 |
|
|
|||||
Apple has successfully blocked its opponents in India, Tinder-owner Match and a group of startups, from accessing its commercially sensitive information which was part of antitrust findings against the U.S. firm, a confidential order shows. An investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) last year found Apple exploited its dominant position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system to the detriment of app developers, users and other payment processors. Apple has denied wrongdoing and said it is a small player in India where phones using Google’s operating system are dominant. The investigation process has concluded but CCI’s senior members are yet to review the findings and pass a final ruling, which could force Apple to pay fines and even change its practices if the company is confirmed to have indulged in wrongdoing. Apple’s opposing parties in the caseMatch and startup group Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF)asked the CCI to allow access to certain confidential information which include developer payouts and details of total billings, but were redacted when investigation reports were shared with parties. Match argued Apple had been “claiming excessive and unwarranted redactions in its submissions” across the world “to hinder effective scrutiny of its practices”, but the CCI did not agree and ruled in favour of Apple, according to a 13-page confidential order issued on March 3 and seen by Reuters. The order noted Apple’s comments, saying “the very fact that Match is involved in similar antitrust proceedings” with the company elsewhere will cause Apple harm if its commercially sensitive information is provided to Match. “The Commission notes that disclosure of such redacted information at this stage to ADIF and Match is neither necessary nor expedient . . . and disclosure of the same could potentially cause harm to the interests of Apple and other third parties,” the CCI noted. The CCI, Apple, Match and ADIF did not respond to Reuters queries. The Indian case was first filed by a little-known, nonprofit group called “Together We Fight Society” which argued Apple’s in-app fee of up to 30% hurts competition by raising costs for app developers and customers. Apple’s iOS powered about 4% of 712 million smartphones in India as of 2024 end, with the rest using Google’s Android, according to Counterpoint Research. Apple’s smartphone base in the country has grown five times in the last five years. Apple can still oppose findings of the CCI investigation and watchdog’s senior members are expected to issue a final ruling in coming weeks. In 2022, the CCI imposed a $113 million fine on Google and said it must allow the use of third-party billing and stop forcing developers to use its in-app payment system that charges commission of 15%-30%. Google has denied wrongdoing. Aditya Kalra, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Featuring Stan Adams, Public Policy Specialist, Wikimedia Foundation; Nicole Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Director, ACLU of Northern California and Alissa Starzak, Deputy Chief Legal Officer and Global Head of Policy, Cloudflare. Moderated by Max Ufberg, Senior Editor, Fast Company. In an era of mass surveillance, mounting attacks to cybersecurity, the death of net neutrality, and geopolitics fragmenting the internet, it’s never been a more important time to fully understand what’s at stake regarding your digital rights and freedom. Join this panel of leaders at the forefront of securing a better and more open digital space for all.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown in Japan 14 years ago. Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes.It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protectionfull facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet.As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation.The Associated Press, which recently visited the plant for a tour and interviews, takes a closer look. Cleaning 880 tons of melted fuel debris A remote-controlled extendable robot with a tong had several mishaps including equipment failures before returning in November with a tiny piece of melted fuel from inside the damaged No. 2 reactor.That first successful test run is a crucial step in what will be a daunting, decades-long decommissioning that must deal with at least 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel that has mixed with broken parts of internal structures and other debris inside the three ruined reactors.Akira Ono, chief decommissioning officer at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, says even the tiny sample gives officials a lot of information about the melted fuel. More samples are needed, however, to make the work smoother when bigger efforts to remove the debris begin in the 2030s.A second sample-retrieval mission at the No. 2 reactor is expected in coming weeks.Operators hope to send the extendable robot farther into the reactor to take samples closer to the center, where overheated nuclear fuel fell from the core, utility spokesperson Masakatsu Takata said. He pointed out the target area as he stood inside the inner structure of the No. 5 reactor, which is one of two reactors that survived the tsunami. It has an identical design as No. 2. Hard to see, breathe or move Radiation levels are still dangerously high inside the No. 2 reactor building, where the melted fuel debris is behind a thick concrete containment wall. Earlier decontamination work reduced those radiation levels to a fraction of what they used to be.In late August, small groups took turns doing their work helping the robot in 15- to 30-minute shifts to minimize radiation exposure. They have a remotely controlled robot, but it has to be manually pushed in and out.“Working under high levels of radiation (during a short) time limit made us feel nervous and rushed,” said Yasunobu Yokokawa, a team leader for the mission. “It was a difficult assignment.”Full-face masks reduced visibility and made breathing difficult, an extra waterproof jacket made it sweaty and hard to move, and triple-layered gloves made their fingers clumsy, Yokokawa said.To eliminate unnecessary exposure, they taped around gloves and socks and carried a personal dosimeter to measure radiation. Workers also rehearsed the tasks they’d perform to minimize exposure.The mission stalled early on when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-meter (5-foot) pipes meant to push the robot into the reactor’s primary containment vessel had been arranged in the wrong order.A camera on the robot also failed because of high radioactivity and had to be replaced.The workers’ highest individual radiation dose was more than the overall average but still far below anything approaching a 100-millisievert five-year dose limit.Even so, a growing number of workers are concerned about safety and radiation at the plant, said Ono, the decommissioning chief, citing an annual survey of about 5,5,00 workers.In 2023, two workers splashed with contaminated sludge at a water treatment facility were hospitalized, though they had no health problems. Making sure it’s safe Yokokawa and a plant colleague, Hiroshi Ide, helped in the 2011 emergency and are team leaders today. They say they want to make the job safer as workers face high radiation in parts of the plant.On the top floor of the No. 2 reactor, workers are setting up equipment to remove spent fuel units from the cooling pool. That’s set to begin within two to three years.At the No. 1 reactor, workers are putting up a giant roof to contain radioactive dust from decontamination work on the top floor ahead of the removal of spent fuel.To minimize exposure and increase efficiency, workers use a remote-controlled crane to attach pre-assembled parts, according to TEPCO. The No. 1 reactor and its surroundings are among the most contaminated parts of the plant. What’s next? Workers are also removing treated radioactive wastewater. They recently started dismantling the emptied water tanks to make room to build facilities needed for the research and storage of melted fuel debris.After a series of small missions by robots to gather samples, experts will determine a larger-scale method for removing melted fuel, first at the No. 3 reactor.Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.Ide, whose home in Namie town, northwest of the plant, is in a no-go zone because of nuclear contamination, still has to put on a hazmat suit, even for brief visits home.“As a Fukushima citizen, I would like to make sure the decommissioning work is done properly so that people can return home without worries,” he said. This story has been corrected to remove erroneous reference to burns in the 2023 incident. Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||