Business, Financial & Legal - Page 74

It looks like millions of Americans are being spied on (even more so than they already are), with sources of The Wall Street Journal saying that the CDC is using federal, state, and local governments access to users' location data from mobile ads to help track COVID-19 coronavirus spread.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the anonymized data helps CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) officials understand where people are gathering in large numbers, whether they're honoring the stay-at-home lockdowns, and how retail is suffering because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

How is the CDC doing this? They are reportedly gettring their data through a COVID-19 Mobility Data Network, something that was created by experts at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and other schools. While it sounds good in this way, the idea that mobile ad data is being used to track is a huge invasion of privacy. Will these new spy powers be taken away once COVID-19 is no longer a threat?

Lyft is in a really big spot of trouble right now over COVID-19 coronavirus, with millions of riders no longer using the service, business isn't doing so well. It's gotten to the point that Lyft is now referring drivers to jobs at Amazon.

The ridesharing giant emailed its drivers of the new referral program with Amazon, where it is encouraging Lyft drivers to apply for jobs at Amazon warehouses. These drivers are recommended to take jobs with Amazon's own grocery and package deliveries platforms. Why is Lyft doing this?

Well, Uber has its own food delivery platform in Uber Eats -- where Lyft, does not. This has seen Lyft team with Amazon over the new job referral program, even after Lyft announced that it would begin expanding its delivery network to help out in the delivering of coronavirus test kits, medical supplies, and meals to the elderly and vulnerable ppopulations.

Singapore is taking things up a serious notch when it comes to social distancing over COVID-19 coronavirus, with a press release from Singapore's Ministry of Health.

In the press release, it warned the people of Singapore to maintain a distance of at least 1 meter (3.2 feet) from other people during "non-transient" public interactions. If you don't, you'll face a 10,000 Singapore dollars (or $6985) fine -- or even 6 months in jail. Yeah, they're not kidding around in Singapore.

Singapore isn't the only country getting serious over social distancing either, with a 35-year-old man in France reportedly sent to prison after he violated lockdown. He was found guilty of "endangering the lives of others". A 4-month suspended prison sentence was handed down to a 19-year-old man, as he broke lockdown laws 10 times in a matter of days.

Monitoring the coronavirus COVID-19 spread, TAITRA has been under pressure for several weeks to make a judgment call on Computex Taipei 2020, Asia's largest IT trade show. The popular yearly event is routinely attended by TweakTown and many technology exhibitors, buyers, analysts, and media from all over the world.

Last night in Taipei, TAITRA finally made its call. Computex 2020 will be postponed from its planned date of June 2 till June 6, 2020, until September 28 till September 30, 2020 - six months out from now and around four months out from its original date. That means the event is getting cut down from its usual five days to just three days. Computex is usually spaced out over the greater Taipei area with halls in Xinyi and Nangang, as well as hotels in the Xinyi area.

Computex 2020 will be scaled down and held in just one hall - Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2 (TaiNEX 2). It is unclear at this stage if exhibitors will be allowed to exhibit their goods from hotel suites, as is usually the case.

You can't escape hearing about coronavirus COVID-19 in the news virtually 24/7, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Google searches for "coronavirus" have absolutely skyrocketed in recent weeks.

Using the last 90 days on Google Trends and looking at Worldwide searches, we can see that things started to ramp up a bit in late January 2020 but died down throughout February. Google searches for coronavirus began steadily rising in the second half of February, and have reached fever pitch in the second week of March.

Leading the charge in Google searches in Italy, where the most interest in coronavirus searches takes place in the first country to go under lockdown over the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

Supermarket shelves in Australia are virtually bare of essentials, where it first started with toilet paper -- and quickly saw things like bottled water, frozen goods, pasta, and more ripped from shelves over coronavirus panic.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the Australian government will be prosecuting those who stripped supermarket shelves of essential items, with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) also says these people could be linked to criminal enterprises. Mr Dutton told 2GB in Australia: "We will come down on them like a ton of bricks... I believe they are the ones who have created this pattern of hoarding".

Dutton continued: "They (Australians) are following the behaviour of people who aren't purchasing for themselves - they're doing it for profit, and reasons that are unacceptable. If you have photos, or registration numbers, or if you have instances ... photos, intelligence or information, I want you to call Crime Stoppers".

The New York Stock Exchange has announced that it will be temporarily closing its trading floor, shifting to a world of fully electronic trading after 2 people have tested positive for coronavirus.

NYSE will start its all-electronic trading on March 23, with the NYSE equities trading floor, NYSE American Operations trading floor in New York, and the NYSE Arca Options trading floor in San Francisco to have all humans removed. The NYSE had screenings at its Big Board, with 2 people testing positive for coronavirus, ushering in the all-electronic trading push from the NYSE.

This is the first time in the history of the New York Stock Exchange that the physical trading floor of the Big Board has been shut down independently, while electronic trading flows. The NYSE has shut down a couple of times in history, the last of which was 9/11 and before that during World War II.

We all know that coronavirus COVID-19 is wrecking havok on the world in multiple ways, but now we have an analyst who thinks it is the perfect time for Apple to acquire Disney. Yeah... Disney, and yeah... Apple.

Rosenblatt Securities Director Bernie McTernan has thought about what would happen if Apple were to acquire Disney, during a recent chat with Yahoo Finance. He had some interesting facts that he bought up, and with coronavirus COVID-19 bringing markets down and changing the way consumers consume content right now, Apple could make a big move on the board and acquire everything giant Apple.

Yahoo Finance talked about Apple having the ability to "possibly take advantage of those struggles" that Disney is going through right now, with Disney stock plummeting 40% in the last month alone.

It looks like things could go from (really) bad to unbelievably bad when it comes to the flow-on effects of coronavirus COVID-19.

Coronavirus could crash the entire US housing market causing trillions of dollars in damage, and affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. The latest data from Google Trends is a big indicator towards this, with Google searches of "unemployment benefits" shoot up.

As you can see from the Google Trends data on US-based users searches for "Unemployment Benefits" it has skyrocketed in the last week or so. But the issue is, it's not just searches for "unemployment benefits" that is concerning, because "can't pay rent" searches are surging, too.

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that COVID-19 coronavirus, and the closures of countless schools worldwide, will have an affect on 776 million children.

UNESCO explains: "an unprecedented number of children, youth and adults are not attending schools or universities because of COVID-19". Governments in 100 countries have announced, or already implemented closures of schools -- where in 85 countries, schools nationwide have been completely closed, which has affected 776.7 million children.

There's no an updated list of digital education tools from UNESCO, something that includes digital learning management systems like ClassDojo and Google Classroom. There are also apps that have been designed for smart featurephones including KaiOS, and software with offline compatibility with Can't Wait to Learn, Kolibri, Rumie, and Ustad Mobile.

Uber is doing what it can to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, and it has recently announced its battle plan that is aimed at helping many restaurants.

Uber has announced that it will be launching daily marketing campaigns to push Uber Eats customers into purchasing food from local restaurants. On top of that, Uber has also said that it will waiver delivery fees from over 100,000 local restaurants in the United States and Canada. The goodness doesn't stop there, though. Uber will also be allowing restaurants to choose daily payments to Uber Eats instead of normal weekly payments.

There will also be 300,000 free meals that can be claimed by first responders and healthcare workers on Uber Eats. For workers that are currently participating in keeping local restaurants afloat, Uber is offering two weeks of pay to drivers and delivery people who have unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19. Uber also recommends that it's customers select the 'non-contact' delivery to minimize the chance of the virus spreading.

Apple is being slapped with fines left, right, and center recently, and now another billion-dollar fine has been slid across the company's desk. This time it's for engaging in anti-competitive agreements with wholesalers.

According to a report for The Guardian, Apple has been fined a staggering 1.1bn EURO ($1.2 billion USD) by French antitrust regulators for engaging in anti-competitive agreements with two wholesalers. Isabelle de Silva, the head of Autorite de la Concurrence, the watchdog for competition, said: "Apple and its two wholesalers agreed to not compete against each other and prevent resellers from promoting competition between each other, thus sterilising the wholesale market for Apple products."

The two companies that Apple worked closely with are Tech Data, and Ingram Micro. Both of these companies were also slapped with fines, Tech Data received a 76 million EURO fine ($84 million USD), and Ingram Micro received a 63 million EURO ($70 million USD) fine. The French regulator said that Apple aligned its prices with wholesalers, and selectively distributed stock to favored wholesalers. Apple also reportedly gave more stock to select wholesalers when products launched.

We are all well aware of COVID-19 coronavirus right now, with entire cities in lock down, schools being shut, borders being closed -- and while it feels like it's the end of the world, I feel fine -- just like R.E.M. did in its 1987 hit song 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)'.

R.E.M's massive 1987 hit is once again on the charts now in 2020, where it has turned up in the top songs list on iTunes, where on Monday it was at #41. It has been 33 years since the release of R.E.M.'s It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) but with the recent outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus, it is back on the charts as people are listening to it en masse.

Not only that, but funnily enough the US box office has been sinking as cinema attendance has been so low, so much so that it hasn't been this bad since 1995 -- coincidentally, since the year Outbreak was released. Outbreak, was a movie about a disease outbreak -- right at a time of the COVID-19 coronavirus frenzy. And now? R.E.M.'s hit It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

The US box office has experienced its worst weekend in 25 years, which coincidentally just so happens to be the year that Outbreak was released: 1995. Just in case you don't remember Outbreak, I've got the trailer embedded below:

It looks like all that social distancing with cinema chains like AMC Theaters implementing new procedures, along with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending social gatherings of over 500 people end, with CDC's new guidelines recommending just 50 people or less now.

COVID-19 coronavirus has forced US box office numbers into worrying lows, with the top 10 movies combined making just $50.3 million. This is the lowest for weekend 11 of the year since March 17-19, 1995 -- the year Outbreak was leading the US box office.

Starbucks has joined the growing list of companies implementing procedures to enable social distancing over COVID-19 coronavirus, with the retail coffee shop giant temporarily enabling a "to go" model in all of its US and Canadian stores.

The company will end seating in all of its US and Canada-based Starbucks stores, which will include both indoor and patio areas for the next 2 weeks. In its place, Starbucks will use its own app for ordering ahead of time -- and then depending on the store, walking up to the counter and picking it up, delivery, or drive thru.

Starbucks will physically close its stores in places like schools and shopping malls where "high-social gathering" occurs. Starbucks EVP Rossann Williams explained in a statement: "As we all know, the situation with COVID-19 is extremely dynamic and we will continue to review the facts and science and make the proactive decisions necessary to protect our partners, customers and communities. Every community's needs are incredibly different. We want to make sure we play a constructive role by taking responsible actions, in partnership with the CDC and local public health authorities, so we can continue to do what's right for our partners and customers".

Bill Gates has just announced he is stepping down from the board of directors at Microsoft, with co-founder and ex-CEO of the company pushing more into his philanthropic efforts.

Back in 2008, Gates walked away from his full-time position at Microsoft in order to pursue his philanthropy wishes, but has now stepped down from the board of directors in a similar way. In a press release over the news, it stated Gates will "dedicate more time to his philanthropic efforts".

Bill Gates will stay on with Microsoft as a "technology advisor" to the current CEO, Satya Nadella.

Pornhub has stepped up for Italians that are currently in lockdown throughout the country over COVID-19 coronavirus, offering Italians free premium subscriptions for free.

Yeah, Pornhub knows that millions of Italians are sitting on their hands right now -- and wants those hands elsewhere. They won't even need credit cards to get the Pornhub premium goodness, while the company will also be donating some of its proceeds from Modelhub, which is Pornhub's subsidiary that helps creators sell content, to local hospitals.

Pornhub explains: "Pornhub has decided to donate its Modelhub March revenue to help Italy overcome the emergency. To keep you company at home during these weeks, you'll be able to access Pornhub Premium for free for the whole month, with no need for a credit card".

Bitcoin has dropped by a very dramatic 40% overnight, from its 2020 highs of over $10,000 down to 2020 lows of under $4600 -- but so too is the stock market, and here: Apple.

Apple (APPL) stock has dropped by 11% down to $243 at the time of writing, down from its 2020 high of $327. This means that Apple has dropped from its huge share price highs of $327 on February 12 and a huge $1.432 trillion ($1,432,000,000,000) market cap, to now just $243 and a market cap of $1.065 trillion ($1,065,000,000,000).

Apple isn't the only one experiencing huge drops in their share prices, with most tech giants including Microsoft and Amazon experiencing huge drops and hundreds of billions of dollars wiped away. No tech company is safe, with travel companies and the travel industry in general bottoming out in slow motion right now with most people not wanting to travel over COVID-19 / coronavirus fears.

Google has just asked all of its US-based employees to work from home if it's possible in their roles, effective immediately and through to April 10 over the current coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak.

Business Insider has confirmed the news with Google itself, with the search giant asking staff based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dublin, and Seattle to work from home over the last week or so. Google staff that are required to be physically present at their jobs will be okay, as Google will keep its offices open.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted out that people should "contribute" to "social distancing" if you are able to as it "helps the overall community spread and most importantly, will help offset the peak loads through critical healthcare systems and also saves it for people in need".

It looks like coronavirus / COVID-19 is making waves in the delivery market (I'm surprised it took this long), with delivery startups like Postmates now offering customers a "non-contact delivery option" for those worried about contracting COVID-19.

It's not just Postmates though, with Instacart also implementing a similar non-contact strategy. The company saw a 10x increase in sales this week compared to the week before, as customers were concerned over coronavirus / COVID-19 so the company offered its customers a "leave it at my door option" instead.

Postmates explained the move to TechCrunch, with a spokesperson from the delivery startup saying: "Community health and safety is paramount at Postmates, and we have shared precautionary CDC guidance with our Postmates. Customers have an option to designate the drop-off of item without contact; and we'll continue to encourage employees, merchants and consumers to follow preventative measures. While we are operating with business as usual, we are tracking the situation closely and will help provide the resources necessary to mitigate increased risks".