Open Source: An Epic penalty

Brian Gordon

Hey all. I’m Brian Gordon, tech writer for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source.

The Federal Trade Commission levied a behemoth fine on Epic Games this week after Epic allegedly spent years violating federal children’s privacy law and inducing players to make unwanted payments in its wildly popular game Fortnite. The government accused Epic, which is headquartered in Cary, of having “privacy-invasive default settings” that facilitated harassment while maintaining “dark patterns” of payment systems that prompted accidental purchases (even when rousing a computer from sleep mode).

Epic has agreed to pay $520 million in the settlement.

Read more about Epic’s response and the FTC’s full allegations here. And we took a step back to look at what Fortnite is and what this settlement will mean for players (and their parents).

Video game company Epic Games is paying a total of $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle complaints involving children’s privacy and methods that tricked players into making purchases.
Video game company Epic Games is paying a total of $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle complaints involving children’s privacy and methods that tricked players into making purchases.

Top tech talent hirers

Any guesses on which company is hiring the most tech talent in the Triangle right now? The answer isn’t a tech company. Fidelity Investments, one of the area’s largest private employers with 8,000 workers, is also the top current tech hirer according to data provided to The News & Observer.

Here’s a list of the top 10:

  1. Fidelity Investments

  2. Deloitte

  3. MetLife

  4. HCL Technologies

  5. General Dynamics Information Technology

  6. Wells Fargo

  7. UNC Health Care

  8. Oracle

  9. Truist

  10. Duke Health

As tech firms scale back their hiring amid a broader sector slowdown, it’ll be interesting to see if more talent looks towards non-tech companies like Fidelity and MetLife that still need a boatload of IT workers.

Federal study of electrical grid

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ordered a study of the electrical grid’s physical security late last week. The study comes as a response to the substation attacks in Moore County earlier this month that left tens of thousands in the dark.

An electric substation in south Durham, North Carolina. Duke Energy has around 2,100 substations across the state.
An electric substation in south Durham, North Carolina. Duke Energy has around 2,100 substations across the state.

National tech happenings

  • TikTok could soon be banned on all governmental devices after an omnibus spending bill passed Congress this week. Lawmakers are concerned the social media app can share its data with the Chinese government.

  • In sports/tech news, NFL Sunday Ticket is coming to YouTube after its parent company Google spent big ($14 billion) to get the package of out-of-market football games.

  • The Guardian has been hit by suspected ransomware. The London-based outlet told its employees to work from home and called the incident “serious.”

Podcast pick of the week

I recently discovered the tech podcast Hard Fork from the New York Times and have found it fun and informative, especially on all things Elon/Twitter and SBF/FTX.

Thanks for reading and have restful holidays!

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

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