News in brief: Amazon’s Ad Business Earns $17bn in Q4; UK Orders Access to Apple Users’ Encrypted Accounts; Netflix Hikes UK Subscription Prices 

Amazon’s Ad Business Earns $17bn in Q4 

Amazon’s advertising services earned USD$17.3bn (£13.9bn) in the final quarter of last year, up 18% year-over-year. Its total net sales for the quarter were USD$187.8bn (£151bn), up from $170bn (£136.56bn) in the last quarter of 2023. The quarter was particularly successful; Andy Jassy, the company’s president and CEO said that “the holiday shopping season was the most successful yet for Amazon”. The e-commerce giant also said it was pleased with its first year of Prime Video with ads. Zooming in on the US, sales increased 10% year-over-year, while international sales increased 8% year-over-year. Looking at the year’s total figures, US sales also increased by 10%, and international by 9%.

UK Orders Access to Apple Users’ Encrypted Accounts

The UK government has ordered Apple to grant it access to all the content uploaded by users worldwide to the cloud. The government issued the order last month, which requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, instead of assistance to look into specific accounts. The document served to Apple is called a technical capability notice, which orders it to provide this access under the UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, reports  The Washington Post. This law authorises law enforcement to request assistance from companies in order to collect evidence.

As a response to the order, it has been suggested that Apple is likely to stop offering UK users encrypted storage to avoid breaking security promises made to users. However, this would not fulfil the demand for backdoor access to all accounts worldwide. Apple is able to appeal the capability notice, although the law doesn’t permit it to delay complying during an appeal. 

Netflix Hikes UK Subscription Prices 

Netflix has raised its subscription prices again for UK users. All of the plans will see a price increase: the Standard with Ads now costs £5.99 per month (up one pound), while the Standard plan – without ads – will cost £12.99 (up two pounds). The Premium plan now costs £18.99 (up one pound). Netflix’s last price hike for UK users was in October 2023. The streamer also recently announced price hikes in Portugal, the US and Argentina.