Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – September 18th
The Biden administration releases the framework on how to regulate crypto – 9/16
The Biden administration released the framework on regulating crypto markets. It follows an executive order issued in March that asked federal agencies to investigate the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies and report their findings to the government. Some of the priorities in the executive order included consumer and investor protection, countering illicit finance, and ensuring financial stability.
One part of the framework focuses on eliminating illegal activity. It states: “The President will evaluate whether to call upon Congress to amend the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-tip-off statutes, and laws against unlicensed money transmitting to apply explicitly to digital asset service providers — including digital asset exchanges and nonfungible token (NFT) platforms.” Likewise, the administration is looking into pushing Congress to raise the penalties for unlicensed money transmitting.
The framework singled out stablecoins (cryptocurrencies with values pegged to real-life assets like US dollars or gold) to ensure financial stability. The agencies focused on stablecoins because of the TerraUSD collapse in May that led to insolvencies that erased almost $600 billion in wealth. The framework states: “Digital assets and the mainstream financial system are becoming increasingly intertwined, creating channels for turmoil to have spillover effects.” To ensure stablecoins are “safer,” Treasury will work “with financial institutions to bolster their capacity to identify and mitigate cyber vulnerabilities by sharing information and promoting a wide range of data sets and analytical tools.” It will also cooperate with other agencies to “identify, track, and analyze emerging strategic risks that relate to digital asset markets.”
The state of California accuses Amazon of violating competition law – 9/15
The state of California filed a lawsuit that accuses Amazon of violating competition laws. The lawsuit states the company forces sellers to offer the lowest prices on Amazon, which prevents other websites from competing with them. Furthermore, the lawsuit claims these policies made online shopping more expensive.
It says: “Amazon knows its price parity agreements prevent rivals from stealing market share away with lower prices reflective of their lower fees. So Amazon keeps raising fees, leading to higher prices on Amazon, leading to higher prices off Amazon due to price parity.” One of the key issues in the competition law is proving harm to consumers with higher prices. The court dismissed a similar lawsuit filed in DC.
Amazon released a statement: “Sellers set their own prices for the products they offer in our store… Amazon takes pride in the fact that we offer low prices across the broadest selection, and like any store we reserve the right not to highlight offers to customers that are not priced competitively.”
Tesla has problems with return-to-office policy – 9/15
Based on the internal documents seen by CNBC, Tesla is experiencing problems with its return-to-office policy issued by Elon Musk in May. Musk informed Tesla employees in an email they have to “spend a minimum of forty hours in the office per week.”
However, the company does not have the capacity to accommodate the return of all of its employees to work. Over the recent years, the company focused on the new factory in Texas and building international hubs. Tesla did not acquire enough office space or equipment to ensure normal working conditions for its employees and contractors so they could come to work in the office. The company cannot provide enough desk spaces, parking spaces, or even chairs for its employees. They had to stagger in-office schedules back to two days per week. Furthermore, the company is monitoring employees’ attendance and Musk receives weekly reports on absenteeism. The new measures have resulted in a significant decline in morale among employees.
Following Musk’s May mandate, remote workers who could not relocate to work in the office 40 hours per week were given until September 30 to move or take a severance package. The human resources contacted the remote workers again in June to see if they would be able to move. Without warning, the company terminated those who said they could not or were not sure.
Uber hack did not compromise users’ private information – 9/16
On Thursday, Uber discovered its internal computer systems were hacked. In a statement released Friday, the company claimed the hack did not compromise private users’ information. Likewise, they stated its services like Uber Eats and ride-hailing are operational. The company notified law enforcement.
Because of the hack, Uber had to take some of its internal systems (Slack, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services) offline. The company stated the measure served as a precaution. The alleged hacker posted a message on the company’s internal Slack system and listed confidential information they claimed they’d accessed. They spoke to the reporter with the New York Times and claimed they received a password from an employee by pretending to be a corporate IT official. The password allowed them access to Uber’s systems.
Uber spokesperson stated the company is not advising its users to make any changes to their accounts.
In 2016, Uber was a target of a cyber security attack that exposed confidential information for over 57 million of its customers and drivers. The company admitted to covering up the hack as a part of the settlement with the Department of Justice to avoid criminal prosecution.
