Good morning everyone. We hope you’re enjoying a nice and relaxing weekend, and thanks for spending 90 Seconds with us!
0:05- The dreaded book mafia
The company that started out as an online book store has now become the book industry villain. A recent class action lawsuit filed on Thursday in New York alleges that Amazon and five major book publishers have been price gouging the e-book industry. Specifically, it accuses them of forming price agreements that prohibit rival retailers from selling ebooks at a cheaper rate — and because Amazon charges high commissions and costs, this has driven the retail price of ebooks up quite dramatically. In order to win the suit, the class action suit will have to unilaterally prove that this relationship exists and has harmed consumers.
0:33- We got autonomous drones before autonomous driving
On Friday, federal regulators in the FAA approved the first fully automated commercial drone flights — meaning that they will be operated without a human pilot or even observation. This ruling isn’t all encompassing yet though — as of now, autonomous drones may only fly in rural areas and under 400ft. This decision, which came after four years of testing, will provide huge applications for agriculture, mining, and transportation.
0:51- “Okay, you can have some privacy back” -WhatsApp
After a huge backlash, WhatsApp has somewhat relented and will delay the update to their privacy policy to May 15th, from the original February 9th date. The uproar which caused this was their announcement that they would be sharing more data with Facebook (who owns them), including user messages and other data that was private beforehand. Naturally, users didn’t enjoy this change, and encrypted messaging apps such as Signal and Telegram have seen unprecedented downloads and message volume as the public shifted away from WhatsApp.
1:13- Fiat Chrysler no longer exists
But fear not, former fans of FCA — it didn’t disappear, it’s just now known as Stellantis following its merger with the PSA Group on Friday. Stellantis is now the third largest automaker in the world, and will trade on the stock exchanges as $STLA starting in Paris and Milan on Monday, and New York on Tuesday. The CEO of the newly minted company will be the former head of the PSA group, Carlos Tavares, who is notorious for his cost-cutting measures, and ability to pivot companies flawlessly.
Have a great rest of your day, and we’ll see you tomorrow bright and early!
-The 90 Second News Team
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