Though Thursday’s post-U.S. market announcement that HP President-CEO Dion Weisler will depart to tend to a “family health matter” surprised some (see 1908220066), Weisler indicated on a fiscal Q3 call Thursday his decision was in the works for a while. Enrique Lores, president of HP’s imaging, printing and solutions, becomes CEO when Weisler steps down in November. The board picked Lores as Weisler’s successor “after a thorough review and careful consideration of a full bench of external and internal candidates,” said Weisler. “I rest easy knowing that the company I love is in the best of hands with Enrique.” The stock closed 5.9 percent lower Friday at $17.81. HP didn't comment on how long the board's CEO search process took or when Weisler informed the board that he was leaving. Priority 1 for Lores will be “simplifying” HP’s “operating model” by “driving significant improvement in our cost structure,” said Lores. “Our end objective is to create a more digitally enabled customer-centric organization.” Customers are “rapidly changing,” and the company must adapt by becoming a “more agile organization,” he said.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing Thursday in a lawsuit (in Pacer) alleging Facebook violated a federal robotexting law. The three-judge panel unanimously rejected the petition in Duguid v. Facebook. The case is a class-action lawsuit led by Noah Duguid, a Montana resident, who in 2014 claimed he repeatedly received unwanted text messages from Facebook.
IAB Europe and the IAB Tech Lab elevated transparency guidelines for digital advertising compliance under the EU general data protection regulation, they announced. This version “expands the consent string to now include ‘transparency’ features including publisher controls and additional flexibility for vendors,” IAB said.
NTIA will host a broadband workshop Sept. 27 in Reno, as part of its Broadband USA program, said a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register. The open meeting will be 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Some Facebook users will soon be able to review their external browsing data and disassociate that history from their accounts, the company announced Tuesday. Originally pitched as a tool for clearing browsing history, the Off-Facebook Activity tool will first be available to users in Ireland, South Korea and Spain. No timeline was offered for Americans. Users will be able to track what data third-party websites share with Facebook and opt out of activity tracking, but the data won’t be deleted.
Facebook must take seriously the risks it runs of restricting free speech on its platform, ex-Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., reported Tuesday (see 1904100072). At the direction of Facebook, he and the law firm Covington & Burling produced the report after meeting with some 130 conservative politicians and organizations. Conservatives have concerns in six areas: content distribution and algorithms, content policies, content enforcement, ad policies, ad enforcement and workforce viewpoint diversity. There are concerns Facebook is a liberal organization largely filled with liberal employees, and the board lacks conservative directors, the report said. Asking for conservative input isn’t an audit, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said. He urged Facebook to do a third-party audit providing access to algorithms, document and content moderation protocols and publicly release findings.
The U.S. remains the world leader in artificial intelligence innovation, ahead of second-place China and third-place EU, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s Center for Data Innovation reported Monday. The U.S. leads in “absolute terms,” the report said. Each country and region was rated based on six categories: talent, research, development, adoption, data and hardware.
The 30 percent fiscal Q2 revenue rise Nvidia had in its automotive business reflected growing adoption of its next-generation artificial intelligence “cockpit solutions” and autonomous vehicle development projects, “including one particularly sizable development services transaction that was recognized in the quarter,” said Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress on a Thursday earnings call. The AI partnership Nvidia announced with Volvo in June will enable the automotive OEM “to develop a wide range of autonomous driving solutions for freight transport, recycling collection, public transport, construction, mining, forestry and more,” said Kress. “This collaboration is a great validation of our long-held position that every vehicle, not just cars, but also trucks, shuttles, business, taxis and many others, will have autonomous capability one day.” Autonomous driving “can bring enormous value to the trucking industry,” especially as the demands of online shopping “put ever-greater stress on the world’s transport systems,” she said. “Multiple customers” are “already onboard” with Nvidia’s automotive AI, said Kress: “We see this as a $30 billion addressable market by 2025.” Shares closed 7.3 percent higher Friday at $159.56.
The FTC 5-0 approved final orders settling claims five companies violated the Consumer Review Fairness Act by including in form contracts provisions that prohibit customers from posting negative reviews online. A Waldron HVAC, National Floors Direct, LVTR, Shore to Please Vacations and Staffordshire Property Management, are barred from using such provisions in the future and must notify customers who signed such contracts. Shore to Please was also ordered to dismiss a private lawsuit “in which the company alleged that a renter violated its non-disparagement agreement,” the FTC said. Attorneys for the companies didn’t comment Friday.
It’s a “significant problem” that consumers lack the ability to opt out of doing business with credit reporting agencies like Equifax, which collect data indirectly, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro said during an interview on C-SPAN's The Communicators to be televised Saturday and posted here Friday. There are legitimate questions about government oversight for credit entities, he said. Castro believes policymakers should consider ways to make certain types of consumer data less valuable. Social Security numbers, one of the most valuable pieces of information, shouldn’t be the sole input for verifying identity, he said. Castro was asked about ITIF’s study on the cost of the U.S. adopting a federal privacy law mirroring laws in the EU or California (see 1908050058). The key is to create a privacy law at reasonable cost, he said: Consumers should have enhanced privacy, but they should retain access to innovative products and services. On data breaches, such as those that Capital One, Equifax and Target have suffered, the analyst said that companies could offer customers a "menu of options" such as password-storage or other services rather than frequent credit monitoring at no cost. He noted that such monitoring is often provided for free, anyway. Equifax didn't comment right away Thursday.