Cambridge Analytica's London headquarters was searched by law enforcement on Friday, days after news broke about its relationship with Facebook, the Guardian reports.
“We are pleased with the decision of the judge and we plan to execute the warrant shortly. This is just one part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data and analytics for political purposes. As you will expect, we will now need to collect, assess and consider the evidence before coming to any conclusions.”
— Information Commissioner's Office spokesperson to the Guardian
The details: This comes after information commissioner Elizabeth Denham sought "access to records" from Cambridge Analytica. A judge issued a warrant on Friday, the Guardian reports.
The details: Per the Times, Uber "was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per" human intervention in Arizona, while Waymo, a former autonomous vehicle project from Google, had been testing almost 5,600 miles until intervention. Uber's test drivers were requested to go "on solo runs" when they had previously been working in pairs.
Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm that worked with the Trump campaign and is accused of using Facebook data of 50 million users against the company's policies, has issued an apology and says it will undergo a third-party audit.
Why it matters: The company says it believed that the data they obtained was in line with Facebook’s terms of service and data protection laws. Upon realizing it wasn't, CA reportedly thought they deleted all of the data. They are now doubling down to make sure they aren't sitting on any data that could get them in more trouble.
A new suite of emojis that represent individuals with disabilities may be coming to your keyboard soon. Apple has consulted with organizations such as American Council of the Blind, Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and National Association for the Deaf, to propose 13 emojis to the Unicode Consortium, who is responsible for all the letters and characters in our smartphone keyboards.
Why it matters: The Unicode Consortium's Emoji subcommittee favors emojis that it believes are universal and will be popular, something Apple emphasizes in the proposal by pointing out that "one in seven people around the world has some form of disability." Apple itself has also long made efforts to make its products as widely accessible as possible.
Leaders on the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce Committee Energy separately called on Mark Zuckerberg to testify before their panels on Friday. Both committees indicated they wanted to hold a hearing with the Facebook chief executive soon. Facebook confirmed it was reviewing the calls for its CEO to visit Capitol Hill.
Why it matters: Calls for Zuckerberg to testify are now coming from lawmakers with the influence to potentially make an appearance a reality. In a CNN interview earlier this week, Zuckerberg said he would do so if he was the "right person." Facebook staff briefed committee staff on the situation, but lawmakers said questions were left unanswered.
Broadcom shareholders went ahead and voted to move the chipmaker's headquarters to the U.S. even after President Trump blocked its efforts to buy rival Qualcomm. The company hopes to make things official on April 4.
Why it matters: While moving to the U.S. won't necessarily resuscitate the Qualcomm bid, it could make future acquisitions easier.
A super PAC led by incoming White House national security adviser John Bolton hired Cambridge Analytica in 2014 for “behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging,” reports the New York Times. Bolton's PAC was reportedly aware at the time that the models it received were derived from harvested Facebook data, according to former Cambridge employee and whistleblower Christopher Wylie.
Why it matters: Per the Times, "Mr. Bolton’s experience with the company appears to have provided a model for how it sold itself to future political campaigns, including Mr. Trump’s." Trump, Bolton and Cambridge Analytica also share a common patron in the billionaire Mercer family, which has yet to comment on the data scandal.
Apple is looking to gain back some lost market share in schools with a low-cost iPad, reports Bloomberg. Google and Microsoft have both gained on Apple in recent years with their inexpensive laptops for the classroom. With a cheaper iPad (and other potential announcements) at an event next week, Apple is hoping to boost its presence.
Why it matters: Apple Inc. is the most valuable company in the world, but it is in the midst of a race to a $1 trillion valuation with Amazon on its tail and quickly rising. This move gives Apple a boost while putting more affordable products in student's hands.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal told Axios' Mike Allen on Friday that if Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not testify in Congress, he will face a subpoena: "My message to Mark Zuckerberg is: You are the right person. There is nobody better than you, in fact you have an obligation to testify."
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC's Julia Boorstin that if she "could live this week again," she would speak sooner on the relationship with Cambridge Analytica.
What she said: Sandberg said she could not guarantee more breaches wouldn't come to light, saying "there will always be bad actors." She also told Boorstin the company is "open to regulation," echoing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sentiment that this was a breach of trust with users.
Experts say the self-driving Uber vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian on Monday morning may be at fault, the AP reports. Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who studies self-driving cars, told the AP "The victim did not come out of nowhere. She’s moving on a dark road, but it’s an open road, so Lidar and radar should have detected and classified her."
Why it matters: This is the first fatality involving a full autonomous test vehicle, and Uber has halted road testing of its vehicles. Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moire said the vehicle likely wouldn't be found at fault in the crash. But Smith's analysis paints another picture.
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees technology issues, are calling on Mark Zuckerberg to testify on the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal.
Why it matters: The calls are growing for Zuckerberg to answer Congress's questions publicly about how user data was accessed improperly by a data analytics firm. Zuckerberg gave a handful of media interviews Wednesday evening — during which he stated a willingness to talk to Congress.
Blade, a short-distance aviation company known for helicopter rides from airports into city centers, has raised around $38 million in new funding from backers that include Airbus and real estate company Colony NorthStar.
Why it matters: Blade is more focused on transportation infrastructure than any particular type of vehicle, and believes its landing zones will eventually be used by eVTOLs (a.k.a. flying taxis).
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said safety has to be a key component of new technological advances as they transform U.S. cities.
Why it matters: Citizens' safety is a primary concern as technology marches toward replacing humans in a number of different functions in our cities, such as driving. New attention has been drawn to this this issue by this week's fatal crash involving an autonomous vehicle in Arizona.
Former FTC consumer protection enforcers say Facebook's response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal won't be enough to keep federal investigators at bay.
Why it matters: European and U.S. officials are probing Facebook over the situation and have the ability to levy big fines on the company — and further damage its reputation.
Anti-sex-trafficking legislation heading for President Trump's desk that makes it easier to sue platforms like Facebook and Google's YouTube could provide a template for a larger crackdown on malicious content.
Why it matters: After controversies over Russian election interference and data privacy, some in the industry seem to acknowledge that regulation may be coming. "I actually am not sure we shouldn't be regulated," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CNN Wednesday night, answering questions about the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The funding bill released Wednesday includes the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data [CLOUD] Act, which provides a legal framework for law enforcement to request data from overseas servers. The CLOUD Act currently sits high atop the wish list of tech firms, law enforcement and even foreign nations.
Why it matters: The Supreme Court is currently mulling a case determining whether the Department of Justice had the right to force Microsoft to produce client emails stored on a server in Ireland without permission from Ireland's government.
In a flurry of media interviews on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is willing to testify before Congress, that he can't guarantee that Russians didn't get their hands on Facebook user data and that he isn't sure Facebook shouldn't be regulated.
Why it matters: After remaining silent for several days, Mark Zuckerberg has given interviews with outlets including CNN, Wired, the New York Times and Recode. The interviews answer some, but definitely not all of the questions left unanswered by his earlier Facebook post.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is "sorry" for the Cambridge Analytica situation and that it was a "mistake" to trust them or any app developers to delete data after signing a legal certificate. Asked in a CNN interview Wednesday night if they should have investigated further, Zuckerberg said, "I regret that I didn't do that at the time."
Why it matters: After five days of silence from its executives, Facebook has been under enormous pressure to respond to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In the interview, Zuckerberg didn't say much beyond what he posted earlier Wednesday on his Facebook page, and those comments failed to satisfy lawmakers who want to further investigate the company's practices.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he would be "happy" to testify before Congress if it was "the right thing to do," in an interview with CNN's Laurie Segall.
Why it matters: Facebook has been under the microscope lately for what Zuckerberg called earlier today the "Cambridge Analytica situation." Zuckerberg said if he was the "person...who will have the most knowledge," then he'd be the one to testify in the face of Facebook's data-collection situation.
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