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WSJ Tech News Briefing

Why Musk Doesn’t Have Access to SpaceX’s Biggest Government Secrets

WSJ Tech News Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Tech News

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As SpaceX deepened its ties with national-security agencies in recent years, the company’s lawyers advised senior executives not to seek a higher security clearance for Elon Musk, the rocket company's founder and CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. WSJ investigations reporter Joe Palazzolo joins Tech News Briefing to explain why and what this means now that Musk has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency. Plus, internet plans now come with “nutrition labels” that disclose prices and speeds. But consumers can’t find them or understand them. Julie Chang hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:26.4

Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, December 17th. I'm Julie Chang for the Wall Street Journal.

0:36.4

Internet plants now come with nutrition labels that disclose prices and speeds. But what do they look like and where can you find them?

0:43.3

Plus, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk does not have access to his rocket company's biggest government secrets. We'll tell you why and what this means now that he's been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump

0:48.3

to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency.

0:55.2

But first, you know those nutrition labels you see on the side of cereal boxes?

1:00.7

This year, a rule from the Federal Communications Commission took effect that requires internet

1:05.3

service providers to list standardized price and speed data on labels that look like

1:10.0

nutrition fax panels on packaged

1:11.6

foods. These labels would allow consumers to compare internet plans. But WSJ reporter, Patience Hagen,

1:18.2

found that customers have difficulty finding them. And when they do find them, they're tough

1:22.7

to understand. Patience joins us now. Patients, where can I find these labels?

1:28.3

Because I've never seen one.

1:30.3

Yeah, see, they're required to be provided at the time of purchase.

1:34.3

So that's when you sign up for your internet plan online or in a store.

1:40.3

But they're kind of inconspicuous.

1:42.3

Like they're not in an obvious place, and a lot of people don't know they exist, don't even notice them when they're checking out.

1:48.2

In some cases, the way the company complies with that requirement is that on the checkout screen,

1:53.7

you'd have to notice a tiny link at the bottom and click that link in order to find it.

1:58.4

The whole idea of these labels was to give us an easy way to know what we're

2:01.7

paying for, maybe just as easy as looking at the side of a cereal box. But it's turned out to be

2:06.9

nothing like that for most consumers because it's so hard to find. Consumers don't know what's there.

...

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