Facebook accesses your location even when you’ve opted out, confirms company
It was reported last year that Facebook accesses your location even when you have switched off Location Services for the app, and the company has now confirmed this in a letter to two senators.
The company says that it uses three different methods to track user locations, only one of which needs Location Services…
The company says in a letter addressed to Senators Christopher A Coons and Josh Hawley that it can also look at people’s activity. The letter was seen by The Hill.
Even if someone does not enable location services, Facebook may still understand information about the location based on information that they and others provide through their activities and connections on our services. For example, if someone responds to an event on Facebook for a local music festival, upload a location-tagged video, or gets tagged by a friend in a check-in at a restaurant, these actions have give us information about that person’s likely location. Similarly, a person might share where they live by setting a location in Marketplace or adding their address to their profile.
Finally, it can use their IP address to get a rough location – though this can be particularly imprecise or inaccurate.
Every device that is connected to the Internet is assigned an IP address that identifies its particular connection to the Internet and it serves as a routing address for any data sent to and from the device. That address – like a return address on envelope – identifies where the device is on the Internet. The device necessarily transmit the address, and anyone the device communicates with receives it, whereever she stands or receive any message or information […]An IP address assigned to a mobile device by a wireless carrier might reflect only the city or area where the device connected to the network. For this reason, IP addresses are generally considered to be in precise ways of understanding location and can be inaccurate.
The company says it believes it is reasonable that Facebook accesses your location so that ads and sponsored posts can be appropriately filtered. Both senators have, however, criticized this response.
Coons, who helps head the Senate Judiciary Committee’s tech task force, called Facebook’s efforts “insufficient and even misleading.”“Facebook claims that users are in control of their own privacy, but in reality, users aren’t even given an option to stop Facebook from collecting and monetizing their location information,” Coons said. “The American people deserve to know how tech companies use their data, and I will continue working to find solutions to protect Americans’ sensitive information.”Hawley, who regularly lambasts Facebook and recently sat down with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a testy hourlong meeting, tweeted, “There is no opting out. No control over your personal information. That’s Big Tech. And that’s why Congress needs to take action.”
Facebook is also facing a potential FTC injunction on sharing data between its various apps.
Apple was also hit by a recent privacy controversy over the iPhone 11 continuing to collect location data after Location Services were disabled for all iOS services, but later provided an explanation and promised a new toggle. The iPhone maker also defended the use of strong encryption to protect its devices in the face of threats by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Fiat Chrysler Is Still the Winner in Merger With Peugeot
Recent negotiations have sweetened the terms for the French auto maker, but it is still shouldering more risk
The merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot has passed the first milestone on its long road to completion. Not much has changed, but the details that have are telling.
The two car makers published final terms of their megadeal Wednesday, having given a rough outline following a Wall Street Journal scoop in late October. The latest negotiations have improved things slightly for Peugeot shareholders, but the French company is still taking the bigger risk.
The strategy underpinning the combination—that scale matters more than ever as technology upends the auto industry—was always a no-brainer, but investors were surprised in October by a skew in the financial terms toward Fiat Chrysler’s shareholders. Most notably, they were due to receive a €5.5 billion ($6.1 billion) special dividend, while Peugeot’s shareholders only got the company’s €3.1 billion stake in listed parts maker Faurecia EO -1.48% —even though Peugeot was the larger company by market value.
These distributions remain, but others have been tweaked. Most obviously, Comau, a robotics company owned by Fiat Chrysler, will no longer be spun off to the company’s shareholders. That means Peugeot now gets half of this small business, which was valued at €250 million during Fiat Chrysler’s failed merger attempt with Renault in May.
Second, both companies now intend to pay a €1.1 billion dividend for 2019. Analysts polled by FactSet previously forecast, on average, a payout of roughly €950 million from Peugeot and almost €1.2 billion from Fiat Chrysler. Giving the French company’s shareholders more than expected before the deal concludes, and the Italian-American company’s slightly less, is a more subtle way of shifting value to the Peugeot side.
Finally, the exchange ratio used to equalize the companies’ share capital—which hadn’t previously been disclosed—is based on existing share counts. It doesn’t include almost 40 million equity warrants issued by Peugeot to General Motors GM +1.34% in 2017 as partial payment for the latter’s European business, Opel Vauxhall. These are due to crystallize in May 2022 with an exercise price of €1. With Peugeot shares trading at €22.41, GM is currently due to receive €850 million worth of stock. This will now come at the expense of Fiat Chrysler’s shareholders, as well as Peugeot’s.
A further curiosity of these warrants is that, unless renegotiated, they will give GM a stake in the future of a company that will include Fiat Chrysler. This comes as GM is suing its Detroit rival for racketeering—allegedly bribing union officials in 2015 to give it a favorable labor deal at GM’s expense. Fiat Chrysler denies the charges, but if GM were successful it could end up hitting the value of its own warrants.
These three sweeteners have been enough to persuade Peugeot’s board and anchor shareholders—the Peugeot family, Dongfeng Motor and a French government fund—to pledge their support. Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, a chief architect of the deal who would run the combined firm, has huge sway following remarkable recoveries under his leadership at both Peugeot and Opel Vauxhall.
Still, the French company remains the one with more to lose in this deal, which will dilute the strength of its balance sheet and bring it a number of underperforming brands requiring a lot of investment, as well as the lucrative U.S. business Mr. Tavares covets. Fiat Chrysler will be the turnaround artist’s most complex and lengthy act yet. The deal won’t complete for another 12 to 15 months while the companies seek antitrust approvals.
Peugeot’s stock rose Wednesday as investors factored in the new deal terms. Its market value is now 7% above Fiat Chrysler’s, even though the companies will combine on a 50:50 basis. Fiat Chrysler is still the more obvious way for investors to play a megamerger that shows every sign of going ahead.
Renaissance Employees Could Face Clawbacks Over Hedge Fund’s Tax Maneuver
Firm allowed staffers to invest in its hedge funds through their retirement accounts without paying fees
Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies LLC has produced the greatest investment returns of any hedge fund. Now, it also may be facing an unusually painful tax headache.
Last week, Renaissance sent a letter to its current and former employees warning that the Internal Revenue Service could force them to pay back taxes and penalties because they invested in Renaissance’s hedge funds through the firm’s 401(k) plan and individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, without paying fees. The warning could affect other investment firms with similar plans.
At issue is a creative strategy undertaken starting in 2012 that enabled employees to invest in Renaissance’s hedge funds—including its flagship Medallion fund—through their retirement accounts in a tax-advantaged, fee-free fashion.
The letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said Renaissance now believes the IRS could determine that the foregone fees should be counted as taxable income and as contributions beyond the annual limits to retirement plans.
The letter surprised current and former employees, some of whom may have to come up with millions of dollars if the IRS pursues a case. It has caused confusion and even frustration within the firm, as groups of employees huddle to debate their potential liability, according to current and former employees.
In the letter, Renaissance said its caution came after an internal analysis, though it didn’t say what prompted that analysis. The firm advised employees to seek professional tax assistance.
The IRS doesn’t normally comment on disputes with particular businesses or individuals.
If penalties are levied, they may not outstrip gains from the funds. Even so, the consequences could be severe, said Steve Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a research group, in Washington.
“This is not the kind of situation IRS would be particularly sympathetic to,” Mr. Rosenthal said. ”It’s a deliberate plan to try to funnel more money into an IRA or 401(k) than contemplated by Congress.”
“We believe the better view is that the fee-free nature [does] not give rise to deemed compensation,” the Renaissance letter said. “However, there is no regulatory guidance directly addressing the situation, and the IRS has not addressed these issues with us in the context of an audit or otherwise.”
The Medallion fund has enjoyed average annual returns of about 66% before fees since 1988, a performance unmatched by other sizable funds. Renaissance, which has about 320 staffers, recruits top mathematicians and scientists. Access to Medallion is one way the firm retains its talent.
Mr. Simons, 81 years old, is considered by many to be one the most successful moneymakers in the history of modern finance. Since 1988, Medallion has racked up trading gains of more than $100 billion.
The combination of fee-free investing and Renaissance’s outsize annual returns means employees have sizable balances. At the end of 2018, the company’s 401(k) plan held $238.1 million and the IRA plan held $825.6 million, with average balances exceeding $3 million, according to documents filed with the Labor Department.
The Medallion fund, which is only available to employees, charges hefty annual management fees of 5% of all assets and as much as 44% of all of the fund’s gains, suggesting that the foregone fees could be substantial.
Renaissance and its lawyers have reached out to the IRS to begin discussions about the issue, according to the letter.
Compounding employee concerns: Renaissance continues to deal with a separate tax dispute with the IRS about the firm’s use of options to turn short-term gains into lower-taxed long-term capital gains and avoid taxes that a 2014 Senate report said amounted to more than $6 billion. Some facing potential liabilities believe those taxes likely will have to be paid in full.
If the IRS comes after Renaissance’s employees, it could send a message to other investment firms that also allow employees to invest fee-free in their funds, said Lenny Witman, a partner at Witman Stadtmauer PA, a law firm in Florham Park, N.J.
He doubts the IRS will force those employees to pay taxes and penalties, arguing that such a move would open up “a Pandora’s box to everyone they’ve given exemptions to with the same basic purpose.”
In 2010, Renaissance ended its previous 401(k) plan and placed employees’ holdings in IRAs. Many employees converted those accounts into Roth IRAs. They paid taxes related to those conversions but held the accounts in Renaissance investments that can grow tax-free without fees.
Renaissance received permission for the maneuver from the Labor Department, which oversees retirement plans with an eye toward protecting workers’ interests. Funds usually face conflict-of-interest limits restricting investments in in-house funds because such investments can benefit the firms. Renaissance argued that its employees would ultimately benefit by getting access to the firm’s funds. The Labor Department granted an exception for the Roth accounts and later for a new version of Renaissance’s 401 (k) plan on the condition that it wouldn’t charge the investor fees.
The exemptions don’t address a key question now in play: When an employer doesn’t charge fees for a valuable service, should those foregone fees potentially be considered taxable income? If so, employees have been underreporting their income for years and would owe back taxes plus interest on that.
In addition, annual contributions to 401(k) plans and IRAs are capped. If the foregone fees are considered contributions, they could trigger penalties of as much as 6% for every year that those extra contributions remained in the retirement account—in addition to payments related to an employee’s higher balance thanks to the foregone fees.
More evidence that the art market is bananas
The sale of a piece of fruit for $120,000 is a symptom of a world untethered from reality
We didn’t need somebody to buy a banana for $120,000 to tell us that art collectors frequently have more money than sense. Such “ready-made” japes have been causing controversy since Marcel Duchamp first proposed his urinal over a century ago.
But there is something about the timing of this furore — which saw collectors shell out $120,000 for editions of a banana, entitled “Comedian”, duct-taped to a wall by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan at Art Basel Miami Beach — that feels particularly distasteful. That we are living in dark times is hardly news. The turbulence is even lapping at the shores of the art world — a place which commonly rises above the storms that buffet less privileged regions. (After the financial crisis of 2008, the art market bounced back fast.) But today thousands of artists are fighting for freedom of expression across the world. Even when artists are not behind bars, censorship is rife.
Meanwhile cultural institutions are staggering under the political upheavals that afflict their countries. Art Basel Hong Kong, one of the most lucrative fairs, is subsidising dealers to attend next year’s edition in the strife-torn territory.
Meanwhile a spate of scandals around questionable funding sources has seen sponsors and philanthropists, such as BP and the Sackler family, dropped by institutions and board members, notably Warren Kanders of the Whitney Museum, forced to resign.
Those latter events signal to the wealthy that the world is watching. And, furthermore, that it is capable of protesting in a way it wasn’t in the era before digital media made it so much easier to build networks of resistance.
Even climate change has caught up with contemporary art’s glitzy circus. Earlier this month at Art Basel Miami Beach, a glut of media attention highlighted the contradiction between the art, much of which is focused on ecological themes, and the carbon footprint of the event that shows it.
Many artists are on the side of the angels. The decision by the shortlisted quartet — Helen Cammock, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Tai Shani and Oscar Murillo — to split the Turner Prize earlier this month was the latest expression of a swelling tide of socially committed practitioners. These artists are aware, as Ms Cammock observed in the prize-winners’ joint acceptance speech, that art can help unravel the knots of a “world entangled” where “climate chaos” is “inseparable . . . from capitalism”.
“Bananagate” exposes an elite that wants to remain uncontaminated by such associations. Among those who bought editions of “Comedian” are Miami-based Billy and Beatrice Cox. They defended their purchase by comparing the work to Andy Warhol’s seminal soup cans.
They also promised to donate “Comedian” to a museum where, presumably, its revolutionary properties would enlighten future generations. They would replace it, they said, every few days to prevent rot. Meanwhile, the seller, Paris-based gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin, opined that the real value of the work lay in the certificate of authentication. “They buy an idea. They buy a certificate,” he told the New York Times.
This is nonsense. Warhol’s soup cans, though far less fascinating than many critics believe, packed a novelty factor that made them significant. Mr Cattelan’s banana will affect nothing save a handful of bank balances.
A certificate of authentication for a banana, especially one that is regularly replaced, is a symptom of an art world where money is confetti and ideas are loose change. It raises two fingers to all those for whom $120,000 could change, even save, lives. For some, a piece of fruit itself is worth rubies.
Yet the wealthy wonder why they are unpopular. A recent report from UBS, the world’s largest private wealth manager (which also happens to be the main sponsor of Art Basel), defended billionaires from accusations of greed. Speaking to the Financial Times, UBS head of ultra-high net worth Josef Stadler, condemned “bias in the media” and denied that his clients made “too much money on the back of poor people”. Rather, he said, they were a force for job creation and the distribution of wealth.
And of course, there’s all their philanthropy. Hundreds of art patrons fund cultural activities while living in tax havens such as Dubai, Geneva and indeed banana-loving Florida. One Swiss-based collector said to me recently that he was planning on setting up a charity devoted to “poor children”, yet had no intention of contributing to official public services in countries, such as the US, where he was making his millions. His decision reflects a situation where 10 per cent of the global gross domestic product is held in tax havens.
Given the problems we’re facing, that may be bananas but, with respect to Mr Cattelan, it’s not remotely funny.
Apple, Amazon and Google form alliance for smart home devices
Apple, Amazon, Google and a host of others have agreed to work together on an open standard for smart home devices, an alliance designed to accelerate the development of smart consumer gadgets while ensuring they are secure and compatible with each other.
The tech giants are working with the Zigbee Alliance, an open standard foundation set up in 2002 and comprised of executives from dozens of corporate giants including Samsung, Ikea, Comcast, Texas Instruments and Schneider Electric. Zigbee’s name alludes to the “waggle dance” bees perform to share information.
The groups revealed the development, called Project Connected Home over IP, in a joint press release early Wednesday in California.
“The project is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use,” the groups said.
A shared, open source approach should “accelerate the development” of a smart home protocol — a set of rules governing format — that will “deliver benefits to manufacturers and consumers faster,” they said.
In practise the project means smart devices enabled by Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will be able to better communicate with Google Home devices or products powered by Apple’s Siri, the groups said.
The alliance will welcome device makers, silicon providers and other developers to contribute.
Sweden's Intrum sole bidder at present for Cerved's credit unit -sources - Reuters News
18-Dec-2019 16:18:24
Cerved hired Mediobanca to asses options for unit
Intrum placed bid, Credito Fondiario sitting on the fence
Italian bad loan market consolidating after peak phase
By Valentina Za
MILAN, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Europe's biggest debt collector Intrum INTRUM.ST is at present the sole bidder for the loan managing unit put up for sale by Italian financial group Cerved CERV.MI, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Italy's loan recovery industry has boomed in recent years fed by some 180 billion euros ($198 billion) in impaired loans shed by banks to tackle the legacy of a harsh recession.
With sales slowing, loan recovery firms are looking to join forces to buttress profits by growing in size and cutting costs.
Cerved started studying options for its debt collection unit after losing a 10-year contract with bank Monte dei Paschi BMPS.MI and failing to secure the bad loan unit of Greece's Eurobank EURBr.AT in tandem with funds Elliott and Bain.
CEO Andrea Mignanelli said in October the group could combine the division with a debt purchasing business. (Full Story)
"We need to face the reality that things are changing in the Italian market," he said at the time.
Two sources said the unit could be worth around 400 million euros, a lower price tag than calculated by some analysts whose estimates stretched to 490 million euros.
The unit has failed to draw interest from foreign investment funds because the Italian bad loan market has entered a mature phase where there are fewer bargains, a person who had contacts with potential buyers said.
Peers looking for scale were the only contenders.
Intrum has said it wants to expand further in Italy after striking a 3.6 billion euro deal last year to set up a loan recovery business with bank Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI.
It submitted a cash bid for Cerved's unit through its Italian arm, one source said.
Bad loan specialist Credito Fondiario, which is owned by Elliott, had considered offering a share swap deal for the business, but has decided to sit on the fence for now, two sources said.
It could be back in the game depending on the outcome of talks between Cerved and Intrum, the sources said.
Credito Fondiario has hired advisers to assess strategic options and earlier this year held tie-up talks with rival Banca IFIS IF.MI, failing to reach an accord. It is looking to bulk up as it eyes a potential market listing down the road. (Full Story)
Cerved's board is expected to discuss Intrum's bid at a board meeting on Thursday, one person said.
News of Intrum's bid was first reported by Il Sole 24 Ore daily.
The sale would allow Cerved to focus on its credit information and market solutions businesses. Acquisitions boosted sales at the unit by 29% to 128 million euros in the first nine months.