Transcript
Bombas Representative (0:00)
This is a mini meditation guided by Bombas. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. I'm cozy. Cozy. I have zero blisters on my toes. Blisters. And that's because I wear Bombus, the softest socks, underwear and T shirts that give back. One purchased equals one donated. Now go to bombus.com acast and use code acast for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M B-A-S.com acast and use code Acast at checkout.
Farnoosh Tarabi (0:30)
Hi, this is Farnoosh Tarabi, host of the Webby winning podcast so Money. If you're aiming for a goal, be it saving for a house, growing your family, or retiring, life makes it difficult to stay the course. But with a dedicated Merrell Advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. Having the bull at your back helps your whole financial life move with you. So when your plans change, Merrill's with you every step of the way. Go to ML.combullish to learn more. Merrell, a Bank of America company what would you like the power to do? Investing Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner and Smith Incorporated Registered Broker Dealer Registered Investment Advisor Member SIPC.
Vanta Representative (1:11)
Proving trust is more important than ever, especially when it comes to your security program. Vanta helps centralize program requirements and automate evidence collection for frameworks like SoC2 and ISO 27001, HIPAA and more. So you save time and money and build customer trust. And with Vanta, you get continuous visibility into the state of your controls. Join more than 8,000 global companies like Atlassian, FlowHealth and Quora, who trust Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Now that's a new way to GRC. Learn more at vanta.comdth that's vanta.comdth.
Rob Dunwoody (1:55)
These are the Daily Tech headlines for Tuesday, December 17, 2024. I'm Rob Dunwoody. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced via a post on Threads that the company's new social media platform now has more than 100 million daily active users and has eclipsed 300 million monthly active users. Threads has also ramped up its feature releases, including updates that appear to be inspired by blue sky, like custom feeds and curated collections of accounts to follow. Meta is also testing the ability to choose your own default feed, which is a much needed change. But it's not all good. Threads might get ads early next year. A European Union privacy regulator has fined Meta 251 million euros stemming back to a data breach the company disclosed in September 2018 that affected millions of users. The breach dated back to July 2017, when Facebook rolled out a video upload function with a bug in the feature allowing malicious actors to gain access to Facebook's user personal data, including full names, email addresses, phone numbers and more. The fine imposed by the Irish Data Protection Commission was twofold, one for not reporting the breach in a timely manner and the other concerning rules on data protection by design and default, both violations of gdpr. Waymo is sending its robo taxis to Tokyo the first time the autonomous vehicle maker is deploying vehicles on public roads in a foreign market. Waymo is building the excursion as a simple road trip for collecting data about the nuances of Japanese driving, including left handed traffic and navigating a dense urban environment. The taxis will be operated in partnership with taxi companies Nihan, Kotsu and Go and will be driven manually. The the test will undoubtedly be seen as laying the groundwork for a future Tokyo based robo taxi service, but Waymo said it isn't ready to announce anything quite yet. YouTube announced Monday a new feature to give creators more control over their content's use in AI training. Creators can opt in to allow 18 third party AI companies including Adobe, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI to train their models on their videos. This feature is accessible through the YouTube Studio Dashboard, where users can view or change their third party training settings within their YouTube channel settings at any time. SoundCloud is launching a new artist subscription plan called Artists, intended to help emerging and aspiring musicians get their music out into the world easily and more affordably. The $3.25 per month plan bridges the gap between the platform's Basic and Artist Pro subscriptions, providing an affordable option for new artists aiming to grow their reach. With the Artist plan, users receive access to professional level tools to refine their sound, distribute their music and grow their audience. The European Union has launched a formal investigation into TikTok, alleging the platform failed to prevent election interference, particularly in the recent Romanian presidential election. The EU will examine TikTok's policies on political advertising, content, recommendations and measures to prevent manipulation. TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, claims that it has taken significant steps to protect its platform integrity during numerous elections and has provided information to the EU regarding its policies and practices. The popular Latin American digital payment service Astropay has launched a multi currency wallet paired with a payment card so that you can pay, send and receive money from your phone. The newly launched Astropay app and website closely resemble Wise, a London based fintech company renowned for its multi currency accounts and currency exchange services. There is no such thing as a global bank, at least not yet, and that's basically what we're trying to do here at AstroPay, said AstroPay CEO Mark Sackle. Instagram has quietly rolled out the ability for users to schedule direct messages. Meta confirmed that this new feature is being rolled out globally. This will particularly be useful for creators and brands to schedule outreach messages at optimal times and for regular users to send messages to friends in different time zones or set future reminders. And finally, the US Federal Trade Commission has implemented a new rule to combat hidden fees in the live, event and travel industries. This rule aims to prevent businesses from misleading consumers by advertising low prices and then adding significant fees later in the booking process. The FTC's goal is to make pricing more transparent and allow consumers to make informed decisions. For more analysis of the tech news of the day, subscribe to dailytechnews show.com and if you enjoy the show, remember to tell a friend to check us out. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next time.