Microsoft to pay $20M for child privacy breach

Mobile World Live

Microsoft agreed a $20 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for allegedly collecting and retaining children’s personal data from its Xbox gaming service without parental consent.

In a statement, the FTC asserted Microsoft had failed to fully comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by gathering health and biometric information, avatars and other personal data of Xbox users, including those under the age of 13.

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Apple May Advance Into the Metaverse. But AI Could Be Its Game Changer.

Barrons

Apple’s expected foray into the metaverse already feels like a last-chance saloon for the virtual-reality concept.

If Apple, with its huge installed customer base, range of apps, variety of platforms, and track record for must-buy products, can’t make the metaverse a success, who can?

The tech giant is expected to unveil a virtual-and-augmented-reality headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins Monday. Of course, it could just be a hedge against the concept actually being the next big thing—and therefore enabling it to compete with Meta Platforms, which had to retrench after going too big too fast.

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Screenshots of Instagram’s answer to Twitter leak online

Engadget

After Elon Musk finalized his purchase of Twitter last October, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta reportedly began working on a social media platform of its own, codenamed Project 92. During a company-wide meeting on Thursday, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox showed off a set UI mock-ups to the assembled employees, which were promptly leaked online.

The project’s existence was first officially confirmed in March when the company told reporters, “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” A set of design images shared internally in May were leaked online as well.

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Banks in Thailand to fully activate facial scan for mobile-banking money transfer in July

Pattaya Mail

Financial institutions in Thailand have begun mandating facial recognition for customers conducting high-value transactions. The move, aimed at reducing fraudulent activities and scams, is expected to provide extra security for clients.

Deputy Government Spokesperson Traisuree Taisaranakul announced that all commercial and government banks will implement this new security measure. Starting from July, customers transacting 50,000 baht or more via mobile banking, or whose transactions exceed a daily limit of 200,000 baht, will be required to verify their identities via facial recognition systems.

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Death of the cheque by 2030 as Australia embraces digital payment reforms

Guardian

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has signed the cheque’s death warrant to end its use in Australia by 2030, as part of a range of payment reforms for the digital era.

In a speech to be delivered to the Australian Banking Association in Sydney on Wednesday, Chalmers will say there has been a 90% decline in the use of cheques over the past 10 years alone but it remains a legacy payment method, while other economies have transitioned to digital payments.

Chalmers will say that 98% of personal cheques and 100% of those used in institutional and commercial settings could be serviced through internet or mobile banking, and that using cheques is a more costly way of doing business.

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Nokia warns on jump in IoT device exploitation

Mobile World Live

Nokia cautioned there had been a sharp increase in attacks taking advantage of insecure IoT devices in the last 12 months, with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) traffic targeted at disrupting telecommunications network services.

In the latest Nokia Threat Intelligence Report, the vendor estimated the number of IoT devices engaged in so-called botnet-driven DDoS attacks was around 1 million as of the end of Q1 compared with 200,000 in the previous year.

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Report: TikTok Plans to Quadruple Its eCommerce Network

PYMNTS

TikTok is reportedly looking to Southeast Asia to massively expand its eCommerce business.

The Chinese social media platform aims to grow its eCommerce sales from $4.4 billion in gross merchandise value to $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday (June 7), citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report says the company is banking on markets like Indonesia, where influencer videos are popular with consumers. The sources say TikTok is also hoping to expand its American and European sales, although these markets would account for a smaller fraction of its goal.

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Will Mobile Gaming Replace PC Gaming?

Telemedia Online

The past few years have seen a massive increase in the overall interest in video games, with the gaming industry now contributing a significant percentage of total entertainment industry revenues. While console and PC gaming has grown, it’s mobile gaming that has seen the biggest increase in users, with more players than ever now playing their favourite games from a handheld device.

Greater accessibility and convenience are two of the biggest reasons for the growth of mobile gaming, as so many people now own a smartphone or tablet. In addition, technology has advanced significantly, allowing mobile games to be more complex and exciting than ever before. While PC gaming parts are still popular, there has been a decline, partly thanks to the availability of mobile video games.

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Mobile still dominates the in-game ad landscape, but big changes are afoot

Insider Intelligence

The average US adult spends just over an hour playing video games per day, according to our estimates. Such a sizable share of attention offers a prime opportunity for brands to advertise in games—especially since traditional barriers to brand advertising have been lowered. Big changes have opened opportunities for brands across platforms.

Mobile games dominate in total users, but less so in time spent. In the US, there are nearly two smartphone game players for every PC, tablet, or console player. The difference in time spent is much narrower, though. We estimate that the average US adult plays mobile games 24.4 minutes per day, or 40.2% of their total time spent on video games.

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5G Private Mobile Networks: Balancing Security, Control, and Innovation

Voip Review

The 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OI Lab) has collaborated with partners F5, GXC, and Spirent Communications to develop an advanced enterprise Private Mobile Network (PMN) solution. This solution is designed to not only deploy PMNs in hard-to-reach areas but also offer greater security, control, resiliency, and operational cost improvements.

Enterprises and organizations are increasingly adopting private networks and telco clouds as 5G infrastructure becomes more widespread. This adoption aims to capitalize on newly available connectivity, lower latency, and agility. PMNs bring the potential of 5G to revenue-driven use cases, such as IoT and network slicing, while accounting for the need to expand security measures beyond legacy policies and undergo rigorous testing.

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