WebProNews

Tag: the new york times

  • SCOTUS Appears Reluctant to Overturn Section 230

    SCOTUS Appears Reluctant to Overturn Section 230

    The US Supreme Court appears reluctant to overturn Section 230, setting up a major win for tech firms and online platforms.

    Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects online companies from legal fallout for content posted by users on their platforms. The law is what shields Twitter, Facebook, and other from being legally liable, regardless of the kind of content their users post.

    In recent years, Section 230 has come under attack, with lawmakers and regulators on both sides of the aisle looking to see its protections repealed, or at least scaled back.

    SCOTUS is considering the first significant challenge to the law, a case brought by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, one of the victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The case alleges that Google was partially responsible for the radicalization of the perpetrators by algorithmically pushing Islamic State videos to interested parties.

    According to The New York Times, the justices appeared unconvinced that fundamentally crippling how internet platforms recommend information will solve anything.

    “If you’re interested in cooking,” Justice Clarence Thomas said, “you don’t want thumbnails on light jazz.” He later added, “I see these as suggestions and not really recommendations because they don’t really comment on them.”

    Meanwhile, Google’s lawyer argued that repealing Section 230 would basically break the internet, causing it devolve into super-moderated zones that border on censorship, or lawless zones that are “a horror show.”

    Given how important Section 230 is, there’s sure to be people upset on both sides, regardless of how the court rules.

  • Google Employees Brace for Cost-Saving Measures

    Google Employees Brace for Cost-Saving Measures

    Google employees are reportedly bracing for cost-saving measures, fearing they could lead to mass layoffs the company has so far avoided.

    The economic downturn has hit the tech industry especially hard, with many of Google’s rivals already resorting to layoffs in an effort to cut costs. While Google has so far managed to avoid that step, employees are growing increasingly worried such layoffs may be imminent.

    According to The New York Times, Google employees in Switzerland have voiced concerns about measures the company is putting in place to evaluate employee performance.

    “The number and spread of reports that reached us indicates that at least some managers were aggressively pressured to apply a quota” on a process that could lead to employees getting negative ratings and potentially losing their jobs, five workers and employee representatives wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.

    Despite Google’s profits and outlook, some investors are increasingly pushing the company to do more to reign in costs and protect the profits it’s earning.

    Read more: Analyst Says Google Should Conduct Layoffs

    “One of the most obvious ways to do that is to cut costs and reduce your employee head count,” Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said.

    Mahaney added that it was “kind of odd” that Google’s parent Alphabet hired 30,000 in just the last three quarters, seemingly bucking the overall economic and industry trends. All told, Alphabet’s worker count comes in at 186,779.

    Google’s employees have been concerned about the company’s future plans for some time, but the anxiety appears to be reaching all-new levels, according to the Times.

    From the impending closure of a small office and the cancellation of a content-moderation project to various efforts to ease budgets during 2023 planning meetings, the Silicon Valley behemoth has become a tinderbox of anxiety, according to interviews with 14 current and former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

    Only time will tell if Google plans to join its rivals and conduct mass layoffs, although the company has always avoided layoffs as a matter of pride.

  • Free Speech Friend or Foe? Musk’s Twitter Bans Journalists & Competitor

    Free Speech Friend or Foe? Musk’s Twitter Bans Journalists & Competitor

    Elon Musk is showing he doesn’t care about free speech as much as he claims, with Twitter banning critical journalists and links to competitor Mastodon.

    Musk purchased Twitter on the promise of respecting free speech and has rolled back many of the content moderation measures that were in place. It appears the CEO is only concerned with free speech that’s not critical of him, however, as leading journalists have been banned for no apparent reason other than being critical of Musk and Twitter’s actions.

    According to The New York Times, Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; independent journalist Aaron Rupar; Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable; independent journalist Tony Webster; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and political journalist Keith Olbermann all had their accounts suspended. No reason was given other than a notice on their Twitter profiles that says the accounts “violate the Twitter rules.”

    Exactly what rules these accounts violated, however, is up for debate. Some of them covered the @ElonJet account, which tracked Musk’s jet using publicly available information. Musk had previously said he would not ban the account before reversing course and banning it Wednesday. Other journalists merely wrote articles critical of some of Musk’s decisions.

    The bans were met with widespread criticism from other journalists, the tech industry, and politicians alike.

    The gall of @elonmusk to ban respectable journalists doing important work from his platform while parading as some sort of champion of free speech is, quite frankly, detestable,” tweeted Representative Yvette Clarke. “I’d ask if he feels any shame, but meaningful self-reflection may simply be beyond his capacity.”

    Similarly, Twitter users are reporting problems posting links to their Mastodon accounts, one of Twitter’s main competitors. When trying to post links to their Mastodon accounts, users are being met with a message stating the following:

    “Your Tweet couldn’t be sent because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful. Visit our Help Center to learn more.” 

    For someone who is a self-proclaimed champion of free speech, Musk is proving to be more of a foe than a champion, with his tenure as Twitter’s owner taking a decidedly draconian turn.

  • Media Groups Voice Support for Julian Assange

    Media Groups Voice Support for Julian Assange

    Media groups have come out in favor of Julian Assange, urging the US to drop the charges against him.

    Twelve years ago Monday, a collection of media outlets published portions of the 250,000 secret documents Assange gained access to in his role as Director of WikiLeaks. Since then, Assange has been wanted by US authorities and spent years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK before Ecuador revoked his asylum in 2019. Assange was set to be extradited to the US, but his legal team is currently fighting extradition, leaving him in London’s Belmarsh prison.

    According to The Guardian, a group of media outlets are petitioning the US government to drop its charges against Assange. The group includes The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País.

    Below is a copy of the letter in its entirety:

    Publishing is not a crime: The US government should end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.

    Twelve years ago, on November 28th 2010, our five international media outlets – the New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel – published a series of revelations in cooperation with WikiLeaks that made the headlines around the globe.

    “Cablegate”, a set of 251,000 confidential cables from the US state department, disclosed corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale.

    In the words of the New York Times, the documents told “the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions, the decisions that cost the country most heavily in lives and money”. Even now in 2022, journalists and historians continue to publish new revelations, using the unique trove of documents.

    For Julian Assange, publisher of WikLeaks, the publication of “Cablegate” and several other related leaks had the most severe consequences. On April 12th 2019, Assange was arrested in London on a US arrest warrant, and has now been held for three and a half years in a high-security British prison usually used for terrorists and members of organised crime groups. He faces extradition to the US and a sentence of up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison.

    This group of editors and publishers, all of whom had worked with Assange, felt the need to publicly criticise his conduct in 2011 when unredacted copies of the cables were released, and some of us are concerned about the allegations in the indictment that he attempted to aid in computer intrusion of a classified database. But we come together now to express our grave concerns about the continued prosecution of Julian Assange for obtaining and publishing classified materials.

    The Obama-Biden administration, in office during the WikiLeaks publication in 2010, refrained from indicting Assange, explaining that they would have had to indict journalists from major news outlets too. Their position placed a premium on press freedom, despite its uncomfortable consequences. Under Donald Trump however, the position changed. The DoJ relied on an old law, the Espionage Act of 1917 (designed to prosecute potential spies during world war one), which has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster.

    This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s first amendment and the freedom of the press.

    Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists. If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.

    Twelve years after the publication of “Cablegate”, it is time for the US government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.

    Publishing is not a crime.

    The editors and publishers of:

    The New York Times

    The Guardian

    Le Monde

    Der Spiegel

    El País

  • Google Agrees to Record-Breaking Privacy Settlement With 40 States

    Google Agrees to Record-Breaking Privacy Settlement With 40 States

    Google has agreed to a record-breaking settlement in a privacy suit brought by 40 states over how the company tracks users.

    The attorneys general of 40 states sued the company for misleading its customers. Google was accused of tracking users even when they had expressly disabled tracking. According to The New York Times, the company has agreed to a $391.5 million settlement, the largest privacy settlement in history.

    “For years, Google prioritized profit over the privacy of people who use Google products and services,” said Ellen Rosenblum, the Oregon attorney general, who led the case along with Nebraska. “Consumers thought they had turned ‘off’ their location tracking features on Google, but the company continued to secretly record their movements and use that information for advertisers.”

    For its part, Google claims the behavior in question had been addressed years earlier.

    “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” said company spokesman José Castañeda.

    While this lawsuit may be settled, it doesn’t end Google’s privacy troubles. The company also faces lawsuits by Indiana, Texas, and Washington DC. The company also recently settled another location tracking lawsuit with Arizona to the tune of $85 million.

  • Amazon Reportedly Plans to Lay Off 10,000

    Amazon Reportedly Plans to Lay Off 10,000

    Amazon may soon be joining Meta in one of the biggest mass layoffs of 2022, with the company reportedly looking to lay off 10,000 employees.

    Amazon has already engaged in major hiring freezes and let attrition reduce its headcount. The company appears poised to take far more aggressive action, with The New York Times reporting that it plans to lay off roughly 10,000 employees.

    The Times sources said the layoffs will primarily hit corporate and technology positions. Cuts will include the devices organization, responsible for Alexa, as well as HR and retail.

    The fact that Amazon is reportedly taking this measure during the holiday season, when its economic situation is the strongest, speaks volumes about the overall health of the economy. As the Times points out, this is a major change from earlier this year when companies were trying to keep talented workers and not lose them to competitors.

    If the layoffs proceed as reported, it would be the second-largest of the year, behind Meta’s 11,000.

  • US Gross National Debt Hits Record $31 Trillion

    US Gross National Debt Hits Record $31 Trillion

    The United States national debt hit a new milestone, crossing $31 trillion at a time when the economy is in a major downturn.

    The US has been carrying trillions in debt for years, leading to near-yearly debate among politicians about whether to raise the debt ceiling. The debates are likely to become even more fiery on news that the US debt has hit a record-breaking $31 trillion.

    The news was part of a Treasury Department report, and raises concerns at a time when the US and the world are facing some of the worst economic uncertainty in more than a decade. The concerns over the current debt situation are exacerbated by increased interest rates, despite the rate hikes being a necessary step to help stem rising inflation.

    “So many of the concerns we’ve had about our growing debt path are starting to show themselves as we both grow our debt and grow our rates of interest,” said Michael A. Peterson, the chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, according to The New York Times. “Too many people were complacent about our debt path in part because rates were so low.”

    Only time will tell if lawmakers will be able to take steps to reduce the debt.

  • Amazon Freezes Corporate Retail Hiring for Remainder of 2022

    Amazon Freezes Corporate Retail Hiring for Remainder of 2022

    Amazon is continuing its hiring freezes, pausing hiring in corporate retail for the remainder of 2022.

    Amazon has been working to reduce its headcount as a result of the economic downturn. The company had already prepared to flatten hiring for its Global Corporate Affairs (GCA) group and relied on attrition to reduce its headcount by 100,000 across the company.

    According to The New York Times, the company sent an email to recruiters telling them it was pausing hiring for its corporate retail division. As the Times points out, there were 20,000 such open jobs as recently as Monday.

    Amazon reportedly told recruiters not to describe the situation as a “hiring freeze,” but said all the open jobs should be closed and new jobs will not be posted until next year.

    Candidates that had interviews scheduled before October 15 may be grandfathered in and receive offers if they are a good fit. Even if they are hired, however, they will not start their new jobs until next year.

    “Amazon continues to have a significant number of open roles available across the company,” Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesman, told the Times in a statement. “We have many different businesses at various stages of evolution, and we expect to keep adjusting our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at various junctures.”

  • Facebook Is Shutting Down Its Bulletin Newsletter Platform

    Facebook Is Shutting Down Its Bulletin Newsletter Platform

    Facebook is shutting down its Bulletin newsletter platform as the company looks to cut costs.

    Bulletin was Facebook’s attempt to compete in the newsletter space. The platform featured a number of well-known writers, such as Malcolm Gladwell, Erin Andrews, and Mitch Albom.

    According to The New York Times, however, Facebook has begun notifying writers of the platform’s impending shutdown, effective early next year.

    “Bulletin has allowed us to learn about the relationship between creators and their audiences and how to better support them in building their community on Facebook,” the company confirmed in a statement to the Times. “While this off-platform product itself is ending, we remain committed to supporting these and other creators’ success and growth on our platform.”

    The move is unsurprising, especially since Meta halted millions in funding for US newspapers. The company has been looking for ways to cut costs and focus on core areas of the business, making Bulletin a likely candidate for shutdown.

  • Startup Helmed by WeWork Ex-CEO Is Andreessen Horowitz’s Biggest Gamble

    Startup Helmed by WeWork Ex-CEO Is Andreessen Horowitz’s Biggest Gamble

    Andreessen Horowitz is making its largest single investment in a startup helmed by Adam Neumann, WeWork’s ex-CEO.

    Neumann famously fell from grace as the CEO of WeWork, stepping down when he failed to help the company go public. Despite that high-profile flop, his latest venture is getting some major backing from the VC firm founded by internet legend Marc Andreessen.

    While WeWork helped revolutionize commercial real estate, Neumann’s latest company Flow looks to revolutionize residential real estate.

    “Adam is a visionary leader who revolutionized the second largest asset class in the world — commercial real estate — by bringing community and brand to an industry in which neither existed before,” writes Andreessen in a blog post. “Adam, and the story of WeWork, have been exhaustively chronicled, analyzed, and fictionalized – sometimes accurately. For all the energy put into covering the story, it’s often under appreciated that only one person has fundamentally redesigned the office experience and led a paradigm-changing global company in the process: Adam Neumann. We understand how difficult it is to build something like this and we love seeing repeat-founders build on past successes by growing from lessons learned. For Adam, the successes and lessons are plenty and we are excited to go on this journey with him and his colleagues building the future of living.”

    Andreessen voices his confidence that Neumann can make lightning strike twice with the residential market.

    “We think it is natural that for his first venture since WeWork, Adam returns to the theme of connecting people through transforming their physical spaces and building communities where people spend the most time: their homes,” Andreessen continues. “Residential real estate — the world’s largest asset class — is ready for exactly this change.”

    While Andreessen doesn’t talk money in his blog, The New York Times says his firm has already invested $350 million in Flow, valuing it at more than $1 billion, and representing the VC firm’s single largest investment in its history.

  • SpaceX Fires Employees Who Called Elon Musk An ‘Embarrassment’

    SpaceX Fires Employees Who Called Elon Musk An ‘Embarrassment’

    SpaceX has moved swiftly, firing employees who wrote an open letter to executives in which they called Elon Musk an “embarrassment.”

    News broke yesterday of a letter some SpaceX employees wrote to executives outlining their concerns over Musk’s behavior and his public persona. The letter, which began circulating within the company Wednesday, was extremely critical of Musk, demanding the company distance itself from his tweets and requesting a sit-down with executives to discuss the issues. SpaceX has given its response, firing some of those responsible for the letter, according to The New York Times.

    According to the *Times*, SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell has “terminated a number of employees involved,” citing concerns over “overreaching activism.”

    “The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views,” Ms. Shotwell wrote. “We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”

    In our coverage yesterday, we highlighted that employee activism was causing many companies increasing problems. While some companies are bending over backward in an effort to engage with that activism, it appears SpaceX is taking a decidedly different approach, encouraging employees to stay focused on their work.

    “Blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable,” Ms. Shotwell continued.

    “Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.”

  • Google Map Employees Push Back on In-Office, Citing Commuting Costs

    Google Map Employees Push Back on In-Office, Citing Commuting Costs

    Google is once again receiving pushback on its return-to-office plans, with contract employees in its Maps division saying they can’t afford the commute back.

    Google, along with Apple, has struggled to get its employees to come back to the office. The company has resorted to providing employees with electric scooters in an effort to make the commute easier. Unfortunately, that isn’t much of a solution for Maps employees at its Washington State location.

    According to The New York Times, 200 employees who work for Google via the Cognizant Technology Solutions outsourcing firm are saying they can’t afford to commute to the company’s Bothell office five days a week.

    “Gas is around $5 per gallon currently, and many of us in the office are not able to afford to live close to the office due to our low salaries and the high cost of housing in Bothell,” the Cognizant employees wrote in a petition.

    Interestingly, Google’s direct employees are only required to be back in the office three days a week. In contrast, Cognizant’s employees are required to come back five days a week and are therefore asking for the same consideration as direct employees.

    The Alphabet Workers Union is supporting the employees’ petition.

  • Russia Losing Top Talent As Tech Workers Flee The Country

    Russia is losing its top tech talent as workers flee the country in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

    In the modern economy, knowledge workers are one of the most valuable commodities. Unfortunately for Russia, the country’s tech workers are leaving over its invasion of Ukraine, according to The New York Times, adding to its woes.

    The international community has been mostly united in its condemnation of Russia’s actions. Governments around the world have imposed strict sanctions, while companies have ceased operations and pulled out of Russia. The situation has become so dire it’s believed the country may be running out of digital storage.

    As if external issues weren’t enough, it’s now estimated some 50,000 to 70,000 tech workers have left the country, with an additional 70,000 to 100,000 soon to follow.

    “Most Russian tech workers are part of the global market. Either they work for global companies or they are tech entrepreneurs trying to build new companies for the global market,” said Konstantin Siniushin, a venture capitalist in Riga, Latvia. “So they are leaving the country.”

    Many experts believe it will take Russia years to recover from the sanction it is experiencing. That estimate is likely to increase the more highly skilled workers it loses.

  • New York Times Tech Workers Certify Their Union

    New York Times Tech Workers Certify Their Union

    The Times Tech Guild is now the biggest US-based tech union with bargaining rights, following a National Labor Relations Board election certifying their union.

    The Times tech workers voted to unionize in April 2021, but Thursday’s vote is a major milestone, giving the union the ability to collectively bargain on behalf of its members. According to Katie Robertson, writing for the Times, the vote passed 404 to 88.

    “We’re just elated and really soaking in what this means, not only for us as tech workers at The Times and for The New York Times but also for the tech industry as a whole,” said Nozlee Samadzadeh, a senior software engineer. “I think this is going to be the start of a wave of organizing in the tech industry.”

    The news is the latest evidence of a growing trend in the tech industry. Once almost unheard of, tech employees have increasingly been unionizing in an effort to improve their pay and working conditions, or to have more say in how their companies do business.

    Kickstarter employees were one of the first to form a union within the US tech industry, followed soon after by Google/Alphabet workers. The Alphabet Workers Union made it clear that one of their primary goals was to help direct the company’s actions.

    “This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers,” said Nicki Anselmo, Program Manager, when the AWU was formed. “From fighting the ‘real names’ policy, to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multi-million dollar payouts that have been given to executives who’ve committed sexual harassment, we’ve seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively. Our new union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that our shared values as Alphabet employees are respected even after the headlines fade.”

    Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha, said The Times welcomed the opportunity to work with the union.

    “We continue to believe this election process was critical so our colleagues could learn more about the union, hear both sides of the argument and, ultimately, make an informed decision,” she said.

  • IRS Backtracks, Ends Bid to Require Facial Recognition

    IRS Backtracks, Ends Bid to Require Facial Recognition

    The IRS is backtracking on its plans to require facial recognition to access online accounts, following backlash from security and privacy experts.

    The IRS announced in mid-January that it was partnering with ID.me, with plans to require facial recognition for users accessing their online accounts. As Krebs on Security documented, the process involved in setting up facial ID was relatively complicated. Meanwhile, security experts and customers worried about the implications of people’s biometric data being collected.

    According to The New York Times, the Treasury Department is now abandoning the plan, despite awarding ID.me an $86 million contract.

    “The I.R.S. takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” said Charles P. Rettig, the agency commissioner. “Everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.”

    The agency is evidently working on an alternative method of identification that will not involve facial recognition, although it’s unclear at this time what that method may be.

  • FBI Was One of NSO Group’s Customers

    FBI Was One of NSO Group’s Customers

    NSO Group has quickly become one of the most reviled security firms, even being banned by the US government. Despite that, it appears the FBI was one of its customers.

    News broke in mid-2021 that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was being used by authoritarian governments to spy on journalists, civil rights activists, and US diplomats. The US Commerce Department ultimately ended up blacklisting the company, preventing any US companies from doing business with it.

    Amid the controversy surrounding the NSO Group, it has now come out that the FBI was one of its customers, according to The Seattle Times, a revelation that is not sitting well with many groups.

    “Spending millions of dollars to line the pockets of a company that is widely known to serially facilitate widespread human rights abuses, possible criminal acts, and operations that threaten the U.S.’s own national security is definitely troubling,” Ron Deibert, director of Citizen Lab, told the Times. Citizen Lab is an internet watchdog with the University of Toronto, that has been exposing Pegasus hacks since 2016.

    The FBI has been tight-lipped about its relationship with NSO Group, but reports form The New York Times and The Guardian indicate it initially paid $5 million for a one-year license, before renewing it for $4 million. The Guardian’s sources say the FBI never actually used the software.

  • No, Companies Have No Idea When They’ll Return to the Office

    No, Companies Have No Idea When They’ll Return to the Office

    After multiple return-to-office dates, COVID-19 surges and delayed expectations, one thing is clear: Companies have no idea when they’ll return.

    From the moment companies sent employees home to work remotely in the early phases of the pandemic, those same companies have been looking to return to the office, to a sense of “normal.” At every step, however, new COVID variants, spikes in cases and fresh government restrictions have pushed back return-to-office dates around the world.

    According to The New York Times, many companies are giving up altogether on trying to predict when their employees will be coming back. Apple, CNN, Ford and Google are just a few of the companies adopting a wait-and-see approach, and giving up on specific predictions.

    “The only companies being dishonest are the ones giving employees certainty,” Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford professor and advisor to dozens of CEOs told The Times. “As a parent you can hide stuff from your kids, but as a C.E.O. you can’t do that to adult employees who read the news.”

    “Folks have hedged appropriately this time around and they understand that it’s a dialogue with their employees, not a mandate,” Zach Dunn, co-founder of the office space management platform Robin, told The Times. “If that sounds a little kumbaya, maybe. But the reality is, folks are learning that sharing the intention of their return plan is more important than sharing the plan itself.”

    With the omicron variant now sweeping the globe, it’s a safe bet leaving the return-to-office open-ended — or just going all-in on remote work — is likely to be the “new normal” moving forward.

  • Google Once Again Pursuing Pentagon Contracts

    Google Once Again Pursuing Pentagon Contracts

    Google is once again pursuing Pentagon contracts after employee activism put the brakes on its last attempt.

    Google famously stopped pursing a Pentagon AI contract three years ago when employees raised a furor. Despite the company’s past setbacks, The New York Times reports that Google is once again looking to do business with the Pentagon, trying to get in on the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract.

    The JWCC contract is the Pentagon’s replacement for it’s ill-fated JEDI contract. The DoD surprised the industry by initially awarded Microsoft the JEDI contract, despite Amazon being considered as the front-runner. Amazon challenged Microsoft’s win and tied it up in court long enough for the Pentagon to abandon JEDI and completely rework its requirements, leading to the JWCC.

    The Times is reporting that Google is making a play for the JWCC, a move that could help the number three cloud provider make major headway in the industry.

  • New York Times: ‘Stop Paying for a VPN’

    New York Times: ‘Stop Paying for a VPN’

    Writing for the New York Times, Brian X. Chen makes the case that it’s time to stop paying for VPNs.

    Virtual private networks (VPN) are popular tools people use to protect their privacy online. Theoretically, a VPN masks a person’s activity by routing their traffic through the VPN’s network. As a result, it’s much more difficult for third parties to track a person’s movement online. The individual’s ISP can’t see what websites they’re visiting, and the websites can’t easily track their activity.

    Unfortunately, the world of VPNs can be among the most mysterious and opaque in the software industry. Many companies’ ownership is obscured, making it difficult for customers to have any real sense of accountability. Still others engage in activities and practices that are questionable at best — such as ExpressVPN knowingly hiring a former US intelligence operative that worked as a hacker-for-hire for the United Arab Emirates.

    Even worse, as Chen points out, a number of high-profile and popular VPN services have been purchased by shady companies. Kape Technologies is one such company, and has been accused of developing malware by Google and the University of California. Unfortunately, Kape has bought CyberGhost VPN, Zenmate and ExpressVPN, the latter a service that routinely receives high scores and recommendations from a slew of publications.

    Chen makes the case that the current state of the web, where the vast majority of websites are using HTTPS, makes VPNs unnecessary for most users. In addition, for Apple users, iCloud Private Relay is specifically designed to provide a layer privacy, although it doesn’t truly compete with a VPN.

    As Chen points out, there are some situations where a VPN is useful, specifically when a user needs to mask their location in order to access certain content.

    All-in-all, Chen’s piece is a thought-provoking look at an industry that, while once invaluable, may no longer be meeting the vast majority of its users’ needs.

  • Google May Have Run Afoul of Labor Laws for Years

    Google May Have Run Afoul of Labor Laws for Years

    Google may end up in hot water after years of not paying temp workers a similar wage as full-time employees.

    According to a report in The New York Times, Google has spent years paying some temp workers less than their full-time counterparts. While that may not be an issue in some jurisdictions, others require temp users to be paid a comparable wage to full-timers if the work they do is comparable.

    The Times reviewed emails that show Google became aware of the problem, thanks to Alan Barry, one of the company’s compliance managers in Ireland. Barry wrote in an email that, from a “compliance perspective,” the correct move was to adjust its pay rate for all temps. However, Barry pointed out that doing so would likely bring attention to Google’s past non-compliance.

    “The cost is significant and it would give rise to a flurry of noise/frustration,”Barry wrote. “I’m also not keen to invite the charge that we’ve allowed this situation to persist for so long that the correction required is significant.”

    Ultimately, the company decided not to correct the pay for all temps, instead raising pay only for new hires brought on in 2021. The issue was finally brought to light thanks to a whistleblower who reported the company to the SEC.

    It’s unclear if the SEC, or any other government agency is currently investigating. Nonetheless, it’s believed Google may ultimately have shorted temp workers a whopping $100 million, not including fines and legal fees the company may have to pay if a case is brought against it.

  • California Bill Takes Aim at Amazon’s Warehouse Working Conditions

    California Bill Takes Aim at Amazon’s Warehouse Working Conditions

    Amazon has been under increased scrutiny over its labor practices, but a California bill may finally do something about it.

    Recently, Amazon has gone from one labor-related issue to another. The company settled with the FTC over stiffing its delivery drivers $62 million in tips and has been accused of violating labor laws in Alabama. The company has also been accused of substandard working conditions in its warehouses, with workers under constant pressure to maintain an unreasonable pace.

    California appears poised to tackle the problem, according to The New York Times, with a bill that has already passed the Assembly and likely up for a vote in the State Senate this week.

    Among other things, the bill would require companies to disclose productivity quotas that algorithms track and companies use to evaluate whether to keep or fire employees.

    “The supervisory function is being taken over by computers,” said the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. “But they’re not taking into account the human factor.”

    The bill would also ensure that employees are able to take bathroom breaks and state-mandated breaks, regardless of the company’s policy or quotas.

    If the law passes, it could have profound repercussions for Amazon, as well as countless other companies.