Nintendo Switch Delayed by Coronavirus; Facebook Demands Clearview Stop Scraping; Apple’s ‘CarKey’ Feature for iPhone & Watch; Teens Outsmart Instagram

Earlier, there was some speculation that the coronavirus outbreak in China might delay the freshened, smaller iPhone this spring. Now, geekwire.com reports that production of Nintendo Switch units and some accessories actually HAS been delayed due to the virus. The accessories include JoyCon Controllers and a game- Ring Fit Adventure. Nintendo didn’t say how long they expected the delay to last, but said the initial impact would be to devices shipped to Japan and also other places in China.

We’d all love to tell Facebook, Google, and the rest to stop scraping OUR data! Now, Facebook has sent a case and desist letter to facial recognition startup Clearview AI to stop scraping their (our) data! According to engadget.com, Facebook joins Google and Twitter in the C&D. Facebook also includes subsidiary Instagram in its demand. Clearview has apparently been scraping billions of images from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube without consent to build out a giant facial recognition database, which it then makes available to around 600 police agencies in North America. The startup claims its tech is 99.6% accurate in identifying individuals. So far, no tech has been over 85-90%, and their claim is unverified. In an interesting twist, Facebook board member Peter Thiel was an early investor in Clearview AI. Venmo has also sent a cease and desist to the startup.

In the beta for iOS 13.4 that just went out to developers, eagle-eyed programmers have spotted references to a ‘CarKey’ API, which would make it possible to use an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start your car! 9to5mac.com says this goes beyond most car apps. I already have an app for my car that can start and stop it, lock and unlock it, etc. from my phone. What’s different about Apple’s CarKey is that it will enable using CarKey in NFC compatible cars that would let you just hold the device near the vehicle to use it as a key. You won’t have to use FaceID like with Express Transit Cards. It will EVEN work with and iPhone or Watch that has a dead battery! The pairing is don’t through the Apple Wallet app, which will need to shake hands with the car manufacturer’s app first. The CarKey will live within the more secure Wallet App on both the phone and Watch.

Even the biggest company with a raft of good programmers can be outsmarted by clever kids. Apparently, teens have been using group accounts on Instagram to feed randomized data to the social network and protect their privacy. Cnet.com reports that the teens are relying on a sophisticated network of trusted Instagram users to post content from multiple different devices, from multiple different locations. Facebook said that this method was not against its policies, but didn’t recommend it to people because of security concerns. Nearly everything you do online is tracked. Tech giants like Facebook and Google follow what you do on their services, as well as off. It’s why you might start seeing more posts related to puppies on Instagram after purchasing dog food on Amazon, for example.