Over the past few years, Amazon hasn’t had the best relationship with its employees, thanks in part due to the mass layoffs and poor working conditions. Now, in a powerful display of discontent, thousands of Amazon employees across the globe staged a walkout on Wednesday to protest against the company’s recent return-to-office mandate, layoffs, and environmental track record.
The walkout was spearheaded by the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, and over 1,000 employees gathered outside the Spheres, the iconic glass domes that serve as Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Against the backdrop of office towers, employees held signs with messages such as “Amazon, strive harder” and “Earth’s best employer? Stop the PR and listen to us.” Additionally, speakers from both employee groups voiced their concerns about Amazon’s decision to mandate a return to the office for at least three days per week, and they also shared stories highlighting the benefits of remote work.
Environmental impact
According to the employees, this walkout also represents the company’s failures in meeting its climate commitments. This is because, despite launching a “Climate Pledge” plan, Amazon’s most recent sustainability report revealed a 40% increase in carbon emissions between 2019 and 2021. Moreover, employees also allege that the company underestimates its carbon footprint by not counting emissions from the products it buys from manufacturers and sells directly to consumers.
Eliza Pan, a co-founder of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, emphasized the significance of the walkout, stating, “We still want a say in the important decisions that affect all of our lives, and tech workers are going to stand up for ourselves, for each other, for our families, the communities where Amazon operates, and for life on planet Earth.”
Mounting frustrations
While Amazon mandated the return to the office a few months ago, this employee action comes at a time when the company recently concluded a round of layoffs and is facing economic challenges with slowing retail sales. As a result, many employees fear that more job cuts are imminent, causing widespread panic. However, it’s important to note that Amazon has yet to issue an official comment in response to the walkout and the concerns expressed by its employees.
It’s what we all feared, but hoped wouldn’t be the case.
Every single Amazon Ring employee was able to access every single customer video, even when it wasn’t necessary for their jobs.
Not only that, but the employees—along with workers from a third-party contractor in Ukraine—could also download any of those videos and then save and share them as they liked, before July 2017.
That’s what the FTC has alleged in a recent complaint, for which Amazon is facing a settlement of $5.8 million.
And, unsurprisingly, some employees abused that access right.
In one example, the FTC says a Ring employee viewed thousands of videos from at least 81 different female users. The employee allegedly went looking for camera feeds that suggested they may have been used in the most private of areas, such as “Master Bedroom,” “Master Bathroom,” and “Spy cam”.
Between June and August 2017, the employee looked through the videos for at least an hour a day on hundreds of occasions. Another employee noticed and reported it to their supervisor who allegedly told them that it was “normal” for an engineer to view so many accounts.
From the FTC complaint:
“Only after the supervisor noticed that the male employee was only viewing videos of “pretty girls” did the supervisor escalate the report of misconduct. Only at that point did Ring review a portion of the employee’s activity and, ultimately, terminate his employment.”
As a result of that incident, Ring narrowed its employees’ access rights in September 2017, so that customers had to consent to customer service agents accessing their videos. However, Ring continued to allow hundreds of other employees and third-party contractors access to all video data, regardless of whether they actually needed it in order to perform their jobs.
So, then, more abuse of that access occurred. In January 2018, a male employee used his access rights to spy on a female colleague’s videos, looking her up using her email address.
In February 2018, employee access rights were narrowed further, with engineers (both employees and third-party contractors) only given access to customer videos if there was a business need. Videos used for research and development were limited to those posted by customers to Ring’s Neighbors app, and those for which employees, contractors, and their friends and family had given their written consent for such use.
In Februrary 2019, Ring changed its access practices again so that most Ring employees or contractors could only access a customer’s private video with that customer’s consent.
The FTC lists several further examples of access abuse and spying. According to the complaint, Ring actually has no idea how much inappropriate access went on, because there were no detection measures in place:
“Importantly, because Ring failed to implement basic measures to monitor and detect inappropriate access before February 2019, Ring has no idea how many instances of inappropriate access to customers’ sensitive video data actually occurred.”
Bad apples aside, before May 2018 Ring also wasn’t conducting any employee training on privacy or data security, despite the fact that the company was collecting huge amounts of highly sensitive data. Nor did it advise employees or third-party contractors that customer video data was sensitive and should be treated as such.
Customers had no idea their video was able to be accessed by so many employees. The FTC says that before December 2017, Ring’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy didn’t say Ring employees and contractors would have the right to review all video recordings for product improvement and development:
In the middle of lengthy terms dense with legalese, Ring merely described the company’s right to use recordings obtained in connection with Ring’s (then called Doorbot’s) cloud service for product improvement and development.
The FTC says Ring also failed to implement basic security measures to protect users from threats such as credential stuffing and brute force attacks, despite warnings from employees and external security researchers, nor did it implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) until May 2019, long after many competitors had done so.
As a result of these bad practices, Ring suffered several security incidents. Between January 2019 and March 2020, the FTC alleges that more than 55,000 customers had their Ring devices compromised. In some instances cybercriminals used the two-way communication to terrorise Ring customers, like something from a horror movie:
Several women lying in bed heard hackers curse at them
Several children had racist slurs thrown at them
An elderly woman in an assisted living facility was sexually propositioned and physically threatened
A digital intruder told a woman through her camera that they had killed her mother, and then said: “Tonight you die”
A woman was told her location was being tracked and that her device would self-destruct at the end of a countdown. She disconnected the device before the countdown ended.
Aside from the fine, Ring has been ordered to delete any customer videos and data collected from an individual’s face—known as “face embeddings”—that Ring obtained before 2018. Ring must also delete any work products it derived from the videos.
Children’s privacy
In a separate settlement announced the same day, Amazon agreed to pay $25 million for failing to protect children’s privacy.
The Department of Justice filed the complaint and proposed settlement on behalf of the FTC. The complaint alleged that Amazon kept Alexa voice and geolocation information associated with young users for years while preventing parents from using their rights to delete their kids’ data under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule.
The FTC said in a post that kids’ speech patterns could have been especially valuable to Amazon since they differ from those of adults:
“Children’s speech patterns are markedly different from adults, so Alexa’s voice recordings gave Amazon a valuable data set for training the Alexa algorithm and further Amazon’s commercial interest in developing new products.”
Alongside the $25 million settlement, Amazon will be banned from using children’s voice information and geolocation data for creating or improving a data product. It must also delete inactive child accounts on Alexa, and notify users about the government action against the company and of its retention and deletion practices.
Additionally, Amazon will have to implement a privacy program to govern its use of geolocation information.
We don’t just report on threats—we remove them
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Vimeo is one of the more popular video-sharing platforms outside of YouTube. It, like YouTube, has an app that can be downloaded on several different TV platforms. However, according to Engadget, Vimeo just announced that it’s going to be removing its TV apps.
Vimeo is a prominent video streaming service, but it’s really a hit for business owners and creators. It’s not quite going to dethrone YouTube, but it’s still a platform that offers a great experience. If you’re looking for a platform to post your creations outside of YouTube, then you may want to consider Vimeo. There’s a great community around this video-sharing platform.
Vimeo announced that it’s removing its TV apps
This is bad news for people who typically watch their Vimeo videos on the big screen. The company officially announced that it’s going to end support for its current TV apps starting on June 27th. This means that it will be unlisted from Android TV, Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV devices. You won’t be able to download the app on these platforms, and it will no longer receive software updates.
Disappointed Vimeo users open the TV app to find a lengthy text-based update. It referred to the TV app as a “legacy product”, and that it is “no longer consistent with [Vimeo’s] standards.” We’re not sure how much traffic the TV apps are getting, but we can expect that it’s not stellar if the company is getting rid of them.
So, if you want to watch your content, how might you be able to do this? Well, your only solution is casting. You can use the iOS or Android app to cast the content right to your TV. This is a lot less convenient, as casting is not as intuitive as a native app. However, that’s your only option. Vimeo users still have the majority of the month to enjoy the app on their TV.
Just like the actual app, this coming BeReal RealChat direct messaging feature might be a sensation. The roll-out of this feature will cause excitement among users of the BeReal social media app. When the app became available back in 2020, it took some time to build up momentum among netizens.
Two years after the app’s launch, it started getting a lot of attention from users around the world. Those who were looking out to break a social media addiction whilst being a bit engaged in posting from time to time. In the year 2022, the BeReal app won the Apple iPhone App of the Year.
Now it is time for new features on the app, and some beta testers are already experimenting with a direct messaging feature. This will help users of the BeReal app to better connect with their family and friends on the platform. The company also promises users that the direct messaging feature will give users control over whom they interact with on the platform.
Asides from posting frontback pictures, users can access a direct messaging feature
The entire concept of the BeReal app is to show what you are doing at a given time. This app gives users 2 minutes every day to post what they are up to via a frontback image capturing format. To do this, the app employs the users’ front and rear cameras to capture a selfie and a main camera image.
Users of the app don’t get to pick the time of the day, they get the notification to make a post in under 2 minutes. By doing this, the app can get users to share a realistic part of their everyday life without any filters or fakery. This makes the BeReal app stand out from other social media apps available to users around the world.
But for a long time now, this ‘anti-fakery’ social media app has not had a direct messaging feature. Users have long clamored for a direct messaging feature on the app and finally, they will get it. BeReal currently has a feature known as RealChat that is in its testing phase and will let users chat with one another.
Asides from giving users the ability to chat with one another, this feature also lets them block and report other users. This protective feature is to be put to use whenever a user feels threatened by another user while chatting. At the moment, this chatting feature is not ready for global usage as it is undergoing tests.
In the coming weeks, BeReal will roll out the RealChat direct messaging feature globally. This will give users a new way to interact with one another while on the BeReal app. More information on this feature will be available in the coming weeks.
The Idaho Falls Community Hospital fell victim to a cyberattack on Monday and had to divert ambulances to nearby hospitals and close some of its clinics.
The Idaho Falls Community Hospital fell victim to a cyberattack on Monday May 29, 2023. As a result, the hospital had to divert ambulances to other nearby hospitals and close some of its clinics.
The hospital is keeping the public updated through its website and Facebook page.
“Our commitment to our patients’ well-being continues to remain our top priority. As we continue to recover from a cyberattack, we want to assure everyone Idaho Falls Community Hospital and Mountain View Hospital remain open and continue to safely care for all our patients. The vast majority of our partner clinics are also seeing patients as usual. Our doctors, nurses and other care providers continue to be here for you.”
The hospital said that patients will be contacted by their provider if their appointments are impacted.
According to the initial statement, the hospital’s IT team identified the attack quickly and took immediate action to limit the impacts and keep all patient information safe and secure.
While the exact nature of the cyberattack is unknown at this point and the hospital calls it a “virus”, it is more likely that it is dealing with a ransomware attack. By definition, a virus is a program or piece of code, that runs against your wish and can replicate itself. I put emphasis on “replicate” for a reason. This is because the replication factor is a very important component in the definition of a virus.
Viruses are usually destructive in nature and almost never yield monetary gain to the cybercriminals. Ransomware is just as crippling, but its primary goal is extortion, which is usually paired with data theft. The stolen data will be used as extra leverage to convince the victim to pay, or else the data will be sold or published. And since the hospital emphasized that they managed to “keep all patient information safe and secure” this is a more likely scenario than an actual virus.
It is no secret that healthcare providers are attractive targets to ransomware gangs. Because of their nature they offer a large attack surface. That means they use all kinds of equipment which could be vulnerable and they need to be easily accessible both on and offline. On top of that they are likely to have a host of sensitive data stored on their systems.
Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic, promises were made by some ransomware gangs to leave hospitals alone. But cybercriminals behaving like criminals isn’t something we should be shocked about, and attacks on healthcare providers have been on the rise ever since.
Prevent intrusions. Stop threats early before they can even infiltrate or infect your endpoints. Use endpoint security software that can prevent exploits and malware used to deliver ransomware.
Detect intrusions. Make it harder for intruders to operate inside your organization by segmenting networks and assigning access rights prudently. Use EDR or MDR to detect unusual activity before an attack occurs.
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Create offsite, offline backups. Keep backups offsite and offline, beyond the reach of attackers. Test them regularly to make sure you can restore essential business functions swiftly.
Don’t get attacked twice. Once you’ve isolated the outbreak and stopped the first attack, you must remove every trace of the attackers, their malware, their tools, and their methods of entry, to avoid being attacked again.
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The Pixel 7a is the latest mid-range smartphone from Google. At this point, we’ve compared it to a number of devices, and today, another one joins the fold. In this article, we’ll compare the Google Pixel 7a vs Nothing Phone (1). The Nothing Phone (2) is right around the corner, but the first-gen model is still a good choice. Design-wise it’s a lot different than the Pixel 7a, but they compete in a similar sector of the market.
These two handsets have rather similar price tags, and both aim at consumers who want mid-range smartphones. Considering how different they are visually, this should be a rather interesting comparison. We’ll first list their specifications, and will then move to compare their designs, displays, performance, battery life, cameras, and audio performance.
The Pixel 7a and Nothing Phone (1) look considerably different. The Pixel 7a is made out of metal and plastic. It is a squarish phone with a flat display, and a centered display camera hole at the top. It has a camera visor on the back, which is covered by metal, and hosts two cameras. That camera visor extends from one side of the phone to the other, and it does give a phone a rather interesting look.
The Nothing Phone (1), on the other hand, is made out of metal and glass. This phone is quite eye-catching, mainly because of its back. It has a see-through glass backplate on the back, with Glyph LED lights below it. It makes for a rather interesting look, and a conversation starter, that’s for sure. This phone has a flat display, with a display camera hole in the top-left corner. It has flat sides, unlike the Pixel 7a, and rounded corners. It also features two cameras on the back, but the design is completely different compared to the Pixel 7a.
The Pixel 7a has a smaller display than the Nothing Phone (1), and is shorter, narrower, and a bit thicker than Nothing’s handset. The two phones do weigh the same, though, which is quite interesting. They both weigh 193.5 grams. The fact the Pixel 7a has a plastic back and it’s smaller doesn’t really reflect on its weight, apparently. The Pixel 7a does have a better certification for water resistance, as it’s IP67 certified. The Nothing Phone (1) comes with IP53 certification for splash resistance. They both feel like quality pieces of tech, but they also feel entirely different in the hand.
Google Pixel 7a vs Nothing Phone (1): Display
The Pixel 7a comes with a 6.1-inch fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) OLED display. That panel is flat, and it supports HDR content. It offers a 90Hz refresh rate, and has a 20:9 aspect ratio. The phone is protected by the Gorilla Glass 3. The Pixel 7a has a lower screen-to-body ratio than the Nothing Phone (1).
The Nothing Phone (1) includes a 6.55-inch fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) OLED display. This panel is flat, and it can show up to 1 billion colors. It also supports HDR10+ content, and a 120Hz refresh rate. It has a peak brightness of around 700 nits, and comes with a 20:9 aspect ratio. This panel is protected by the Gorilla Glass 5.
The Nothing Phone (1) not only has a higher refresh rate, but it has considerably better display protection. The Gorilla Glass 3 is kind of prone to microscratches, the Gorilla Glass 5 is much better in that regard. You’re advised to use a screen protector on the Pixel 7a, that’s for sure. The display on the Nothing Phone (1) also seems to be a bit more color accurate but both panels are great. They have great viewing angles, are quite vivid, and also offer good touch response.
Google Pixel 7a vs Nothing Phone (1): Performance
The Pixel 7a is fueled by the Google Tensor G2 SoC. It includes 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage. The Nothing Phone (1), on the flip side, is fueled by the Snapdragon 778G+ processor. The device comes with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage. The Pixel 7a is technically more powerful due to its processor, but the Nothing Phone (1) is nothing to scoff at.
When it comes to sheer performance, they both do a great job. In regular, everyday tasks, the Nothing Phone (1) keeps up with the Pixel 7a. Everything ranging from opening apps, multitasking, browsing, consuming multimedia etc., both phones handle beautifully. Now, the Tensor G2 wasn’t exactly made for gaming, but it does a good job at it. Well, when it comes to the most demanding games on the Play Store, you may have to adapt the details and settings a bit, but for the most part, it does a good job.
The Snapdragon 778G+ is a bit dated SoC at this point, but it still packs a punch. The vast majority of games are not a problem for it, at all. Still, do keep in mind that neither of these two phones are made for gaming. They do a great job in regular, everyday performance, however.
Google Pixel 7a vs Nothing Phone (1): Battery
There is a 4,385mAh battery included inside the Pixel 7a. The Nothing Phone (1), on the other hand, includes a 4,500mAh battery. That being said, both of these smartphones will likely be able to get you through the day, unless you’re really pushing them hard. We’ve been able to get around 7+ hours of screen-on-time with the Pixel 7a, once the battery settled. It even crossed the 8-hour mark a couple of times.
The Nothing Phone (1) lands a bit lower than that, but the battery life is okay, nothing special. It should be enough for most people, however. Do note that battery life can vary quite a bit, of course. You’ll be using different apps in different ways, and with different signal strengths. Both phones offer good battery life, but nowhere near the best we’ve seen this year.
Now, when it comes to charging, things are quite interesting. The Pixel 7a supports 18W wired and 7.5W wireless charging. The Nothing Phone (1) offers 33W wired charging support, along with 15W wireless, and 5W reverse wireless charging. Nothing’s device offers faster charging in both wired and wireless segments. Neither of the two phones includes a charger in the box, however.
Google Pixel 7a vs Nothing Phone (1): Cameras
The Pixel 7a features a 64-megapixel main camera, and a 13-megapixel ultrawide unit (120-degree FoV). The Nothing Phone (1), on the flip side, includes a 50-megapixel main camera, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide snapper (114-degree FoV). The Nothing Phone (1) actually managed to surprise with its camera quality from the get-go, while we expected great performance from the Pixel 7a.
Having said that, the Nothing Phone (1) camera did improve since launch, and Nothing has a truly capable snapper on its hands. It offers a great balance in good lighting, with plenty of details. The Pixel 7a offers a bit more contrasty images, which more people will likely prefer, images taken with that phone simply pop. Having said that, in low light, both phones do a good job, but the Pixel 7a simply balances out images a bit better.
Unlike its siblings, the Pixel 7a tends to provide warmer shots in low light, like most other phones. It manages to get a lot of detail from the shadows, and generally produces well-balanced photos. The Nothing Phone (1) is not far behind, actually, as it improved since launch, but overall the images tend to show a bit less detail in such conditions. Ultrawide cameras on both phones do a good job of keeping up the color profile the main cameras offer. They do present a degradation in quality compared to main snappers, though. The Pixel 7a has a wider FoV, and that’s something we did find to appreciate.
Audio
You’ll find a set of stereo speakers on both of these phones. The thing is, the top speaker on the Nothing Phone (1) is rather quiet. That is noticeable, especially if you compare it to another device, such as the Pixel 7a. The Pixel 7a offers better audio output.
When it comes to an audio jack, neither of these two phones has one, unfortunately. You’ll have to resort to their Type-C ports for wired audio connections. When it comes to wireless connection, the Pixel 7a offers Bluetooth 5.3, while the Nothing Phone (1) supports Bluetooth 5.2.
Google is no stranger to advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2017, the tech giant donated $1 million to the Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Community Center in New York to digitize the story of the Stonewall Riots, considered the defining moment in the pursuit for LGTBTQ+ rights. Every year, the company celebrates Pride Month by putting a spotlight on diversity and highlighting Google’s LGBTQ+ initiatives. The company’s latest commemoration for Pride Month is the launch of a hub celebrating the history and heritage of the Ballroom scene, a LGBTQ+ subculture.
Google’s new Ballroom in Focus Hub spotlights a growing LGBTQ+ subculture
As first reported by Android Police, Google’s recently launched Ballroom in Focus hub resulted from a partnership between Google Arts & Culture, experts from the Ballroom community, and Destination Toronto.
The hub contains about 2,000 photos, half of which have been digitized for the first time. The repository of images includes a few items that have been enhanced using Photo Unblur and Magic Eraser, two AI-powered editing tools found on the Pixel 7a as well as other Android phones.
Further noted by Android Police, Ballroom in Focus highlights more than 25 stories from pioneers of the Ballroom scene. The hub also pays tribute to community leaders who have made significant contributions to Ballroom culture, including Christopher Street and Junior LaBeija.
Google is putting on a spotlight on LGBT+ content for Pride Month
Google’s Pride Month celebrations extend to other products as well. The Play Store, for instance, features apps, games and books curated for the LGBTQ+ community. This includes Spotify. Google TV is also featuring a variety of LGBTQ+ content throughout the month — such as RuPaul’s Drag All Race All Stars and The Stroll — which will be identifiable by the rainbow flag.
Over on YouTube, the video-sharing platform is spotlighting LGBTQ+ content creators in the beauty, gaming and lifestyle spaces. That means you’ll see creators like Guy Tang, DIY with KB, and Say What? It’s Vegan take centre stage on the platform during the month of June.
Meanwhile, Google Assistant is joining in with stories from LGBTQ+ community members. Which are triggered when you say, “Hey Google, Happy Pride.”
Last but not least, Google Meet is entering the fray with a Pride effect that brightens your background. Enabling this adds a rainbow color tint and a rainbow flag heart to your cheek.
In recent years, Google honored Pride Month by adding LGBTQ+ Pride backgrounds to its Wallpapers App, as well as adding labels for locations that have gender-neutral washrooms in Google Maps and Search.
The stealthy SeroXen RAT is available as a legit RAT for Windows 11 and 10 just for $15-$30 per month, and for $60, buyers get a lifetime license.
A fileless RAT (remote access trojan) has become the preferred tool for cybercriminals to target gamers. Dubbed SeroXen, the malware is distributed as a legit program on hacker forums and social media outlets, as per a report from AT&T.
Analyzing SeroXen RAT:
SeroXen RAT has excellent detection evasion capabilities on static and dynamic analysis. Since it results from a combination of different open-source projects, including r77-rootkit, Quasar RAT, and NirCmd, its capabilities get further enhanced, making it a powerful RAT.
For your information, Quasar RAT is a lightweight remote administration tool discovered in 2014 and available on GitHub for free. Quasar’s latest version (1.41) features a variety of functions such as remote desktop, reverse proxy, TLS communication, remote shell, and a file management system.
Conversely, the open-source r77 rootkit also features fileless persistence, in-memory process injection, malware embedding, child process hooking, and antivirus evasion capabilities. NirCmd, a freeware utility, can only carry out Windows system management tasks from the command line.
How Is It Delivered?
SeroXen RAT is delivered either via phishing emails or Discord channels. The attack scenario involves downloading a ZIP file and a hidden batch file. This file is automatically executed, and after several steps, the final payload is eventually installed as two .NET arrays. One of these is a rootkit, having versatile capabilities such as fileless persistence, EDR evasion, in-memory process injection, and function hooking.
A Low-Cost RAT Targeting Gaming Community
The stealthy SeroXen malware is available as a legit RAT for Windows 11 and 10 just for $15-$30 per month, and for $60, buyers get a lifetime license. This RAT could be very attractive for threat actors at such a low cost.
It is still unclear whether those offering the malware for sale are developers or resellers of SeroXen. Nonetheless, according to AT&T’s blog post, the company analyzed hundreds of samples since the malware first surfaced in September 2022, and the gaming community is mostly the target.
However, attackers may expand the scope of attack given the easy availability and low cost of SeroXen. Watch as CyberSec Zaado, a cybersecurity researcher, exposes the SeroXen RAT and alerts the community about its capabilities from a defensive perspective.
SeroXen- An Undetectable RAT?
Researchers noted that, at the moment, no antimalware tools can detect this malware, which is why researchers referred to it as a “fully undetectable version.”
“Since the RAT is packaged into an obfuscated PowerShell batch file. The file’s size typically ranges between 12-14 megabytes, as we can see in sample 8ace121fae472cc7ce896c91a3f1743d5ccc8a389bc3152578c4782171c69e87 uploaded to VT on May 21. Due to its relatively large size, certain antivirus may choose not to analyze it, potentially bypassing detection,” AT&T Alien Lab’s report read.
The sample analyzed by AT&T researchers had 0 detections on Virus Total, while some crowdsourced Sigma Rules detected it as suspicious activity. However, given that it is a lifeless malware that executes in memory after undergoing numerous decompression and decryption routines, it is hard for antivirus solutions to detect it.
Moreover, SeroXen’s toolkit loads a new copy of ntdll.dll, making it even harder to detect the malware through EDR (endpoint detection & response) solutions.
Streaming services are great, but you can wind up subscribing to a bunch of them just to watch your favorite content- and that can be expensive! This is where convenient bundles come in, and Verizon has one that’s pretty tempting. According to Engadget, starting on June 2nd, Verizon will bundle Netflix Premium and Paramount+ with Showtime so you’ll only pay one convenient monthly fee.
This is all part of Verizon’s +play service. Verizon +play is basically a platform where you can subscribe to and manage multiple subscriptions all in one place. So, instead of having to go to each service’s app or website to manage them, you can manage them all from one easy place. Of course, you’ll have to be a Verizon customer to capitalize on this.
Verizon will bundle Netflix Premium and Paramount+ with one easy payment
Bundles like these are great for saving money, as you’ll wind up paying less for a bundle than each subscription service separately.
In the case of this bundle, you will get Netflix Premium and Paramount+ with Showtime for a convenient $26/month. That may seem kind of steep, but we’re talking about the most expensive tiers from each respective streaming service. Separately, they’ll add up to $30.98/month. So, you’ll be saving about $6 each month.
Netflix Premium costs $19.99/month, and you’ll gain access to the full library of content available on Netflix. This includes smash hit Netflix originals like Bridgerton, Stranger Things, Squid Game, and others.
Paramount+ with Showtime costs $11.99/month. With it, you’ll gain access to original shows such as School Spirits, but you’ll also gain access to a plethora of other content from different TV channels such as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and others. Also, don’t forget the massive library of shows and movies provided through Showtime.
With these streaming services combined, you’ll enjoy hundreds of hours of entertaining content to keep you glued to your TV. If you want to partake in this deal, you may want to consider becoming a Verizon customer. Check out Verizon’s plans below.
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta announced it would block news stories in California if the state passes its “California Journalism Preservation Act.” The bill requires Big Tech companies to pay news publishers for using their content.
Google and Facebook have been in a constant fight with lawmakers and news publishers over paying for the content they show to users. The companies argue that they don’t need to pay for the content because they’re funneling users to the publisher’s website for free. On the other hand, publishers and their advocates claim that journalism is dying because of the free usage of content, and they need compensation to make up for their losses.
California is now one step closer to passing a bill that obligates Facebook and Instagram to pay news publishers. The California Journalism Preservation Act essentially wants a 70% cut from the money online platforms make from showing users news content. The collected money would benefit local newsrooms dealing with declining revenues.
Facebook and Instagram are against paying news publishers in California
In response, Meta threatened that it would block news stories in California if lawmakers pass the bill. The company argued that the bill would assist the out of California websites more than websites located in the state.
“If the Journalism Preservation Act passes, we will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram, rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers,” Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, said. Meta spokesman continued that the bill would force the company to “pay or remove the news.”
On the contrary, the bill sponsor Buffy Wicks believes such bills would act like a “lifeline” for the local news organizations with plunged advertising revenues. “As news consumption has moved online, community news outlets have been downsized and closing at an alarming rate,” Wicks added.
Danielle Coffey, executive vice president of the News Media Alliance trade group, also defends the idea of forcing Big Tech into paying local newsrooms. He called Meta’s threat “undemocratic and unbecoming.”
Google already had a similar case in Europe, but it was finally forced to settle with over 300 publishers throughout the continent. It remains to be seen if Meta would bow down to the bill. However, paying Californian news organizations could lead to more states designing a similar bill and asking Meta to pay their local newsrooms.
