Meta Suing Cloner for Scraping; TikTok Punts Live Shopping in US & EU; Apple-Lockdown Mode; Ads on Android Lock Screens

Meta is suing two prolific data scrapers. Engadget.com reports that they have filed separate federal lawsuits against a company called Octopus and an individual named Ekrem Ateş. According to Meta, the former is the US subsidiary of a Chinese multinational tech firm that offers data scraping-for-hire services to individuals and companies. Octopus also sells software people can use to carry out their own data collection campaigns. The software can obtain phone numbers, dates of birth and other personal information about every Facebook and Instagram friend connected to a particular Octopus customer. ” As for Ekrem Ateş, the individual Meta sued, the company says he used automated Instagram accounts to collect information on more than 350,000 Instagram users and later published that data on a series of clone sites where one could view the data of those individuals without their consent. 

TikTok has been a juggernaut in social media, but may have hit a pretty big speed bump for at least one of their plans. According to theverge.com, TikTok is scaling back its live commerce plans in Europe and the US, the Financial Times reported, after early launches simply haven’t been successful. TikTok has been testing live shopping in the UK since late last year. The live online shopping has been successful in India and other parts of Asia. It is possible that they will reimagine and retool the effort and try again, of course. 

Apple has announced a new Lockdown Mode coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura. Apple says the optional security feature is designed to protect the “very small number” of users who may be at risk of “highly targeted cyberattacks” from private companies developing state-sponsored spyware, such as journalists, activists, and government employees. Macrumors.com says that Lockdown Mode will be available to all users when the software updates are released later this year. While the feature is aimed at users who are targets of cyberattacks, it appears that it can be enabled by any user. When enabled, Apple says Lockdown Mode provides an “extreme” level of security by strictly limiting or disabling the functionality of features, apps, and websites. 

A Google-backed ad company called Glance is looking to launch in the US, and it brings media content, news, and casual games to Android lock screens. According to androidpolice.com, the lock screen platform is part of the pre-installed software on many, if not most, Android phones sold in India and other Asian markets, and it has also made its way to the EU on a few select brands. They are presently negotiating with US carriers, and are  looking to launch in the US within the next two months. What does it do? The lock screen feed tries hard to become part of your routine. Occasional notifications and swipe suggestions on the lock screen nudge you to interact with it. Once you give in and open the feed, it will override your lock screen wallpaper with its content, making you change back to your preferred wallpaper manually! Yes, more crapware to try to sell you stuff and to gather more data on you. Good times!