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Recode Daily: Congress pokes — and ultimately 'Likes' — Mark Zuckerberg
Spotify is reportedly making changes to its free subscription tier
FTC: Warranty-voiding language like Nintendo's and Sony's is illegal

Recode Daily: Congress pokes — and ultimately 'Likes' — Mark Zuckerberg

Posted: 11 Apr 2018 06:18 AM PDT

Mark Zuckerberg came away with a win yesterday in his marathon five-hour appearance before Congress; Facebook shares closed the day up 4.5 percent, its best trading day in two years. Wearing a navy blue suit and a royal blue tie instead of his usual T-shirt and jeans, the Facebook CEO sounded smart answering questions about how Facebook's services work. He fielded a couple of tough questions: Sen. Lindsey Graham essentially asked if the company was a monopoly; Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked if the company would agree to having users consciously opt in to let companies use their data, instead of the current opt out by default. At the end of the day, many of the senators said that they looked forward to working with Zuckerberg on whatever regulation comes about. He'll be back today at 10 am ET for a separate hearing in front of the House Commerce Committee. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Here's how to check if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, even if you've never interacted with the firm. The data was collected via a third-party app called "This is your digital life" that was created by a university professor to collect information from people who signed into the app using their Facebook account. Meanwhile, a joint SurveyMonkey/Recode poll found that Facebook is the least-trusted major tech company among U.S. users. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Don't give away historic details about yourself on those seemingly innocuous quizzes, games and surveys on social media sites. The problem with participating in these informal surveys — which ask, "What was your first job," or "What was your first pet?" — is that in doing so you may be inadvertently giving away the answers to "secret questions" that can be used to unlock access to a host of your online identities and accounts. [Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security]

Former Google CFO Patrick Pichette's vacation is over: He's becoming a VC. The Montreal-born executive is joining a Canadian firm called iNovia Capital and said he is determined to bet on the Canadian venture capital scene. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]

Recode Presents ...

Mark Zuckerberg testified yesterday before a joint session of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Commerce Committees, and today the Facebook CEO will testify in the House of Representatives, too. What questions do you have about what he has said and what the U.S. government might do next? Send them in for this week's Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast! Tweet your questions with the hashtag #TooEmbarrassed, or email TooEmbarrassed@recode.net.

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Spotify is reportedly making changes to its free subscription tier

Posted: 11 Apr 2018 06:55 AM PDT

Spotify is planning to make changes to its free subscription tier that should make it more closely mimic its paid subscription service, according to Bloomberg.

The updates, according to Bloomberg's sources, will make the service easier to use, especially for those accessing it on mobile devices. Mobile users with free plans will be able to access playlists more quickly and have greater control over how they listen to music on playlists. Currently, the free plan prevents you from selecting tracks within a playlist, you just have to listen to what is served up on shuffle. An announcement regarding these changes is expected within a couple weeks.

Spotify went public on April 3rd, and its services are available in 61 countries with an overall user base of 159 million that includes ad-supported free listeners and 70 million paying users as of January 2018. The company is predicting as many as 96 million paid subscribers and a 30 percent increase in revenue to $6.6 billion by year's end. Spotify will likely continue to focus on its central revenue stream of user subscription growth, and making the free experience better to use is a key part of attracting new people to the service.

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FTC: Warranty-voiding language like Nintendo's and Sony's is illegal

Posted: 11 Apr 2018 08:20 AM PDT

It's common for manufacturers of cars, video game consoles, and other products to insist that consumers will void their warranty if they use unauthorized repair services or unauthorized third-party parts. Some even insist that you'll void the warranty if you break the "warranty seal."

These policies are illegal, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

On Tuesday, the agency announced it had sent warning letters to six companies for violating a 1975 law governing manufacturer warranties.

Who does the FTC have in mind? The agency doesn't name the six companies that were targeted in this enforcement action, so we don't know for sure. But the FTC does provide examples of warranty terms that violate the rules, and with a little Googling it's easy to figure out likely suspects:

Hyundai's warranty states that "the use of Hyundai Genuine Parts is required to keep your Hyundai manufacturer's warranties and any extended warranties intact."
Nintendo's warranty states that "this warranty shall not apply if this product is used with products not sold or licensed by Nintendo."
Sony's warranty states that "this warranty does not apply if this product... has had the warranty seal on the PS4™ system altered, defaced, and removed."

These exact phrases, with names of companies redacted, are provided as examples in the FTC's release.

"Provisions that tie warranty coverage to the use of particular products or services harm both consumers who pay more for them as well as the small businesses who offer competing products and services," said Thomas B. Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a Tuesday statement.

The FTC is demanding that the companies stop voiding warranties and remove statements from their websites and other materials threatening to do so within 30 days.

As Motherboard's Jason Koebler explained a couple of years ago, warranty-voiding policies are rampant in the consumer electronics industry:

The Xbox One has a sticker that, if broken or removed, implies to Microsoft that a third party has opened the device. The Playstation 4 has various stickers that must be broken to open the device that explicitly state that tampering with them invalidates the warranty. iPhones and MacBooks don't have a warranty-voiding sticker, but Apple Geniuses are trained to look for clues that would tip the company off to the fact that the device has been opened. Apple has also been known to refuse service on devices that have been opened. Each of those company's warranty agreements advise against or forbid opening the device.

Now the FTC says these kinds of policies are illegal. The FTC has initiated enforcement actions against other industries that void warranties in the past, but this appears to be the first time the FTC has specifically called out makers of cell phones and gaming consoles for the practice.

In recent years, a number of state legislatures have considered "right to repair" legislation to further bolster rights under federal law, but these bills have generally faced opposition from manufacturers.

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