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The Morning Risk Report: Lawmakers Want FTC to Investigate Apple, Google Over Mobile Tracking
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Good morning. Four Democratic lawmakers called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, alleging the companies engage in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of mobile-phone users’ personal information.
Apple and Google “knowingly facilitated these harmful practices by building advertising-specific tracking IDs into their mobile operating systems,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan sent on Friday.
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Content from our Sponsor: DELOITTE
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A 5-Step Guide to Stronger Internal Controls
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Amid increasing business complexity and regulatory changes, controllerships can consider a framework with a new operating model and agile processes to stay ahead of risks and increase value. Read More ›
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Both companies have recently taken steps to limit the collection of user data through these mobile-ad identifiers—a string of numbers and letters built into iOS and Android, the respective mobile operating systems of Apple and Google. Users of both operating systems now have a way to opt out of having their identifier transmitted to apps. Apple last year introduced a new version of its software that requires each app to ask the user for permission to access the device’s identifier, and Google is planning to adopt new privacy restrictions to curtail tracking across apps on Android smartphones.
“Until recently, however, Apple enabled this tracking ID by default and required consumers to dig through confusing phone settings to turn it off. Google still enables this tracking identifier by default, and until recently did not even provide consumers with an opt-out,” said the letter.
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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in its semiannual risk report that banks are financially strong enough to weather the multiple challenges that face them. PHOTO: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Banks are facing a number of challenges this year, including more complex sanctions compliance and increasing staff turnover, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said.
The OCC, which regulates national banks and federal savings associations, said in its semiannual risk report published Thursday that banks have continued to navigate challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Geopolitical events, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, inflation and higher interest rates are posing more headwinds, the OCC said, but banks are financially strong enough to deal with the challenges.
Banks are also facing growing operational and compliance challenges, the regulator said.
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A tiny business for 3M Co.—making foam earplugs for the U.S. military—threatens to become a major liability for the manufacturing giant.
More than 100,000 U.S. military veterans have filed lawsuits against Minnesota-based 3M over hearing damage linked to what they claim are defects in the company’s military-grade earplugs. The company faces billions of dollars in potential costs from legal settlements or trials after soldiers alleged they returned from war with hearing damage due to the earplugs, which the government bought for around $7.63 a pair.
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A federal appeals court on Friday granted Juul Labs Inc. a temporary stay of the Food and Drug Administration’s order for the vaping company to pull its e-cigarettes off the U.S. market.
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The fate of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani is now in the hands of a dozen jurors after a federal judge on Friday handed them the criminal-fraud case with instructions to decide whether the former Theranos Inc. president deceived investors and patients in a high-profile Silicon Valley saga.
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China cybersecurity investigators launched a probe of the operator of the country’s biggest academic database, they said Friday, as Beijing heightens scrutiny of technology companies with big troves of data.
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Russia’s economy, which the country’s central bank has sought to bolster against sanctions, isn’t expected to feel immediate ripple effects from any default. PHOTO: MAXIM SHEMETOV/REUTERS
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Russia defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since 1918, pushed into delinquency not for lack of money but because of punishing Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia missed payments on two foreign-currency bonds as of late Sunday, according to holders of the bonds. The day marks the expiration of a 30-day grace period since the country was due to pay the equivalent of $100 million in dollars and euros to bondholders.
The default has been long in coming since the West all but unplugged Russia from the global financial system, creating payment obstacles Moscow couldn’t overcome
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The world’s central banks must raise interest rates sharply, even if it significantly hurts growth, the institution known as the central banks’ central bank warned on Sunday. If they don’t, the world risks a 1970s-style inflationary spiral, the Bank for International Settlements said in its annual report.
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Consumer sentiment fell to its lowest point on record, reflecting that elevated inflation is weighing on Americans’ moods and adding to indicators that point to a slowing in the world’s largest economy.
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Negotiations on restoring the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal will resume again in the coming days, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Saturday during a trip to Tehran, although the prospects of reaching a deal remained far from certain.
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The Group of Seven club of wealthy democracies is inching toward an agreement on expanding its sanctions against Russia by looking for a mechanism to cap the purchase price of Russian oil, officials said, but the details are still being worked out.
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Leaders Weakened by Inflation, Impatience at Home
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U.S. and G-7 Allies Detail Infrastructure Plan to Challenge China
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The balance on the account Harmony says belongs to the hacker was 85,867.27 ether, which is the in-house currency of Ethereum, the blockchain-based computer network. PHOTO: ANGEL GARCIA/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Hackers have stolen roughly $100 million in cryptocurrency from a blockchain bridge, technology company Harmony said Thursday.
Harmony, which hosts the Horizon bridge that allows users to send crypto between different blockchains, said on Twitter it is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forensic specialists to identify who is behind the theft.
The company said it is working to retrieve stolen funds.
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A rail line at the Port of Los Angeles. PHOTO: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Port bottlenecks that have tied up U.S. supply chains are spreading from the docks to the country’s freight rail networks, raising costs and adding new shipping complications for importers trying to manage the flow of goods.
Some retailers are waiting weeks to move cargo by train out of Southern California’s ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, while others are giving up on the railroads and shifting shipments of furniture, apparel and other consumer goods to trucks for long inland journeys on highways.
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Rising gasoline prices are prompting more companies to offer fuel stipends, gift cards and other benefits, including continued work-from-home privileges, as they try to retain employees.
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Leaders of United Airlines’ pilots union signed off on a tentative contract agreement that would raise pilots’ pay by more than 14% within 18 months.
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Chevron Corp. is planning to sell its current headquarters in California and is offering to cover costs for some employees to relocate to Texas, the latest move by a large U.S. employer to reduce the size of its offices.
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H&M closed its flagship store in Shanghai this week, the first store it opened in the country 15 years ago, a move that follows the city’s strict Covid-19 lockdown and that comes a little more than a year after a consumer boycott of the Swedish fashion brand in China.
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Auto makers have been raising prices on electric cars, partly to offset the soaring cost of materials used in their large batteries. Car executives also are capitalizing on strong consumer interest in EVs, as a new wave of plug-in vehicles hits the market.
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A view of London’s financial district. The U.K. has faced pressure to make changes to its audit rules after a string of scandals in recent years. PHOTO: HANNAH MCKAY/REUTERS
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Plans to tighten controls over audits and accounting in the U.K. may end up giving corporate insiders too much leniency to be effective, some regulators and academics say.
The U.K. government revealed a plan last month that would require directors from large listed companies to either comply with newly proposed audit rules or explain why they don’t, a move that would be a step back from previous plans to hold directors personally liable for failed oversight of internal controls. The proposed change is part of a broader strategy to overhaul audit and governance rules as the U.K. aims to bolster confidence in corporate accounting.
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Ernst & Young’s leaders, trying to persuade partners to split up the firm, said windfalls would be spread evenly, but a bear market threatens to cut the value of a potential initial public offering of its consulting business, according to an internal webcast and people familiar with the matter.
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A crowd at the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament in 2019. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a chance for bankers to network with clients. PHOTO: ISAAC LAWRENCE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Hong Kong faces a challenge to maintain its status as Asia’s leading financial hub.
Hong Kong officials have said they want to restore the city’s reputation as a commercial hub, but they are caught between adhering to Beijing’s strict pandemic controls and conceding to the demands of international businesses that the city end restrictions and join other developed economies in living with the virus.
John Lee, who takes over as Hong Kong’s chief executive on July 1, promised in a local media interview a swift review of Covid measures to reduce the inconvenience for travelers.
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