Headlines in Tech news of the week
US Federal Communication Commission “takes a significant step in asserting U.S. leadership in the emerging space economy” by issuing a Notice of Inquiry into new rules to support sustainable activities in space
…the US purports to examine the opportunities and challenges of in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing—or “ISAM”. Activities include satellite refueling, inspecting and repairing in-orbit spacecraft, capturing and removing debris, and transforming materials through manufacturing while in space. Some of these may require Commission licensing and rules or revisions to current rules or licensing processes.
Founder, Chair and CEO of Viasat Mark Dankberg has written a piece in the FT about his concerns about over-exploitation of limited space resources, environmental damage and satellite collisions.
BigTech/ Data / Platforms
Security
UK Parliament shuts down own TikTok account following a letter referring to warning by tech experts that it’s essentially “Chinese Government spyware”
…the account was set up to engage with younger audiences, to convey the history and the functioning of the UK Parliament. But a number of members of parliament explained in a letter that TikTok’s parent is registered in China, and data of UK citizens can be turned over at the whim of the Chinese government. Indeed, the letter refers to the recent reports which have made clear… TikTok data is routinely transferred to China. Access to children’s personal data to China ought to be a major concern, they said.
Closing down of the account doesn’t really make sense. UK Parliament’s TikTok account will never really be an incentive for a young person to open up an account on TikTok – so the Parliament’s account will do no further damage. If the concern really is the transfer of children’s personal data to certain third countries, then the sensible thing to do is to ban TikTok altogether, as has been done in other countries.
TikTok is under investigation in Ireland over alleged transfers of data to China.
Complaint filed to the UK Data Watchdog (Information Commissioner’s Office) to investigate gambling companies on how gamblers are ad-targeted
…the complaint by campaigners (headed by former gambling addict) say that the world’s largest gambling company Flutter is using data to profile users and lure back profitable players [meaning the losers, and potentially addicts], and failing to obtain the proper consent to collect medical data related to addiction. Tracking can be legitimately done for monitoring dangerous play and AI can be used to examine punters’ behaviours. Flutter says data is used to avoid vulnerable customers.
Privacy
UK government considers compelling foreign migrants with a criminal offence to use smartwatches with facial recognition technology to submit scans of their faces up to 5 times a day
…the objective is to closely monitor “individuals subject to immigration control”. Subject individuals are expected to also provide their personal data and location data together with the submission of the face scans. Not sure to what extent human rights implications have been considered before putting together this plan…
Platform
Should platforms such as Meta, Apple, Google be liable for apps on their App Store which violate gambling laws?
…the platformers seek to rely on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of the United States generally protects websites from liability over content uploaded by users or third parties. However, platformers are more and more expected to be proactive limiting online harms. Just recently, Apple and Google have been asked by Senator Brown what measures they are taking to ensure scammy crypto apps are not downloadable from their App Stores. The upcoming EU’s Digital Services Act oblige “very large platforms” to analyse systemic risks they create and to carry out risk reduction analysis to reduce risks associated with, among other things, dissemination of illegal content.
If platformers were held to be liable, it would mean numerous types of legal checks of all angles need to be carried out in the vetting process by the platformers before apps are allowed to be made available on the App Store. This may not be such a bad thing for the platformers who will then have a reason why they say App Stores can only be offered by a select group of businesses.
On a similar theme, Visa is potentially on the hook for processing payments for ads featuring child sexual abuse materials on Pornhub. Visa has decided to stop facilitating transactions that purport to buy adverts from Pornhub owner Mindgeek’s advertising firm, TrafficJunky. [Slightly interesting point here is that platform owners such as Pornhub owns an advertising arm – see also Gaming – about adtech company AppLovin’s hostile takeover of Unity, a gaming graphics rendering company].
Amazon to purchase iRobot (makers of Roomba) for $1.7billion
…makes sense. And why wouldn’t a company whose number one leadership principle is Customer Obsession buy the Roomba? The data it can suck up might not be that valuable, but it would help serve its customers by doing the chores for them. There is likely to be synergy with Echo/Alexa and its household robot Astro. They already have plenty of robotics know how thanks to Amazon Robotics which run their numerous and massive warehouses. What could be next? Remote lawn mowers and sprinklers? Amazon residential blocks? Hotels? A Roomba on each floor would undoubtedly make running buildings much cheaper; Amazon is slowly building business in smart buildings and smart cities. They already provide private 5G networks for offices. Then, there is the Sidewalk…
Not just a smart home provider, Amazon can look after you beyond your front door
Note that, at least in the US, Amazon devices are (unless you opt out) constantly connected to the internet – it provides a network called Sidewalk – which is “a neighborhood network designed to make your devices work better—both inside your home and beyond the front door…Amazon Sidewalk uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the 900 MHz spectrum, and other frequencies to simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices, and help devices stay online and up-to-date even if they are outside the range of home Wi-Fi…”. Note though it extends the network by sharing your internet bandwidth with your neighbours, which has obvious security and privacy implications, although Amazon states it has put in place measures to safeguard from that happening. Amazon is also reported to have said that it might share Sidewalk data with third party developers – essentially, using the Sidewalk network as a platform from which to offer more and varied services (and then get more data).
The idea might be is that Amazon might eventually help you find your lost pet which have gone walkabouts, or track your stolen car. Roomba could gain additional features that support such service. However, Amazon offering has the potential to transform into an IoT surveillance ecosystem powered by AI – as pointed out in the Forbes article.
Potentially subject to regulatory clearance.
Crypto
Hot wallets on the Solana blockchain is hacked – cause unknown
…users of hot wallets [wallets that are constantly connected to the internet – for ease of use] have found that their funds have been drained. It is suspected that a bug in the software governing the wallets have allowed the hacker to access the private keys to the wallets. Solana is encouraging users to transfer funds to cold wallets. Needless to say Solana’s value dropped with the news.
EVs/Autonomous Vehicles
US Senate passes the $430billion Inflation Reduction Act: to tackle climate, tax and healthcare
…this include tax credits to encourage more EV sales (as they are still more expensive than traditional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars).
How much can car makers charge for access to on-board diagnostic information to enable independent car repair? EU Top Court to decide
…In the EU, certain data must be made available to independent car repairers to enable them to repair cars. This law is implemented to encourage competition; otherwise car makers can charge inflated fees to repair cars. There are three cases in all each of which ask the Court of Justice of the European Union to clarify the meaning of the data sharing rules:
- Regulation (EU) 2018/858 states that “the manufacturer may charge reasonable and proportionate fees for access to vehicle repair and maintenance information. A question has arisen as to how the fee level should be calculated (see C-390/21).
- Regulation (EU) 2018/858 states that “Information shall be presented in an easily accessible manner in the form of machine-readable and electronically processable datasets“. A question has arisen as to what format that data need to be in order to fulfil the requirement. (see C-319/22)
- Are car manufacturers allowed to impose conditions (such as making the repairer register to access the data, agree terms and conditions, and pay to access diagnostic tools) to access the requisite data? (C-296/22)
The impending Data Act also have similar but industry neutral provisions, which give users the right to access data generated data through their use (this would include vehicle generated data, but will apply to other data – such as that generated by an equipment in a factory). These are cases to watch not just for car makers but for other device makers.
Volkswagen sues software company Smartcar in Northern District of California for providing apps to Volkswagen users without authorisation
…Smartcar has a partnership with Hyundai and BMW. Volkswagen considered partnering up with Smartcar but had declined. Accessing Volkswagen cars constitutes false association and is a violation of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other breaches the complaint says.
What kind of services can drivers of Volkswagen expect? So explains Volkswagen in its suit: Volkswagen users can access optional connectivity services, including Car-Net, Audi connect, and the myAudi apps which contain features that allow Volkswagen and Audi drivers to connect to and control their vehicles using their smartphones and computers. These include remote access, security details, car location, driver details such as high-speed warnings, geofencing, wi-fi hotspot capability, in-vehicle voice controls, online map and traffic updates, parking and gas station finders, and toll modules. Third party app providers are carefully vetted to ensure that they meet the high standards for compatibility and interoperability, functionality, security, and safety.
What does Smartcar do? According to the complaint, Smartcar is offering application programming interfaces (“APIs”) that it claims allow web and mobile apps to communicate with connected cars to exchange information between the app and the vehicle. Smartcar claims that companies use its APIs to connect to vehicles to obtain data such as EV battery status, fuel tank status, odometer status, oil life, tire pressure, vehicle attributes, vehicle identification numbers and location; and further to enable access to the vehicle and issue commands, including to lock and unlock, manage EV charging, and issue digital car keys.
What are the acts complained of? Volkswagen lists these acts of Smartcars as not accurate / unauthorised
- Smartcar APIs are compatible with Volkswagen/Audi and is the “best way to build apps for” them.
- Use of Volkswagen trade marks
Volkswagen says that Smartcar gives users the impression that it is authorised when it is not, and it is unlawfully circumventing Volkswagen’s vetting process with implications for safety and security. Volkswagen also alleges that Smartcar has misused confidential information given to them to demonstrate Smartcar capabilities with a view to partnership which was later not followed up on.
Volkswagen also explains that it is not able to distinguish between genuine end user access and the unauthorized access facilitated by Smartcar. It is interesting to note [although not surprising] how Volkswagen explains that it collects user analytics and other data derived from authorized customer access. This data, and reports generated from such data, are useful and valuable for internal research, and as monetizable commercial assets for sale and license to app developers, marketers, and other contractors.
Baidu launches fully driverless, licensed robotaxi in Wuhan and Chongqing
…Baidu (along with Pony.ai) already has a licence to operate robotaxis with safety drivers on the passenger seat in Beijing.
The areas which Baidu will operate its fully automated cars are not densely populated, and are built for testing autonomous vehicles (the zone in Wuhan have road infrastructures that can communicate with vehicles), but it will run during office hours.
Meanwhile over in the US, Cruise (General Motors company) has started a driverless service in San Francisco (out of office hours) and Waymo (Alphabet/Google owned) in Phoenix.
Amazon’s driverless car unit Zoox seeks permit in California to deploy Robotaxis without steering wheels or pedals
…Zoox will be liable for the safety of the vehicle. [Note: slightly old news]
Tesla’s “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” labels are deceptive and should be prohibited from sale in California, said the Californian Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in its suit
…DMV also says that purchasers should also be able to claim back any loss incurred as a result of the deception. DMV says Tesla cars are far from autonomous, not at the point of advertisement, and not even now. The DMV might want to look at the UK Law Commission’s proposal which is to provide that the term “Self-Driving” be used to indicate a legal threshold…
Gaming
Unity (a mainstream real time 3D graphics engine) plan to merge with Ironsource, a mobile adtech company in jeopardy as Ironsource rival AppLovin makes an unsolicited bid for Unity – on the condition that Ironsource is rejected
…the Unity software enables developers/digital artists to create games with high fidelity 3D graphics and renders them in real time. The tie up with mobile ad tech business Ironsource was calculated to enable creators to monetize their games more effectively. AppLovin, Ironsource rival has decided to make a move on Unity too. It just goes to show how much monetisation opportunities there are in gaming.
Metaverse
HSBC becomes the first bank to buy land and open doors in the Sandbox metaverse
…the idea is apparently to connect with esports, sporting and gaming enthusiasts but the plan appears not really that detailed at present.
Satellites/ Space
More consolidation of companies – Luxembourger SES & US’s Intelsat
…reason is the needing of cash to upgrade technology, to catch with SpaceX. This follows US Viasat’s proposed takeover of UK’s Inmarsat (both geostationary satellite operators), and OneWeb (Low Earth Orbit, or LEO) and Eutel (geostationary satellites (GEO)). Intelsat and SES have Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites, Intel also has geostationary satellites according to the FT article.
SpaceX’s speciality area is cheaper, smaller LEO satellites. This has enabled SpaceX to achieve scale.
A bit about the different satellites
GEO: Furthest away. As the name suggests it orbits over a specific part of the earth. Because it’s farther away, it covers a large part of the earth; three of these equally spaced can almost cover the whole of the earth.
LEO: Situated up to 2000km above the earth, apparently it could be, technically, low as 160km [though still high, in contrast with planes, which flies up to about 14km high]. Closer to earth means higher resolution images can be attained. These are fast, taking only 90minutes to go round the earth, making it very difficult to track, so LEO satellites need to work as a constellation to provide telecommunication coverage.
MEO: These satellites orbit in the range between GEO and LEO. Used for navigation such as tracking jumbojets and getting locations on the smartphone. Information taken from the European Space Agency.
Delving Deeper
Inside Apple Cars
…Apple is known for its culture of super secrecy. But there is a limit to their walled secret garden insofar as patents are concerned, which are rights to exclude others from using inventions. Patents are granted in return for disclosing the invention so that the public can make use of thereafter. Apple’s patent applications certainly indicate that they are making cars. What would an Apple car be like? A peek inside Apple’s patent applications (about 250 of which are at present public) indicate that it would be one with superior user experience [UX] – according to articles published in the Nikkei:
The three phases of Apple Car development
- 2008-2014: Developments appear to focus on providing car navigation via the iPhone, culminating in CarPlay, the user interface for drivers. CarPlay is reported to be now equipped on 98% of new cars in the US [not Tesla though –Tesla isn’t letting go of revenue raising opportunities that easily]. It can do everything that a usual car can do, from adjusting the aircon to indicating gear levels, engine revs and speed, of course, indicating where the nearest gas stations, charging stations and parking spots.
- Mid 2010’s: Project Titan [development of autonomous EVs] is implemented, Apple hires a large number of AI researchers
- Late 2010’s: Application for patents that relate to wireless connectivity, including V2X [Vehicle to everything – traffic lights, roads, other cars, pedestrians etc]. Some co-developed with Intel.
Other notable types of patent applications
- Those that concern a better UX:
- Windows which darken depending on the incoming light level
- Car body which elevates to facilitate passengers to embark and alight vehicles
- Suspensions and seat belts which become active depending on the road surface to enable a smoother journey for the passengers
- For example in May it was granted a patent called “immersive display of motion-synchronized virtual content”, where vehicle motions may be integrated into the virtual experiences (user wears a VR headset) to help prevent motion sickness. The VR system may provide virtual views that match visual cues with the physical motions that a passenger experiences. The VR system may provide immersive VR experiences by replacing the view of the real world with virtual environments.
- Those that concern autonomous driving: Navigation of merging lanes on a highway
No business hacks Hardware and Software integration, User experience, Platform infrastructure and Supply chain management quite like Apple. It has already started investing into research and development into semiconductor designs as well. There is no reason why Apple, with its towering cash pile wouldn’t wish to embark on a project like autonomous vehicles, which present ample prolonged captive user touchpoints for monetisation and brand penetration.
Tesla did really well to get a head start on EVs by a long chalk. May the Musk / Twitter saga [Delaware trial set for October] continue, so Apple must be wishing. Musk continues to be distracted by the Twitter acquisition he promised. He has recently challenged Twitter CEO Parag Argrawal to a debate. “I hereby challenge @paraga to a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage. Let him prove to the public that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users!” – he tweeted.
German court bans sales of Oppo’s smartphones in Germany for infringing Nokia’s standard essential patents
Why are Standardised Technologies so important today
Standardised technologies are growing with globalisation and the need for interoperability. In the world of cellular wireless communication technology, the way in which the mobile phones communicate to its phone masts are standardised – in other words they speak the same language, and so are interoperable. If the global population all spoke the same language, we would be able to communicate with everyone – which of course is not the case for the human population but it is the case for the connected devices population. That’s why an iPhone user can call a friend who has a Samsung Galaxy phone, or a connected car. They may be on different networks, they may be in different countries. It doesn’t matter, because all the phones and phone masts communicate in the same way. Standardised technologies enable interoperability in this way, and as technology for cellular wireless communication technologies are standardised globally, interoperability is achieved on a global scale. It also means a phone manufacturer can make phones in one country and export them everywhere, not worrying about which type of phone needs to go to which regions, unlike DVD player makers of the past where the standards differed between regions.
What is a Standard Essential Patent
Cellular wireless telecommunication technologies are complex in the extreme. From a standpoint of someone that deals with patents in this area, I can say it really is mind-boggling. It means that so much investment, man hours, innovation and risk have been poured into creating these standardised technologies – and not just by one company, there are several companies that have done so. They are businesses and expect to be able to monetise their investment. Most businesses will therefore have applied for a patent in relation to these technologies. Some of the technologies will have been incorporated into the cellular wireless telecommunication standard – this means that if you are selling a device which uses cellular wireless technology, then your device necessarily infringes the patents. There is no way of avoiding the patents, in other words. These patents are called standard essential patents (or SEPs). It gives the opportunity for SEP holders to approach the tens of thousands of device makers and ask for a licence fee.
The scale of SEPs is vast. Just for 5G cellular for example, approximately 100k patents have been estimated to have been declared to be potentially standard essential (note: it is self-declared and it does not mean that they are in fact standard essential). The number of IoT devices in the world is estimated to near 15 billion this year (which may or may not use 5G, but a good proportion will). There are of course various other standardised technologies, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, video codec technologies and more.
Special licensing rules for Standard Essential Patents
When it comes to SEP licensing, there are additional rules. Just using the cellular wireless as an example, because cellular device makers MUST use the standard, so they must also use SEPs. It is the same with other types of standardised technologies. Without the additional rules, this could give SEP holders the ability to abuse its position, by demanding exorbitant fees from device makers that are necessarily using the SEPs. Such behaviour would not support technological development, and so the relevant Standard Setting Organisations for cellular technologies (SSOs in short – in the case of cellular, the organisation is called ETSI) which provide the framework for deciding which technologies should be adopted into the standard, ensures that all potential SEP holders are willing to offer the use of standardised technologies on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The idea is that, because it’s standardised, many users will need to use the technologies and so even if those users are only paying a “Fair and Reasonable” royalty rate, SEP holders will be able to enjoy a sufficient licence income, enough to gain profit and be incentivised to invest more to keep developing the technology, and prosper further.
What’s the problem with Standard Essential Patent Licensing
Critically though ETSI does not state what terms and licence rate would constitute FRAND or how it ought to be calculated. Not surprisingly, the device makers say that the terms the SEP holders say are FRAND is not, they are asking too much. SEP holders say that the device makers are unreasonably asserting low royalty rates and/or using the technology and are unwilling to negotiate with the SEP holders in a constructive manner. Given the importance of standardised technologies (see above) and major problems faced in SEP licensing negotiations, governments around the world are trying to see if anything can be done to facilitate smoother licensing negotiations.
Back to the dispute between Nokia v Oppo
Nokia is one of the major SEP holders in the cellular field. Its negotiation of SEP licensing with the low-end mobile phone maker Oppo broke down, and so Nokia sued Oppo in Germany (alongside many other jurisdictions). Germany is a very popular jurisdiction for SEP owners as they can get a speedy decision on whether a defendant is infringing and whether, in which event, an injunction should be ordered. It is reported that the Court found that Oppo was infringing and moreover although Nokia had discharged its FRAND licensing obligations, Oppo were unwilling to engage in the negotiations in a fair and reasonable manner as is expected of them, being users of SEPs. Accordingly, the German Court ordered an injunction against Oppo not to deal in handsets in Germany.
This is a big deal. German consumers are left without one of the major low-mid range smartphone in the market, at least for the time being. Most defendants in the situation in the past have ended up compromising (ie: take the licence that is being offered, or else successfully negotiate a licence) to avoid an injunction. Because what is asserted is a SEP, Oppo (and its sister brand Oneplus, which is also implicated) cannot avoid infringing it.
Clearly, for now, Oppo has taken the view that it is more advantageous for it to sacrifice its revenues in Germany in return for not having to pay a licence to Nokia. The Nokia licence on the table is likely to be global in nature – meaning if Oppo accepted, it will have to pay considerable amounts in respect of past years of non-payment on a global basis as well as going forwards. There may be other reasons – Oppo is asking its home Court in China to set the global FRAND licensing rate – which is likely to be lower than that is offered by Nokia, and they may be hanging out for that (or use that as a pressure point to lower Nokia’s offer further). As the report notes, Oppo is also being sued in Germany by other SEP holders, so the withdrawal from the German market might help take the sting out of those legal actions as well. Oppo is countersuing Nokia for infringing its own SEPs for the infringement of Nokia’s base stations [note as a result of geopolitical tensions, the West are shunning cheaper Huawei base stations in favour of Nokia and Ericsson made ones] and so a favourable decision in that case might give Oppo leverage against Nokia to lower its licensing offer too – and get Nokia to agree to lift the injunction. The case is definitely one to watch.
Note that there is a similar sort of power play going on between Ericsson and Apple across multiple jurisdictions in which Ericsson has obtained an injunction against Apple in Colombia.