in the semiconductor, electronics, chemicals and textile manufacturing industries.

The AutoML Virtual Data Scientist Platform is a no-code development program that lets users design enterprise AI applications, while Ready To Go Applications are industry-specific AI apps that are ready to be used in public cloud or on-premise environments.

In a statement, Darwin Venture Management partner Kay Lin said, “The AutoML Virtual Data Scientist Platform of Profet AI is based on empowering, which quickly enables digital transformation and intelligent evolution in the manufacturing industry. Darwin is very optimistic about Profet AI’s strengths and will leverage our solid background in the semiconductor and electronics industry to actively assist Profet AI’s market development.”

Profet AI helps manufacturers build prediction models and industrial AI software by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

At CES, BMW today unveiled its new i Vision Dee concept car, an E Ink-clad four-door sedan that can shift colors on demand. Why ‘Dee,’ you surely ask? It stands for Digital Emotional Experience. We’ll leave it at that, but what matters here is that it’s BMW’s platform for showing off its new head-up display, which is all about giving drivers a choice of how much augmented reality they want to see as they drive.

Using a five-step selection, drivers can choose if they only want to see driving-related information or if they want to add data from their communications systems, an augmented reality project or a completely virtual experience with blacked-out windows (while driving autonomously).

Obviously, this is a concept and I don’t think we’ll see people lounge and play VR racing games in their car while their autonomous chauffeur handles the mundane task of driving them to their next meeting. But BMW also says that some of this technology will make it into production in its ‘Neue Klasse’ — its next generation platform — launching in 2025. This will include a head-up display that will use the entire width of the windscreen.

Continental recently showed off its Scenic View HUD, which also spans the entire windscreen (though only as a small strip at the bottom of the window), while automotive technology company Harman also today announced its new head-up display hardware, which isn’t quite as futuristic, but also focuses on larger fields of view and includes integrations with driver-assistance systems and real-time 3D object detection.

And while BMW previously talked about using E Ink as the outer skin of its vehicles, the i Vision Dee now brings this to life with an exterior that’s covered by 240 E Ink segments that can display 32 colors. The car maker actually worked with E Ink to develop the technology that allows it to adapt these display films for curved surfaces. There’s no word yet on when this technology will come to a production model. Earlier this week, VW showed off its light-up paint, so it’s probably only a matter of time before we see cars with these chameleon-like capabilities on the street.

“A BMW lives by its unparalleled digital performance. BMW i Vision Dee is about perfect integration of virtual and physical experiences” said Frank Weber, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Development. “Whoever excels at integrating the customer’s everyday digital worlds into the vehicle at all levels will succeed in mastering the future of car-building.”

BMW reimagines the head-up display by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Ember’s a bit of a weird one. The Southern California firm has two distinct – though not wholly unrelated arms. There’s the smart mug side of the business that launched the startup and the more recent cold chain shipping wing, which leverages its temperature control technology to move things like medical supplies.

While it seemed as though the mug business might have been a kind of stepping stone to health care (where the real money is), that side of things is still going strong. Today at CES, for instance, Ember is announcing the Travel Mug 2+. The new addition to the line adds Apple’s Find My to the equation.

While not exactly the most obvious addition on the face of it, travel mugs are certainly the sort of thing that gets left behind quite easily. Add a couple hundred dollar price tag, and it become immediately clear why you’d really rather not accidentally leave the thing behind on a bus.

Due out at some point in Q2 2020, the mug has both the required built-in tracking, as well as a chime that plays if you happen to lose it in close proximity (another must have to properly use Find My).

The product has all the same functionality as the regular Travel Mug 2, including temperature control and a display built-in. In spite of the additional functionality, the product will run the same as its predecessor — $199 – when it launches later this year. No word on whether the standard mug will stay on the market at a reduced price.

Ember brings Find My functionality to its self-heating travel mug by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Sony has been embracing accessibility options in its games for a few years now, but one place it has lagged behind perennial rival Microsoft is in accessible hardware. They aim to change that with Project Leonardo, a new gaming controller aimed to be customizable to the needs of any person.

The device was described only generally on stage, but it appears to be a hub with swappable parts and plates that let users connect various other items, such as breath tubes, pedals, and switches of all kinds to activate different buttons.

Each UFO-shaped Project Leonardo device can handle an analog joystick plus 8 buttons, and they can be paired with each other or with a traditional controller to complement or offer alternatives to any function. Sony worked with accessibility groups AbleGamers, SpecialEffect and Stack Up to make sure it was useful to a wide range of people.

“Our team tested over a dozen designs with accessibility experts, looking for approaches that would help address key challenges to effective controller use,” said Sony designer So Morimoto in a blog post. “We finally settled on a ‘split controller’ design that allows near free-form left/right thumbstick repositionability, can be used without needing to be held, and features very flexible button and stick cap swapping. The controller can also flexibly accept combinations of accessibility accessories to create a unique aesthetic.”

It’s similar to how Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller works — some stuff is built in, some you provide yourself. Everyone’s accessibility needs are a little different, and so it’s important to support the solutions people already have. Besides, that stuff is expensive!

Project Leonardo is currently being developed, so there’s no release date or price yet. We expect to hear more soon and will reach out to Sony to learn about their work in accessible hardware.

Sony aims to make PlayStation more accessible with Project Leonardo controller by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch