Tech News Today for February 6, 2017
Tech News for Monday February 6, 2017
Google was dealt a blow when a US magistrate ruled that the company is required to hand over email data that’s stored on its servers abroad to the FBI. Google believed that a related appeals court ruling last month that said Microsoft was not required to share user data stored in Ireland would act as precedent for this case, but the judge in this case broke from that precedent to say that the transfer of those emails from a foreign server was not in fact Seizure. Read more at Reuters.com.
In response to the Note 7 firey kerfuffle, The South Korean government says they will tighten battery regulations. A few weeks ago Samsung announced that after significant research they learned that battery flaws caused the phones to catch fire and they promised tougher internal safeguards. Now the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will also be involved by instituting new certification measures to require safety of lithium-ion batteries based on new tech in the production process. The ministry will also conduct regular safety inspections. Read more at techcrunch.com.
The FTC says that Vizio will pay $2.2 million dollar in a settlement agreement surrounding its collection of consumer viewing data involving 11 million of their TVs. That data was collected without consumer knowledge, and as such, Vizio is now required to obtain explicit consent for what data it collects and how it plans to share that data. Read more at cnet.com.
Facebook, Google, news organizations, and others are taking on Fake News in France. It's election season in France and across Europe, and the social media companies want to take a greater role in helping their users fact check stories to avoid being influenced by election propaganda in the form of fake stories. Cross Check is a new verification project launched by Google News Lab and the non-profit First Draft News that will start by employing Google Trends to scan for potentially fake news stories. Facebook's CrowdTangle will do the same. Similar tools have already rolled out in the US and Germany over the last few months. Read more at theverge.com.
Google and fashion maker Ivyrevel have partnered to merge the real world with technology to come up with “the world’s first data dress.” Android users can install an app called Coded Couture that analyzes the data and habits of the user throughout the day, which is then compiled and translated into fashion pieces with a digital signature that influences the materials, colors, shapes and embellishments to create an original look. Read more at wwd.com.
Megan Morrone and Jason Howell are joined today by Michael Coren of Quartz to talk about the nearly 100 tech companies that have have filed an amicus brief opposing Trump's immigration ban. Tech News Today streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. You can subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.