Facebook is shutting down a tool called "Partner Categories," which allowed marketers to access third-party data to target advertising, the company confirmed to Axios on Wednesday.
Why it matters: It's the most tangible product update the company has made in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which sparked a global conversation around user data privacy being compromised for advertising and marketing purposes. It's also a move that will have very tangible affects on Facebook's business, as many marketers rely on this type of data to target ads on the platform.
Amazon shares shed more than $31 billion of value following an Axios report this morning that President Trump has been talking about going after Amazon on taxes or anti-trust grounds.
Be smart: Amazon isn't alone in the pain, as Axios' Dan Primack notes the "so-called FANG stocks have had a terrible week, losing a combined $168.6 billion in market value over the past five trading days."
A.G. Gangadhar, a former Uber manager who joined General Motor's Cruise unit last year as its chief technology officer, is leaving the company.
"After serious consideration, Cruise and AG have elected to part ways. We wish him the best in all future endeavors."
— Cruise spokesperson
Why it matters: Gangadhar's hiring was controversial. At Uber, he was one of the managers referenced (though not by name) by Susan Fowler as not handling her complaints of sexual harassment appropriately and blocking her transfer request. When the news of his hiring came out, Fowler publicly criticized the move, and since then, women who worked in the same Uber division under Gangadhar have complained of tone-deaf messages from Cruise recruiters. Cruise declined to comment on the reasons for his departure.
Lior Ron, the co-founder of Otto, the autonomous driving startup Uber acquired in 2016, is leaving the company, as CNBC first reported and a source confirmed to Axios. Ron was leading Uber Freight at the time of his departure. Uber declined to comment on Ron departure, but said that it remains "fully invested in and excited about the future of Uber Freight."
Why it matters: Ron's company and co-founder, Anthony Levandowski, were at the center of a year-long legal battle between Waymo and Uber. Waymo alleged that the startup was an elaborate scheme to bring trade secrets into Uber, though the two settled last month. Levandowski was fired from Uber last May after he declined to cooperate with the lawsuit.
Update: A source familiar with the move tells Axios that Ron's departure isn't related to the recent self-driving crash in Arizona.
The Justice Department's Inspector General announced Wednesday that it will be conducting an investigation into how the FBI handles Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications in response to requests from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and members of Congress.
Why it matters: Back in February, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the DOJ's watchdog to look into GOP Congressman Devin Nunes' memo that alleged the FBI deceivingly obtained a FISA warrant in order to surveil Trump's foreign policy aide Carter Page. Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff also released a memo last month, defending the FBI's actions.
Fielding questions over whether President Trump wants to go after Amazon and it's tax treatment, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that Trump is "always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this no different." But she added that the president has no specific policies to address that at this time.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday that if his company wanted to, they could make a ton of money by monetizing their customers and making them a product. But he said unlike other companies (like Facebook), Apple has elected not to do that.
"We're not going to traffic in your personal life. Privacy to us is a human right, a civil liberty."
— Tim Cook in an interview with Recode's Kara Swisher
Facebook has launched a multi-pronged offensive as it deals with the exploding data privacy scandal: tweaking privacy settings, agreeing to testify and delaying a product launch.
Why it matters: The Cambridge Analytica controversy has turned into a reckoning over Facebook's data practices. After a brutal 10 days since the scandal broke, Facebook is working to quickly stop the bleeding as its reputation takes a massive hit.
Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who’ve discussed it with him. “He’s obsessed with Amazon,” a source said. “Obsessed.”
What we're hearing: Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business.
Amazon slid 6% after market open on Wednesday morning after it was reported by Axios' Jonathan Swan that President Trump has privately discussed changing Amazon's tax treatment to help small businesses.
Why it matters: Amazon had a solid start to 2018 but this is the first major hit the company has taken this year.
Equifax named Mark Begor, the former chief of General Electric’s credit card business, as its new CEO on Wednesday. Begor, who will take the helm mid-April, will also become a member of Equifax’s Board of Directors.
Why it matters: The credit reporting agency is still trying to bounce back from the largest-ever breach of personal information, which left 147.9 million Americans’ personal identifying information vulnerable to theft.
Facebook said Wednesday it is updating its terms of service to make its commitment to user privacy more explicit. It's also updating its data policy to better define what data it collects and how they use it as well as make its privacy tools easier to find.
Why it matters: While Facebook says the privacy updates have been in the works for a while, the past two weeks of reckoning around data privacy have put an emphasis on things Facebook should be doing to make privacy options more transparent and easier to understand for users.
Lyft provided free rides to students attending March for Our Lives rallies last weekend and, according to co-founder John Zimmer, is trying to figure out how to address issues of racial equality after Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man, was fatally shot by police last week. “We want to figure out how to use what we do to help effect change,” Zimmer told a group of reporters in Washington yesterday.
Why it matters: Lyft sees this as a moment to highlight "having obvious ethical values" as a ride-hailing company vs Uber. In yesterday's gathering with reporters, Zimmer was joined by former Obama White House official Valerie Jarrett, now a Lyft board member, and the two repeatedly highlighted the company’s commitment to equal pay, safe work environments, and continued activism to “protect our community.”
Facebook won't unveil a home speaker with a digital assistant at a developer conference in May, Bloomberg reports, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The devices, similar to Google Home and Amazon Echo, may still be available later this year.
Why it matters: Delaying the device unveiling is "partly because the public is currently so outraged about the social network’s data-privacy practices," Bloomberg says, and reports Facebook "had already found in focus-group testing that users were concerned about a Facebook-branded device in their living rooms, given how much intimate data the social network collects."
