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The Morning Risk Report: Twitter Could Pay FTC Fine Over Alleged Privacy Violations
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Twitter said the FTC matter could cost the company between $150 million and $250 million though it currently is unresolved. PHOTO: ALASTAIR PIKE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Good morning. Twitter said it could pay at least $150 million to the Federal Trade Commission related to alleged violations of a 2011 consent order for using consumers’ private data in targeted advertising.
The social-media platform said Monday it received a draft complaint July 28 from the FTC alleging it used phone numbers and email addresses that were given to the company for safety and security purposes for targeted advertising between 2013 and 2019. Twitter said the FTC matter could cost the company between $150 million and $250 million though it currently is unresolved.
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Under terms of the FTC agreement finalized in 2011, Twitter isn’t allowed to mislead consumers about how it “protects the security, privacy and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information.” The company is also required to establish an information-security program that would need to be reviewed by independent security auditors every other year for 10 years.
The letter was received days after the company reported its second-quarter results. The company, in an email statement, confirmed receiving the FTC’s draft complaint, and that it included an estimated range for the settlement based on standard accounting rules.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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U.K. Sanctions Guidance Adds to Warnings for Maritime Sector
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A U.K. enforcement agency is urging the maritime industry to be on the lookout for illicit practices that could be used to evade sanctions, the latest regulator to warn about compliance risks facing the industry.
Guidance by the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, which is part of the country’s Treasury department, indicates companies are susceptible to suspicious shipping practices such as the intentional disabling of vessel-tracking systems to conduct illegal trade and the falsifying of documentation for maritime transactions.
The guidance, issued last week and amplified in a government blog post Monday, adds to a evolving list of guidelines aimed at the maritime industry and underscores compliance complexities facing those operating in the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union, sanctions experts say.
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Facing a shortage of respirator masks, the Food and Drug Administration allowed importation of millions of Chinese-made KN95s. PHOTO: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
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A Food and Drug Administration effort to address a shortage of protective masks has instead opened the floodgates to 3,500 Chinese manufacturers selling products of widely varying quality, potentially putting the public at risk and leaving some U.S. states with stockpiles of masks they no longer trust as protective gear, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.
Facing a severe shortage of N95 respirator masks in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the FDA made an emergency decision to allow importation of millions of Chinese-made masks, generally called KN95s, that were supposed to provide similar levels of virus protection. But the FDA itself created confusion about which Chinese brands could be trusted for medical use, in part by giving—then revoking—its stamp of approval to masks that turned out to be subpar. Some of the companies given initial approval were just weeks old or posted incomplete mask-quality tests, the Journal found.
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General Motors has asked a federal judge to reconsider the tossing of a lawsuit it filed last fall against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, in GM’s latest attempt at reviving an unusual legal battle between the two Detroit rivals.
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In a motion filed Monday in Detroit, GM said it had uncovered new evidence to further support its earlier claims that Fiat Chrysler was trying to weaken its larger competitor by bribing top officials with the United Auto Workers union.
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The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it is justified in seeking financial documents from President Trump and his company as part of a probe into alleged insurance and bank fraud by the Trump Organization and its officers.
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In a new legal filing Monday, District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. urged a federal court to allow the office to move forward with its investigation of “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization” and to dismiss Mr. Trump’s most recent challenge to its subpoena, requesting eight years of records from his accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP.
“This is a continuation of the worst witch hunt in American history,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
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The SEC is investigating companies affiliated with Texas hotelier Monty Bennett, whose companies were among the biggest recipients of federal government bailout money. Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., a hotel owner affiliated with Mr. Bennett, said in its quarterly earnings report that the SEC sent an “administrative subpoena” requesting documents and information in June, according to a Monday public securities filings.
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U.S. air-safety regulators for the first time publicly spelled out the full range of hardware, software, crew training and maintenance changes they are proposing before Boeing’s 737 MAX jets will be allowed to resume flying passengers.
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Congressional Democrats, moving forward with an inquiry into the firing of the State Department’s former inspector general, issued subpoenas to four State Department officials and released excerpts Monday from an interview with a former agency official.
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Jason Cowley, a federal prosecutor who in recent years has overseen the securities-fraud unit at the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, has left the government for the private sector.
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Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of Bytedance, is in talks to sell TikTok’s American operations to Microsoft. PHOTO: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS
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Washington’s ultimatum to the Chinese owner of TikTok—sell the app’s U.S. operations or leave the country—is hardening long-held suspicions in China that the U.S. aims to sabotage the country’s efforts to grow its technology, while raising concerns about the precedent it could set for Chinese companies with global ambitions as U.S.-China relations unravel.
After months in which TikTok owner Bytedance fought to appease the Trump administration, Washington’s push for Bytedance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft Corp. means China will likely lose control over its first true global internet sensation—one with ambitions of becoming a top-tier global technology giant—in its most important market.
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The Treasury Department is set to borrow more as Washington spends more to fight the coronavirus pandemic. PHOTO: TING SHEN/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS
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The U.S. expects to borrow an additional $2 trillion in the second half of the year as federal spending ramps up to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Treasury Department said Monday. The department estimated the government would borrow $947 billion from July through September, a record for the quarter, bringing total borrowing for fiscal year 2020 to $4.5 trillion, in line with earlier estimates. That total is more than triple last year’s $1.28 trillion, and it dwarfs borrowing during and after the 2008 financial crisis.
The U.S. reported more than 47,000 new coronavirus cases, the smallest daily increase in almost four weeks, despite signs of an uptick in new infections in some Northeast and Midwest states.
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In China, government spending on infrastructure projects is helping push up manufacturing for goods like fabricated metal. PHOTO: HEJINGHUA/SIPA ASIA/ZUMA PRESS
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Factories across the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia increased production in July, but the upswing was held back by weak global trade and suggested a long and precarious road ahead for the global economy.
Export orders were soft across most of the countries surveyed in July by research firm IHS Markit, and activity contracted in two export powerhouses, Japan and South Korea. With the international outlook uncertain, manufacturers in most countries saved costs in July by cutting jobs.
In the U.S., two surveys of purchasing managers showed improved manufacturing activity. IHS Markit’s manufacturing index—which measures activity at factories—rose to 50.9 last month, compared with 49.8 in June. The Institute for Supply Management separately said its July manufacturing index rose to 54.2 from 52.6 the prior month.
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A shuttered business in New York in June. Finance executives are navigating a rising tide of corporate distress. PHOTO: JUSTIN LANE/SHUTTERSTOCK
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As more businesses seek court protection as a result of coronavirus lockdowns, finance chiefs of distressed companies are getting a crash course in crisis management, recruiters and advisers said.
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Tyson Foods said it would promote company president Dean Banks to chief executive, elevating a former Silicon Valley tech executive as the biggest U.S. meat company grapples with fallout from Covid-19.
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German lender Commerzbank appointed former state bank executive Hans-Jörg Vetter as its new chairman on Monday, ignoring opposition from its second largest shareholder, Cerberus Capital Management.
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Clorox said it would promote Linda Rendle from president to chief executive in September. Her first big assignment: pump out more Clorox wipes.
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