Popular LA Restaurant Closes After High-Tech ‘Dine and Dash’ Scheme

quonset writes: “The Korean Fusion Cafe ‘Spoon by H’ had the ingredients to become an L.A. success story but is the epitome of a small business, with owner and chef Yoonjin Hwang working 15-hour days to run the restaurant with her mother and brother,” reports CBS News. “‘We have no staff. We have no cooks. I have to do everything by…

Silicon Valley-backed Groups Sue Maryland To Kill Country’s First-Ever Online Advertising Tax

Top lobbying groups backed by Amazon, Facebook, Google and other technology giants sued Maryland on Thursday, seeking to scuttle a new state tax on their massive online-advertising revenue — and stop other local governments from following its lead. From a report: The legal challenge contends that Maryland’s first-in-the-nation tax is unfair, unconstitutional and incompatible with federal laws that prohibit state policymakers…

‘We Need to Inflict Pain’: Mark Zuckerberg’s War on Apple

When Tim Cook told an interviewer that Apple wouldn’t get in a Facebook-style data-collection controversy, “Mr. Zuckerberg shot back that Mr. Cook’s comments were ‘extremely glib’ and ‘not at all aligned with the truth,'” reports the Wall Street Journal. But “In private, Mr. Zuckerberg was even harsher. ‘We need to inflict pain,’ he told his team, for treating the company so…

When Big Brands Stopped Spending On Digital Ads, Nothing Happened. Why?

This weekend Forbes ran a thought-provoking article by “a digital marketer of 25 years” who now helps marketers audit their digital campaigns for ad fraud: When P&G turned off $200 million of their digital ad spending, they saw NO CHANGE in business outcomes. When Chase reduced their programmatic reach from 400,000 sites showing its ads to 5,000 sites (a 99% decrease),…

Facebook Managers Trash Their Own Ad Targeting In Unsealed Remarks

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: Facebook is currently waging a PR campaign purporting to show that Apple is seriously injuring American small businesses through its iOS privacy features. But at the same time, according to allegations in recently unsealed court documents, Facebook has been selling them ad targeting that is unreliable to the point of being fraudulent….

Facebook Says It’s Standing Up Against Apple For Small Businesses. Some Of Its Employees Don’t Believe It.

Last Tuesday, Facebook launched what it portrayed as a full-throated defense of small businesses. But while the $750 billion company’s public relations effort has presented a united front with small businesses, some Facebook employees complained about what they called a self-serving campaign that bordered on hypocrisy, according to internal comments and audio of a presentation to workers that were obtained by…

Facebook’s Criticism of Apple’s Tracking Change Called ‘Laughable’ by EFF

The MacRumors site writes:
Facebook’s recent criticism directed at Apple over an upcoming tracking-related privacy measure is “laughable,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that defends civil liberties in the digital world. Facebook has claimed that Apple’s new opt-in tracking policy will hurt small businesses who benefit from personalized advertising, but the EFF believes that Facebook’s campaign against…

China Halts Ant Group’s Blockbuster IPO

In a late-evening announcement that stunned China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange slammed the brakes on Ant’s initial public offering, which was set to be the biggest stock debut in history with investors on multiple continents and at least $34 billion in proceeds. The New York Times reports: The stock exchange’s notice to Ant said that the company’s proposed offering might no…

‘Don’t Even Try Paying With Cash in China’

“It’s hard for those of us who live outside of China to grasp how paying for everything has gone digital in the country,” writes the New York Times, introducing a Q&A with technology reporter Ray Zhong (who used to live in Beijing): Most businesses there, from the fanciest hotels to roadside fruit stands, display a QR code — a type of…

Make Remote Work Permanent? No Way, Say Bay Area Leaders

Last month a regional government agency in the San Francisco Bay Area voted “to move forward” with a proposal to eventually require people at large, office-based companies to work from home three days a week “as a way to slash greenhouse gas emissions from car commutes,” according to NBC News. But today local newspapers report “Bay Area leaders are already saying,…