Digital services taxes adopted by India, Italy, and Turkey in recent years discriminate against U.S. companies, the U.S. Trade Representative said on Wednesday. From a report: USTR, which began investigations into the three nation’s digital services taxes in June last year, said it found them to be inconsistent with international tax principles, unreasonable, and burdening or restricting U.S. commerce. In its…
Tag: airbnb
SEC Proposes Rules for Giving Gig Workers Equity
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed rule changes that would make it possible for gig companies to give equity to their workers as part of their compensation if they meet certain requirements. From a report: This is something gig companies including Uber and Airbnb have asked the SEC to do over the years as a way to share their…
Walmart-exclusive Router and Others Sold on Amazon and eBay Contain Hidden Backdoors To Control Devices
Bernard Meyer, reporting for CyberNews: In a collaboration between CyberNews Sr. Information Security Researcher Mantas Sasnauskas and researchers James Clee and Roni Carta, suspicious backdoors have been discovered in a Chinese-made Jetstream router, sold exclusively at Walmart as their new line of “affordable” wifi routers. This backdoor would allow an attacker the ability to remotely control not only the routers, but…
Google, Facebook and Twitter Threaten To Leave Pakistan Over Censorship Law
Global internet companies Facebook, Google and Twitter and others have banded together and threatened to leave Pakistan after the South Asian nation granted blanket powers to local regulators to censor digital content. From a report: Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan granted the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority the power to remove and block digital content that pose “harms, intimidates or…
Airbnb Hires Jony Ive To Design Next-Gen Products and Services
Online vacation rental giant Airbnb on Wednesday said it has hired former Apple CDO Jony Ive and his company LoveFrom to assist in the design of future products and services. AppleInsider reports: Announced in a blog post from Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, Ive will work on next-generation “products and services” as a design consultant. It appears that he will…
Tech’s New Gig Worker Underclass: Customer Service Reps Who Have to Pay to Talk to You
The Pulitzer prize-winning news nonprofit Propublica looks at Arise Virtual Solutions, part of the secretive world of work-at-home customer service companies that help large corporations shed costs at the expense of workers. And thanks to the pandemic, “business is booming.” Arise lines up customer service agents who work from home. It then sells this network of agents to blue-chip corporations. Arise…
Portland Passes Groundbreaking Ban on Facial Recognition in Stores, Banks, Restaurants and More
Amid sometimes violent protests and counter-protests around racial justice, this week Portland, Oregon legislators unanimously passed groundbreaking new legislation to ban the use of facial recognition technology, which some see as a victory for civil rights and digital justice. The ban covers use of the technology in both privately owned places as well as by city agencies. From a report: “I…
Airbnb Files To Go Public
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: In a turn of fortune, Airbnb today announced that it has filed to go public, albeit confidentially. The move puts the home-sharing service on a path to a public offering sooner rather than later, and comes after reports that the company was prepping an IPO filing this month. Those same reports indicated that…
The Last Blockbuster Has Been Turned Into An Airbnb
The world’s last Blockbuster is offering movie fans the opportunity to spend the night in the store by booking through Airbnb. The Independent reports: The opportunity to book a one-night stay in the last of the nearly defunct video rental stores, which only remains in Bend, Oregon, will be possible thanks to the property’s owner, Sandi Harding. “As the last standing…
Their Businesses Went Virtual. Then Apple Wanted a Cut.
After Airbnb and ClassPass began selling virtual classes because of the pandemic, Apple tried to collect its commission on the sales. From a report: ClassPass built its business on helping people book exercise classes at local gyms. So when the pandemic forced gyms across the United States to close, the company shifted to virtual classes. Then ClassPass received a concerning message…