Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world. Stories this week include… New FTC Guidance for Mobile Health Apps, Google’s Bard AI bot mistake wipes $100bn off shares, China telcos see IoT growth on back of big connection numbers and much more…
New FTC Guidance for Mobile Health Apps
Sidley
Healthcare providers, health plans, and technology companies that use mobile health apps to access, collect, share, use, or maintain information related to an individual’s health should take note of the recently issued Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Mobile Health App Interactive Tool. The purpose of the tool is to help mobile health developers determine the federal regulatory, privacy, and security laws and regulations that may apply to the use of a consumer’s health information, such as information related to diagnosis, treatment, fitness, wellness, or addiction. While the tool should not be considered legal advice and cannot guarantee compliance with legal requirements, it can help healthcare providers, health plans, and technology companies issue-spot to manage risk in this heavily regulated space.
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Google’s Bard AI bot mistake wipes $100bn off shares
BBC
Google is searching for ways to reassure people that it is still out in front in the race for the best artificial intelligence technology.
And so far, the internet giant seems to be coming up with the wrong answer.
An advert designed to show off its new AI bot, showed it answering a query incorrectly.
Shares in parent company Alphabet sank more than 7% on Wednesday, knocking $100bn (£82bn) off the firm’s market value.
China telcos see IoT growth on back of big connection numbers
Light Reading
Statistically speaking, China is the world’s IoT superpower. It claims to have 70% of all connections and is also the first country where the number of connected things has overtaken the population of mobile devices – a milestone achieved last August.
According to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China had 1.85 billion IoT connections and 1.68 billion mobile connections at the end of 2022. The biggest proportion of the IoT services are using NB-IoT, the de facto standard over LTE and 3G networks in China over the past half a dozen years.
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Will access to 3rd-party apps for Apple users create security risks?
Security
Apple has long blocked third-party app stores from its devices; however, the company will now be forced to allow European users access to alternative app stores. In an attempt to rein in monopoly power, the EU has enacted the Digital Markets Act, which requires Apple to allow its users to download apps from independent stores.
Apple argues that “sideloading” — aka, downloading apps outside of Apple’s curated store — will weaken privacy protections and expose users to security risks. But another major concern is that third-party stores on iOS could escalate the threat of brand impersonation via counterfeit mobile apps. This could impact the brand and distance loyal customers, either through poor app performance or malware consumers may associate with the brand.
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Mobile Banking Apps Offer a Gambling Site Blocking Tool
Telemedia Online
With many people eager to get their gambling fix at any time of the night or day, a huge number of them have turned their attention to gambling apps, which allow them to bet on sports, play bingo and poker or casino games from anywhere.
Vast fortunes have been lost rapidly by many such gamblers, and a huge percentage of them report they go into a trance-like state when gambling on their mobile devices and lose all sense of reality.
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Japan Becomes Mobile Wallet Adoption Leader Among 11 Countries, Attracts Native Apps
PYMNTS
Digital engagement has become integrated in consumers’ everyday lives across the globe. One example: Mobile wallet use has been growing in-store, replacing some shoppers’ physical wallets, even in cash-heavier countries like Japan.
The PYMNTS’ Q3 2022 ConnectedEconomy™ Index, “How the World Does Digital,” measured the digital activity of 30,000 individuals across 11 countries. Tracked activities included transactional activities, such as purchases, and non-transactional activities, such as messaging or streaming. Overall, we found that global digital transformation is still trending upward, especially regarding daily engagement. Globally, 73% of consumer respondents engaged in one or more of the 37 digital activities the index tracks at least weekly. This indicates a more sustainable momentum than the spikes in sectors such as travel in the previous quarter and may predict a continued and steady growth in the coming future.
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80% of YouTube Gaming’s esports content in 2022 was for mobile games
Pocket Gamer
Stream Hatchet has released its analysis of 2022, revealing into the state of streaming for the previous year.
Highlights? Well, there was a notable decline in hours viewed on all three major streaming platforms: Twitch (5.4 billion hours viewed, down 6 percent year-on-year), YouTube (1.1 billion hours viewed, down 9 percent year-on-year), and Facebook Gaming (2.1 billion, down 56 percent year-on-year.)
Notably, both Facebook Gaming and Twitch saw declines in every quarter, while YouTube Gaming saw a increase in only one quarter, Q3, where viewership rose four percent to 1.2 billion.
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Why You Should Try LinkedIn Advertising To Reach Mobile Users
Telemedia Online
LinkedIn is the largest social media platform for businesses and professionals alike. With more than 700 million users worldwide (and nearly 60% of those using LinkedIn via mobile), LinkedIn is still an unknown golden mine for millions of advertisers and marketers. Despite having one of the largest populations, many companies and individuals still ask why they should advertise on LinkedIn.
If you want to know some of the main reasons that make LinkedIn a unique and efficient advertising social media platform, keep reading. In this article, I’ll explain three key benefits that LinkedIn advertising offers.
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China’s top Android phones collect way more info
The Register
Don’t buy an Android phone in China, boffins have warned, as they come crammed with preinstalled apps transmitting privacy-sensitive data to third-party domains without consent or notice.
The research, conducted by Haoyu Liu (University of Edinburgh), Douglas Leith (Trinity College Dublin), and Paul Patras (University of Edinburgh), suggests that private information leakage poses a serious tracking risk to mobile phone customers in China, even when they travel abroad in countries with stronger privacy laws.
