蘋果、亞馬遜、Facebook 賺；Google廣告收入史上首次同比下降

蘋果公司公布第三財季銷售額較上年同期成長 11%，好於預期；亞馬遜第二財季收入成長 40%，利潤則增加一倍；Facebook 公布第二財季成長放緩，但收入仍超越預期；Google 廣告收入史上首次同比下降。

Big tech faces big questions. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook face an antitrust grilling

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, testifies before Congress on Wednesday.  Pool photo by Graeme Jennings

Big tech faces big questions

Tech executives for the first time appeared together at an antitrust hearing into the U.S. tech industry on Wednesday that has been compared to U.S. efforts to minimize the power of tobacco companies.

The chief executives of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon testified on whether their dominance has harmed the economy, stifled rivals and left consumers with few choices. All denied those claims.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google spoke by videoconference as members of Congress met in person on Capitol Hill.

There were catchphrases, emotional speeches and technical issues. It was the culmination of a yearlong investigation into the companies by a committee of lawmakers. Many federal and state antitrust officials are also investigating the tech giants.

We have live updates, and you can sign up for our On Tech newsletter for more insights.

Go deeper: Jeff Bezos, the Amazon chief executive, has been cast in a role he never wanted: his company’s defender in Washington. He has taken an unusually hands-off approach with policymakers in the nation’s capital, our reporters write.

What they said: We tallied how often the C.E.O.s repeated certain arguments and catchphrases, like “We are not that big” and “We are good for America.”

How they looked: They may have trillions between them, but the C.E.O.s dressed to project humility, our fashion critic writes.

****

Legislators have waded through 1.3m documents from the companies and could confront the tech bosses with unpleasant evidence

ECONOMIST.COM
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook face an antitrust grilling


Lawmakers will grill Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg on all manner of prickly antitrust questions

ECONOMIST.COM

Legislators in Washington will address the dominance of America's largest tech firms
Congress v Big Tech

Facebook起訴歐盟侵犯僱員隱私Facebook 旗下的 Instagram 推出 TikTok 競爭性服務 Reels

Facebook 旗下的 Instagram 向擁有數百萬粉絲的 TikTok 用戶提供經濟獎勵，以吸引他們使用新的競爭性服務 Reels，這是兩家社群媒體巨擘之間高風險的決戰升級。


Facebook起訴歐盟侵犯僱員隱私 英
這家社交媒體公司請求歐盟普通法院干預，稱歐盟監管機構在反壟斷調查中提出過於寬泛的信息要求，危及該公司僱員隱私。

Google told its employees they would not be expected back at the office until mid-2021

Google: The tech giant has told its employees they would not be expected back at the office until mid-2021, reflecting the reality that no one can be sure how long the pandemic will last in the U.S.

Amazon announced it will no longer build a new headquarters in New York City... Google Promises Privacy With Virus App but Can Still Collect Location Data.F.T.C.’s Facebook Investigation May Stretch Past ElectionWSJ 廣告？:關掉Chrome！用Safari和Edge，對自己和電腦好點

Google Promises Privacy With Virus App but Can Still Collect Location Data F.T.C.’s Facebook Investigation May Stretch Past Election After weeks of opposition and protests, Amazon announced it will no longer build a new headquarters in New York City and will not search for a new location. The company has its main headquarters in Seattle and plans to build a second one in Northern Virginia. 關掉Chrome！用Safari和Edge，對自己和電腦好點

把谷歌瀏覽器換成蘋果或微軟的瀏覽器，你馬上就能感受到電腦性能、續航時間和隱私保護方面的提升。

Judge: Facebook's $550 Million Settlement In Facial Recognition Case Is Not Enough (NPR)

Judge: Facebook's $550 Million Settlement In Facial Recognition Case Is Not Enough

The judge says those who alleged to have had their privacy violated are entitled to a bigger payout. He said "it just doesn't seem right" that members of the class action would be shortchanged.

Facebook in January agreed to a historic $550 million settlement over its face-identifying technology. But now, the federal judge overseeing the case is refusing the accept the deal.

Amr Alfiky/AP

Next week, lawyers for Facebook will be back in court, trying to convince a judge they should be allowed to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of violating users' privacy.

Facebook agreed earlier this year to pay $550 million to settle the case, which claims that the tech giant illegally used facial-recognition technology in its "tag suggestions" service.

The deal was the largest-ever payout as the result of a class-action lawsuit alleging online privacy violations.

It was brought under an Illinois biometric privacy law that allows people who have had their faces scanned for data without written consent to sue for damages of at least $1,000 per violation.

But under the settlement, people who have had their face data harvested in Illinois are expected to receive checks of just $150.

U.S. District Judge James Donato of California, who is overseeing the case, says that payout is woefully inadequate.

"It's $550 million. That's a lot. But the question is, is it really a lot?" Donato asked lawyers for the plaintiffs and Facebook on June 4, according to a transcript of the hearing reviewed by NPR.

"They are taking what is effectively a 98.75 percent discount," he said, "off of the amount that the Illinois legislature said might be due in this case if you proved up your case."

Attorneys for both Facebook and the plaintiffs were taken aback.

The judge's skepticism about whether the settlement amount is adequately compensating those who say Facebook invaded their privacy comes after the lawsuit dragged on for five years. There were multiple appeals and unsuccessful mediation attempts.

"We had two failed mediation attempts. And we were truly, from the plaintiff's perspective, on the brink of trial," privacy lawyer Rafey Balabanian told the judge. "I can't tell you how many times the parties dug in and claimed that they wouldn't move."

A lawyer for Facebook, Michael Rhodes, pushed back on the judge's assessment that the settlement is too paltry a sum, saying he believes users may receive more than the estimated $150 apiece.

"This is an extraordinary amount of recovery, and I think that we're being too conservative on what we think the per claim eligible form will end up producing," Rhodes told the judge.

But the judge insisted that members of the class-action deserve a bigger payout, saying in effect: come up with a larger number, or prepare to go to trial.

Judge not willing to let Facebook 'off the hook'

Facebook's legal team and the privacy rights lawyers are slated to return to court next week for a hearing to attempt to sort through the stalemate. Lawyers on both sides declined to comment on what to expect.

But Facebook spokeswoman Dina El-Kassaby said in a statement that the company supports resolving the litigation by settling.

"As we explained in January, we decided to pursue a settlement as it was in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter," she said.

The payouts go only to residents of Illinois, since the lawsuit was brought under the state biometric privacy law, viewed as one of the strongest and most comprehensive data privacy laws in the country.

This case applies the law to Facebook's "tag suggestions" service, a feature that attempts to recognize friends in photos in order to link the photographs to their accounts.

The federal judge said at the June hearing that the law should be fully applied to Facebook's alleged violations.

"The Illinois legislature set this privacy expectation and privacy right as a serious one, and they put a high price tag on it for that reason," Donato said.

The judge also raised the question of whether Facebook breached a 2012 agreement over user privacy that the tech giant struck with the Federal Trade Commission. Last year, the FTC fined Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations and mishandling user data. As part of the accord, Facebook agreed to give users better notice about its face-scanning software.

Donato said plaintiffs' lawyers "have a pretty good argument" that Facebook's actions with facial recognition technology violated the 2012 agreement with regulators. If so, he said it could be an example of "an intentional or reckless violation" of the state law, which could warrant even higher penalties of $5,000 per person.

Other Facebook-owned companies, like WhatsApp and Instagram, are not named as defendants in the class-action. But Judge Donato said "I could see the possibility" that those Facebook subsidiaries also violated the Illinois data privacy law.

"I am not willing to let those companies off the hook in this case," he said. "The amount that the aggrieved people are going to get is $150. That just doesn't seem right to me."

Facebook, valued at more than $680 billion, had indicated that the long-running litigation had become a major expense from the company.

While the $550 million settlement is historic, lawyers have said in filings that under the maximum possible penalty, the payout could have reached $47 billion.

But Balabanian, an attorney representing those who sued Facebook, told the judge that he did not believe such an eye-popping amount would survive on appeal.

"It is almost a certainty that the court would cut that damage award down," he said.

歐盟法院裁定蘋果公司無需向愛爾蘭補繳130億歐元稅款 谷歌搜索偏向自家YouTube

歐盟法院裁定蘋果公司無需向愛爾蘭補繳130億歐元稅款 歐盟普通法院周三在一起規模130億歐元的稅務訴訟中作出有利於蘋果公司的裁定，使該公司贏得了與歐盟的一場重要官司。歐盟反壟斷官員此前稱蘋果公司應向愛爾蘭繳納這筆稅款。

谷歌搜索偏向自家YouTube 《華爾街日報》在谷歌上搜索了一些視頻和頻道，這些內容在YouTube和與之競爭的平台上都有。在絕大多數情況下，YouTube版本在搜索結果中明顯更突出。

Google將向印度數字經濟投資約100億美元

Google將向印度數字經濟投資約100億美元

Google氣球連網商轉 肯亞山區能上網

2周前看過此新聞，原先以為Google的project早就放棄了......

能想像沒有網路的生活嗎？在非洲十三億的人口裡，只有28%的人能使用網路。不過現在透過一種高空氣球的網路科技，讓肯亞地區的居民，也能享受到4G網路服務。

今天發生什麼國際大事？

https://fb.com/PTStheworldtonight/

↑↑↑ #新聞全球話 ↑↑↑

NEWS.PTS.ORG.TW

Google氣球連網商轉 肯亞山區能上網

能想像沒有網路的生活嗎？在非洲十三億的人口裡，只有28%的人能使

能想像沒有網路的生活嗎？在非洲十三億的人口裡，只有28%的人能使用網路。不過現在透過一種高空氣球的網路科技，讓肯亞地區的居民，也能享受到4G網路服務。

民眾全笑開懷，因為偏遠的山區終於能使用4G網路。官員高舉手機，能和另一頭的肯亞總統視訊通話，這都得歸功於這一顆顆緩緩升空的超巨大氣球。肯亞資訊部長穆切魯指出，「肯亞是第一個將這個科技商業化的國家，基本上就是高空中的基地台，甚至比飛機還高。」

美國科技巨擘谷歌旗下的氣球計畫，攜手肯亞的電信業者，在肯亞西部和中部偏遠地區，展開4G網路鋪設工程。35顆長約24公尺、大小如網球場、以聚乙烯材質製成的氦氣氣球，綁上太陽能板和電池，從美國加州和波多黎各出發，並由矽谷的電腦控制方向，氣球飛上兩萬公尺，幾乎沒雨、雷電等天氣現象的平流層，比當作網路傳輸點，能覆蓋5萬平方公里的居民，遠比傳統基地台多出百倍，就算住在山區也不擔心和外界失聯。

 

當地的農家表示，有了高速網路，做生意更方便。肯亞蜂農契普洛依說道，「這可以幫

能想像沒有網路的生活嗎？在非洲十三億的人口裡，只有28%的人能使用網路。不過現在透過一種高空氣球的網路科技，讓肯亞地區的居民，也能享受到4G網路服務。

民眾全笑開懷，因為偏遠的山區終於能使用4G網路。官員高舉手機，能和另一頭的肯亞總統視訊通話，這都得歸功於這一顆顆緩緩升空的超巨大氣球。肯亞資訊部長穆切魯指出，「肯亞是第一個將這個科技商業化的國家，基本上就是高空中的基地台，甚至比飛機還高。」

美國科技巨擘谷歌旗下的氣球計畫，攜手肯亞的電信業者，在肯亞西部和中部偏遠地區，展開4G網路鋪設工程。35顆長約24公尺、大小如網球場、以聚乙烯材質製成的氦氣氣球，綁上太陽能板和電池，從美國加州和波多黎各出發，並由矽谷的電腦控制方向，氣球飛上兩萬公尺，幾乎沒雨、雷電等天氣現象的平流層，比當作網路傳輸點，能覆蓋5萬平方公里的居民，遠比傳統基地台多出百倍，就算住在山區也不擔心和外界失聯。

 

當地的農家表示，有了高速網路，做生意更方便。肯亞蜂農契普洛依說道，「這可以幫我接觸到流散群體，因為這邊的網路訊號很弱，我們的通訊真的很落後，就算想寄蜂蜜，但聯繫方式真的是一大挑戰。」

高空氣球網路不是新技術，2017年波多黎各遭瑪麗亞颶風侵襲時，25萬受災民眾就是透過「高空基地台」連上網路。這項技術也多用在，災區「無線通訊基地台」倒塌時的替代方案。非洲13億人口中，只有28%的人能使用網路，現在透過高空氣球，或許能填補龐大的數位落差。

Facebook won’t turn over Hong Kong user data

Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp will temporarily stop processing Hong Kong government requests for user data while it reviews the national security law imposed by Beijing.

The company said it would consult human rights experts to assess the law. The decision is a rare questioning of Chinese policy by an American internet company, and it gets at the question of how the security law will apply online.

Telegram, a messaging app popular with Hong Kong’s protesters, said on Sunday that it would refuse requests from Hong Kong authorities for user data until an international consensus was reached on the changes in the city.

What’s next: Facebook’s move puts pressure on other tech giants like Apple, Google and Twitter, to clarify how they will deal with the Hong Kong security law.