New Jersey seeks to block in-car subscriptions, Parler leaks the contact information of its VIPs, and Texas files a lawsuit against Google over data collection.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Friday, October 21, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
The U.S. state of New Jersey is moving to ban in-vehicle subscriptions. The emerging trend is seeing car makers locking features already installed in vehicles behind paywalls. They can be anything from heated seats to remote start. The bill, proposed by two lawmakers, would prohibit car makers from charging for features already included in the car. However, the one loophole is that it only applies to features that do not incur a cost for the manufacturer. In other words, if the car makers can prove that certain elements incur an ongoing cost, they can still rightfully charge for them. If violated, the manufacturer could be charged $20,000 per violation.
Source: The Drive
Parler accidentally posted the email addresses of its VIP members in an email announcing Kanye West’s offer to acquire the platform. The error came to be due to a careless mistake. Instead of copying the recipients using blind carbon copy, which hides all recipients’ email addresses, the email was sent using regular copy, showing the recipient list publicly. The list contained contact information of verified Parler members and investors, including U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Source: Fortune
Texas has filed a lawsuit against Google alleging the company of collecting data from millions of users without proper consent. The complaint says that the company has banned the collection of biometric data without advanced, informed consent. The letter condemned Google’s data-collecting practices, alleging that the company used its users as “cash cows being milked for profit.” The collection was across multiple Google services, including Google Photos, Assistant, and smart home devices. According to Reuters, Google will be fighting the lawsuit on the grounds that data collection can be turned off by users.
Source: Reuters
Microsoft Excel auto-formatting numbers to dates have been a meme for ages. But for scientists studying human genes, it’s anything but funny. The error happens so frequently that it can potentially corrupt some data entries. These scientists use letters to represent components of a gene, and sometimes, they can vaguely resemble a date. For example, Excel would turn MAR1 into March-1 automatically. There’s no easy way to turn this feature off either. Worse, even if the data is properly formatted, it may be automatically converted when exported to another computer.
Source: The Verge
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.