Linked List: February 14, 2019

Thursday, 14 February 2019

The FTC and Facebook Are Negotiating a Record, Multibillion-Dollar Fine for the Company’s Privacy Lapses ★

Tony Romm, reporting for The Washington Post:

The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are negotiating over a multi-billion dollar fine that would settle the agency’s investigation into the social media giant’s privacy practices, according to two people familiar with the probe.

The fine would be the largest the agency has ever imposed on a technology company, but the two sides have not yet agreed on an exact amount. Facebook has expressed initial concern with the FTC’s demands, one of the people said. If talks break down, the FTC could take the matter to court in what would likely be a bruising legal fight.

Finally, billions, not millions. Fuck these negotiations: tell them it’s $20 billion and take them to court if they don’t accept it.

New US Postage Stamp Designed by Aaron Draplin ★

Perfect. I’m going to buy a lifetime supply of these.

Kroger Pay ★

Dan Monk, reporting for ~~WKRP~~ WCPO Cincinnati

The Kroger Co. debuted a new mobile payment option Wednesday that is launching in Columbus and Colorado but expanding to all stores nationwide by year end.

Kroger Pay is an app that generates a single-use QR code that can be scanned at the checkout counter to pay for a Kroger purchase. The app can be linked to any major credit or debit card. Kroger is also launching the Kroger Rewards debit card so payments, fuel points and other rewards can be tied to each purchase.

I don’t think there’s a Kroger anywhere near Philadelphia. I’ve never set foot in one. But they’re a huge chain — the largest supermarket chain in the world — so, like Walmart, they might have a chance of making their own payments thing work, eschewing Apple Pay.

But, still, QR codes? Gross.

White House Announces National Emergency Using iPhone Notes App ★

Very serious, well-prepared people, the Trump administration.

It’s not even a clean screenshot — Sanders screwed it up with a black dot from the Markup feature while cropping.

Peter Kafka: ‘The Logic Behind Apple’s Give-Us-Half-Your-Revenue Pitch to News Publishers’ ★

Peter Kafka, writing at Recode:

Here’s the short answer, which I’ve cobbled together by talking to industry sources: Apple has already signed many publishers to deals where they’ll get 50 percent of the revenue Apple generates through subscriptions to its news service, which is currently called Texture and will be relaunched as a premium version of Apple News this spring.

And some publishers are happy to do it, because they think Apple will sign up many millions of people to the new service. And they’d rather have a smaller percentage of a bigger number than a bigger chunk of a smaller number.

In the words of a publishing executive who is optimistic about Apple’s plans: “It’s the absolute dollars paid out that matters, not the percentage.”

Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters ★

J. David Goodman, reporting for The New York Times:

Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from some lawmakers and unions, who contended that a tech giant did not deserve nearly $3 billion in government incentives.

What a waste of time and effort. Maybe next time don’t treat it like a game show.