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| Here's a look at today's tech briefing: - E-scooter company Bird files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- Apple fixes outage affecting financial services.
- Three adult content sites now fall under EU's strictest tech rules.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Bird, the e-scooter rental company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In its filing, the Miami-based company says it will continue to operate as usual and has enough liquidity to meet financial obligations during and after the restructuring. More: - Current lenders have agreed to acquire Bird's assets, which the company will sell off via a "stalking horse" agreement.
- The company is being sustained with a $25M loan from Apollo Global Management, the owner of Yahoo, along with second-lien lenders, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
- Founded in 2017, Bird distributes e-scooters for short-term rentals in over 350 cities.
- In 2021, the company went public through a SPAC with an implied valuation of $2.3B but saw its stock plummet after, losing over 90% of its value within six months.
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| 2 | | Apple has fixed a worldwide outage that, on Wednesday, affected Apple Card, Cash, Pay, and Wallet. Apple is still investigating the outage, which took down the financial services for about 30 minutes starting at 6:15 a.m. ET. More: - It's unclear what caused the outage, which only impacted "some users," according to Apple's status page.
- While the issue was resolved for most by 6:49 a.m., the status page was not updated to reflect that until about 10:45 a.m. ET.
- The outage of Apple Pay and Wallet specifically affected web and in-app payments, preventing users from making online purchases.
- For Apple Cash, users reported problems with transaction notifications. The company didn't specify what the issues were for Apple Card.
Zoom out: - By 2026, it's projected that 23.3% of Americans will use the Apple Pay digital wallet, up from 18.1% in 2022.
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| 3 | | The European Union has added the adult content sites Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos to its list of platforms subject to stricter rules under its new Digital Services Act (DSA). If the designation holds, the law could require users of the sites to undergo hard age verification. Background: - The DSA took effect in August, applying to major digital platforms and search engines like Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
- At the time, the EU named 17 "very large online platforms" (VLOPs) and two very large online search engines (VLOSE), which are subject to stricter rules.
- These companies must do more to fight disinformation and safeguard users or face fines of up to 6% of their global turnover.
- The DMA, which comes into full force next year, aims to promote fair competition and prevent businesses from imposing unfair terms on consumers.
What's new: - Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos are the first adult content sites to now be considered VLOPs.
- XVideos and Pornhub rank as the top two most visited adult content websites globally.
- The platforms have until late April to update their services to comply with the extra DSA regulations, including adding age verification technology if needed.
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| 4 | | An analysis by LendingTree found that Ram drivers had the highest rate of driving incidents of any car brand in the U.S., followed by Tesla drivers. Nationwide, Ram drivers had 32.90 driving incidents per 1,000 drivers from Nov. 14, 2022, through Nov. 14, 2023, with Tesla (31.13) and Subaru (30.09) being the only other brands above the 30.00 incident rate. 
Details: LendingTree analyzed driving incidents, including accidents, DUIs, speeding, and citations, for 30 major car brands. Of those, Ram had the worst drivers in 23 states, while Tesla ranked the worst in 11 states, the only other brand in double digits. When only including accidents, Tesla drivers have the highest accident rate of all brands, with 23.54 accidents per 1,000 drivers. This was followed by Ram (22.76) and Subaru (20.90). For DUIs, BMW drivers had the highest rate by a wide margin, with 3.13 DUIs per 1,000 drivers, nearly double the rate of runner-up Ram drivers (1.72). What it means: LendingTree said it's difficult to explain why some brands have higher accident rates but suggests that certain vehicle types may draw riskier drivers. "Most people who drive minivans seem more interested in getting their kids around town safely than they are in zipping around in a high-horsepower vehicle," said Rob Bhatt, LendingTree insurance expert. Still, he points out that speeding, impairment, and distracted driving are leading contributors to car crashes, which are all behaviors that drivers can control. | | | |
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| 5 | | The PlayStation 5 has now sold over 50 million consoles and is expected to surpass the PlayStation 4's sales record, according to Sony. The PS5 reached the threshold 161 weeks after its November 2020 launch, just one week longer than the PS4 took to hit the same milestone. Zoom out: - PlayStation sales surged by 65% this year to 22.5 million units, surpassing the Switch and Xbox, which saw sales drop by 18% and 15%, respectively.
- Sony achieved record-breaking PlayStation sales in November, including its best-ever Black Friday.
- The success suggests Sony is on course to reach its target of 25 million PS5 consoles shipped for the financial year ending March 31, 2024.
- If reached, it would mark Sony's highest annual console sales.
Zoom out: - PS5 sales were initially hampered by supply chain issues, which have since been resolved.
- Sales have benefited from the Oct. 20 release of Marvel's "Spider-Man 2." Upcoming titles include "The Last of Us Part II Remastered" in January and "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" in February.
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| 6 | | Rite Aid will have to stop using facial recognition surveillance in its stores for five years under a proposed settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In a complaint filed today, the FTC accused the drugstore chain of using inaccurate facial recognition tech that wrongly identified some customers as shoplifters. More: - According to the FTC, Rite Aid deployed a face recognition system across its U.S. stores without notifying shoppers.
- The system relied on low-quality security camera images to build a database of suspected shoplifters.
- The technology flagged employees if a customer entering a store "matched" the image of one of the alleged shoplifters.
- However, the system often inaccurately matched thousands of customers, particularly Black, Latino, or women customers, leading to false shoplifting accusations, according to the FTC.
- In one case, Rite Aid's facial recognition system erroneously flagged the same individual as visiting over 130 stores across the U.S. more than 900 times.
- The proposed settlement in the case includes a five-year ban on Rite Aid using any facial recognition system for security or surveillance.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Christopher Hachey | |
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