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FTC hits Amazon with $25 million fine for violating child privacy with Alexa voice assistant

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon agreed Wednesday to pay a $25 million civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations it violated a child privacy law and deceived parents by keeping for years kids’ voice and location data recorded by its popular Alexa voice assistant. Separately, the company agreed to pay $5.8 million in customer refunds for alleged privacy violations involving its doorbell camera Ring.The Alexa-related action orders Amazon to overhaul its data deletion practices and impose stricter, more transparent privacy measures. It also obliges the tech giant to delete certain data collected by its internet-connected digital assistant, which people use for everything from checking the weather to playing games and queueing up music.“Amazon’s history of misleading parents, keeping children’s recordings indefinitely, and flouting parents’ deletion requests violated COPPA (the Child Online Privacy Protection Act) and sacrificed privacy for profits,” Samuel Levine, the ...

US births in 2022 didn’t return to pre-pandemic levels

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births were flat last year, as the nation saw fewer babies born than it did before the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.Births to moms 35 and older continued to rise, with the highest rates in that age group since the 1960s. But those gains were offset by record-low birth rates to moms in their teens and early 20s, the CDC found. Its report is based on a review of more than 99% of birth certificates issued last year.A little under 3.7 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, about 3,000 fewer than the year before. Because the numbers are provisional and the change was small, officials consider births to have been “kind of level from the previous year,” said the CDC’s Brady Hamilton, the lead author of the report.U.S. births were declining for more than a decade before COVID-19 hit, then dropped a whopping 4% from 2019 to 2020. They ticked up about 1% in 2021, an increase experts attributed to pregnancies that coup...

Today in History: June 1, GM enters bankruptcy protection

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

Today in History Today is Thursday, June 1, the 152nd day of 2023. There are 213 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On June 1, 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, gave the order, “Don’t give up the ship” during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon in the War of 1812. On this date: In 1533, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, was crowned as Queen Consort of England.In 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state. In 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state. In 1812, President James Madison, in a message to Congress, recounted what he called Britain’s “series of acts hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation”; Congress ended up declaring war.In 1916, Louis Brandeis took his seat as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Jewish American to serve on the nation’s highest bench.In 1943, a civilian flight from Portugal to England was shot down by Germany during World...

Denver weather: Storm chances for the next 7 days

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver's weather will stay stormy Wednesday night into Thursday. Storms could turn severe along the Front Range and Eastern Plains on Wednesday night. Weather tonight: Stormy Scattered storms will move north across the Denver metro area, the Front Range and the plains on Wednesday night. Some storms could turn severe with gusty winds and hail up to the size of a quarter. Temperatures will cool to the 50s overnight with partly cloudy skies. Weather tomorrow: Heavy rainThursday will have partly to mostly cloudy skies with a high temperature in the mid-70s. There will be a 40% chance for scattered showers and storms through the afternoon and evening. May 2023 rain setting new records, relieving drought in Denver There won't be a threat for storms to turn severe on Thursday, but storms will still bring the chance for heavy rain and lightning. Looking ahead: Storm chances continueScattered storms will stay in the forecast for the rest of the week, with the highest chanc...

Denver's altitude: Problem or perception for athletes?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — With the Miami Heat in town to face the Denver Nuggets for the basketball championship, a long-held belief has resurfaced. Altitude matters. Ben Thompson, professor of human performance and sport at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said it can and does affect the body. “So, when you’re exercising,” he said, “your heart rate’s gonna be higher. Your breathing rate’s gonna be elevated, to try and make up for the altitude.” How to get to downtown Denver during the NBA Finals Thompson said the Heat’s decision to arrive in Colorado as early as possible was strategic. “It’s more, I think, gonna be kinda psychologically understanding how they are gonna feel when they come up in altitude to play," Thompson said. Denver hosts the Heat on Thursday evening in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.Nuggets-Heat NBA Finals scheduleGames 1 through 4 are guaranteed to be played, but Games 5 through 7 are only if necessary.All times are in Mountain Daylight Time:Game 1 in Denver – T...

What to know about the phases of Casa Bonita's opening

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — As the excitement around Casa Bonita's opening grows, we still don't have an official date yet. However, a few lucky fans will have a chance to be selected for the restaurant's "soft opening."On May 26, FOX31 got a first look inside the renovated restaurant. The highly anticipated menu was also rolled out with Mexican staples and, of course, the iconic sopaipillas. More than sopaipillas: What’s on Casa Bonita’s opening menu But the one thing missing from the new look inside Casa Bonita was an opening date. While we still don't know when the general public will be allowed inside, we do know the restaurant will open in phases.Soft opening phaseIn public records obtained by FOX31, the Lakewood Police Department outlined the first phases of Casa Bonita's opening. According to LPD, the first step will be multiple soft openings.Those openings will happen at specific times and days of the week and will be open to those who were selected in the lottery. The lucky few will ...

POLITICO Pro Morning Central Banker: Energy price relief — Zero-day options — The long arriverderci

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

Our one-stop source for central banking & monetary policy news.View in your browser or listen to audioBy GEOFFREY SMITHSNEAK PEEK  — Broad inflationary relief across Europe and a continuing energy sell-off points to a more dovish ECB.  — ECB flags zero-day options risk as it eyes new sources of instability.  — As Visco’s long arrivederci begins, we ask what will happen to Italy’s ECB board seat if Panetta goes? POLICY TICKERECB 3.75% ⇡ — BOE 4.5% ⇡ — FED 5.35% ⇡— SNB 1.5% ⇡— BOJ -0.10% ⇣— RBA 3.85% ⇡— PBOC 3.65%⇣— CBR 7.5% ⇣ — SARB 8.25% ⇡Good morning! June is here, it’s the European Central Bank’s 25th birthday and hopes of an end to its tightening cycle are, as the poet said, bustin’ out all over. It seems a big drop in headline inflation in May in Germany and France, which account for roughly half of eurozone gross national income, has convinced at least some (including Berenberg’s Holger Schmieding) that the ECB should be done hiking by July at the lates...

Chula Vista Elementary board votes in favor of raising Pride flag

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Wednesday was fueled by debate in the South Bay over raising the commemorative Pride flag. Board members of the Chula Vista Elementary School District listened to arguments on both sides of the issue at a special emergency meeting for several hours. After three hours of public comments, the board voted in a 4 to 1 vote in favor of raising the Pride flag during the month of June and other months throughout the year. Residents, parents and students with Pride and American flags packed the board room Wednesday with people lined along the walls, with Pride and American flags in hand symbolic of the change they want to see. Each person there with an individual story, fighting for or against what flies on the flagpole just outside the district office. "Trigger warning, my child, who was befriended by a Christian person in the school once said I’m here to save you. I'm here to save you from being gay that you’re going to die in hell. My child attempted suicide two mo...

Card skimmer, gift card scams victimize local customers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

EL CAJON, Calif. -- Buyer beware! Your next trip to the store could end up making you the victim to two scams hitting San Diego County stores: one involving gift cards and the other involving card readers.Surveillance video posted on the El Cajon Police Department’s social media shows how quickly criminals are able to set up these card skimmers at a register.“It’s a big loss, for months in a row, we had 200 victims a month coming into our station to report the crime,” said Sgt. Kevin Reilly of the El Cajon Police Department.The skimmers record and send your PIN number and the information from the magnetic strip of your card to thieves via bluetooth, stealing your money.“If something looks bulky, maybe give it a tug or ask your cashier to give it a tug and make sure there’s not a device on it, and then on top of that, also the retailer checking this frequently,” Reilly said.El Cajon police recovered 12 card skimmers from stores in the past year alone. Amazon charged with privacy vi...

US companies, nudged by Black employees, have stepped up donations to HBCUs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:14:58 GMT

Natalie Coles will never forget receiving an unexpected phone call in 2020. On the line was Virginia-based Dominion Energy, offering to give money to Wilberforce University, the small historically Black college where she is in charge of fundraising. The company’s $500,000 donation went in part toward laptops and hot spots for students when the pandemic shut down the college’s campus outside of Dayton, Ohio.“It was like manna from heaven,” Coles said.Historically Black colleges and universities, which had seen giving from foundations decline in recent decades, lately are benefiting from an increase in gifts, particularly from corporations and corporate foundations. Some have received a new look from companies amid the reckoning over racial injustice spurred by the killing of George Floyd. But the colleges also have been pitching themselves, emphasizing their ability to deliver returns on the investment in student mobility.Another factor in the giving by corporations has been the infl...