By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 5 June 2023

Apple on Monday is expected to show off pricy mixed-reality headgear at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, challenging Facebook-owner Meta in a market that has yet to sizzle.

The iPhone maker has remained mum on reports that it is poised to unveil a headset for augmented or virtual reality experiences at its annual jamboree for developers and app designers.

The release would be the most significant product launch by the iconic iPhone maker since it unveiled the Apple Watch in 2015.

It could also invite more tensions between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg who have feuded over the handling of their sprawling tech empires, especially over data issues and China ties.

Expectations are high that Apple will use the WWDC stage to spotlight a “Reality Pro” headset priced around $3,000 (roughly Rs. 2,47,600), along with custom-made software for the gear, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors.

“We believe Apple’s Reality Pro will come with many apps and use cases,” Ives said.

Cook is also expected to talk about the company’s strategy when it comes to artificial intelligence, which has been in the spotlight since startup OpenAI released ChatGPT late last year.

The headset has been in development at Cupertino-based Apple for years, and will focus on gaming, streaming video and conferencing, as well as health and fitness, according to Ives.

It is also expected to synch closely with other Apple devices, following the company’s strategy of using premium hardware to lock customers into other products and services.

“From all reports, Apple hoped to release a product that felt more like designer glasses than a gaming headset, but it’s releasing something much bulkier,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Yory Wurmser.

“It wants to get its device into the hands of early adopters and developers, who will start to build a (mixed reality) ecosystem around Apple software.”

A report by Bloomberg described the headset as a high-tech pair of ski googles that would project a wearer’s eyes and facial expressions on an external screen.

Just days before Apple’s event, Meta ramped up its line of Quest virtual reality headgear.

A new-generation Quest 3 with improved performance and slimmed design will be available later this year at a starting price of $500 (roughly Rs. 41,300), Zuckerberg said.

The Facebook founder described the coming model as Meta’s “most powerful headset yet” and promised it would provide the best wireless way to experience virtual reality.

Metaverse bound
Zuckerberg has been adamant that Meta remains devoted to building for a future in which internet life plays out in virtual worlds referred to as the metaverse.

“Meta has been the dominant VR manufacturer over the past several years, thanks to its cheap Quest devices,” Wurmser said.

But Meta’s experience with the metaverse has been humbling despite it being a leader in the emergent sector and many questioned whether Apple would in the end jump in.

And less than two years after changing its name to Meta to reflect a metaverse priority, the Facebook giant has fired tens of thousands of staff and promised to get back to its social media basics.

Meta’s false start follows the failure of Google Glass, the search engine giant’s decade long effort that was mothballed for good in March.

By Reuters | Updated: 5 June 2023

Former NBCUniversal executive Joe Benarroch will join Twitter on Monday, in a role focusing on business operations, he told Reuters.

Benarroch said in an email that he was looking forward to working with the company’s team to “build Twitter 2.0 together.”

“Welcome to the flock, @benarroch_joe! From one bird to the next,” tweeted incoming Twitter Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino, who was appointed in May. She did not mention the position Benarroch will be taking.

Welcome to the flock, @benarroch_joe! From one bird to the next.

Let’s get to work @Twitter! #timetofly

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) June 4, 2023

At Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Benarroch oversaw communication strategy for its Advertising and Partnerships division, reporting to Yaccarino, who was advertising chief there before joining Twitter.

Benarroch is being appointed following the departure of a number of executives, adding to Yaccarino’s challenges.

Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company.

On Friday, Reuters reported that the head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, has decided to leave.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Benarroch’s appointment on Sunday.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 3 June 2023

In order to curb the menace of pesky calls and sms, telecom regulator TRAI has directed service providers to develop a unified digital platform in two months to seek, maintain and revoke customers’ consent for promotional calls and messages.

In the first phase, only subscribers will be able to initiate the process to register their consent for receiving promotional calls and sms, and later, business entities will be able to reach out to customers to seek their consent to receive promotional messages, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement on Saturday.

“TRAI has now issued a direction to all the access providers to develop and deploy the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) facility for creating a unified platform and process to register customers’ consent digitally across all service providers and principal entities,” TRAI said.

At present, there is no unified system to show the consent of customers for getting promotional messages.

“Considering the volume of work involved, TRAI has allocated two months time to develop such facilities by all Access Providers and thereafter implement it in a phased manner. This direction has been issued by TRAI under its Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018,” TRAI said.

Under the prevalent system, consent is obtained and maintained by various principal entities such as banks, other financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities, real estate companies, etc.

The absence of a unified digital platform makes it impossible for telecom operators to check the veracity of consent.

“The DCA process shall have the facility to seek, maintain and revoke the consent of customers, as per the processes envisaged under TCCCP Regulation 2018. The consent data collected will be shared on the Digital Ledger Platform (DLT) for scrubbing by all access providers,” TRAI said.

Access providers, which include telecom players like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, have been further directed to use a common short code starting with 127 for sending consent-seeking messages.

“The purpose, the scope of the consent, and the principal entity or brand name shall be mentioned clearly in the consent-seeking message sent through the short code,” the statement said.

Only whitelisted or approved web or app links, callback numbers, etc will be allowed to be used in the consent-seeking messages, it said.

“Further, access providers shall develop an SMS, IVR (interactive voice response), online facility to register unwillingness of the customers to receive any consent-seeking messages initiated by any principal entity,” the statement added.

“The purpose, the scope of the consent, and the principal entity or brand name shall be mentioned clearly in the consent-seeking message sent through the short code,” the statement said.

Only whitelisted or approved web or app links, callback numbers, etc will be allowed to be used in the consent-seeking messages, it said.

“Further, access providers shall develop an SMS, IVR (interactive voice response), online facility to register unwillingness of the customers to receive any consent-seeking messages initiated by any principal entity,” the statement added.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 3 June 2023

Social media giant Meta’s Facebook took action against 41 percent of complaints it received from users and Instagram against over 54 percent of grievances raised by users in April 2023, according to the company’s latest India Monthly Report. As per the category-wise information disclosed by Meta, Facebook “actioned on” less than one-fourth of grievances of users where they claimed that the content is showing them in partial nudity or in a sexual act.

In the case of Instagram, the platform actioned on less than one-third of users’ reports it received for violation of its policy on “content showing me in nudity/partial nudity or in a sexual act”.

Meta transparency report shows the other categories of the report, on which Facebook’s action rate was less than a quarter of the percentage, including grievances raised by users for “bullying or harassment” (over 17 percent), “inappropriate or abusive content” (around 18 percent) and fake profiles (over 23 percent).

Facebook received a total of 8,470 grievances from users and provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 2,225 cases.

“Of the other 6,245 reports where the specialized review was needed, we reviewed content as per our policies, and we took action on 1,244 reports in total,” Meta said in the report for Facebook.

The category-wise details of action taken on 1,244 additional reports were not disclosed by Facebook.

Facebook on its own acted on over 27.7 million pieces of content that it found were violating its community guidelines across 13 policies.

The top three categories on which Facebook took action on its own comprised 21.7 million spam content, 1.6 million content faced action for violating policy around adult nudity and sexual activity, and 1.4 million for violent and graphic content.

Instagram received 9,676 grievances from users, out of which it acted on 5,255 incidents.

The company provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 3,591 cases.

Instagram provided tools only in around 11 percent of cases where users reported their account being hacked, and around 30 percent in cases where users claimed that the content showed them in partial nudity or in a sexual act.

“Of the other 6,085 reports where the specialized review was needed, we reviewed content as per our policies, and we took action on 1,664 reports in total,” Meta said for action taken by Instagram.

The category or the policy-wise details of 1,664 reports were not shared by the company in the report.

Instagram on its own acted against over 5.46 million content.

Meta received five orders from the Grievances Appellate Committee (GAC) on which it acted.

The GAC looks into complaints of users who are not satisfied with the resolution of social media majors.

By Reuters | Updated: 3 June 2023

Hackers have stolen data from the systems of a number of users of the popular file transfer tool MOVEit Transfer, US security researchers said on Thursday, one day after the maker of the software disclosed that a security flaw had been discovered.

Software maker Progress Software Corp, after disclosing the vulnerability on Wednesday, said it could lead to potential unauthorized access into users’ systems.

The managed file transfer software made by the Burlington, Massachusetts-based company allows organizations to transfer files and data between business partners and customers.

It was not immediately clear which or how many organizations use the software or were impacted by potential breaches. Chief Information Officer Ian Pitt declined to share those details but said Progress Software had made fixes available since it discovered the vulnerability late on May 28.

The software’s eponymous cloud-based service had also been impacted by this, he told Reuters.

“As of now we see no exploit of the cloud platform,” he said.

Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 and Mandiant Consulting – owned by Alphabet’s Google – said they had found a number of cases in which the flaw had been exploited to steal data.

“Mass exploitation and broad data theft have occurred over the past few days,” Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of Mandiant Consulting, said in a statement.

Such “zero-day,” or previously unknown, vulnerabilities in managed file transfer solutions have led to data theft, leaks, extortion, and victim-shaming in the past, Mandiant said.

“Although Mandiant does not yet know the motivation of the threat actor, organizations should prepare for potential extortion and publication of the stolen data,” Carmakal said.

Rapid7 said it had noticed an uptick in cases of compromise linked to the flaw since it was disclosed.

Progress Software has outlined steps users at risk can take to mitigate the impact of the security vulnerability.

Pitt did not have a comment on who might have been trying to steal data by exploiting the flaw.

“We have no evidence of it being used to spread malware,” he said.

MOVEit Transfer was used by a relatively “small” number of customers compared to those of the company’s other software products that number more than 20, he said.

“We have forensics partners on board and we are working with them to make sure that we have an ever-evolving grasp of the situation.”

© Thomson Reuters 2023

By Reuters | Updated: 3 June 2023

Alphabet’s YouTube said on Friday that the platform would stop removing content that might have spread false claims related to US presidential elections in 2020 and before. The new set of updates is part of YouTube’s elections misinformation policy that will go into effect immediately.

“In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech,” YouTube said in a blog post. The platform also said the rest of its policies against hate speech, harassment, and incitement to violence would continue to apply to all user content, including elections. The proliferation of disinformation has raised questions about how social media platforms enforce their policies against misleading content about elections.

Other social media platforms like Twitter and Meta Platform’s Facebook have also seen a spike in disinformation related to elections.

In March, YouTube lifted restrictions on former US President Donald Trump’s channel, following more than two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021.

“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” YouTube said in a tweet, referring to the move.

The video-streaming platform banned Trump in 2021 for violating its policy of inciting violence after his supporters stormed the US Capitol when Congress began to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

In the same month, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued orders to eight social media and video streaming firms including Meta Platforms, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube seeking information on how the platforms screen for misleading advertisements.

© Thomson Reuters 2023