Tag Archives: Business

Amazon to bring same-day prescription deliveries to nearly half of the US next year

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Amazon just announced a coming expansion of its same-day prescription delivery service, with 20 more cities and affiliated metro areas entering the program next year. This expansion will open up the feature to nearly half of US residents.

The company said it’s currently embedding pharmacies in many of its same-day delivery facilities to allow for the advanced rollout. The service already exists in cities like Miami, Phoenix and Seattle, but next year it’ll be coming to Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and around a dozen more national hotspots.

Amazon says that in most cases “a customer can order medication by 4PM and receive it at home by 10PM.” This is achieved via traditional delivery methods, though the company has been testing prescription delivery drones in Texas.

The delivery service is available via Amazon Pharmacy, which offers free shipments of prescriptions to Prime members. The service first launched in 2020 and has allowed the company to enter the healthcare space in a major way. Amazon also operates a virtual healthcare service, which is available in all 50 states.

The company recently boasted that it has doubled the number of customers it delivers prescriptions to. This number will likely shoot up even higher once the service becomes available in more cities next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-to-bring-same-day-prescription-deliveries-to-nearly-half-of-the-us-next-year-185708164.html?src=rss

Comcast says 230,000 customers affected by debt collection data breach

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Comcast is warning that hackers stole the personal data of more than 230,000 customers during a ransomware attack on a third-party debt collector, according to a court filing. The bad actors targeted a Pennsylvania-based debt collection agency called Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS.)

The attack occurred back in February, but Comcast claims that FBCS initially said that the incident didn’t involve any customer data. FBCS changed its tune by July, when it notified Comcast that customer information had been compromised, according to reporting by TechCrunch.

All told, 237,703 subscribers were impacted by the breach. The attackers were thorough, scooping up names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, Comcast account numbers and ID numbers. Comcast says the stolen data belongs to customers who signed up with the company “around 2021.” It also says it has stopped using FBCS for the purposes of debt collection.

“From February 14 and February 26, 2024, an unauthorized party gained access to FBCS’s computer network and some of its computers,” the filing states. “During this time, the unauthorized party downloaded data from FBCS systems and encrypted some systems as part of a ransomware attack.”

No group has stepped forward to claim credit for the incident. FBCS has only referred to the attacker as an “unauthorized actor.” The debt collection agency was hit hard by this attack, with Comcast customers being just one group of victims. The company says more than four million people were impacted and that the cybercriminals accessed medical claims and health insurance information, in addition to standard identification data. 

To that end, medical debt-purchasing company CF Medical confirmed that 600,000 of its customers were involved in the breach. Truist Bank also confirmed it was affected by the attack.

It’s notable that this incident primarily impacts debtors, opening them up to potential scams. Chris Hauk, consumer privacy advocate at Pixel Privacy, told Engadget that “the bad actors that get their paws on this information may use it to pose as debt relief agencies, which many turn to as a way out of their situation, meaning many of the involved debtors may be defrauded out of large sums of money, something they can ill-afford.”

In other words, keep an eye out for suspicious phone calls, emails and texts. This is good advice for anyone, and not just debtors who had data stored with FBCS. After all, it was revealed that hackers stole more than 2.7 billion records from American consumers earlier this year, which likely includes data on everyone who lives in the country.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/comcast-says-230000-customers-affected-by-debt-collection-data-breach-184554728.html?src=rss

Fisker faces more bad news as the SEC starts investigating its business practices

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The past week hasn’t been the kindest to the electric vehicle industry. Now, it’s capped off with news that the EV startup Fisker is the subject of an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

TechCrunch reported that SEC officials sent several subpoenas to Fisker. The filing doesn’t specifically say what the subpoenas are asking for or looking into but it’s clear that the SEC has launched an investigation into the floundering EV maker that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June.

Fisker has been struggling to keep its head above water ever since last year’s disastrous rollout of its Ocean SUV that failed to score more than a few thousands sellers even though it produced well over 10,000 units. Following its Q4 earnings report last year that saw a gross margin loss of 35 percent, the car maker announced it would lay off 15 percent of its workforce the following March as it shifted to a direct-to-consumer sales strategy.

A Fisker spokesperson declined to comment on the matter to TechCrunch saying they could not “comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.”

Fisker isn’t the only EV maker to suffer a noticeable setback. Tesla saw a major stumble with the fifth recall of its beleaguered Cybertruck.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/fisker-faces-more-bad-news-as-the-sec-starts-investigating-its-business-practices-222504280.html?src=rss

X lost a court battle after trying to claim ‘Twitter ceased to exist’

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X has lost a legal fight in Australia in which the company tried to avoid a $400,000 fine by claiming that Twitter no longer exists. The creative legal argument, first spotted by ArsTechnica, came amid a more than year-long dispute with Australia’s eSafety Commission.

The commission had asked the company, then known as Twitter, to provide details about its handling of child sexual exploitation on the platform last February. In its response, X failed to answer a number of questions and left “some sections entirely blank,” the commission said in a statement last year. As a result, the eSafety Commission slapped the company with a more than $415,000 fine for non-compliance.

It was an attempt to fight that fine that led to X’s claim that it shouldn’t be responsible since Twitter had “ceased to exist.” From the court filing:

X Corp submitted that, on and from 15 March 2023, Twitter Inc ceased to be a person, and therefore ceased to be a provider of a social media service. It was submitted that Twitter Inc therefore lacked capacity to comply with the notice, and that X Corp was not obliged to prepare any report in Twitter Inc’s place, as X Corp was not the same person as the provider to whom the notice was issued.

The argument isn’t exactly new for the Elon Musk-owned entity. CEO Linda Yaccarino has also repeatedly claimed that X is a “brand new company” in a bid to avoid scrutiny. She repeated the line multiple times earlier this year while testifying at a Senate hearing on child safety issues.

Australia federal Judge Michael Wheelahan, however, found the claim unconvincing, saying that X’s argument required “leaps in logic that were not supported by adequate explanation.” X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant cheered the decision. “Had X Corp’s argument been accepted by the Court it could have set the concerning precedent that a foreign company’s merger with another foreign company might enable it to avoid regulatory obligations in Australia,” Grant said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-lost-a-court-battle-after-trying-to-claim-twitter-ceased-to-exist-203030765.html?src=rss

EU court rules social networks can’t use personal data forever

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Once again, the European Union has issued a ruling preventing Meta from going too crazy with user information. The top court in the EU ruled that limits must be put in place for how long Meta and other social media networks can use people’s information for ad targeting strategies.

TechCrunch reported that the EU’s highest court sided with an earlier opinion published in April by a court adviser. The previous ruling also urged for limits on the amount of time companies could retain customers’ personal data for the purpose of targeting advertising.

The rulings referred its retention guidelines to the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) established by the EU in 2018. Recital 65 of the GDPR establishes a person’s “right to be forgotten” and the right to rectification and erasure of personal data. Failure to comply with the GDPR could result in a 4 percent global annual turnover penalty, a number that could reach into the billions for a social media mega-corporation like Meta. Last year, Meta had to pay a $414 million fine (or approximately €390 million) for illegally requiring users of its social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to accept personalized ads.

The EU and Meta along with other big tech companies like Apple and Google have tangled over the use of personal data in relation to the Digital Markets Act. Meta is currently awaiting a fine ruling for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act when it required users to pay to prohibit the company from collecting and sharing their personal data. Last year, the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Meta needed to obtain consent before delivering personal ads to users in the region.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/eu-court-rules-social-networks-cant-use-personal-data-forever-193013206.html?src=rss

159 employees leave WordPress founder’s company after extortion lawsuit

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The feud between WP Engine and Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO, recently came to a head when the web hosting service sued the latter, accusing him of "abuse of power, extortion and greed." In a new blog post, Mullenweg said his opponent's attacks on him and his company have been effective enough so that "a good chunk of [his] Automattic colleagues disagreed with [him and his] actions." As a response, he created a "buy-out package" that offered employees $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, if they resign. A total of 159 people, or 8.4 percent of the company, took the offer. 

Most of the employees who left came from the company's Ecosystem / WordPress business, while the rest came from the division working on apps like Tumblr and Cloudup. As TechCrunch notes, Mullenweg gave the event a positive spin and exclaimed that "the other 91.6 percent gave up $126 million of potential severance to stay!" 

Mullenweg called WP Engine a "cancer to WordPress" and accused the company of violating WordPress’ trademarks. He said they offered WP Engine the option to "pay a direct licensing fee, or make in-kind contributions to the open source project," but the company refused. WP Engine argued that its use of the WordPress trademark was legal. In response, the WordPress Foundation changed its trademark policy page to say that the "WP" abbreviation is indeed not covered by the WordPress trademark, but to please not use it "in a way that confuses people." It named WP Engine outright and even said that the company has "never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress." The WordPress co-founder also banned WP Engine from accessing some of WordPress' plug-ins and themes, which broke a lot of the websites it's hosting. 

WP Engine accused Mullenweg of demanding eight percent of the company’s monthly revenue as royalty and of libel, slander, as well as of violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and IRS fraud. In a statement, Automattic's lawyer Neal Katyal said he stayed up all night reading the complaint and found the whole thing "meritless." He added that he's looking "forward to the federal court’s consideration of [the] lawsuit."

Update October 4, 2024, 1:57PM ET: We updated the post to attribute the quote at the end to Automattic's lawyer.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/159-employees-leave-wordpress-founders-company-after-extortion-lawsuit-133040801.html?src=rss

OpenAI now has a $4 billion credit line on top of $6.6 billion in funding

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Keeping ChatGPT running is expensive as heck, so OpenAI needs access to plenty of cash to make sure the lights stay on. A day after the company said it had secured $6.6 billion in funding — the biggest ever funding round for a startup — it confirmed that it has a new $4 billion revolving line of credit. OpenAI has yet to tap the credit line, which it obtained from JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Wells Fargo, SMBC, UBS and HSBC. Some of those banks are also among OpenAI's customers.

All told, OpenAI now has a war chest of over $10 billion in liquid funds. The company says that will give it the ability to invest in new projects and research, expand its infrastructure and hire top talent. “This credit facility further strengthens our balance sheet and provides flexibility to seize future growth opportunities,” OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-now-has-a-4-billion-credit-line-on-top-of-66-billion-in-funding-163230350.html?src=rss

WordPress founder sued for alleged libel and attempted extortion

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The WP Engine web hosting service is suing WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic. This follows a public feud over the WordPress trademark. The federal lawsuit accuses Mullenweg of “abuse of power, extortion and greed.”

This is the latest volley in an ongoing battle between WordPress and WP Engine, but it requires a bit of background. WordPress is the backend that powers a large chunk of the internet, around 40 percent of websites. Users can build a website from the ground up using WordPress or opt for an easier plug-and-play solution offered by third-party providers like WP Engine.

Mullenweg, who runs his own provider called Automattic, began loudly criticizing WP Engine back in September, calling it a “cancer to WordPress.” He said that the third-party provider’s name has confused customers into thinking it's actually part of WordPress. He also accused WP Engine of turning off certain features to save money.

WP Engine responded with a cease-and-desist letter and a request to withdraw the aforementioned comments, according to reporting by TechCrunch. It also said that its use of the WordPress trademark was legal under fair use. It went on to claim that Mullenweg threatened to take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” against WP Engine unless it agreed to pay “a significant percentage of its revenues for a license to the WordPress trademark.”

After this, the WordPress Foundation changed its Trademark Policy page and accused WP Engine of “never once” donating to the open-source arm of the foundation, “despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.” He went as far as to suggest that WP Engine covered up trademark abuse by editing websites. 

Mullenweg also banned WP Engine from accessing certain resources, like some plug-ins and themes. WP Engine powers over 200,000 websites and this move allegedly broke a lot of them. In response, the company wrote that Mullenweg’s “unprecedented and unwarranted action interferes with the normal operation of the entire WordPress ecosystem, impacting not just WP Engine and our customers.”

On October 1, WP Engine announced that it had developed its own solution that allowed consumers to access all of the missing themes and plug-ins. It followed that with today’s lawsuit, which accuses Mullenweg of demanding eight percent of the company’s monthly revenue as a royalty payment. The suit also alleges that Mullenweg and Automattic participated in libel, slander, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and IRS fraud.

“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust,” WP Engine said in a statement. “WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers and the broader WordPress community.” Mullenweg and Automattic have yet to respond to today’s developments.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/wordpress-founder-sued-for-alleged-libel-and-attempted-extortion-152957987.html?src=rss

DoNotPay ‘robot lawyer’ fined $193K by the FTC for not being a lawyer

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The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against DoNotPay, alleging that the AI-powered company billing itself as "the world's first robot lawyer" failed to back its claims that it could replace human legal representation. The agency's complaint argues that DoNotPay did not conduct tests to assess whether its AI chatbot was equivalent to a human lawyer, and that the company did not hire or retain any attorneys of its own. DoNotPay has agreed to a proposed settlement that would see it face fines of $193,000. In addition, the settlement will require DoNotPay to inform customers who subscribed to its service between 2021 and 2023 about the limitations of its offerings.

This proposed settlement is part of an FTC program called Operation AI Comply, which is targeting businesses that leverage artificial intelligence to make deceptive claims. "Using AI tools to trick, mislead, or defraud people is illegal," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said. "The FTC’s enforcement actions make clear that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books. By cracking down on unfair or deceptive practices in these markets, FTC is ensuring that honest businesses and innovators can get a fair shot and consumers are being protected."

In addition to promising legal services, DoNotPay also claimed it could get accounts unbanned from social media platforms. The company postponed its first attempt to use its AI chatbot in a court setting in 2023 after multiple state bar associations intervened in the case.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/donotpay-robot-lawyer-fined-193k-by-the-ftc-for-not-being-a-lawyer-223227153.html?src=rss

DoNotPay ‘robot lawyer’ fined $193K by the FTC for not being a lawyer

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The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against DoNotPay, alleging that the AI-powered company billing itself as "the world's first robot lawyer" failed to back its claims that it could replace human legal representation. The agency's complaint argues that DoNotPay did not conduct tests to assess whether its AI chatbot was equivalent to a human lawyer, and that the company did not hire or retain any attorneys of its own. DoNotPay has agreed to a proposed settlement that would see it face fines of $193,000. In addition, the settlement will require DoNotPay to inform customers who subscribed to its service between 2021 and 2023 about the limitations of its offerings.

This proposed settlement is part of an FTC program called Operation AI Comply, which is targeting businesses that leverage artificial intelligence to make deceptive claims. "Using AI tools to trick, mislead, or defraud people is illegal," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said. "The FTC’s enforcement actions make clear that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books. By cracking down on unfair or deceptive practices in these markets, FTC is ensuring that honest businesses and innovators can get a fair shot and consumers are being protected."

In addition to promising legal services, DoNotPay also claimed it could get accounts unbanned from social media platforms. The company postponed its first attempt to use its AI chatbot in a court setting in 2023 after multiple state bar associations intervened in the case.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/donotpay-robot-lawyer-fined-193k-by-the-ftc-for-not-being-a-lawyer-223227153.html?src=rss