Security News for the Week Ending January 26, 2024
Even God is Into Crypto
A Colorado based online pastor has been charged with selling worthless crypto. He said “the lord” told him to give his followers 10x return. He also said the lord told him to remodel his house with some of the money. I can’t make this stuff up. Credit: Coin Telegraph
Feds ORDER Intuit to Stop Pushing Free Software That Isn’t Free
The FTC ordered Intuit to stop promoting its software and services as free unless they are actually free for all customers. Intuit has been pushing Turbotax as free when, in fact, for most customers, they find out it is not free after they complete their taxes on the so-called free platform. Alternatively, they can disclose, in close proximity to the “free” claim, what percentage of consumers actually qualify for free services. The IRS does have a free tax filing service for people with adjusted gross incomes of less than $79,000, but that is really just an online fillable version of the paper forms, so there is no automation to help you. Credit: Bleeping Computer
AI Hallucinations Have Consequences
The law is going to need some Excedrin, I think. In June 2023, a radio host in Georgia filed a defamation lawsuit against OpenAI because ChatGPT said that he was embezzling money from the Second Amendment Foundation. This was in response, to a reporter investigating the foundation and the reporter ran with the hallucination. ChatGPT even fabricated the text of the full court complaint against him. In fact the radio host had nothing to do with the foundation. OpenAI tried to hide behind its terms of service which say, basically, don’t trust anything we tell you, a fact that most people are not aware of. The judge refused to dismiss the case as OpenAI desired, but this is but one of many issues related to AI that the courts are going to have to decide. They are going to have to draw on judges’ and juries’ incredibly deep technical skills (not) to come up with answers, which appeals courts are going to need to use their own hallucinations to assess. I am not sure if this lawsuit increased or decreased the show’s listeners. Normally, companies like Facebook use Section 230 to shield them from these lawsuits, but it does not seem like that is a good fit for this case. Stay tuned. Credit: The law firm of Ballard Spahr
NSA Admits it Buys Data on US Persons From Data Brokers
After Senator Ron Wyden blocked the confirmation of the new NSA director until the NSA released documents about its data purchase practices, the NSA admitted that it buys data on US persons from data brokers. This is a simple end run around the laws that prohibit the NSA from spying on Americans in the United States. Credit: The Record
Apple Lets Devs Use Alternate in-app Payments, Still Takes Same Commissions
Apple has been extorting app developers for 30 percent of any money they collect because, after all, they are Apple. Developers sued and won the right to use alternative non-Apple payment methods. So what did Apple do. They said that was okay, but if you do that, we will reduce our fee by 3 percent from 30 percent to 27 percent. Then you can pay your own credit card processor 3 percent. The outcome is that developers still pay 30 percent to be on Apple’s platform. Effectively, what they are saying is that the 30 percent we charge you is really a combination of two fees – 3 percent to process the credit cards and 27 percent because we are Apple. Many developers charge users a third more for their apps on the Apple platforms to cover this expense and if you are an Apple user, you have no alternatives although the Digital Markets Act in the EU might, possibly, change this a little bit – stay tuned. Credit: Ars Technica
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