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The Morning Risk Report: Google Fined $57 Million Under New European Law |
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Google’s logo on display at the Viva Tech startup and technology summit in Paris on May 25. PHOTO: CHARLES PLATIAU/REUTERS
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Good day. A French regulator fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 50 million euros ($56.8 million)—the biggest penalty so far under a new European privacy law—alleging the search-engine giant didn’t go far enough to get valid user consent to gather data for targeted advertising.
The fine represents one of the highest-profile regulatory actions so far stemming from the European Union-wide “General Data Protection Regulation,” which went into effect last year. The law requires companies to abide by strict data-protection and privacy rules protecting EU residents. A big part of the new rules is a requirement that companies explain to users how their data is being collected and used, and in many cases seek consent from users to collect it.
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“People expect high standards of transparency and control from us. We’re deeply committed to meeting those expectations and the consent requirements of the GDPR. We’re studying the decision to determine our next steps,” a Google spokesman said. Google can appeal the decision.
The fine is small for Google, but it the biggest penalty issued so far by any of the handful of national regulators with authority to use GDPR to redress what they deem insufficient data or privacy protection. It also represents the starting shot of what many observers say could be a raft of regulatory actions as officials wield the new legal tool—and potentially test its bounds.
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Hacking risk levels are rising for robots as more of the machines are connected to the internet. NICOLAS ORTEGA
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Factories, hospitals and other big robot users often lack sufficient levels of defense against a digital attack, according to cybersecurity experts, robot manufacturers and engineering researchers. The risk levels are rising as more robots morph from being offline and isolated to being internet-connected machines, often working alongside humans.
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Russia launched administrative action against Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. on Monday for failing to comply with its data laws, a move that comes just days after Facebook removed the accounts of what it said were two misinformation campaigns based in the country.
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The Democratic National Committee said it was targeted by an unsuccessful cyberattack eight days after the 2018 midterm elections—and believes one of the Russian hacking groups that broke into its network during the 2016 presidential campaign was behind the attempted intrusion.
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Indicators, including industrial output, portray a Chinese economy that is challenged. PHOTO: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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China’s economic expansion languished to its slowest pace in nearly three decades last year, as a trade fight with the U.S. exacerbated weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. The uncertain outlook for Chinese exporters caused companies to delay investing and hiring and in some cases even to resort to layoffs—a practice often discouraged by China’s stability-obsessed Communist Party rulers.
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J.C. Penney Co.’s sales are falling and its turnaround strategy keeps changing. Three months after the retailer hired a new chief executive, a handful of senior positions remain vacant. The series of events is prompting analysts and other industry experts to question whether Penney can avoid the fate of Sears Holdings Corp., which filed for bankruptcy and barely staved off liquidation.
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Gossamer Bio and TCR2 Therapeutics are aiming to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market. PHOTO: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS
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The monthlong government shutdown is forcing some companies to seek alternate routes to go public because the main markets regulator is unable to green-light IPOs. Biotechnology companies Gossamer Bio Inc. and TCR2 Therapeutics Inc. have been exploring a little-used workaround that would let them begin trading without the usual U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission signoff, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Germany’s Kion Group AG plans to expand a South Carolina factory to escape a 25% tariff the U.S. levied on forklifts imported from China. Foreign companies—from auto makers to solar panel manufacturers—have sketched out plans to expand their U.S. manufacturing footprints in response to trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
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People waited at a security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday. PHOTO: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/REUTERS
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The Transportation Security Administration has sent extra staff to airports in major cities as it faces its highest level of absences since the partial government shutdown began last month. Meanwhile, U.S. aviation officials have compiled data that statistically support, for the first time, Trump administration statements that the partial government shutdown hasn’t jeopardized air-traffic-control safety.
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The overall rate of union membership in the U.S. fell last year, largely reflecting a decline in the rate of state employees’ unionization, according to the latest Labor Department data. The decline stems mainly from a decrease in union membership among state employees.
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Damaged buildings in Homs, Syria, last year. PHOTO: SERGEI GRITS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The European Union placed sanctions on 11 individuals, including a leading Syrian businessman, and five companies for allegedly providing financial and other support to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The EU move reinforces its reluctance to engage with the Assad government and those close to the Syrian leader, despite recent diplomatic moves among some nations to open embassies in Damascus as the nearly eight-year Syrian civil war winds down.
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Federal prosecutors are investigating the business practices of hotelier brothers whose legal entities New York City has paid tens of millions of dollars to house homeless New Yorkers during the past five years, according to people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have examined whether the brothers’ company, Amsterdam Hospitality Group, hid money in attorney escrow accounts in a potential attempt to evade taxes, according to the people.
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Snap Inc. pushed out two senior executives after an investigation found that one of them had allegedly engaged in an inappropriate relationship with an outside contractor, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman received a compensation package valued at about $29 million in 2018, up 7% from a year ago, according to a securities filing.
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