Facebook escalates feud with Apple over privacy changes, EU threatens to break up Big Tech if it doesn’t comply with new rules, SEC charges Robinhood with deceiving customers about how they make money, and more

 Facebook escalates feud with Apple over privacy changes

Facebook has released a series of advertisements that directly criticize Apple’s upcoming privacy changes to its mobile operating system. The advertisements, set to run in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post, claim that the updates will make “the internet more expensive,” or that the new feature will harm small businesses. Facebook also released in a blog post that Apple’s new policy is “more about profit than privacy.”

The update, set to release in 2021, includes the aforementioned feature, App Tracking Transparency, which will require users to opt-in to apps collecting their data rather than requiring that they opt-out. This update will threaten to disrupt ad-tracking features in apps, including Facebook. Facebook claims that the update will mean less profit for advertisers due to less effective tracking. Apple has repeatedly defended the tracking changes, saying that the update will give users more autonomy. In a public letter released last month, Jane Horvath, Apple’s privacy chief, wrote, “Facebook executives have made clear their intent is to collect as much data as possible across both first and third party products to develop and monetize detailed profiles of their users, and this disregard for user privacy continues to expand to include more of their products.”

 EU threatens to break up Big Tech if it doesn’t comply with new rules

On Tuesday, European officials revealed legislation that would force US tech companies to change business practices or face large fines, including breakups or bans for repeat offenders. This new legislation gives regulators sweeping power to rein in Big Tech players such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. The changes took form in two proposals: the Digital Services Act, which would obligate these large companies to remove harmful or illegal content from their platforms, and the Digital Markets Act, which would subject firms that act as “gatekeepers” to a compliance list to prevent unfair competition.

“The two proposals serve one purpose: to make sure that we, as users, have access to a wide choice of safe products and services online. And that businesses operating in Europe can freely and fairly compete online just as they do offline,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner leading the charge on tech issues, in a statement. The United Kingdom, which left the EU earlier this year, will also participate in the proposed acts. According to CNN, “Tech companies that fail to remove or limit the spread of illegal content will face fines of up to 10% of their annual sales under rules proposed on Tuesday.”

 SEC charges Robinhood with deceiving customers about how they make money

On Thursday, the SEC charged Robinhood, the stock trading app, with misleading customers on how they make money as well as failing to deliver the promised best execution of trades. Robinhood agreed to pay a $65 million civil penalty, all without denying or admitting the SEC’s accusations.

“Between 2015 and late 2018, Robinhood made misleading statements and omissions in customer communications, including in FAQ pages on its website, about its largest revenue source when describing how it made money — namely, payments from trading firms in exchange for Robinhood sending its customer orders to those firms for execution, also known as ‘payment for order flow,’” the SEC released in a statement. “One of Robinhood’s selling points to customers was that trading was ‘commission-free,’ but due in large part to its unusually high payment for order flow rates, Robinhood customers’ orders were executed at prices that were inferior to other brokers’ prices,” the statement added.

 WordPress Redux plugin vulnerability affects over 1 million websites

Redux, the popular WordPress plugin that allows publishers to browse and choose from thousands of Gutenberg blocks and templates, recently patched a vulnerability that allowed an attacker to bypass security measures in a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack. A CSRF attack is a method used by attackers to exploit a vulnerability in a code which allows them to perform actions on a website; it also lets them exploit the credentials of an authenticated user.

According to SEO Journal, “This particular attack bypassed security checks by exploiting a coding bug that caused a site to improperly validate security tokens.” As of Thursday, WordPress has announced that the CSRF vulnerability has been fixed.

 Online thrift shop Poshmark files to go public

On Thursday, Poshmark, the online marketplace for selling secondhand clothing, filed an IPO prospectus. This filing follows two consecutive profitable quarters for Poshmark. The online clothing reseller was founded in 2011 and operates much like eBay by connecting buyers and sellers. Poshmark makes a profit by taking a cut of each transaction. In 2020, revenue increased 28 percent in the first three quarters, making a profit of over $20.9 million in that stretch.

Like other online retailers, Poshmark benefited from the influx in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic as local governments shut retail stores across the globe; Poshmark has since reported 6.2 million active buyers and 31.7 million active users. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “POSH.”

 Alex Theuma, Founder and CEO of SaaStock, On Becoming an Entrepreneur

Speaking with Alex means speaking with a founder knowledgeable in several areas: bootstrapping a complex business model, scaling a successful team, enterprise sales, strategic partnerships, and managing a global community. Alex possesses not only these tried and proven entrepreneurial skills, but also has the unique advantage of watching hundreds of speakers discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS. He always has a finger on the pulse. . .

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