The Executive Suite: tech news

Showing posts with label tech news. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2016

EU Launches Third Round of Anti-Trust Charges Against Google

The European Commission is continuing its campaign against Google with new anti-trust charges.
The regulatory body today officially accused the Alphabet-owned company of suppressing competition and hurting consumers due to “systematically favoring” its own comparison shopping service in its search results.

The Commission has also sent a Statement of Objection to Google accusing the tech firm of restricting third-party websites from advertising with its competitors.

“Google has come up with many innovative products that have made a difference to our lives,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a press release.

“But that doesn’t give Google the right to deny other companies the chance to compete and innovate. Today, we have further strengthened our case that Google has unduly favoured its own comparison shopping service in its general search result pages. It means consumers may not see the most relevant results to their search queries. We have also raised concerns that Google has hindered competition by limiting the ability of its competitors to place search adverts on third party websites, which stifles consumer choice and innovation.”

Google will now have the chance to respond to the Commission’s concerns.

Vestager said she would consider Google’s arguments “carefully” before deciding if she will move ahead with either case.

“But if our investigations conclude that Google has broken EU antitrust rules, the Commission has a duty to act to protect European consumers and fair competition on European markets,” she added.
The latest charges come just two months after the Commission slapped Google with a $3.4-billion anti-trust fine. The fine was the conclusion of a six-year investigation into the tech firm’s search practices. The amount Google will be fined could actually end up being higher than the $3.4 billion because the EU can fine the company as much as 10 percent of its annual sales — at least $6 billion in Google’s case.

Vestager, in April, also filed charges against Google, accusing it of breaching anti-trust law with its Android operating system.

In a formal Statement of Objections, the EU said a nearly-three-year investigation found that Google uses a strategy on mobile devices that reinforces its dominance in general Internet searches.

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Appeals Court Sides With Microsoft in Privacy Battle With DOJ

Image courtesy of (Stuart Miles) / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Microsoft is the victor of a long-drawn out battle with the U.S. government after a federal appeals court said the company cannot be forced to hand over customer e-mails stored in overseas data centers.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan voted 3-0 in favor of Microsoft, effectively leaving the U.S. Department of Justice out in the cold.

Circuit Judge Susan Carney said Microsoft had “the better of the argument,” adding that the data the tech firm has stored on servers outside the U.S. do not fall under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) as the Justice Department intimated.

“We conclude that Congress did not intend the SCA’s warrant provisions to apply extraterritorially. The focus of those provisions is protection of a user’s privacy interests,” the ruling reads. “Accordingly, the SCA does not authorize a U.S. court to issue and enforce an SCA warrant against a United States‐based service provider for the contents of a customer’s electronic communications stored on servers located outside the United States. The SCA warrant in this case may not lawfully be used to compel Microsoft to produce to the government the contents of a customer’s e‐mail account stored exclusively in Ireland. Because Microsoft has otherwise complied with the Warrant, it has no remaining lawful obligation to produce materials to the government.”

The battle began back in December 2013 when the DOJ filed a warrant that said Microsoft must comply with a December warrant to nab a customer’s e-mail account data stored at a center in Dublin, Ireland. The agency said it wanted access to the individual’s e-mails because they were connected with a criminal investigation.

In 2014, Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered Microsoft to comply with the warrant. When the company refused, it was held in contempt for its failure to comply with the order, although the firm was not fined pending the outcome of the appeal.

Microsoft chief legal officer Brad Smith said the company is pleased by the appeals court’s ruling.
“We obviously welcome today’s decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,” he said. “The decision is important for three reasons: it ensures that people’s privacy rights are protected by the laws of their own countries; it helps ensure that the legal protections of the physical world apply in the digital domain; and it paves the way for better solutions to address both privacy and law enforcement needs.”

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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Microsoft Set to Acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion in Cash

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner , Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and chairman of the board.

Microsoft is set to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash in a deal that has tongues a-wagging in the technology and financial sectors today.

The deal — which is expected to close later this year — is Microsoft’s largest acquisition to-date, but it is a pairing that makes sense. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software provider with its popular Office Suite of tools, will gain access to the professional social network’s 433 million members.

LinkedIn will “retain its distinct brand, culture and independence” and CEO Jeff Weiner will remain the company’s leader, although he will report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

“The LinkedIn team has grown a fantastic business centered on connecting the world’s professionals,” Nadella said. “Together we can accelerate the growth of LinkedIn, as well as Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics as we seek to empower every person and organization on the planet.”

Weiner said the deal would enable LinkedIn to continue “growing, investing in and innovating on LinkedIn to drive value for our members and our customers.”

In a letter to employees, he called the acquisition the best chance the company has at realizing its mission and vision. After meeting with Nadella, Weiner said, it became obvious to them both that combining their assets would have “the potential to unlock some enormous opportunities” for both companies.

One of these opportunities includes using LinkedIn to “power the social and identity layers of Microsoft’s ecosystem of over one billion customers,” Weiner said. “Think about things like LinkedIn’s graph interwoven throughout Outlook, Calendar, Active Directory, Office, Windows, Skype, Dynamics, Cortana, Bing and more.”

Other ideas include integrating the Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning solution in Office, giving Sponsored Content customers the ability to reach Microsoft users anywhere across the Microsoft ecosystem, redefining social selling through the combination of Sales Navigator and Dynamics and making use of LinkedIn’s subscription capabilities to provide opportunities to the massive number of freelancers and independent service providers that use Microsoft’s apps to run their business on a daily basis.

The acquisition has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors for both companies, but must be approved by shareholders and regulators before becoming reality.

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Friday, June 10, 2016

Thieves Dressing Like Apple Employees and Walking Off With Merchandise

Apple image — The Apple Store, Santa Monica, Calif.

Apple has reportedly been the victim of some clever yet unimaginative thefts: Thieves enter an Apple Store dressed like an employee and raid the stock room.

According to a DNAinfo report, a man dressed as an Apple Store employee entered an Apple store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood and managed to leave with $16,130 in stolen electronics.

The thief boldly walked into the repair room at the store and filched 19 iPhones from a drawer. No one challenged him, because he looked like an Apple employee. He then gave the devices to an accomplice and they both left the store significantly richer.

And that is not the only incident. Other Apple stores have been hit using the same scam.
According to the New York Post, an Apple Store in Manhattan’s Upper West Side was victimized twice using the same con. The first time the store was hit the thief managed to walk out with $5,300 in stolen iPhones. The second time, a three-person team nabbed 59 iPhones — a value of roughly $44,000.

In that case, a clerk noticed the three people were acting peculiar and called security, but it was not in time to stop the theft.

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It is not known how many other Apple stores have been hit but, with such lax security, the number could be quite high.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Uber Drivers Can Now Fine Passengers for Being Two Minutes Late

Uber is planning to launch a system that will allow its drivers to fine riders who are more than two minutes late.

The fine system, which is currently being tested in New York, New Jersey, Phoenix and Dallas, allows for a $5 or a $10 addition to customers’ tabs if they keep their drivers waiting for more than two minutes.

Uber is planning on expanding the new system to 12 more U.S. cities this month.
Uber is putting in place a number of other features as well to mollify its drivers who have been talking about taking legal action over status and benefits.

“We also have heard from drivers like you that there are plenty of things we can do to make driving more empowering and worth your while,” Uber said in a blog post.

“We are rolling out a number of features and rewards in more cities to help you get the most out of your time on the road.”

One of those features is Driver Destinations, a system that enables drivers to input their destination so Uber can send convenient trip requests. For instance, if a driver is heading home at the end of the day, Uber will only send trip requests that are on that person’s way.

Uber has been testing Driver Destinations in a “handful of cities in the U.S. and around the world.” This week it is expanding the program to more than a dozen U.S. cities, with more cities to launch globally in the near future.

Uber is also launching an Instant Pay option so drivers can get paid whenever they wish. All they need is a GoBank Uber Debit Card, which they can apply for by clicking on the ‘Earnings’ tab in the driver app or clicking the ‘Instant Pay’ tab at partners.uber.com.
Another addition is Pause Requests, a tool that allows drivers to take a break from requests or even end their day.

“This tool is designed for drivers who want to log off the app after dropping off their passenger, instead of having to decline trip requests while their last rider is in the car,” the company said. “Simply press the button again when you’re ready to get back on the road. We’ll be piloting this feature later this month in several U.S. and international cities.”

Uber employees will also be offered discounts if they use Uber as a passenger. The company has launched a pilot program offering 15 percent off an uberX ride for every 10 trips a driver completes in a week, or 50 percent off an UberBLACK ride for every 20 trips done in a week. If the pilot program is successful in the U.S. cities it is being tested in, the company said it will make the program permanent.