Good morning. Large tech companies have become more powerful in the past decade thanks to two things: their ability to deliver goods and services that people want, and their ability to collect and cross-pollinate the personal data of billions of their customers. It is the latter that concerns government regulators, particularly in the West.

The multibillion-dollar fines and settlements seen so far for privacy infringements may be just pocket money for the tech giants. But a new regulatory offensive—expected to be rolled out more fully, especially in Europe, this year—threatens some of Silicon Valley’s most successful business models. The General Data Protection Regulation, a sweeping rule now being enforced across the European Union, was a first volley. It requires strict adherence by companies to a new set of privacy rules.

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In a different approach, one tackling both data and competition issues at the same time, German regulators have issued a ruling requiring Facebook Inc. to keep personal data of German users that it gathers through its main site separate from data that it gathers on its other services—WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Users would need to give permission for their data to be shared across the platforms. The German regulator ruled that Facebook’s ability to merge data is an abuse of power and ordered the company in Germany to change its terms of service, the long document that all users of an internet service agree to before using it.

The effort by Germany’s regulators reflects a broad strategic tack in antitrust investigations around the world in which the collection and collation of data by tech companies in specific markets is seen as instrumental in the companies’ ability to achieve dominance in those markets. “It’s the combination of the data that enables these big boys to do targeted advertising,” says Thomas Vinje, chairman of antitrust practice at Clifford Chance LLP in Brussels.

• Tech Upstarts Say Tech Giants Abuse Market Power to Stifle Competition
• Google Pushes ‘Sensible’ Ideas for How to Regulate AI
• Hospitals Give Tech Giants Access to Detailed Medical Records
• For Tech Companies, Election-Year Politics May Limit New Regulation

Join Risk & Compliance Journal reporter Dylan Tokar and Kyle DeYoung, a partner at law firm Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday for a webinar reviewing corporate compliance failures of recent months and the key takeaways for compliance professionals. Register here.

The White House could be considering changes to a decades-old law that prohibits businesses with ties to the U.S. from bribing foreign government officials, several media outlets report.

Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic adviser, told reporters Friday that the administration had heard complaints from some companies about the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Bloomberg reported. “I don’t want to say anything definitive policywise, but we are looking at it,” he said in response to a question, according to a video of his remarks posted by The Hill.

The question appears to have been sparked by a newly published book by two Washington Post reporters that expands on a previously reported interaction between President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017, according to CNBC.

During a briefing at the Oval Office, Mr. Trump told Mr. Tillerson that he wanted to scrap the FCPA, according to the book, “A Very Stable Genius,” by Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig, The New York Times reported. The law, enacted in 1977, has become a major legal risk for companies operating overseas.

The president said that it was “unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” according to the book, the Times reported.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

—Dylan Tokar

Lawyers for Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou argued in a Canadian court against her extradition to the U.S., saying the sanctions against Iran that she is accused of violating aren’t enforced in Canada. “Canada permits banks to do business with Iran. It is no crime in Canada,” Ms. Meng’s lawyer Eric Gottardi told a packed courtroom on the first day of her extradition hearing in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

The hearing kicks off what is expected to be a prolonged series of legal battles over the fate of Huawei’s finance chief and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei. Canadian courts typically don’t approve extradition requests unless the accused is alleged to have engaged in conduct that is also illegal in Canada.

• China’s stock-market regulator said a Shanghai-based unit of Citadel Securities paid 670 million yuan ($97.6 million) to resolve a probe into its trading practices in 2015, during a historic plunge in Chinese stocks that year. The firm’s “administrative reconciliation” ends a long period of limbo for Citadel’s Chinese business, whose proprietary trading account was frozen during the long-running probe.
   
• The Trump administration lodged sanctions against an Iranian military officer the U.S. maintains was in charge of units involved in a violent crackdown on protests in which nearly 150 people were killed.
   
• Federal regulators are looking into whether consumer complaints of unintended acceleration in Tesla models warrant a formal defect investigation into about 500,000 vehicles sold by the electric-car maker. 

• Boeing said it is grappling with a new software problem before its 737 MAX can return to service, a problem industry and government officials said prevents the jet’s flight-control computers from powering up as required prior to flight. 
   
• A Philadelphia judge has reduced the amount of punitive damages Johnson & Johnson must pay in a lawsuit over its antipsychotic Risperdal to $6.8 million from the $8 billion awarded by a jury in October.
   
• By the end of this year, nonbiodegradable plastic bags will be largely banned from major Chinese cities, and single-use straws will be prohibited in restaurants across the country, Beijing’s top economic-planning office and its Environment Ministry said Sunday. The ban will extend to all cities and towns by 2022 and to markets selling fresh produce by 2025.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, which sets international auditing standards used in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, has been trying to become more closely aligned with U.S.-focused standard setters. IAASB Chairman Tom Seidenstein, who began his three-year term last July, explains how.

A newly sealed trade truce with the U.S. reduced a key source of anxiety for Chinese policy makers but leaves them with another challenge: a need to boost consumer and business confidence as the country faces more downward pressure on its massive economy.

Chinese officials said the country emerged from 2019 with an official economic growth of 6.1%—well within the government’s target range of 6% to 6.5% but the lowest level in nearly three decades.

The outlook remains cloudy, and some private-sector economists warn that growth in the world’s second-largest economy could slip even further this year, to below 6%.

• IMF Predicts Global Economy Will Rebound in 2020

• Global stocks dropped on Tuesday, led by Asian markets, amid concerns about the rapid spread of a potentially deadly pneumonialike virus originating in central China. The newly identified virus has spread between humans, a leading Chinese health official said, fueling concerns that the disease could quickly be transmitted across Asia as millions of Chinese travel for the annual Lunar New Year holiday. The Shanghai Composite closed 1.4% lower in its biggest drop in over two months.
   
• Moody’s downgraded Hong Kong’s credit rating on Monday, slashing its assessment on the Asian financial center and blaming the government’s failure to deal with seven months of social unrest that has driven the economy into recession. The downgrade reflects concerns over the city’s institutions, governance strength and “more significant constraints” on the territory’s autonomy from mainland China, the firm said.

• A Chinese facial-recognition database with information on thousands of children was stored without protection on the internet, a researcher discovered, raising questions about school surveillance and cybersecurity in China.
   
• Financial-data firm Yodlee might be selling consumers’ personal financial data without proper consent, three lawmakers said in a letter calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the matter. The letter opened a new area of potential risk for the company, which is one of many firms that make money by selling information about consumers.

Airbnb said it will factor in metrics including guest safety when awarding employee bonuses, as the company grapples with how best to address crime and other problems at rentals listed on its platform.

The changes, Airbnb said, are part of its strategy for both achieving business success and being a good corporate citizen. Under a blueprint outlined Friday, the company also said it will establish two teams—one featuring board members and another with employees—dedicated to serving stakeholders, which include its hosts, guests, investors, employees and the communities it operates in.

• Airbnb’s New Compensation Plan Asks Shareholders to Share With Other Stakeholders

• The board of Best Buy is investigating allegations that Chief Executive Corie Barry had an inappropriate romantic relationship with a fellow executive, who has since left the electronics retailer. The allegations were sent to the board in an anonymous letter dated Dec. 7. The letter claims Ms. Barry had a romantic relationship for years with former Best Buy Senior Vice President Karl Sanft before she took over as CEO last June.
   
• The body that hands out the Grammys said it put its chief executive on leave because of a subordinate’s allegation of misconduct, 10 days before its flagship awards show. The executive, Deborah Dugan, is the first woman to lead the Recording Academy. She took the reins in August, following public remarks by her predecessor that were widely interpreted as sexist.

Job openings declined sharply in November, a sign of weakening employer demand that could restrain job growth in 2020.

Job openings fell 10.8% in November from a year earlier to 6.8 million, the Labor Department said Friday. That marked the sixth straight month of annual declines and was the steepest fall since December 2009, when openings dropped 18.7% from a year earlier.

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Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, Jack Hagel, at jack.hagel@wsj.com