General
Uber and Lyft drivers demand better pay, workplace protections and driver-led unions
Megan Rose Dickey, TechCrunch
As Assembly Bill 5 makes its way through the California state legislature, Uber and Lyft drivers are voicing their demands for better pay, basic workplace protections and the right to organize through unions. Tomorrow, Lyft and Uber drivers will convene outside Uber’s San Francisco headquarters to make their voices heard.
AT&T Hired Michael Cohen to Consult on Net Neutrality, FBI Says
Blake Montgomery, The Daily Beast
AT&T hired Donald Trump’s former attorney to advise the company on a range of issues broader than previously known, according to newly unsealed FBI documents. The telecommunications giant paid Cohen, now in prison for tax fraud, $50,000 per month, according to the unsealed documents.
U.S. tech companies push Trump to allow some sales to Huawei
Jeanne Whalen and Reed Albergotti, The Washington Post
The U.S. tech industry is pushing the Trump administration for permission to supply Chinese tech company Huawei with parts for consumer technology products, arguing that such sales won’t hurt U.S. national security, according to people familiar with the matter.
China scrambles to stem manufacturing exodus as 50 companies leave
Masamichi Hoshi et al., Nikkei Asian Review
China is racing to keep foreign enterprises in-country, dangling special benefits so that the advantages of staying outweigh the heavy tariffs imposed by the U.S. A year into the trade war with Washington, more than 50 global companies, including Apple and Nintendo, have announced or are considering plans to move production out of China, Nikkei research has found.
Microsoft Cloud Software Fuels Fourth-Quarter Sales, Profit Beat
Dina Bass, Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp.’s quarterly sales and profit topped estimates on the strength of the company’s cloud-computing business, which racked up clients for Azure web services and Office productivity software. Profit before certain items in the fourth quarter, which ended June 30, rose to $1.37 a share, compared with the $1.22 average forecast of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Apple Chip Supplier’s Solid Performance Shows Resilience in Trade Fight
Debby Wu, Bloomberg
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. projected current-quarter revenue ahead of estimates, as the Apple Inc. supplier shrugs off a smartphone slump and U.S. sanctions on Huawei Technologies Co. to ride demand for cutting-edge chips.
U.S. Futures Rise on Fed-Cut Bets; Dollar Rebounds: Markets Wrap
Laura Curtis, Bloomberg
U.S. equity futures climbed alongside Asian stocks on investor optimism about a more aggressive policy move by the Federal Reserve, while European shares pared a gain amid political uncertainty in Italy.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
While Washington Talks Antitrust, Europe Takes Action
Gregory Barber, Wired
It’s been a strange, conflicted week for antitrust in Washington, DC. In one set of congressional hearings, tech leaders, facing possible far-reaching regulation, fended off accusations that they are strangling competition.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
Is Huawei a Security Threat? Vietnam Isn’t Taking Any Chances
Raymond Zhong, The New York TImes
The battle for technological dominance between the United States and China is splitting the world in two, though not always along the lines you might expect. American allies such as Britain and Germany have signaled that they are unlikely to back Washington’s effort to stop countries from working with the Chinese technology giant Huawei, which American officials call a Trojan Horse for Beijing’s cyberspies.
How US national security agencies hold the internet hostage
Mark Harris, TechCrunch
Team Telecom, a shadowy US national security unit tasked with protecting America’s telecommunications systems, is delaying plans by Google, Facebook and other tech companies for the next generation of international fiber optic cables. Team Telecom comprises representatives from the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice (including the FBI), who assess foreign investments in American telecom infrastructure, with a focus on cybersecurity and surveillance vulnerabilities.
Spalter Gets Three More Years Atop USTelecom
John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable
USTelecom has renewed the contract of CEO Jonathan Spalter for three additional years. Spalter was chair of Mobile Future before joining the telecom association in January 2017, succeeding Walter McCormick.
Calling at all stations: tube passengers to get 4G reception from next year
Jim Waterson, The Guardian
London Underground passengers will be able to use their phones in tunnels between stations from early next year, removing one of the last major public places in Britain without phone reception and creating new challenges to commuter etiquette.
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Philadelphia is about to fire 13 police officers for their racist, violent Facebook posts
Reis Thebault, The Washington Post
The Philadelphia Police Department will fire 13 officers who paired endorsements of violence with racism and homophobia in a slew of derogatory Facebook posts unearthed by an advocacy group, the city’s police commissioner said Thursday.
Google’s project to fill local news void announces first city: Youngstown, Ohio
Annie Palmer, CNBC
Google has pledged to create a new digital news outlet in Youngstown, Ohio, as part of a multi-million dollar project with McClatchy to fill some of the void left by the closure of local newspapers. The company announced Thursday that Youngstown has been selected as the inaugural city for its joint news initiative, called the Compass Experiment.
Apple Plans to Open Office in Westbank’s Glitzy Vancouver Tower
Natalie Obiko Pearson and Natalie Wong, Bloomberg
Apple Inc. plans to open an office in one of Vancouver’s most hotly anticipated developments, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Cupertino, California-based Apple will join Deloitte LLP and IWG Plc’s Spaces co-working unit as key tenants in 400 West Georgia, a 24-story office building that is owned by Westbank Corp. and Allied Properties REIT, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t yet public.
Instagram Will Now Warn You If Your Account Is Close to Being Yanked
Catie Keck, Gizmodo
Instagram’s recent rollouts of updates to its platform continues this week with two more changes around post and account take-downs, as well as a new process for appealing content deletion that it will expand in the coming months.
Grindr Wanted To Make The World Better For Queer People. Then A Chinese Gaming Company Bought It.
Ryan Mac, BuzzFeed News
On a stormy afternoon in November, employees at Grindr’s in-house digital magazine, Into, were on edge. They’d just left an emergency staff meeting at the company’s West Hollywood headquarters where they had been told the LGBTQ news outlet was about to publish one of the most explosive stories in its 15-month history.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
Data Broker LocationSmart Will Fight Class Action Lawsuit Over Selling AT&T Data
Joseph Cox, Motherboard
A broker that helped sell AT&T customers’ real-time location data says it will fight a class action lawsuit against it. The broker, called LocationSmart, was involved in a number of data selling and cybersecurity incidents, including selling location data that ended up in the hands of bounty hunters.
Senators introduce legislation to boost cyber defense training in high school
Maggie Miller, The Hill
A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced legislation to increase cybersecurity training for U.S. high school students involved in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) in an effort to increase overall cyber defense training.
The New Ways Your Boss Is Spying on You
Sarah Krouse, The Wall Street Journal
It’s not just email. Employers are mining the data their workers generate to figure out what they’re up to, and with whom.
Three Hours of Work a Day? You’re Not Fooling Anyone.
Te-Ping Chen, The Wall Street Journal
Some people start their day with coffee and a round of meetings. Brian Dauer kicks off his by checking which websites his colleagues have browsed.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
You’ll Find Tech-Friendly Trade in the USMCA
Stefanie Holland, Morning Consult
International trade has sparked tremendous debate over the past year. From China to Mexico and Canada, trade has dominated the headlines but, too often, has been viewed through a partisan lens. It is time that we use common sense and measure the value of trade deals in dollars and cents.
I found your data. It’s for sale.
Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post
As many as 4 million people have Web browser extensions that sell their every click. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We Tested 5G Across America. It’s Crazy Fast—and a Hot Mess
Joanna Stern, The Wall Street Journal
Today’s forecast: 95 degrees and sunny with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. No chance of 5G testing.
Opinion: Don’t Regulate Facial Recognition. Ban It.
Evan Greer, BuzzFeed News
Speaking at a conference two years ago, Microsoft’s CEO displayed a slide featuring the book jackets of 1984 and Brave New World. “I do believe it’s up to us to ensure that some of the more dystopian scenarios don’t come true,” Satya Nadella said.
Research Reports
Defending Elections: Federal Funding Needs for State Election Security
Christopher Deluzio and Liz Howard, Brennan Center for Justice
State and local election officials are on the front lines of a cyberwar with sophisticated nation-state rivals and other malevolent actors. As Robert Brehm, co–executive director of the New York State Board of Elections, recently put it, “It is not reasonable” to expect each of these state and local election offices to independently “defend against hostile nation-state actors.”
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