Australia Says Google Misled Consumers Over Location Tracking - The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia — Australian regulators on Tuesday accused Google of misleading consumers about its collection of their personal location information through its Android mobile operating system, the latest government action against a tech company over its handling of vast quantities of user data.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged in a lawsuit that Google falsely led users to believe that disabling the “Location History” setting on Android phones would stop the company from collecting their location data. But users were actually required to also turn off a second setting, “Web and App Activity,” that was enabled by default.

Google did not properly disclose the need to disable both settings from January 2017 until late 2018, the suit alleges. The company changed its user guidance after The Associated Press revealed in August 2018 that it was continuing to collect the data even after the Location History setting was switched off.

The commission also said that while Google made it clear to users what features they would lose by turning off location services, the company did not inform them adequately about what it would do with the data collected.

“This is part of a system of not being able to make informed choices about what’s being done with your data,” said Rod Sims, the commission’s chairman.

Mr. Sims called the lawsuit the first of its kind by a national government against a tech company over its use of personal data. The agency is seeking what he called significant financial penalties against Google, among other corrective measures. He added that he hoped the case would raise awareness among consumers over how much data is being collected.

“We need to be getting ahead of them, because this is a whole new world,” he said of data collection issues.

A Google spokeswoman said in a statement that the company was reviewing the allegations. She said Google would continue to engage with the commission over its concerns but intended to defend itself.

The action by Australian regulators comes as governments and consumer groups around the world have expressed growing concern about the power of tech companies, including their collection of personal data from devices that are indispensable to the lives of billions of people.

Consumer groups from several European countries had already sued Google over the location tracking issue under a comprehensive data privacy law adopted in Europe last year. Under that law, a French agency fined Google 50 million euros, or about $55 million, in January for not properly disclosing to users how it collected data to create personalized ads.

In the United States, regulators approved a $5 billion fine against Facebook this year over its role in allowing Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm hired by President Trump’s 2016 election campaign, to gain access to private information on more than 50 million Facebook users.

While Google has made changes to Android in later iterations that limit the location data it gathers, the business incentives for collecting as much personal data as possible remain great. Location-targeted advertising is worth an estimated $21 billion a year, and Google, along with Facebook, dominates the mobile ad market.

The Australian lawsuit is in part the product of a 19-month investigation by the consumer commission into the market power of Google and Facebook. It issued 23 recommendations, including an overhaul of privacy laws, to limit their reach and force them to take more responsibility for the content they disseminate.

The Australian government has also passed legislation challenging the power of tech companies, including a law in 2018 that compelled tech-industry giants to disable encryption. And under a new law criminalizing “abhorrent violent material” online, Australia is using the threat of fines and jail time to pressure platforms like Facebook to block such content, and it is moving to take down websites that hold any illegal content.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/world/australia/australia-google-location.html

2019-10-29 10:07:00Z
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Aramco hoping to begin its planned IPO this Sunday, report says - CNBC

Storage tanks are seen at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019.

Amr Nabil | AP

DUBAI — Saudi state-owned oil giant Aramco is planning to announce the start of its long-anticipated public offering on Sunday November 3, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

State broadcaster Al Arabiya reported that shares of the company will begin trading on the Tadawul, Saudi Arabia's stock exchange, on December 11. The local outlet also said Aramco aims to announce the transaction price on November 17 with a final IPO price announcement planned for December 4.

Aramco and the Tadawul did not immediately reply to CNBC requests for comment. In a comment to Reuters, Aramco said it "does not comment on rumor or speculation. The company continues to engage with the shareholders on IPO readiness activities. The company is ready and timing will depend on market conditions and be at a time of the shareholders' choosing."

The reports come as the kingdom kicks off its Future Investment Initiative (FII), an annual showcase of its investment opportunities, attended by major international investors and state officials.

Speculation and delayed announcements on the public listing of the world's largest company have riveted investors and market watchers since plans for the float were first disclosed three years ago. The oil giant has delayed the IPO — originally scheduled for 2018 — multiple times, reportedly over Saudi concerns about public scrutiny over its finances and because of the complexity of its corporate structure. The listing would be the largest public offering in history.

The kingdom reportedly plans to list 1% of Aramco on its local stock exchange before the end of this year and another 1% in 2020, as first steps ahead of a public sale of roughly 5% of the company.

Speaking at the FII on Tuesday, Saudi Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir al-Rumayyan said that the prior separation of Aramco from the kingdom's sprawling energy ministry was to avoid a conflict of interest, and told attendees that Aramco will have more institutional shareholders "soon."

The Aramco listing would aim to drum up cash for a government looking to significantly reduce its budget deficit and diversify its economy beyond oil as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030.

—CNBC's Emma Graham contributed to this article.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/29/aramco-hoping-to-begin-its-planned-ipo-this-sunday-reuters.html

2019-10-29 09:50:43Z
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Google joins in Amazon’s spending spree, but to a lesser degree - MarketWatch

MarketWatch First Take

By Therese Poletti

Published: Oct 28, 2019 8:51 pm ET

Earnings from two of tech’s biggest names are hit by return to investing in the future of the businesses

The cost of new hires and real estate added up for Google last quarter.

Alphabet Inc.’s big earnings shortfall was not just the result of its equity investment losses: Continued heavy spending on hiring and real estate by the internet search and advertising behemoth also played a role.

Google’s parent company reported third-quarter profit far lower than Wall Street’s estimates Monday afternoon. Alphabet GOOG+1.97% GOOGL+1.95%  reported net income of $7.07 billion, or $10.12 a share, a year-over-year profit decline of more than 22% that missed estimates by nearly 18%. The stock fell by more than 1% in after-hours trading following the results.

Full earnings results: Alphabet earnings miss estimates, driving shares down

Alphabet executives blamed the profit decline on free spending, a longtime habit for Google that has declined since Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat arrived from Wall Street. That is the same reason another big name in tech, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN+0.89% gave for its earnings downturn this year, as the two companies battle in new arenas — such as Amazon’s growing ad business and Google’s rising enterprise-cloud offering — for a more promising future.

Hiring was a big part of Google’s spending, Porat said in Monday’s conference call, along with investments in cloud data centers and offices to house all the new employees. Alphabet added 19,724 workers in the past year, and 6,450 in the third quarter.

“Head-count growth on an absolute basis in the third quarter was unusually high, reflecting the addition of new college hires,” Porat said, while promising that employee count will “be in line with growth in 2018.”

The company also said it spent $7.2 billion on capital expenditures, up from $5.3 billion a year ago. The spending this quarter included building out data centers and spending on new offices and campuses in the Bay Area and in Seattle. Technical infrastructure, such as data-center technology, accounted for only 60% of capex in the quarter, Porat said.

“Investments in office facilities included the $1 billion acquisition of a portfolio of buildings in Sunnyvale and in the purchase of two buildings to expand our presence in the Seattle area,” the CFO said.

Going forward, however, Porat said she expects that the primary driver of its capital expenditures will continue to be expanding its data centers and increasing the compute requirements to support machine learning, cloud search and YouTube.

Compared with Google’s rival in Seattle, Alphabet’s spending still seems anemic. Amazon added nearly 100,000 employees in the third quarter, which means that it hired roughly as many people every week as Alphabet did in the entire quarter. It also said it spent $4.7 billion in the quarter on purchases of property and equipment, which ostensibly includes its data center and warehouse build-outs.

Neither company has made a big splash in acquisitions recently, though Alphabet is reportedly eyeing a well-known name: Fitbit Inc. FIT+30.86%  . Reuters on Monday reported that Alphabet was considering purchasing the wearables company to round out its growing hardware offerings, which could lead to a lot more money heading out the door.

Alphabet definitely was on a big spending spree last quarter, and it is worthwhile to keep an eye on Google’s costs as potential antitrust litigation becomes a bigger factor in the next year or two. But if the tech titans are going to keep spending amid tariff fears and whispers of the end of the current tech boom, investing in the future is a much better target than even more stock repurchases.

See original version of this story

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https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/5DD68FCC-F9D0-11E9-8CE0-D87A385750D5

2019-10-29 01:51:00Z
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Louis Vuitton owner eyes jewelry icon Tiffany & Co - CNN

LVMH, which is run by billionaire CEO Bernard Arnault and owns brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, confirmed its interest on Monday after several media outlets reported over the weekend that it had made a takeover offer for Tiffany.

The French fashion conglomerate acknowledged only that it held "preliminary discussions" regarding a "possible transaction" with Tiffany, adding that "there can be no assurance that these discussions will result in any agreement."

Bloomberg and others have reported that LVMH approached the jeweler with an all-cash proposal earlier this month that would value Tiffany at about $14.5 billion, or $120 a share. That's roughly 20% more than the stock's closing price Friday.

Tiffany (TIF) has brought on advisers to review the offer and so far hasn't responded to LVMH (LVMHF), according to Reuters, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

Shares of Tiffany skyrocketed nearly 20% in premarket trading Monday, while LVMH stock was up 0.4% in Paris. Tiffany did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN Business.

"A takeover of Tiffany could make a lot of sense," analysts at Bernstein wrote in a research note. While Tiffany is one of the world's best-known luxury brands, the analysts said it still has room to grow, particularly in jewelry and watches.

The deal would boost LVMH's presence in the United States, which accounts for about a quarter of its revenue. It would also bolster the French company's jewelry and wristwatch lineup, which include European legacy brands such as Bulgari, Hublot and TAG Heuer. As of January, the jewelry and watch unit only brought in 9% of overall revenue, according to a letter to shareholders.

LVMH is the world's biggest luxury group. The company is home to 75 different brands, and it has for years been the top seller of high-end goods, according to a Deloitte analysis published this year. Last year, the retail giant took in 46.8 billion euros ($51.9 billion) in revenue.

Tiffany has had a more complicated story. The company has long dealt with slumping sales, and in 2017 it replaced its CEO after disappointing financial results. Since then, it has been working to rebrand its image to attract more millennials — adding more products that are designed to appeal to young shoppers, rolling out more targeted marketing and revamping its historic flagship store in New York City to draw in more customers.

In the company's most recent earnings report in August, it said that global sales dropped 3% in the first half of this year. But it also said it enjoyed "strong growth" in mainland China, where the slowing economy has put pressure on the broader luxury sector.

The company's "long-term growth potential in China" is one of the main factors that makes it attractive to buyers, analysts at Cowen wrote in a note on Sunday.

An acquisition of Tiffany would be one of LVMH's splashiest deals to date. In 2017, the company took over Christian Dior for $13 billion, and last year it snapped up the ritzy Belmond hotel chain for $2.6 billion.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/investing/lvmh-tiffany-co-louis-vuitton/index.html

2019-10-28 11:34:00Z
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2 Passive Ways to Boost Your Social Security Benefits - The Motley Fool

Chances are, Social Security will be a substantial source of income for you once you retire, so the higher those benefits are, the less financial stress you'll grapple with. Now you'll often hear that you should make an effort to boost those benefits as much as possible. But actually, in some cases, you can raise those benefits by taking no action at all. Here are a couple of passive ways to get more money from Social Security during your golden years.

1. Don't file early

The Social Security Administration lets you start collecting benefits at age 62, but you won't get the full monthly benefit you're entitled to until you reach full retirement age, or FRA. Your FRA is determined based on your year of birth, as follows:

Year of Birth	Full Retirement Age
1943-1954	66
1955	66 and 2 months
1956	66 and 4 months
1957	66 and 6 months
1958	66 and 8 months
1959	66 and 10 months
1960 or later	67

DATA SOURCE: SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION.

Filing early will generally result in a permanent reduction in benefits. You'll lose 6.67% a year for the first 36 months you claim benefits ahead of FRA, and then 5% a year for each 12-month period thereafter. In other words, filing for Social Security three years early will slash your benefits by 20%. Filing four years early will result in a 25% reduction, while filing five years early will lead to a 30% cut. But if you sit back, do nothing, and wait until FRA to file, you'll get more money than you would by filing sooner. And if you delay benefits past FRA, you'll permanently boost them by 8% a year in the process, up until age 70.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

2. Don't retire early

Your Social Security benefits are calculated based on your 35 highest-paid years of wages. But most people earn more at the end of their career than they do at the beginning, which means that if you hold off on retiring and stay in the workforce later in life, you might boost your benefits by virtue of replacing some lower-earning years with higher earnings.

Imagine you started working full-time at age 22, and you're thinking of retiring at age 57. In doing so, you'll still have a full 35 years of work under your belt; you won't risk having any zeros factored into your benefits equation, which is what happens to people who don't put in a full 35 years in the workforce. But if you earned $25,000 a year at age 22, and you're earning $125,000 a year now, by not retiring, you'll have the potential to replace some years of lower income with a higher income. (Keep in mind that when determining your benefits, the Social Security Administration does adjust earlier earnings for inflation; but a $25,000 salary earned 35 years ago still can't compare to $125,000).

Get the most out of Social Security

Even if you amass a healthy amount of savings for retirement, there's a good chance you'll still need your Social Security income to pay for extra expenses or enjoy the luxuries you've been looking forward to all your life. The good news is that you have the power to increase your benefits by not taking action -- by letting your benefits grow rather than claiming them early, and by staying in the workforce rather than marching into your boss's office and resigning.

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https://www.fool.com/amp/retirement/2019/10/28/2-passive-ways-to-boost-your-social-security-benef.aspx

2019-10-28 10:36:00Z
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Luxury goods firm LVMH eyes Tiffany takeover - BBC News

Luxury goods firm Louis Vuitton (LVMH) has confirmed it has held "preliminary discussions" about buying US jeweller Tiffany,

The statement followed reports that LVMH had made a $14.5bn (£11.3bn) offer to buy the company.

"The LVMH Group confirms that it has held preliminary discussions regarding a possible transaction with Tiffany," it said.

LVMH is owned by France's richest man, Bernard Arnault.

It produces a wide range of luxury goods including clothing, cosmetics, perfumes, drinks and fashion accessories, including its signature Louis Vuitton handbags.

It also owns brands such as Christian Dior, Givenchy and Kenzo, as well as many of the best-known champagne brands, including Dom Pérignon and Moët & Chandon.

Global demand for its products has held up well in recent years, but the same cannot be said for Tiffany, which has seen worldwide sales fall this year.

LVMH said there was "no assurance" that its talks with Tiffany would produce an agreement.

The announcement by LVMH came after media reports that the firm had submitted a preliminary, non-binding offer to Tiffany earlier this month.

The offer is said to value Tiffany at about $120 a share.

Analysts say LVMH is keen to expand in the US, where Tiffany is based.

LVMH has 75 brands, 156,000 employees and a network of more than 4,590 stores, while Tiffany employs more than 14,000 people and operates about 300 stores, including its flagship outlet on Fifth Avenue in New York.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50205953

2019-10-28 10:38:09Z
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Luxury goods firm LVMH eyes Tiffany takeover - BBC News

Luxury goods firm Louis Vuitton (LVMH) has confirmed it has held "preliminary discussions" about buying US jeweller Tiffany,

The statement followed reports that LVMH had made a $14.5bn (£11.3bn) offer to buy the company.

"The LVMH Group confirms that it has held preliminary discussions regarding a possible transaction with Tiffany," it said.

LVMH is owned by France's richest man, Bernard Arnault.

It produces a wide range of luxury goods including clothing, cosmetics, perfumes, drinks and fashion accessories, including its signature Louis Vuitton handbags.

It also owns brands such as Christian Dior, Givenchy and Kenzo, as well as many of the best-known champagne brands, including Dom Pérignon and Moët & Chandon.

Global demand for its products has held up well in recent years, but the same cannot be said for Tiffany, which has seen worldwide sales fall this year.

LVMH said there was "no assurance" that its talks with Tiffany would produce an agreement.

The announcement by LVMH came after media reports that the firm had submitted a preliminary, non-binding offer to Tiffany earlier this month.

The offer is said to value Tiffany at about $120 a share.

Analysts say LVMH is keen to expand in the US, where Tiffany is based.

LVMH has 75 brands, 156,000 employees and a network of more than 4,590 stores, while Tiffany employs more than 14,000 people and operates about 300 stores, including its flagship outlet on Fifth Avenue in New York.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50205953

2019-10-28 09:41:01Z
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