Month: January 2024

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Private equity firms are increasingly buying hospitals across the US, and when they do, patients suffer, according to two separate reports. Specifically, the equity firms cut corners, slash services, lay off staff, lower quality of care, take on substantial debt, and reduce charity care, leading to lower ratings and more medical errors, the reports collectively find.

Last week, the financial watchdog organization Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) released a report delving into the state of two of the nation's largest hospital systems, Lifepoint and ScionHealth—both owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Through those two systems, Apollo runs 220 hospitals in 36 states, employing around 75,000 people.

The report found that some of Apollo's hospitals were among the worst in their respective states, based on a ranking by The Lown Institute Hospital Index. The index ranks hospitals and health systems based on health equity, value, and outcomes, PESP notes. The hospitals also have dismal readmission rates and government rankings. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ranks hospitals on a one-to-five star system, with the national average of 3.2 stars overall and about 30 percent of hospitals at two stars or below. Apollo's overall average is 2.8 stars, with nearly 40 percent of hospitals at two stars or below.

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Nearly 71 million unique credentials stolen for logging into websites such as Facebook, Roblox, eBay, and Yahoo have been circulating on the Internet for at least four months, a researcher said Wednesday.

Troy Hunt, operator of the Have I Been Pwned? breach notification service, said the massive amount of data was posted to a well-known underground market that brokers sales of compromised credentials. Hunt said he often pays little attention to dumps like these because they simply compile and repackage previously published passwords taken in earlier campaigns.

Not your typical password dump

Some glaring things prevented Hunt from dismissing this one, specifically the contents indicating that nearly 25 million of the passwords had never been leaked before:

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A chapter in the ongoing Epic v. Apple court case closed yesterday when the US Supreme Court declined to hear further arguments from either company. This decision leaves the case where it was after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on it in April 2023.

The main issue at hand—to summarize days of arguments and multiple lengthy, technical court rulings in a couple of sentences—was whether Apple could continue to collect the 15–30 percent cut that it takes of all App Store purchases on its platforms and in-app purchases and subscriptions bought inside of those apps. The rulings, largely seen as victories for Apple, didn't open iOS or iPadOS up to third-party app stores or app sideloading as Epic had originally sought. However, the rulings establised that Apple's so-called "anti-steering" rules—language prohibiting developers from mentioning cheaper or alternative purchasing options that might be available outside of an app—were anticompetitive.

Apple has updated its App Store rules to allow developers to provide external links to other payment options, technically circumventing its normal fee structure. But they come with many extra conditions that developers have to meet. And instead of paying Apple a 15 or 30 percent cut, Apple will collect a 12–27 percent commission instead. After factoring in the fees from whatever non-Apple payment processor these developers decide to use, the revenue they give up will remain essentially unchanged.

Enlarge / Utah high school student Hannah Zoulek sued Utah to block the Social Media Regulation Act from taking effect March 1. (credit: thefire.org)

A Utah high school student, Hannah Zoulek, has joined a lawsuit, fighting to block Utah's vague social media law from taking effect on March 1.

The Social Media Regulation Act requires platforms to verify user ages and then obtain parental consent for minors under 18 to maintain accounts. Once granted access to platforms, minors must be blocked from search results, and no ads can be displayed on their account. Platforms granting access will accept liability for designing any features that the state considers to be addicting or harmful to minors. The law also imposes a curfew blocking minors from accessing platforms between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am.

Because the law "fails to define what constitutes 'physical, mental, emotional, developmental, or material harms,' or what degree of harm gives rise to liability," platforms are left to "guess as to what behavior crosses the line," the complaint said. A platform may be ruled to be causing harm if a teenager gets a headache after scrolling for too long or becomes upset after friends don't like a selfie, the complaint said, "nobody knows."

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Lobbyists for cable companies and advertisers yesterday expressed their displeasure with a proposed "click-to-cancel" regulation that aims to make it easier for consumers to cancel services.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has said that changes are needed because "some businesses too often trick consumers into paying for subscriptions they no longer want or didn't sign up for in the first place." The FTC proposed the new set of rules in March 2023, and comments from industry groups were taken yesterday in a hearing presided over by an administrative law judge.

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, the primary trade group for cable companies like Comcast and Charter, said the rule would make it harder to offer deals to customers who are trying to cancel.

Enlarge / Firefly Aerospace test-fired its new Miranda engine for the first time last year. Firefly was among the top companies receiving private investment in 2023. (credit: Firefly Aerospace)

Private investors pumped $12.5 billion into space companies last year, around 30 percent more than the year before, but still shy of the space investment boom of 2021.

This is welcome news for cash-hungry startups in the space sector, but investors are becoming more diligent about where they put their money. This has led to a consolidation frenzy, with space companies merging or acquiring one another. And more investors are choosing not to prop up unsuccessful companies, meaning some firms will be doomed to fail.

The latest figures on global private investment come from Space Capital, a venture capital shop that exclusively invests in the space industry. Space Capital publishes a quarterly report outlining trends across several space industry sectors, including infrastructure, applications, distribution, and emerging markets.

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On Tuesday, ChatGPT developer OpenAI revealed that it is collaborating with the United States Defense Department on cybersecurity projects and exploring ways to prevent veteran suicide, reports Bloomberg. OpenAI revealed the collaboration during an interview with the news outlet at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The AI company recently modified its policies, allowing for certain military applications of its technology, while maintaining prohibitions against using it to develop weapons.

According to Anna Makanju, OpenAI's vice president of global affairs, "many people thought that [a previous blanket prohibition on military applications] would prohibit many of these use cases, which people think are very much aligned with what we want to see in the world." OpenAI removed terms from its service agreement that previously blocked AI use in "military and warfare" situations, but the company still upholds a ban on its technology being used to develop weapons or to cause harm or property damage.

Under the "Universal Policies" section of OpenAI's Usage Policies document, section 2 says, "Don't use our service to harm yourself or others." The prohibition includes using its AI products to "develop or use weapons." Changes to the terms that removed the "military and warfare" prohibitions appear to have been made by OpenAI on January 10.

After 16 (nearly unbroken) years of regular DLC releases, Rock Band's avatars haven't aged a day.

Here at Ars Technica, we remember covering Rock Band's weekly DLC song releases way back in 2007, when such regular content drops were still a new concept for a rhythm game. Now, Harmonix has announced the last of the series' roughly 2,800 downloadable releases will finally come on January 25, marking the end of a nearly 16-year era in music gaming history.

Previously purchased DLC songs will still be playable in Rock Band 4, Harmonix's Daniel Sussman writes in an announcement post. Rock Band 4 live services, including online play, will also continue as normal, after online game modes for earlier Rock Band games were finally shut down in late 2022.

"Taking a longer look back, I see the Rock Band DLC catalog as a huge achievement in persistence and commitment," Sussman writes. "Over the years we’ve cleared, authored and released nearly 3,000 songs as DLC and well over 3,000 if you include all the game soundtracks. That’s wild."