The Starlink service for RVs gives you a way to stay connected online even while you're off the grid, but it comes with one big limitation: It can't be used while in motion. Now, SpaceX has launched a new variant of Starlink for RVs called "Flat High Performance" that you can use on moving vehicles. You just have to be willing to pay almost five times as much for the dish needed to be able to access the service.
The Flat High Performance Starlink for RVs was designed for in-motion use, with a bigger rectangular terminal that can see 35 percent more sky than its standard counterpart. It also has enhanced GPS capabilities, giving the dish the power to connect to more satellites, which enables connection to the Starlink internet even while a vehicle is on the move. The terminal features improved weather resistance and better performance in both hot weather and snow, as well. Unlike the standard version that can be placed on the ground, though, the Flat High Performance dish must be permanently installed on top of your RV.
SpaceX is already taking pre-orders for Flat High Performance in select markets and will start deliveries in December. Take note that its hardware kit, which includes its dish and mount, will set you back $2,500. The standard Starlink for RVs only requires an upfront payment of $599 for its kit. The service itself costs $135 a month just like the standard version, which is $25 more than a regular Starlink connection. You can pause (and un-pause) the service anytime, though, so you won't have to pay for those months when you don't use it.
Enjoy high-speed, low-latency internet while on the move! Now accepting orders for the flat high-performance Starlink, which provides connectivity while in motion on land → https://t.co/tWDPs3JDWKpic.twitter.com/z2HNxaizdW
NASA previously announced that it would create a panel to study "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAP), aka UFOs — while saying it doesn't believe they're "extraterrestrial in origin." (Sure, NASA.)
Now, the space agency has unveiled the 16-member panel that will focus on these unclassified sightings, chaired by David Spergel, former head of astrophysics at Princeton University. Other members include Anamaria Berea, a research affiliate at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Life) Institute in California; retired NASA astronaut and test pilot Scott Kelly; and astrophysicists, science journalists and more.
The US government is effectively running two tracks of UFO probes. There’s also a Pentagon group looking into UAPs reported by military pilots and investigated by US defense and intelligence officials.
– Mat Smith
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When the European Parliament voted in favor of making USB-C the common charging standard in the region, it was obvious Apple was going to be the company most affected by the mandate. While the tech giant already has iPad models with USB-C ports, its iPhones still require a lightning connector. Now, in an interview at The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live event, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak has confirmed that the tech giant will be transitioning to USB-C connectors to comply with the EU's regulation. "We have no choice as we do around the world but to comply to local laws," Joswiak said. However, he didn't say whether Apple is only making a different variant for the European market while continuing to sell phones with lightning connectors elsewhere.
The BBC and Disney have announced future seasons of Doctor Who will stream on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. Back in July, Bloomberg reported that Disney was looking for “established” brands to bolster its streaming platform. Now it has the world’s longest-running science-fantasy series.
Bayonetta 3 is full of classic Bayonetta madness, all of it amped up by one degree. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, the enemies are absolutely massive, Bayonetta’s magic is incredibly powerful, her outfits are outstanding and the fights don’t stop coming. She’s still a witch with gun shoes, but new abilities mean she can transform into demon hybrids, adding even more dimensions to the epic fights. It’s still all very silly, very meme-able and for now, it’s a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Read on for our full review.
Rally driver Ken Block has released his first Gymkhana video with an electric car — and this time, the vehicle is almost as important as the hooning. The "Electrikhana" sees Block drift around Las Vegas landmarks in a one-of-a-kind Audi S1 Hoonitron. It borrows design cues from the well-known Sport Quattro S1 while using a dual-motor system. Think of it as a souped-up cousin of the E-tron GT. With drifting and tire smoke, it’s a different kind of sales pitch for electric cars. Initially associated with eco-conscious drivers, they're becoming the machines of choice for performance-minded enthusiasts thanks to their instant torque and supercar-beating low-end acceleration.
Shutterstock has widened its deal with OpenAI, and will start selling stock images built using the DALL-E 2 AI generator. The approach will offer "direct access" to DALL-E through the Shutterstock website, and compensate creators whose pictures played a role in developing the technology through a new Contributor Fund. The company also plans to pay royalties to artists when the AI uses their work. The deal represents one of the first practical uses of the tech.
Sony's original LinkBuds S were already being made with recycled plastics from automobile parts, but the company has now announced an Earth Blue variant made from even more reclaimed materials. The company says the body and case for this version of the LinkBuds S are made from "factory-recovered plastic and reclaimed water bottles." The recycled materials are what give the exterior surfaces a marble pattern. The new Earth Blue variant will be available at the end of October.
At WWDC 2022 earlier this year, Apple announced a bunch of gaming improvements rolling out with iOS 16, including support for Nintendo's Joy-Con and Pro controllers. Now, you'll also be able to use Nintendo's modernized retro gamepads with your iPhones, iPads, Mac computers and even Apple TVs. Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has discovered that iOS 16.1 and tvOS 16.1 supports Nintendo's SNES-style Switch controllers, a modern version of their classic counterparts with wireless connection and a USB-C port for charging.
In his tweet with a video demonstrating the capability, Troughton-Smith said he believes that the Apple platforms now support the N64 and NES controllers for the Switch, as well. MacStories ran its own tests and confirmed that the SNES-style controllers also work with the iPad OS 16.1 and macOS Ventura. In addition, the publication was able to use the modern N64 controller with Apple's devices. The gamepads show up in Bluetooth settings when they're pairing mode like any other device.
Neat, iOS/tvOS 16.1 support the official BT/USB-C Super Nintendo controller for the Switch 😄 I don’t have the N64 or NES versions to test with, but I believe they are supported now too 🎮 pic.twitter.com/mfkTIHpXun
The Apple App Store doesn't support video game emulators, so you'll still have to fire up your Switch to play your games for the console and its subscription service. But as AppleInsider notes, you can use these gamepads for the Apple Arcade and other supported titles in the App Store.
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When the European Parliament voted in favor of making USB-C the common charging standard in the region, it was pretty obvious which company was going to be the most affected by the mandate. Apple, of course. While the tech giant already has iPad models with USB-C ports, its iPhones still require a lightning connector. Now, in an interview at Wall Street Journal'sTech Live event, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak has confirmed that the tech giant will be transitioning to USB-C connectors to comply with the EU's regulation.
"Obviously, we’ll have to comply." Joswiak responded when asked by WSJ's Senior Personal Technology Columnist, Joanna Stern, whether Apple is moving to USB-C. But not before talking about the company's history with regulation compliance, such as making its phones compatible with hearing aids and how it had to come up with its own solution because existing technology at the time didn't work.
Joswiak also talked about how the EU has been pushing for the adoption of micro-USB 10 years ago. Since part of the EU's concern was that people had to have several adapters with different connectors, Apple made cables detachable so that people can easily switch them out. The executive said the move allowed over a billion people to continue using their lightning cables instead of throwing them out and giving rise to a "bunch of e-waste."
"We have no choice as we do around the world but to comply to local laws," Joswiak said. However, he didn't say whether Apple is only making a different variant for the European market while continuing to sell phones with lightning connectors elsewhere. He also that Apple thinks the approach would have been better environmentally and better for its customers to "not have a government be that prescriptive."
Apple also previously cited environmental concerns for not selling power adapters with new devices. The tech giant said that doing so will save 861,000 tons of metal and will also save fuel, since more iPhones can fit in shipping containers. Not everyone was convinced with the company's explanation, though, and Apple has gotten fined several times in Brazil for removing adapters from iPhone packages.
Under the new EU mandate, Apple will have to ship iPhones and iPads with USB-C ports in the region by the end of 2024.
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Spotify launched its audiobook business just last month with 300,000 titles, but is now saying that Apple is engaging in "anticompetitive" behavior that is impinging the new business, the company wrote in a blog post. It said that Apple rejected its audiobook purchasing system three times due to a violation of its rules. To comply, it had to hide the price of the audiobooks and do sales outside of the main app via an email link.
All of that makes it harder for Spotify to compete, as users can't easily compare prices. "[This] harms not only consumers, but, this time, also authors and publishers who now find themselves under Apple’s thumb." It's also highly inconvenient for buyers used to simply clicking on a link to buy an audiobook.
Spotify's audiobooks could have easily been accepted if the company had followed the App Store rules, Apple told The New York Times. "We provided them with clear guidance on how to resolve the issue, and approved their app after they made changes that brought it into compliance," an Apple spokesperson said.
Spotify could also have sold its audiobooks through the App Store's purchasing system, but Apple would then take a 30 percent cut — putting Spotify's audiobooks at a considerable disadvantage against Apple Books. "With our Audiobooks launch, Apple has once again proven just how brazen it is willing to be with its App Store rules, constantly shifting the goalposts to disadvantage their competitors," said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
Spotify is already in a battle with Apple over music subscriptions, having said that its 30 percent commission harms consumers. The European Commission issued Apple with a Statement of Objections after concluding that Apple was in possible breach of EU laws, but has yet to reveal a final verdict. "Almost four years. That’s how long it’s been since Spotify filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission, and we are still waiting on a decision," said Ek.
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The BBC and Disney have announced future seasons of Doctor Who will stream on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. It’s the validation of a longstanding rumor that the UK’s public broadcaster was looking to move the show from its traditional distribution network.
Back in July, Bloomberg reported that Disney was looking for “established” brands to bolster its streaming platform. The world’s longest-running science-fantasy series, with its own global fanbase, certainly counts as a big draw for any global streamer.
Naturally, new series of Doctor Who will continue to air on the BBC’s own channels and streaming platform, iPlayer, in the UK and Ireland. The series will return in November 2023 with a run of specials to celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary, followed by a new series in 2024.
At the same time, the BBC has announced a new logo and branding that will feature on the show when it returns in 2023, as well as its vast catalog of merchandise. The new logo is a 21st century update of the classic “diamond” logo, designed by Bernard Lodge in 1973.
It's one of the most recognizable images in the show's long history, and while the diamond's shelf-life in the series proper stretched from 1973 to 1980 (for all but one year of Tom Baker's Tenure) — it was also plastered on merchandise from the early '70s all the way through to 1996. (Ironically, it was supplanted by a revamped version of the show's 1969-1974 logo.)
Back in 2018, the BBC recruited branding agency LittleHawk to revitalize the show’s image with a look covering both its Classic and New Series eras. The fact that, so quickly afterward, the show has opted to switch back to an older look stands as a repudiation of LittleHawk’s work. Not to mention the fact it’ll cause much consternation to the buyers of the show’s flagship Collection Blu-Ray boxsets. Who will, once again, have to deal with an inconsistent run of spines running along their shelves and are, arguably, the real victims in all of this.
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Google is on the hook for another nine-figure fine after India’s antitrust agency said the company abused the dominant position of the Play Store. The regulator told Google to pay 9.36 billion rupees ($113.5 million) and to allow Play Store developers to use third-party payment systems for app and in-app purchases.
After a lengthy investigation, the Competition Commission of India said Google's requirement for Play Store developers to use its billing system “constitutes an imposition of unfair condition,” as TechCrunchreports. The regulator found that Google didn't use the billing system for its own apps, which it said constituted an “imposition of discriminatory conditions.”
The agency has ordered Google to open up the Play Store to third-party payments within three months. It said Google can't impose any anti-steering provisions on app developers and mustn't hinder them from promoting apps and services to users. Likewise, the company can't restrict users from accessing developers' services and features.
The Competition Commission also stated that Google must be fully transparent with Play Store developers and that it can't impose any condition on them "which is unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory or disproportionate to the services provided to the app developers." Furthermore, Google will need to have a clear and transparent data collection policy, and it will not be allowed to use "competitively relevant transaction/consumer data of apps generated and acquired" through the Google Play Billing System to its competitive advantage.
The regulator has determined that Google has a dominant position in the spheres of licensable smartphone operating systems, app stores, web searching, video hosting platforms and "non-OS specific" mobile web browsers. Last week, the Competition Commission fined the company $161.9 million after finding that Google abused Android's dominance. It said smartphone makers shouldn't have to preinstall Google's apps and that the company shouldn't withhold Play Services APIs and monetary and other incentives from other parties.
Google reportedly has a 97 percent smartphone market share in India, while Google Play is one of the most popular payments services. India is the company's largest market in terms of user numbers. Google told TechCrunch that its legal team was reviewing the most recent ruling.
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Shutterstock is eager to embrace AI-generated art. As The Vergereports, the photo provider has widened its deal with OpenAI to begin selling stock images built using the DALL-E 2 AI generator. The approach will offer "direct access" to DALL-E through the Shutterstock website, and compensate creators whose pictures played a role in developing the technology through a new Contributor Fund. The company also plans to pay royalties to artists when the AI uses their work.
OpenAI licensed Shutterstock pictures and data to train DALL-E's text-to-image generation models in 2021. The expanded deal represents one of the first practical uses of the tech through OpenAI's programming kit.
The DALL-E integration will be available sometime in the "coming months." Crucially, Shutterstock will also ban AI-generated art that wasn't produced through OpenAI's platform. That will protect the companies' business models, of course, but it will also ensure that Shutterstock can identify the content used and pay the producers accordingly. Payments will arrive every six months and include revenue from both training data and image royalties.
This is the first major compensation-based deal of its kind, and could help settle questions of whether or not AI-generated art is borrowed or stolen. Other companies have been more cautious. Shutterstock rival Getty Images has completely banned AI-made images over copyright concerns, and is even using filters to stop that content from getting through. Google, meanwhile, is keeping its Imagen tool private until (and unless) it can find a "responsible" way to make the system available to the public.
There are lingering issues. It's not clear just how Shutterstock will pay creators. Artists will likely earn less from these AI-licensing payments than if customers pay for the original images DALL-E uses to create its amalgamations. While this deal is a step toward harmony between AI and the creative world, it's not the definitive solution.
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A new Bayonetta game is like the circus rolling into town. Bayonetta is the ringmaster, of course, and she shows up out of the blue with boxcars of strange beasts, weird friends, dangerous spells, magnificent clothing and endless promises to impress. Her stories don’t always make sense, but they’re filled with melodrama and action, magic and gunfire, and once Bayonetta enters the spotlight, there’s no looking away. Especially not when she’s dancing her way through a spell in an outfit made of her own hair, while 40-storey monsters fight to the death at her back.
Bayonetta 3 is full of classic Bayonetta madness, all of it amped up by one degree. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, the enemies are absolutely massive, Bayonetta’s magic is incredibly powerful, her outfits are outstanding, and the fights don’t stop coming. A loose plot holds the entire game together – an army of man-made bioweapons called Homonculi is threatening the existence of the multiverse – but it’s just an excuse to throw Bayonetta and friends into an endless string of battles in a variety of crumbling cities. In that way, Bayonetta 3 isn’t very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though PlatinumGames’ latest installment has way more witchcraft, silliness and shoe-operated guns than anything helmed by Robert Downey Jr.
Structurally and mechanically, Bayonetta 3 is as rich as its predecessors. Bayonetta acquires new skills and weapons throughout her quest; she collects fragments of fallen enemies to purchase items, consumables and accessories in the Gates of Hell shop, while orbs unlock abilities on her skill tree. Combat is all about performing stylish combos and executing well-timed dodges, and each fight is infinitely replayable if you’re chasing high scores. There are also plenty of challenges and secrets to find in each level.
Bayonetta 3 is a Switch exclusive, and it struggles as much as any fast-paced action game on that console: At times, inputs feel sluggish and it becomes difficult to track which moves are actually lined up. The game does a fine job of providing visual indicators for attacks and there is a rhythm to be found in the fray, but the entire thing runs in Switch Reaction Time (does not adhere to daylight saving).
For fans of the series, there’s nothing missing in Bayonetta 3 – in fact, there’s just more. More weirdness, more one-liners, more swag, and more combat mechanics. For instance, one section puts players in control of Bayonetta’s witchy buddy, Jeanne, for a side-scrolling action sequence with 1960s espionage flair. Another mechanic allows Bayonetta to control time in short bursts, at times reverting to her younger self. Throughout the game, the Demon Masquerade ability adds hellish features to Bayonetta’s weapons and allows her to transform into various demons, while the Demon Slave skill allows her to summon and control giant creatures of hell, each with a specific moveset.
Most of Bayonetta’s demons are inspired by classically spooky animals like moths and spiders, but one of her forms is a literal train. A little over halfway through the game, Bayonetta is infused with the energy of Satan’s choo-choo and she’s able to summon a hellish tank engine during fights. Attacking as the train with Demon Slave slows down time temporarily, allowing players to quickly draw a track and indicate points of damage along the route, ideally in the path of nearby enemies. Let go of the Demon Slave button and the train barrels down the ghost track in real time, dealing hefty damage to anything it hits. Bayonetta also acquires the ability to turn into a literal train-witch hybrid through Demon Masquerade, rushing forward with heavy-duty chainsaw-like attacks. Because of course she does.
Nintendo/PlatinumGames
By the time the train demon appears, it actually fits into the rest of the game nicely. Bayonetta’s world has always been wacky, and 3 is no exception. If you can handle the idea of Umbra Witches and bartending angels, you can deal with some light locomotive play.
I don’t take Bayonetta games too seriously and this feels like the right move, especially after playing the third installment. The series’ sense of combat is rich and its storyline is incredibly intricate, involving divine wars and parallel universes, and yet it all just feels like an excuse to make Bayonetta dance her way through a spell while massive monsters fight in the background. Thankfully, this is the best part of the series – Bayonetta is powerful and fighting in her (gun)shoes feels great, but her personality is what makes this franchise a cult hit. Bayonetta is confident, sarcastic and always correct; her outfits are stunning and so are her friends; she dances like an angel; she never has a hair out of place and her one-liners never stop. She’s a drag queen in a universe loosely held together by witchcraft, and the chaos of this combination is truly magical.
Bayonetta 3 is ridiculous and slightly disjointed, but that's precisely what makes it so wonderful. It builds on a multiverse of weird and witchy ideas, and it delivers exactly what fans of the series expect – something totally unexpected.
Nintendo/PlatinumGames
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Apple surprised us last week with two new iPads. We’ve spent a bit of time with the new entry-level iPad ($449) which has been redesigned to match the rest of the iPad family with flat edges, USB-C and a Touch ID-enabled power button. Unusually, it also has a landscape selfie camera. Inside, there’s an A14 chip, which might not match the M1 in the iPad Air (let alone the M2 in the new iPad Pro), but it’s still a powerful enough processor.
So far, Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham is pleasantly impressed, although there are other corners cut – it still only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil. Expect our full review and verdict soon. For now, read up on our first impressions here.
– Mat Smith
The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, bysubscribing right here.
Two agents may have tried to bribe a US law enforcement official.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Wednesday that two spies from the People's Republic of China attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into Huawei. According to a Bloomberg report, Guochun He and Zheng Wang were working for the benefit of Huawei. The two agents attempted to bribe a law enforcement official to provide them with information on the Justice Department's investigation. Starting in 2017, they allegedly sought to obtain details about witnesses, evidence and possible additional charges that could be filed against Huawei, unaware that they were talking to an FBI double agent.
Apple has raised the prices of Apple Music and Apple TV+. Music now costs $11 per month for individual plans (up from $10) in the US, or $109 per year. The Family plan now costs $17 per month instead of $15. TV+ sees the largest relative jump — the price has increased from $5 per month to $7, and from $50 per year to $69. Apple has also increased prices for its multi-service One bundles. You'll now pay $17 per month for an Individual plan versus the earlier $15.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has released audio of what our planet's magnetic field sounds like. While it protects us from cosmic radiation and charged particles from solar winds, it turns out that the magnetic field has an unnerving rumble. Scientists from the Technical University of Denmark converted data collected by the ESA's three Swarm satellites into sound, representing both the magnetic field and a solar storm.
Urtopia’s mission seemed pretty clear, to make the most feature-rich, connected bike the world has ever seen. Its ebike packs in a 4G SIM, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a fingerprint reader and even mmWave sensors for collision detection. However, when we tested an early prototype, we didn’t get to see how all that came together, software-wise. Now, we got to test the bike along with its companion app and some of its unique ideas. Thanks to the 4G radio, you should get a log of your ride in the app every single time you go out. We say “should” as it often didn’t work for Engadget’s James Trew.
Don’t spend a fortune on an autonomous dirt sucker.
In a change from just a few years ago, there are now plenty of budget robot vacuum options to choose from. We consider anything under $300 to be cheap in this space and you may be surprised to see how many there are to choose from. And if you’re new to the world of robot vacuums, you may find that one of these budget gadgets does everything you expected and more. We’ve got our favorite picks from the likes of Roomba, Shark and even Anker.
Last June, NASA announced that it would convene a panel to study "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAP), aka UFOs — while saying it doesn't believe they're "extraterrestrial in origin." Now, the space agency has unveiled the 16-member panel that will focus on "unclassified sightings and other data collected from civilian government and commercial sectors."
Chairing the panel is David Spergel, former head of astrophysics at Prince University. Other members include Anamaria Berea, a research affiliate at the SETI (Search for Intelligence Life) Institute in Mountainview, California; retired NASA astronaut and test pilot Scott Kelly; and others ranging from oceanographers to astrophysicists to science journalists.
The panel is separate from a Pentagon group investigating UAPs reported by military pilots and investigated by US defense and intelligence officials. Now, the US government is effectively running two tracks of UFO probes after keeping such work behind closed doors for years.
Conspicuously absent are special effects experts like Corridor Crew skilled at spotting fake and altered clips. In a recent video, the group debunked a number of famous videos UFO clips, even from the Pentagon, ascribing them to ordinary occurrences like a camera's iris, a bird and an infrared lens flare.
NASA itself doesn't seem to believe there's much going on with these videos and sightings, either. However, it said the panel can still serve an important role in determining how to classify them — even if there are no aliens involved.
"Understanding the data we have surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena is critical to helping us draw scientific conclusions about what's happening in our skies," said NASA associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen. "Data is the language of scientists and makes the unexplainable explainable."
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If you've been trying to send messages via WhatsApp and they're not going through, you're not alone. The messaging app has been down for many users around the world for at least 30 minutes. Based on information from Downdetector — and from Engadget editors' reports — the service isn't working in several regions, including the US, Canada, parts of Europe like the UK and Italy, and Asian countries that include India, Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines. WhatsApp users either can't connect to the service at all or their messages get stuck with the loading wheel and aren't being delivered. Instagram and Facebook appear to be working just fine.
The issue affects not just WhatsApp on mobile, but also on the web. It's not sending messages either, and if you try to set it up now, the QR code that you need to scan with a phone to link your account would be stuck in loading mode. We've reached out to Meta for information, but for now, it looks like you'll have to contact friends and family another way. The app's downtime, of course, affects people in certain locations more than others. In some parts of the world like Brazil and India, small businesses use the app to get in touch with customers, to sell goods and even to receive payments.
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The Federal Trade Commission wants to limit the amount of personal information Drizly can collect as part of the enforcement actions it's proposing against the marketplace and its CEO. According to the FTC, the alcohol delivery service that Uber had purchased in 2021 and its chief executive, James Cory Rellas, were alerted to security issues way back in 2018. The commission has found that they had failed to adequately protect their users' information, which enabled a data breach in 2020 that exposed the data of 2.5 million users.
Based on the FTC's original complaint, a Drizly employee posted the company's logins for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud account on GitHub in 2018. Drizly stores users' details, such as their emails, postal addresses, phone numbers, and even their unique device identifies, geolocation info and any other data purchased from third parties that can be linked back to them on AWS. Hackers were able to use those logins to infiltrate Drizly's servers and use them to mine cryptocurrency.
While Drizly took back control by changing its login information, the FTC says it failed to implement "reasonable safeguards" to protect its users and to address its security issues despite publicly claiming that it had done so. In 2020, a hacker was able to get into an employee's account and access the company's GitHub. They then hacked into Drizly's database and stole the personal information of 2.5 million customers, which had since been offered for sale on at least two different websites on the dark web.
The FTC says those events were made possible by Drizly's poor security practices, such as not requiring employees to use two-factor for GitHub, where it stored login information. Drizly also didn't limit workers' access to users' personal data, the FTC adds, and had no senior executive overseeing its security practices.
Under the FTC's proposed orders, Drizly will have to destroy any personal data it previously collected that's not necessary to be able to provide its services. It will also have to refrain from collecting unnecessary data in the future and will have to publicly divulge the information it requires from users on its website. In addition, it will have to implement a comprehensive security program and appoint an executive to oversee its operations.
The commission has also issued orders that personally apply to Rellas due to the role he played in presiding over Drizly's lax security practices. If Rellas decides to leave the alcohol deliver service, he will still be required to implement an information security program at future companies where he takes on the role of a CEO, majority owner or senior executive involved in security. As The Washington Post notes, the FTC rarely singled out executives in similar security breach cases in the past, and this indicates a new approach at handling companies with inadequate security measures.
Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement:
"Our proposed order against Drizly not only restricts what the company can retain and collect going forward but also ensures the CEO faces consequences for the company’s carelessness. CEOs who take shortcuts on security should take note."
The FTC will publish these proposed orders soon, and they will be open for public comment for 30 days before the commission decides if will make them official.
1. @FTC has taken action against @Drizly (a subsidiary of @Uber) and its CEO James Cory Rellas for security failures that led to a data breach exposing the personal information of around 2.5 million consumers. https://t.co/jQCtn9DU4C
