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The Justice Department calls Apple’s privacy justifications a “flexible shield” for financial gain

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The US Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday over monopolistic practices. The grievance accuses Apple of shaping its privacy and security practices in a way that advantages the corporate financially.

One quote specifically stands out, through which the Department of Justice calls Apple’s privacy and security justification a “flexible shield”:

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“Apple uses privacy and security justifications as a flexible shield that can expand or contract to serve Apple’s financial and business interests,” it says.

“Apple cloaks itself in a cloak of privacy, security and consumer preference to justify its anticompetitive behavior. Indeed, it spends billions on marketing and branding to promote the self-serving assumption that only Apple can protect consumers’ privacy and security interests.”

That’s not all – there are several other cases where the Department of Justice believes Apple is flexing privacy to degrade customer satisfaction:

App Store and application distribution

It was also identified that Apple doesn’t allow the creation and use of different app stores. However, the grievance notes that it allows governments and enterprise customers to put in secure app stores. It also stated that developers are unable to supply a separate app store for children presently. It is value noting that a few of these have partially modified with the EU’s enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). (Some changes only apply to the EU region.)

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The Department of Justice identified that Apple allows users to simply load applications on a Mac. The Department of Justice says developers can moreover distribute apps on the platform with fewer restrictions. The Justice Department also argued that Apple was restricting “super apps” that would provide a higher alternative to accessing services within the App Store.

The news

The Department of Justice also accused Apple of restricting third-party apps from receiving SMS messages from carriers. Apple is claimed to mark SMS as “private” in its API documentation so other developers cannot access them. Apple allows users to text anyone by entering their number within the “to:” field within the Messages app, but this is not possible with other messaging apps, the grievance says.

The plaintiff also argued that Apple reduces the safety of iPhones by failing to implement encryption protection when iPhone users send messages to Android users.

Data Sharing Practices

The grievance also accuses Apple of using “vast amounts of personal and sensitive data” to distribute apps by itself App Store. He also criticized the Cupertino company for using user data for promoting purposes.

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Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that Apple entered into agreements with Google to make the service the default search engine for Safari, regardless that Apple knew there have been higher privacy-focused alternatives.

The Justice Department also argued that users must share information with Apple to make use of the digital wallet, not only share it with a bank or medical facility.

Essentially, the Justice Department argues that Apple’s privacy and security practices are pretextual and that the corporate is taking “alternative courses” to guard its monopoly.

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This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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Tesla used cars offers rapidly increased in March

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Tesla cars sit in a dealership lot

The growing variety of Tesla owners puts their used vehicles on the market, because consumers react to the political activities of Elon Musk and the worldwide protests they were driven.

In March, the variety of used Tesla vehicles listed on the market at autotrader.com increased rapidly, Sherwood News announcedCiting data from the house company Autotrader Cox Automotive. The numbers were particularly high in the last week of March, when on average over 13,000 used Teslas was replaced. It was not only a record – a rise of 67% in comparison with the identical week of the yr earlier.

At the identical time, the sale of latest Tesla vehicles slowed down even when EV sales from other brands increases. In the primary quarter of 2025, almost 300,000 latest EVs were sold in the USA According to the most recent Kelley Blue Book reporta rise of 10.6% yr on yr. Meanwhile, Tesla sales fell in the primary quarter, which is nearly 9% in comparison with the identical period in 2024.

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Automaks resembling GM and Hyundai are still behind Tesla. But they see growth growth. For example, GM brands sold over 30,000 EV in the primary quarter, almost double the amount of a yr ago, in line with Kelley Blue Book.

(Tagstranslat) electric vehicles

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Ilya Sutskever uses Google Cloud to supply AI Startup tests

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Co -founder and former scientist of Opeli and former primary scientist ILYA SUTSKEVER, SAFE SUPERINTELELENCE (SSI), uses the Google Cloud TPU systems to supply their AI research, partly latest partnership that corporations announced on Wednesday press release.

Google Cloud claims that the SSI uses TPU to “accelerate its research and development to build safe, overintelical artificial intelligence.”

Cloud suppliers chase a handful of AI Unicorn startups, which spend tons of of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on computing power supply for training AI Foundation models. The SSI agreement with Google Cloud suggests that the primary will spend a big a part of its computing budget with Google Cloud; The well -known source says TechCrunch that Google Cloud is the primary supplier of SSI calculations.

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Google Cloud has the history of striking computing agreements with former AI researchers, a lot of which now lead billions of dollars of AI start-ups. (Sutskever once worked on Google.) In October Google Cloud said that he can be the primary supplier of computers for World Labs, founded by the previous scientist Ai Ex-Google Cloud Ai Fei-Feii Li.

It is just not clear whether the SSI has hit the partnership with other cloud or computers suppliers. Google Cloud spokesman refused to comment. A spokesman for a secure superintelligence didn’t immediately answer to the request for comment.

SSI got here out of Stealth in June 2024, months after Sutskever left his role because the primary scientist Opeli. The company has $ 1 billion in support from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, SV Angel and others.

Since the premiere of the SSI, we’ve got heard relatively little about startup activities. On his websiteSSI says that the event of secure, super -intellectual AI systems is “our mission, our name and our entire product map, because this is our only goal.” SUTSKEVER He said earlier that he identified the “new mountain to climb” and is investigating latest ways to improve the performance of AI Frontier models.

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Before the co -founder of Opeli, Sutskever spent several years on Google Brain examining neural networks. After years of conducting work of security, AI Openai Sutskever played a key role within the overthrow of the overall director of OPENNAI Altman in November 2023. Sutskever later joined the worker’s movement to restore Altman as CEO.

After the Sutskever trial, he was supposedly not seen in Openai offices for months and eventually left the startup to start SSI.

(Tagstransate) ilya SUTSKEVER (T) SSI

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Meta introduces limited teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger

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The apps Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp can be seen on the display of a smartphone in front of the logo of the Meta internet company.

Meta introduces teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger. A function that routinely saves young users for the impression of applications with built -in security, shall be available on these platforms within the USA, Great Britain, Australia and Canada, before it expands to additional regions in the long run.

Teen accounts first appeared on Instagram in September last yr after Instagram, and other popular social networks were grilled by American legislators for not doing enough to guard teenagers. As a part of Tuesday’s announcement, Meta said that he brings a brand new built -in account protection for teenagers on Instagram.

With the extension of Facebook and messengers, teenagers shall be routinely placed in an experience that goals to cut back inappropriate content and unwanted contact. Teens under 16 years of age need parents’ consent to vary any of the settings.

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Image loans:Finish

While Post on the META blog about launching doesn’t provide exact restrictions under which teenagers shall be placed, the corporate told TechCrunch We -Mail that teenagers will only receive messages from individuals who follow or had news earlier.

In addition, only teen friends can see and reply to their stories. Tags, references and comments will even be limited to people they follow or who’re their friends.

Teens will even receive reminders of leaving social networks after using them for an hour a day. In addition, they shall be enrolled within the “quiet mode” overnight.

As for brand spanking new instagram restrictions, teens under 16 years of age is not going to give you the chance to modify to the platform, unless their parents give them permission. In addition, teenagers under the age of 16 can have to get the parents’ consent to show off the applying function, which blur images containing suspicion of nudity in DMS.

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The changes announced on Tuesday show the newest Meta step towards solving problems related to the mental health of teenagers related to social media. These fears were Raised by an American general surgeon and several states, a few of which have even began to limit teenagers from using social media Without the consent of the parent.

The Meta shared insight into how teen accounts on Instagram are doing, because the corporate claims that it has moved 54 million teenagers to teen accounts. The meta claims that there remains to be lots more, because this function remains to be developing all around the world. The company also shared that 97% of teenagers aged 13-15 maintain built-in protection, says finish.

The finish line also commissioned an IPSOS study, which showed that just about all surveyed parents (94%) claim that teen accounts are helpful for fogeys, and 85% consider that they make helping teenagers easier to have positive experiences on Instagram.

(Tagstranslate) Facebook

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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