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Facebook Accused Of Watching Instagram Users Through Their Phone Cameras

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Facebook Inc. is again being sued for allegedly spying on Instagram users, this time through the unauthorized use of their mobile phone cameras.

The lawsuit springs from media reports in July that the photo-sharing app appeared to be accessing iPhone cameras even when they weren’t actively being used.

Facebook denied the reports and blamed a bug, which it said it was correcting, for triggering what it described as false notifications that Instagram was accessing iPhone cameras.

In the complaint filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, New Jersey Instagram user Brittany Conditi contends the app’s use of the camera is intentional and done for the purpose of collecting “lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to.”

By “obtaining extremely private and intimate personal data on their users, including in the privacy of their own homes,” Instagram and Facebook are able to collect “valuable insights and market research,” according to the complaint.

Facebook declined to comment.

Source: Bloomberg

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Amoeba Music Announces Permanent Closure of Famed Sunset Boulevard Location, Set to Reopen at New Hollywood Boulevard this Fall

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Despite a planned summer-long celebration to officially say goodbye to its orignal location, Amoeba Music will not be able to reopen its store on Sunset Blvd. due to the coronavirus global pandemic. The new location, which is just a few blocks away, is still scheduled to open sometime in the fall. (Photo by David Allen, Daily News/SCNG)

On Monday (April 27), Amoeba announced that the famed Los Angeles retail outlet would not be reopening at its original location, where it has sat since 2001. All efforts will now be focused on opening the store at its new space on Hollywood Boulevard, where it is slated to open in the fall.

“This is heartbreaking for us,” reads a statement posted to the Amoeba website. “We never envisioned not being able to give the store the send-off it deserves, to give you all a chance to say goodbye. We had so many events planned to celebrate our history at 6400 Sunset! But we are facing too many mitigating circumstances that simply won’t allow for it.”

The statement notes that because music stores aren’t considered “essential” businesses by the state of California, it most likely wouldn’t be able to open even if “safer at home” restrictions are eased this summer. Even if it were given the go-ahead, the statement continues, reopening would place staff and customers of the store, which sees over a million visitors a year, at risk of contracting the virus.

Source: Billboard