Friday, January 8, 2016
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Thursday announced a deal that would require Uber to encrypt geolocation information about its riders, as well as enhance its data security practices.
The AG opened an investigation into Uber in 2014, in response to allegations that the service had tracked riders and displayed their locations in an aerial format, known internally as the "God View."
The AG's office opened another investigation early last year, after Uber notified it that an unauthorized third-party had accessed the names and driver's license information of Uber drivers as early as May 2014, although the company did not discover it until the following September, according to legal documents obtained by the E-Commerce Times.
"We are committed to protecting the privacy of consumers and customers of any product in New York State, as well as that of any employee of any company operating here," Schneiderman said.
New Data Rules
The settlement requires that Uber encrypt rider geolocation information, adopt multifactor authentication before any Uber employee can access sensitive rider information, and engage in other protection practices, according to the AG's office.
The settlement also requires Uber to pay a US$20,000 penalty for failing to provide timely notice to drivers and to the AG's office regarding the September 2014 data breach.
"We are deeply committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of riders and drivers," Uber said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Matt Wing. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the New York Attorney General that resolves these questions and makes it clear our commitment to best practices that put our community first."
We've Been Expecting You
Buzzfeed reporter Johana Bhuiyan in 2014 discovered that her Uber ride had been tracked as she traveled to the company's Long Island City headquarters while on assignment to interview its New York general manager.
She had not given prior consent to the tracking, and it was against company policy to do such a thing, according to a Buzzfeed exclusive report.
The AG's office mentioned the Buzzfeed article in its announcement of the settlement; however, Wing declined to comment on the incident.
Uber last year posted a privacy policy that mentioned the hiring of law firm Hogan Lovells to review the company's privacy practices.
Uber conducts annual privacy and security training, has an employee designated to supervise it, and takes other steps that already comply with the AG agreement, it said.
Companies often fail to protect sensitive customer data, according to Charles Duan, staff attorney at Public Knowledge, who pointed to the AT&T breach in which call center employees had access to customer data, including 280,000 Social Security numbers.
"I expect that many consumers will now start to think twice before hitting that Uber request button," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Uber's ride service is largely based on the idea that it's better than taxis, and now they've shown that taxis are actually superior in at least one respect -- namely, privacy and anonymity."
David Jones is a freelance writer based in Essex County, New Jersey. He has written for Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times.
Uber Settles With New York AG After 'Playing God' With Data
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Thursday announced a deal that would require Uber to encrypt geolocation information ...
All but one of Apple's top team received a pay raise in 2015, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
While Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president for retail and online stores, didn't get a raise, she's still pulling down the highest executive compensation at the company at US$25.8 million.
Her compensation in 2014 was $73.4 million, but that's because Apple offered her a fat financial deal to jump ship from Burberry.
By comparison, CEO Tim Cook's compensation in 2015 was $10.3 million, up from $9.2 million in 2014.
Stock Holdings
However, Cook has large equity holdings in the company awarded him when he become CEO. They include unvested shares worth $353.3 million and equity incentives worth $192.7 million.
Ahrendt also has substantial stock holdings: unvested shares worth $42.5 million and equity incentives worth $18.4 million.
CFO Luca Maestri received compensation of $25.3 million, an increase from $14.0 million in 2014, the SEC filing showed.
His stock holdings include unvested shares worth $36.1 million and equity incentives worth $9.7 million.
Meanwhile, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for Internet software and services, had compensation of $25.1 million, a jump from $24.4 million in 2014.
Cue's stock holdings include $92.6 million in unvested shares and $18.4 million in incentives.
Skewed Compensation
Although Apple was a revenue and profit machine in 2015, its stock languished.
Full-year revenues for the company were $233 billion and profits were more than a billion dollars a week at $53.4 billion.
Yet its stock price dropped to 105.26 in December from 111.89 in January.
The stock closed Thursday at 96.45.
Apple's current executive team is responsible for destroying more than $480 billion in shareholder value, maintained Trip Chowdhry, managing director for equity research at Global Equities Research.
"Should they be rewarded for destroying $480 billion of potential shareholder value?" he told the E-Commerce Times. "Their compensation is totally skewed."
Bad P/E
Apple's price-to-earnings ratio of 11.5 is half the S&P 500 average of 20.5, Chowdhry added.
"The team should be compensated based on the P/E multiples. They shouldn't get bonuses until they match the market multiples," he said.
"It's a classic scenario of executives self-congratulating themselves for a dismal performance. These executives are rewarding themselves for underperforming on every metric," Chowdhry continued.
"If Steve Jobs was alive today, he would have gone bananas," he added.
Stratospheric Salaries
One of the problems in corporate America is executives continuing to make good money regardless of how the company is doing, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"There's been a decoupling of company performance and salaries at the top level of firms that's been problematic," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Often, even if a company drops into unprofitability, the salaries will remain stratospheric."
That's not the case at Apple, however, according to Enderle.
"Apple continues to be one of the most profitable companies in the technology segment," he said. "As long as that is the case, you'd expect the compensation to remain reasonably good."
Unreasonable Expectations
While Apple may not be doing as well as it did under Steve Jobs, Enderle continued, it's doing better than most companies do when an iconic leader leaves.
"The fact that Apple was designed around Jobs and they're doing as well they're doing is a testament to their capability," he said.
When Bill Gates left Microsoft to Steve Balmer, the company's value collapsed and still hasn't recovered, Enderle noted.
As for Apple's stock price, "tech companies have a history of being undervalued," he observed.
"The issue with Apple is they're expected to overperform, so they get pounded when they don't," Enderle continued.
"The expectations around Apple are often unreasonable," he added, "largely because Apple has shown they can perform at unreasonable levels."
John Mello is a freelance technology writer and contributor to Chief Security Officer magazine. You can connect with him on Google+.
Apple Execs' Salaries Go Up as Stock Goes Down
All but one of Apple's top team received a pay raise in 2015, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exc...
All but one of Apple's top team received a pay raise in 2015, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
While Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president for retail and online stores, didn't get a raise, she's still pulling down the highest executive compensation at the company at US$25.8 million.
Her compensation in 2014 was $73.4 million, but that's because Apple offered her a fat financial deal to jump ship from Burberry.
By comparison, CEO Tim Cook's compensation in 2015 was $10.3 million, up from $9.2 million in 2014.
Stock Holdings
However, Cook has large equity holdings in the company awarded him when he become CEO. They include unvested shares worth $353.3 million and equity incentives worth $192.7 million.
Ahrendt also has substantial stock holdings: unvested shares worth $42.5 million and equity incentives worth $18.4 million.
CFO Luca Maestri received compensation of $25.3 million, an increase from $14.0 million in 2014, the SEC filing showed.
His stock holdings include unvested shares worth $36.1 million and equity incentives worth $9.7 million.
Meanwhile, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for Internet software and services, had compensation of $25.1 million, a jump from $24.4 million in 2014.
Cue's stock holdings include $92.6 million in unvested shares and $18.4 million in incentives.
Skewed Compensation
Although Apple was a revenue and profit machine in 2015, its stock languished.
Full-year revenues for the company were $233 billion and profits were more than a billion dollars a week at $53.4 billion.
Yet its stock price dropped to 105.26 in December from 111.89 in January.
The stock closed Thursday at 96.45.
Apple's current executive team is responsible for destroying more than $480 billion in shareholder value, maintained Trip Chowdhry, managing director for equity research at Global Equities Research.
"Should they be rewarded for destroying $480 billion of potential shareholder value?" he told the E-Commerce Times. "Their compensation is totally skewed."
Bad P/E
Apple's price-to-earnings ratio of 11.5 is half the S&P 500 average of 20.5, Chowdhry added.
"The team should be compensated based on the P/E multiples. They shouldn't get bonuses until they match the market multiples," he said.
"It's a classic scenario of executives self-congratulating themselves for a dismal performance. These executives are rewarding themselves for underperforming on every metric," Chowdhry continued.
"If Steve Jobs was alive today, he would have gone bananas," he added.
Stratospheric Salaries
One of the problems in corporate America is executives continuing to make good money regardless of how the company is doing, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"There's been a decoupling of company performance and salaries at the top level of firms that's been problematic," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Often, even if a company drops into unprofitability, the salaries will remain stratospheric."
That's not the case at Apple, however, according to Enderle.
"Apple continues to be one of the most profitable companies in the technology segment," he said. "As long as that is the case, you'd expect the compensation to remain reasonably good."
Unreasonable Expectations
While Apple may not be doing as well as it did under Steve Jobs, Enderle continued, it's doing better than most companies do when an iconic leader leaves.
"The fact that Apple was designed around Jobs and they're doing as well they're doing is a testament to their capability," he said.
When Bill Gates left Microsoft to Steve Balmer, the company's value collapsed and still hasn't recovered, Enderle noted.
As for Apple's stock price, "tech companies have a history of being undervalued," he observed.
"The issue with Apple is they're expected to overperform, so they get pounded when they don't," Enderle continued.
"The expectations around Apple are often unreasonable," he added, "largely because Apple has shown they can perform at unreasonable levels."
John Mello is a freelance technology writer and contributor to Chief Security Officer magazine. You can connect with him on Google+.
Apple Execs' Salaries Go Up as Stock Goes Down
All but one of Apple's top team received a pay raise in 2015, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exc...
Thursday, January 7, 2016
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Thursday announced a deal that would require Uber to encrypt geolocation information about its riders, as well as enhance its data security practices.
The AG opened an investigation into Uber in 2014, in response to allegations that the service had tracked riders and displayed their locations in an aerial format, known internally as the "God View."
The AG's office opened another investigation early last year, after Uber notified it that an unauthorized third-party had accessed the names and driver's license information of Uber drivers as early as May 2014, although the company did not discover it until the following September, according to legal documents obtained by the E-Commerce Times.
"We are committed to protecting the privacy of consumers and customers of any product in New York State, as well as that of any employee of any company operating here," Schneiderman said.
New Data Rules
The settlement requires that Uber encrypt rider geolocation information, adopt multifactor authentication before any Uber employee can access sensitive rider information, and engage in other protection practices, according to the AG's office.
The settlement also requires Uber to pay a US$20,000 penalty for failing to provide timely notice to drivers and to the AG's office regarding the September 2014 data breach.
"We are deeply committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of riders and drivers," Uber said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Matt Wing. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the New York Attorney General that resolves these questions and makes it clear our commitment to best practices that put our community first."
We've Been Expecting You
Buzzfeed reporter Johana Bhuiyan in 2014 discovered that her Uber ride had been tracked as she traveled to the company's Long Island City headquarters while on assignment to interview its New York general manager.
She had not given prior consent to the tracking, and it was against company policy to do such a thing, according to a Buzzfeed exclusive report.
The AG's office mentioned the Buzzfeed article in its announcement of the settlement; however, Wing declined to comment on the incident.
Uber last year posted a privacy policy that mentioned the hiring of law firm Hogan Lovells to review the company's privacy practices.
Uber conducts annual privacy and security training, has an employee designated to supervise it, and takes other steps that already comply with the AG agreement, it said.
Companies often fail to protect sensitive customer data, according to Charles Duan, staff attorney at Public Knowledge, who pointed to the AT&T breach in which call center employees had access to customer data, including 280,000 Social Security numbers.
"I expect that many consumers will now start to think twice before hitting that Uber request button," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Uber's ride service is largely based on the idea that it's better than taxis, and now they've shown that taxis are actually superior in at least one respect -- namely, privacy and anonymity."
David Jones is a freelance writer based in Essex County, New Jersey. He has written for Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times.
Uber Settles With New York AG After 'Playing God' With Data
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Thursday announced a deal that would require Uber to encrypt geolocation information ...
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Activist investor Starboard Value, which has dogged Yahoo over the years, on Wednesday sent a letter to the company demanding it make changes or face a proxy fight.
Yahoo "made the right decision" by suspending the Alibaba spinoff, but "the continued downward spiral of Yahoo's core Search and Display advertising businesses" has been "frustrating for us, and likely for you," the letter, posted on ValueWalk, states.
The management team hired to turn around the core business "has failed to produce acceptable results" despite more than three years of effort and billions spent on acquisition, the letter says. "It appears that investors have lost all confidence in management and the Board," and most of Yahoo's current value derives from its Alibaba shares.
Starboard demands "dramatically different thinking" and "significant changes across all aspects of the business starting at the board level, and including executive leadership," according to the letter. It wants to see cost-cutting, paring off unprofitable businesses and research projects, and an overhaul of Yahoo's incentives and compensation programs.
Yahoo should look at selling its core businesses, Starboard's letter suggests. Otherwise, an election contest "may very well be needed" to replace members of the board.
Mixed Investor Feelings
The market immediately drove up Yahoo's share prices briefly, but they closed at $32.16, down 4 cents from the previous day but up 35 cents from the opening bell figure.
Given the strong wording of Starboard's letter, the market's reaction might indicate that investors still have some faith in Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's vision.
"Yahoo is in the midst of a multiyear transformation," Yahoo said in a statement provided to the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Rebecca Neufeld.
"We attract more than a billion people every month, and we've built a profitable billion-dollar business in mobile, video, native and social that we expect will drive sustainable growth," Yahoo continued.
The company will "share additional plans for a more focused Yahoo on or before" its fourth-quarter earnings call, it said.
That probably will be held some time later this month.
Starboard's Angst
Starboard is concerned by both the deteriorating financial performance of Yahoo's core business and an "accelerating number of executive leadership departures," the letter states.
Further, annual operating costs have increased by about $500 million despite falling revenues. Yahoo has spent more than $2.3 billion on acquisitions, most of which have "been misguided, poorly overseen, and, ultimately, shut down," Starboard's letter continues. "EBITDA continues to decline quarter after quarter while spending continues at an alarming pace."
Starboard has "attempted to work constructively with management and the Board of Yahoo" behind the scenes for over a year, and has grown increasingly frustrated, the letter maintains.
"It took significant effort for us to convince you it was the right choice to suspend the [Alibaba] spinoff," it says. "Unfortunately, instead of heeding our advice and concurrently announcing that you would explore a sale of the core business, you have now hid behind a plan to spin off the core business and Yahoo Japan without fully understanding the alternative options."
Identity Problem
"Apart from making acquisitions, Yahoo has not diversified," contended Mukul Krishna, a senior global director of research at Frost & Sullivan.
Yahoo "is such a hodgepodge of different things that, unless they have a driving strategy, what you have is a zillion different things and a company that doesn't have an identity," he told the E-Commerce Times.
The board "might be to blame in that they haven't been able to agree among themselves what Yahoo is," Krishna said.
Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Mayer has a great opportunity if she defines Yahoo's identity and strategy and strips out everything that's not in line with that vision, he suggested.
"That means it will shrink in the short term, but in the long term, it will be much better in terms of continuity and moving forward," Krishna remarked. "It'll be a tough 24 to 36 months but, if they stick to that strategy, investors will back them."
Richard Adhikari has written about high-tech for leading industry publications since the 1990s and wonders where it's all leading to. Will implanted RFID chips in humans be the Mark of the Beast? Will nanotech solve our coming food crisis? Does Sturgeon's Law still hold true? You can connect with Richard on Google+.
Investor Calls for Leadership Changes at Yahoo
Activist investor Starboard Value, which has dogged Yahoo over the years, on Wednesday sent a letter to the company demanding it ma...
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