7.24.2014

GOOD TO KNOW: Pictures of cats are popular on the Interwebs, but they can also reveal interesting things about the location of the people who post them.

THE SKINNY.

**WHAT NOT TO DO FOR CONCERT TICKETS.**

Joining an international cybercrime ring to defraud eBay’s online ticketing service, StubHub, is definitely not the way to go.

LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE.

Yesterday, seven people all based in different parts of the world including New York, New Jersey, Barcelona, London, and Toronto in connection with this group that stole credit and debit card numbers to purchase tickets to a number of high profile events like the JT and Jay-Z concert, a Yankees baseball game, and a Broadway play before reselling them to net profits. They dispersed these profits through PayPal accounts and British and German bank accounts. Six of the seven were indicted in New York yesterday.

WHAT’S THE CHARGE?

In the NY State Supreme Court, the six were charged with a slew of crimes including money laundering, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, and identity theft.

TEAM WORK, MAKES THE DREAM WORK.

In a rare showing of international cooperation, StubHub, Manhattan’s D.A.’s office, and other authorities worked closely with law enforcement around the globe for about a year. This coalition relied on I.P. addresses, and the PayPal and bank accounts to track down the individuals and successfully complete the second largest crime bust in the last year.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

YOU SHOULD NEVER SETTLE.

The European Union’s competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, is feeling some pressure to either delay or get rid of certain parts of its antitrust settlement with Google. Alumnia previously proposed a settlement to address anitrust complaints against the Internet company for favoring its services over its competitors in search results. Online review companies involved believe the settlement could be stronger and want the commissioner to at least require Google to use their results to power the company’s specialized search products when appropriate. Almunia is expected to reach final decision on this case this fall in September.

ALL IT DOES IS WIN, WIN, WIN …

Facebook basically killed it in the second quarter on Wall Street. According to reports, the social media company saw significant revenue growth all thanks to ads shown to users who accessed its service via their mobile devices. We recently told you that FB just closed its deal with Oculus, and it also successfully purchased WhatsApp, a popular text messaging app, before that. Now, the Zuck wants us to turn to the book of faces to search for content. This plan will roll out over the next six month and will likely prompt us to spend even more time on the platform. By the way, according to the company, you’re already spending about 41 minutes on FB daily (more than the time we spend exercising). Awesome.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

LinkedIn just bought tech ad and measurements company Bizo for $175 million. As soon as the deal closes in the third quarter, marketers can tap into Bizo’s resources, which will allow them to better target professionals with ads and measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns.

Twitter is joining the ranks of Google and Facebook by revealing its also lacking in the diversity department. About 60% of its employees say they are white and about 70% identify as male. Unsurprisingly, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and black people are the most underrepresented.

7.9.2014

GOOD TO KNOW: Next time you want a new, culinary adventure but are short on cash, just launch a Kickstarter campaign. That’s exactly what Zack Brown of Ohio did for his first attempt at making potato salad. Brown jokingly sought to raise $10 to fund his trial run but ended up raising about $44,000. Best. Potato salad. Ever!

THE SKINNY.

SHARING IS CARING.

In a 12-3 vote, the Senate Intelligence Committee led by Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA).

THE CYBER-WHAT, NOW?

Authored by Feinstein and Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), CISA seeks to improve the nation’s cybersecurity measures by allowing private companies to voluntarily share real-time information regarding potential hacks or cyber threats with the federal government.

PLEASE, TELL ME MORE.

The bill grants legal immunity for companies that choose to share threat data with the federal government but also with each other. It also allows companies to monitor their private networks for threats and implement measures to counter potential attacks. Privacy advocates are not happy. They say the bill basically gives Uncle Sam authority to use the information beyond thwarting cyber threats. To them, this is a major step back for privacy reform efforts in a post-Snowden world (yeah, that guy again). Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) agree that there should be “strong protections for Americans’ constitutional privacy rights.”

LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE.

Though Feinstein and Chambliss agree that the bill isn’t perfect, they both maintain that the bill and its seven amendments strengthen privacy protections. For example, companies must strip personally identifiable information from data before turning it over the government.

IN A NUTSHELL.

This bill becoming the law of the land will be a challenge to say the least. First, it must pass the full Senate. If that happens, it’ll need to be coordinated with a similar bill that passed the House. No word yet on when it will be up for a full vote.

WHATELSE IS GOING ON?

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF A BAD SITUATION…

Like good business people, companies are making the most of the European Court of Justice’s ruling that permits anyone in Europe to request that Google remove links to content based on a belief that the information breaches their privacy. These companies such as Britain’s Hit Search and French startup Reputation VIP are seeing dollar signs and are offering services ranging from monitoring how many times people are mentioned online to managing their online reputations by assisting people in submitting requests for the search engine to take down less than favorable stories about them.

HOW TO PULL OFF A GOOD ROLE REVERSAL…

The U.S. and China are trying to work things out. Administration officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador Michael Froman, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker were in Beijing for the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue to discuss ways to improve economic relations. Coming off that meeting, Congressional trade leaders fired off a letter expressing frustrations with China’s trade secret theft and economic espionage impacting the U.S. Meanwhile, also happening in China, U.S. electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc. is being sued for trademark infringement by a Chinese businessman because he registered the trademark before Tesla entered the Chinese market. He’s asking that the automaker stop all sales and marketing in China and also fork over about $4 million (or about 24 million yuan). It’s important to note that this same court just heard Apple’s case against Shanghai company Zhizhen Internet Technology where the U.S. tech company alleged that Zhizhen’s patent for speech recognition technology is valid. The Beijing court felt otherwise and ruled in favor of Zhizhen.

HOW TO START COLLEGE OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT…

Just get an internship with Facebook. According to media reports, the social media giant is following in the footsteps of LinkedIn and AirBnB and is opening its doors to high school students. Seventeen-year-old Michael Sayman recently landed a summer gig with FB, indicating that Silicon Valley wants to maintain its youth culture and recruiting top talent from high schools or even middle school may eventually become commonplace. With a healthy compensation and company perks, there is a possibility that these kids may skip college all together. Sayman is unsure whether he’ll pursue a higher education.

THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’

Things are heating up in New York City, and it’s not just the summer solstice. Lyft is officially entering the New York market this coming Friday. While Lyft is offering discounts in the form of unlimited free rides in exchange for driver feedback and $25 vouchers for newbies. Uber also recently temporarily discounted its UberX fares by 20 percent. We’ll see how this plays out.

In other Uber news, the ride-sharing company just reached an agreement with New York’s Attorney General. The company has agreed not to kick in its surge pricing during emergencies but will instead limit prices during trying times (to the extent possible within state laws).

Back in June, Yelp – an online review website – filed an objection to the European Union’s proposed antitrust settlement with Google. This proposal would impose significant penalties on Google but for the most part, reports on this settlement indicate that the search giant would remain unscathed as there will be no regulatory oversight of its secret algorithm. Yelp says that Google search results favor its services like Google Plus Local, which competes directly with the review site.

Also in Europe (Spain in particular), Catalonia’s regional government is looking to impose fines on AirBnB for being in “serious” breach of its laws. The regional government wants to take it a step further and also block Catalonia users from accessing the company’s site.