Warriors must face claims in app lawsuit
Amid their run for a third basketball championship in four years, the Golden State Warriors now face an offthe-court challenge in a lawsuit over allegations that the team’s Android app eavesdrops on users.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland ruled on Monday that the Warriors and Signal360, a beacon technology company that partnered with the Warriors and app developer Yinzcam to create the team’s official Android app, must face claims laid out in the suit.
The suit, originally filed in September 2016 by New York state-based resident Latisha Satchell, claimed the app used the smartphone’s microphones to listen to and record conversations without the owner’s consent. The app listened to conversations at all times, recorded at times due to a software bug and sent the recorded data to the Warriors and Signal360 when a beacon in the app was detected, according to Satchell’s original complaint.
The app was advertised for Warriors fans to receive live scores and breaking news. Signal360 was incorporated into the app to help track users’ locations and send better tailored advertisements.
In February, White sided with the Warriors and Signal360 because he believed Satchell failed to show the app recorded the conversations in detail. But a month later, Satchell amended her complaint to provide four private conversations of hers recorded without permission.
The conversations Satchell provided to the court included a bedside conversation
between her and her husband; a business meeting with 50 other people; a private meeting between Satchell and a loan officer at a real estate office; and another private meeting between Satchell and a banker.
Eight months later, White recognized the amendment and found that the facts as alleged show Signal360 and the Warriors engaged in acts that may qualify as interception under the Wiretap Act. Their motions to dismiss claims against them were denied by White.
However, Yinzcam, the app developer, was granted its motion of dismissal because White saw facts alleged against it were “insufficient to state a claim for procuring an interception.”
The Warriors and Signal360 have until Dec. 8 to answer the claims and will need to show for the initial case management case on Jan. 12 to discuss how to handle the case going forward.
Signal360 did not respond to a request for comment. Warriors Vice President of Communications Raymond Ridder declined to comment. — Seung Lee
Report: iPhone X made with illegal teen labor
If you own an iPhone X, there is a chance your prized smartphone was built from forced labor of Chinese high school students.
Apple and its largest Chinese supplier, Foxconn, acknowledged that students did work in the latter’s factories to assemble the iPhone X to keep up with the demand. Despite Apple and Foxconn saying the students volunteered to work at the factories, students told the Financial Times that they needed to work at the factories for three months to graduate high school.
A group of 3,000 students ages 17 to 19 routinely worked 11 hours a day at the factory starting in September, which constituted illegal overtime work for student interns in China. One 18-year old girl told the Financial Times she assembled 1,200 iPhone X cameras a day.
Apple told the Financial Times that an audit found there were indeed students working overtime but also insisted the students were voluntarily working and appropriately compensated.
“We’ve confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime,” said Apple to the Financial Times.
Foxconn issued a statement to the Financial Times and Bloomberg that company policy does not allow student interns to work overtime. But the company did acknowledge that a “number of cases where portions of our campuses have not adhered to this policy” and that it has taken steps to prevent this
from happening again.
“We have investigated all of these cases and confirmed that while all work was voluntary and compensated appropriately, the interns did work overtime in violation of our policy,” said Foxconn in a statement.
Taiwan-based Foxconn said its internship programs are carried out in cooperation with local governments and vocational schools in China. The Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School, located in central China, told its 3,000 students that assembling iPhone X was required “work experience” for graduation. Another Foxconn worker told the Financial Times students from other nearby cities were sourced in as well.
During the busy season in Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory, the number of workers would rise from 100,000 to 300,000 to build new iPhones to ship them around the world. For the iPhone X — which faced production delays due to new components such as the TrueDepth suite of cameras and sensors, which enable facial recognition — the pressure to meet demand and the need for more seasonal workers were greater than in past years, says the Financial Times. — Seung Lee
Apple explains policy on VPNs in China
After inquiries from the Senate, Apple has explained its rationale for why it cooperates with the Chinese government’s demands for censorship: The company wants to engage with Beijing in hopes its authoritarian government will one day see the benefits of freedom of expression.
For Apple, it’s perhaps a tactic just crazy enough to work.
Apple received the inquiries last month from Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, over Apple’s decision to remove 674 virtual private network (VPN) apps from its App Store in China this year. VPN apps allow users to securely access a private network while sharing data on public networks and were one of the most popular ways to circumvent the Chinese government’s “Great Firewall,” a nickname for legislation and bureaus that regulate and surveil the internet.
In their letter to Apple, Cruz and Leahy expressed concerns about Apple “enabling the Chinese government’s censorship and surveillance of the Internet.” Apple’s vice president of public policy, Cynthia Hogan, responded Tuesday, saying the company is not happy to yield to Beijing but not cooperating is worse.
“We believe that our presence in China helps promote greater openness and facilitates the free flow of ideas and information,” wrote Hogan. “We are convinced that Apple can best promote fundamental rights, including the right of free expression, by being engaged even where we may disagree with a particular country’s law.” — Seung Lee