Smartphones Get Detention, a Comet Sighting, + a $1.5 Billion Settlement
The Know... Now You're in it.
As kids and teens return to school, 35 states now have restrictions on cell phones in schools, and South Korea just passed a bill banning phones nationwide during class hours to fight smartphone addiction.
🎙️ Detention has a new meaning as many school districts utilize pouches to lock up smartphones. Don’t miss Jill’s article last week on Rat Park and avoiding the void to break free from tech addiction.
Last week a judge ruled Google does not have to sell its Chrome browser after losing last year’s antitrust case, but it can no longer sign exclusivity contracts and must share “user-side” search data with “qualified competitors.” Google expressed “concerns about how these requirements will impact our users and their privacy.”
🎙️ Seeing how companies and courts battle over our data reinforces our recommendation of browser alternatives like Brave, DuckDuckGo, Firefox, or Safari on Macs. The ruling also underscores the importance of viewing our personal data as an asset that companies treat as a commodity.
Speaking of browsers and privacy… Last week PayPal and Venmo offered users early access to Perplexity’s “AI-powered” Comet browser. Perplexity’s VP of Business likened it to “a personal shopper and personal assistant all in one.”
🎙️ This is an effort by Perplexity to capture market share on emerging AI-integrated browsers, but the partnership with PayPal, who recently made moves with targeted ads and data sharing (Read More Cowbell, Less Tracking Please), seems to substantiate privacy advocates’ fears that AI agents could be a privacy nightmare. We do not recommend early adoption of AI-powered browsers.
On Friday, Anthropic, an AI company, seemingly settled a copyright lawsuit before a judge declined to immediately approve because it “left important questions to be answered in the future.” The $1.5 billion settlement with book authors is thought to be the largest of its kind.
🎙️ Initially the judge ruled Anthropic’s AI training on purchased books was fair use (they removed binding and scanned them), but the lawsuit could proceed on books allegedly pirated from the internet. We’ll likely see more settlements and licensing deals in the coming days as AI companies need new data to improve their models. Read Anthony Edwards and Tech Integrity.
Rumors of a major Gmail security breach last week turned out to false, and Google released a statement to “reassure our users that Gmail’s protections are strong and effective.”
🎙️ Google also recommended using Passkeys. Passkeys are generally considered more secure than passwords and they’re being pitched as the password-free future, but implementation across platforms is scattered. We’ll do a deep dive on passkeys in an upcoming “No Hype” article.