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Google has to open up the Play Store. On Monday, US District Judge James Donato issued a permanent injunction forcing the company to open its storefront to competitors for three years and make Android apps available in alternate stores. The ruling stems from Googles four-year antitrust battle with Epic Games. Google said on Monday it will appeal the injunction, highlighting its competition with Apple and potential security concerns. As part of the ruling, Google must allow third-party app stores access to the Google Play library. In addition, CNBC reports that the company has to make those alternate app stores available for download in the Play Store. Google also cant make deals (using fees or revenue sharing) to launch apps exclusively on Google Play or preinstall its store on new hardware. Billing changes will also emerge from the injunction. Google cant require developers to use its own billing system. Nor can it stop devs from notifying users about less expensive payment options. CNBC reports that a three-person committee will monitor Googles compliance and technical issues stemming from the ruling. Google and Epic will form the committee. When reached for comment by Engadget, a Google spokesperson pointed to a blog post explaining why it will appeal. Google VP of Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland wrote that the companys competition with Apple helps to negate antitrust concerns. The decision fails to take into account that Android is an open platform and developers have always had many options in how to distribute their apps, Mulholland wrote. In fact, most Android devices come preloaded with two or more app stores right out of the box. For example, Epic Games has made its popular Fortnite app available to Android users through the Samsung Galaxy Store, sideloading, and the Epic Games Store all while Fortnite was not distributed through Google Play, Googles Regulatory Affairs VP wrote. These are options that developers have never been able to offer to their American users on iPhones. In December, a jury found Googles Play Store to violate US antitrust laws. The unanimous verdict stated that the company held an illegal monopoly on app distribution and in-app billing for Android devices. It also ruled that its deals with other gaming companies and device manufacturers were anti-competitive. In April, Epic listed a proposed permanent injunction that largely matches Donatos decision today. For its part, Google said at the time Epics demands went too far and were too self-serving. The ruling went in a very different direction from a similar one Epic filed against Apple, which the Fortnite maker mostly lost. CNBC notes that a jury decided Googles trial, while the fate of Apples suit fell into the hands of a judge.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-has-to-open-up-the-play-store-in-epic-games-antitrust-ruling-195239228.html?src=rss
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Comcast is warning that hackers stole the personal data of more than 230,000 customers during a ransomware attack on a third-party debt collector, according to a court filing. The bad actors targeted a Pennsylvania-based debt collection agency called Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS.) The attack occurred back in February, but Comcast claims that FBCS initially said that the incident didnt involve any customer data. FBCS changed its tune by July, when it notified Comcast that customer information had been compromised, according to reporting by TechCrunch. All told, 237,703 subscribers were impacted by the breach. The attackers were thorough, scooping up names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, Comcast account numbers and ID numbers. Comcast says the stolen data belongs to customers who signed up with the company around 2021. It also says it has stopped using FBCS for the purposes of debt collection. From February 14 and February 26, 2024, an unauthorized party gained access to FBCSs computer network and some of its computers, the filing states. During this time, the unauthorized party downloaded data from FBCS systems and encrypted some systems as part of a ransomware attack. No group has stepped forward to claim credit for the incident. FBCS has only referred to the attacker as an unauthorized actor. The debt collection agency was hit hard by this attack, with Comcast customers being just one group of victims. The company says more than four million people were impacted and that the cybercriminals accessed medical claims and health insurance information, in addition to standard identification data. To that end, medical debt-purchasing company CF Medical confirmed that 600,000 of its customers were involved in the breach. Truist Bank also confirmed it was affected by the attack. Its notable that this incident primarily impacts debtors, opening them up to potential scams. Chris Hauk, consumer privacy advocate at Pixel Privacy, told Engadget that the bad actors that get their paws on this information may use it to pose as debt relief agencies, which many turn to as a way out of their situation, meaning many of the involved debtors may be defrauded out of large sums of money, something they can ill-afford. In other words, keep an eye out for suspicious phone calls, emails and texts. This is good advice for anyone, and not just debtors who had data stored with FBCS. After all, it was revealed that hackers stole more than 2.7 billion records from American consumers earlier this year, which likely includes data on everyone who lives in the country.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/comcast-says-230000-customers-affected-by-debt-collection-data-breach-184554728.html?src=rss
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Twitch is striving for more clarity about why and how it executes its policies. On Monday, the company said its adding Enforcement Notes, which it describes as additional clarifications and examples within the Community Guidelines designed to make our rules easier to follow. The notes come on the heels of (and complement) the companys recent promise that it would do a better job of telling rule-breakers why their accounts were suspended. The company says Enforcement Notes will outline how its rules apply to the trends you see on the platform. For example, if a new trending topic violates one of Twitchs policies, it will publish a note under that rule, clarifying precisely which behaviors are and arent out of bounds. It will also publish new notes in response to data spikes it observes, widespread community confusion or trending discussions on social media. Twitch has already added some enforcement notes to its community guidelines safety page. For example, one note says selling activities that could cause harm in exchange for money (like taking shots for subscriptions) is forbidden under its Self-destructive behavior rule. In addition, it states under Sexual content that direct links to websites that primarily provide intimate content arent allowed on the platform. Under Impersonation, it states that if someone else is posing as you, you can report the imitating stream to Twitch when it doesnt qualify for a DMCA removal. Twitch says its enforcement notes wont replace any of its existing methods of communication with users, like blog posts or tweets. Instead, the company describes the notes as a source of truth for all policy and enforcement updates. Right now, the easiest way to learn about Enforcement Notes is through a browser page search on the community guidelines page. However, Twitch says it will eventually add a visual symbol to indicate new ones. Its also working on a built-in search feature to make the notes easier to spot without using Cmd-F or Ctrl-F.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/twitch-makes-its-complicated-rulebook-easier-to-follow-183617108.html?src=rss
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