Supremes-Geofence Searches Require Warrants; Comcast Splitting Broadband & Media Properties; Memory Chip Supply Stays Tight-Apple Looking to Buy From China; Tidal-No Royalties for AI-Generated Music

Law enforcement will have to get search warrants when using a ‘geofence’ to try to determine if a phone and its owner were within such an area. The Supreme Court ruled that “an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell-phone location information.” TechCrunch.com reports that this means people have privacy rights when it comes to the location history collected by their phones, as well as the services and apps running on them. The court ruling means authorities need to obtain a search warrant when asking tech companies, such as Google, for the location data of their users, including when requesting historical geofence location data.

Comcast will separate its media businesses from its broadband and mobile. According to arstechnica.com, the firm plans to finalize the breakup within a year via a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky. The latest split will create a media giant with operations spanning Universal Studios, the Peacock streaming platform, and Sky outside the US. NBCUniversal owns media assets such as NBC, Telemundo, and DreamWorks as well as theme parks and resorts. Comcast will be left with a broadband and wireless network business reaching 65 million customers across the US.

Apple is lobbying the US government to let them buy memory chips from China in the face of shortages caused by the hogging of the chips by the fast growth of AI data centers. Benzinga.com notes that Apple’s efforts are aimed at lowering memory costs. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has written that the “memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027.” Right now, Kuo estimates that 15% to 20% of memory capacity currently allocated to consumer electronics in 2026 could be redirected to AI data centers in 2027, with that share likely to increase further.

Tidal is going to tag completely AI generated  music with an AI badge, then block it from royalties and direct-to-fan sales. Thenextweb.com reports that Tidal will also remove AI tracks that impersonate artists. In this, Tidal joins Deezer, which has also taken an aggressive position against AI generated tracks. Deezer has said that some 44% of tracks uploaded to its platform daily are fully AI generated. Deezer actively removes them from recommendations, excludes them from editorial playlists, and offers detection tech to rival platforms. For its part, Spotify labels AI tracks and filters spam, but allows AI tools in the music creating process. Apple music introduced transparency tags this spring that let labels and distributors disclose when AI played a role in a tracks creation. The big difference at Tidal: demonetization. Will cutting off the money stanch the flow of AI slop music tracks? We may know soon.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.