Tag: YELP

145 Corporate Oligarchs Call for Gun Control

By Jose Nino

The New York Times reports that a group of top business executives called on the U.S. Senate to pass gun control.

“Doing nothing about America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and it is time to stand with the American public on gun safety,” wrote the CEOs from 145 companies, which included Twitter, Uber and Bloomberg LP.

This letter was shared with the Times.

The corporate big wigs are now demanding that the Senate pass the political establishment’s favorite gun control schemes such as universal background checks and “red flag” laws.

“The Senate must follow the House’s lead by passing bipartisan legislation that would update the background checks law, helping to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, in an effort to save lives,” the CEOs wrote.

They added,”Background checks on all gun sales are a common-sense solution with overwhelming public support and are a critical step toward stemming the gun violence epidemic in this country.”

After three mass shootings in Austin, the pressure has been dialed up on Congress to pass gun control legislation. Corporate America has played a major role in these calls for gun control during the last few years.

This letter is one of the most notable developments in Corporate America’s campaign against guns. It’s also a sign of the increased politicization of all facets of society.

Some polls claims that gun control is no longer a divisive issue. A Washington Post–ABC News poll that was unveiled earlier this week found that 89 percent of respondents, which includes 83 percent of Republicans, support universal background checks.

However, poll numbers and even the questions that they deal with do not always accurately portray popular sentiment and also do not show how enthusiastic people are about a certain policy proposal. So, it’s not inevitable that gun control will pass.

Earlier this year, the House passed a universal background check bill but it is now stagnating in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In the wake of recent shootings, stores like Wal-Mart and Kroger have discontinued the sale of firearms and changed open carry policies at their stores.

Their letter can be read here

Dear Members of the Senate :
Our hearts are with the victims, their families and loved ones and all those affected by the tragic
shootings ElPaso and West Texas , and Dayton, Ohio . These families becamemembers of a
club that no onewants to join : the millions of Americans whose lives have been forever altered
by gun violence.
Every day , 100 Americans are shot and killed andhundredsmore are wounded . These are more
than mass shootings; in recentweeks, gun violence has devastated Chicago, Canoga Park,
NewportNews, Gilroy and Brooklyn, among others. This is a public health crisis that demands
urgent action
Asleaders of some of America smost respected companies and those with significant business
interests in theUnited States, weare writing to youbecause wehave a responsibility and
obligation to stand up for the safety ofour employees , customers and all Americans in the
communitiesweserve across the country . Doing nothing America ‘ s gun violence crisis is
simply unacceptable and it is time to stand with the American public on gun safety .
Gun violence in America is not inevitable ;it’s preventable . There are steps Congress can , and
must,take to prevent and reduce gun violence .Weneed our lawmakers to support common
sense gun laws that could prevent tragedies like these .
That s why we urge the Senate to stand with theAmerican public and take action on gun
safety by passing a bill to require background checks on all gun sales and a strong Red
Flag law thatwould allow courts to issue life-saving extremerisk protection orders.
Background checks and Extreme Risk laws(also referred to as “Red Flaglaws” ) are proven to
save lives. Since Congress established the background check system 25 years ago ,background
checkshave blocked more than 3. 5 million gun sales to prohibited purchasers, including to
convicted felons, domestic abusers, and people who have been involuntarily committed .
However, in the decades since, the law requiring background checks on gun sales has notbeen
updated to reflecthow people buy guns today. The Senate must follow the House s lead by
passingbipartisan legislation that would update the background checks law , helping to keep guns
outofthe hands of people who shouldn ‘ t have them , in an effort to save lives. Background
checks on all gun sales are a common -sense solution with overwhelming public support and are a
critical step toward stemming the gun violence epidemic in this country .
Perpetrators ofmass shootings , school shootings, and hate crimes often display warning signs
before committing violent acts. Additionally, peoplewho end their lifewith a gun also often
show signs that they are in crisis before they act Interventionsin states with ExtremeRisk laws
have already prevented potential tragedies . Expanding Extreme Risk laws to enable families and
law enforcement nationwide to intervene when someone is at serious risk of hurting themselves
or others is critical to preventing future tragedies.
These proposals are common-sense , bipartisan and widely supported by the American public . It
is time for the Senate to takeaction.
Sincerely
Organizations with morethan 500 employees :
Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, Head of Community and CEO , Airbnb
KeithMestrich, Presidentand CEO , Amalgamated Bank
John Connaughton and Jonathan Lavine, Co-Managing Partners, and Josh Bekenstein and
Steve Pagliuca, Co -Chairmen, Bain Capital
Ethan Brown, Co-Founder and CEO , Beyond Meat
Peter T. Grauer, Chairman , Bloomberg LP
Ric Clark , Chairman, Brookfield Property Group
Fritz Lanman, CEO , ClassPass
Roger Lynch, CEO , CondéNast
Ken Lin, Founder and CEO , Credit Karma
Edward Stack , CEO, DICK ‘S SportingGoods
Tony Xu, Co -Founder and CEO , DoorDash
Doug Baker, Chairman and CEO , Ecolab
Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman
Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO , Eventbrite
Art Peck, CEO ,Gap Inc.
Eddy Lu, CEO GoatGroup
Ben Lerer, Co -Founder and CEO, Group NineMedia
Yannick Bolloré, CEO, Havas Group
BillKoenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder, HorizonMedia
Patrick O . Brown,MD, PhD, Founder and CEO , Impossible Foods
MichaelRoth, Chairman and CEO , Interpublic
Rob Frohwein, Co-Founder and CEO , and Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President,
Kabbage Inc. and Drum Technologies
Chip Bergh, President and CEO , LeviStrauss & Co.
Logan Green, Co-Founder and CEO, and John Zimmer, Co -Founder and President, Lyft
Dev Ittycheria, Presidentand CEO , MongoDB, Inc.
HowardMarks, Co-Chairman, Oaktree CapitalManagement
Todd McKinnon, Co -Founder and CEO, Okta
John Wren , Chairman and CEO , Omnicom Group
Ben Silbermann, Co- Founder and CEO, Pinterest
Bastian Lehmann, Co-Founder & CEO , Postmates
Hamid R . Moghadam , Chairman and CEO , Prologis
Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO , Publicis Groupe
Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit
Richard Fain , CEO , RoyalCaribbean Cruises Ltd.
ScottRechler, Chairman and CEO , RXR Realty
Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO , Shutterstock , .
Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter
Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO, Squarespace
Zander Lurie, CEO, SurveyMonkey
AriannaHuffington, Founder and CEO , Thrive Global
Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, and Jim Alling, CEO , TOMS
Jeff Lawson, Co-Founderand CEO Twilio
DaraKhosrowshahi, CEO , Uber
Mark Read CEO, WPP
JeremyStoppelman, Co-Founder and CEO, Yelp
Organizations with fewer than 500 employees:
Kevin P . Ryan , Founder and CEO , AlleyCorp
Travis Truett, Co-Founder and CEO , Ambition
John W . Rogers, Jr., Founder , Chairman and Co -CEO , and Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO &
President, Ariel Investments , LLC
Mike Steib , CEO , Artsy
Sean Knapp, Co-Founder and CEO , Ascend
Andrei Cherny , Co -Founder and CEO , Aspiration
Abdur Chowdhury , CEO , Aura
Fahim M . Aziz , Founder and CEO , Backpack
Abrams, Chairman and Co-CEO, and Katie McGrath , Co-CEO Bad Robot
Ari Paparo , CEO , BeeswaxIO Corporation
Ryan Block , Co -Founder, Begin
John Borthwick , Founder and CEO , Betaworks
Raphael Crawford -Marks, Co -Founder and CEO , Bonusly
Darren Lachtman , Co-Founder , Brat
Trevor McFedries , CEO , Brud
Sameer Shariff, Co -Founder , Cambly
Analisa Goodin , Founder and CEO, Catch & Release , Inc.
Andrew Feldman , Founder and CEO , Cerebras Systems
George Favvas, CEO , Circle Medical
Alex MacCaw , CEO , Clearbit
Tyler Bosmeny , CEO , Clever
MattMartin , Co-Founder and CEO , Clockwise
Othman Laraki, Co -Founder and CEO Color Genomics
Jager McConnell, CEO , Crunchbase , Inc.
Apu Gupta , Co-Founder and CEO , Curalate , Inc .
David Oates , Co-Founder and CEO, Curtsy
Brian Ree , Founder and CEO , DAILYLOOK
Saurabh Ladha, CEO , Doxel, Inc.
Andy Coravos , Co -Founder and CEO , Elektra Labs
Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective
Pradeep Elankumaran , Co-Founder & CEO Farmstead
Desiree Gruber , CEO , Full Picture
Jared Hecht, Founder and CEO , Fundera
JudeGomila , Founder and CEO , Golden
Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CEO , Guru
Kara Goldin , Founder and CEO , Hint, Inc.
Jeff Sellinger, Co -Founder and CEO , HipDot
Prerna Gupta , CEO , Hooked
Cyrus Massoumi,Managing Partner, humbition
Kristin Savilia , CEO , JOOR
Pierre Valade , CEO , Jumbo Privacy
William Martino, Founder and CEO , Kadena
Jake Perlman -Garr, CEO , Kanga
Warren Shaeffer, Co-Founder and CEO , Knowable
Jack Altman , CEO Lattice
Aaron N . Block , Co-Founder and Managing Director,MetaProp .
Afton Vechery , Co-Founder and CEO ,Modern Fertility
Dan Parham , Founder and CEO , and Tee Parham , Founder and CTO Neighborland
Shafqat Islam , CEO , NewsCred
Sarah Friar, CEO , Nextdoor
Athan Stephanopoulos , President, NowThis
Varsha Rao, CEO , Nurx
William E . Oberndorf, Chairman , Oberndorf Enterprises
Steven Rosenblatt , Co-Founder andGeneral Partner, Oceans
Nick Huzar, Co-Founder and CEO , OfferUp
James Segil , Co -Founder and President, Openpath
Jordan Husney , CEO , Parabol
Doug Aley, CEO , Paravision
John Milinovich , CEO , Plato Design
Rajat Suri, CEO , Presto
Christopher Gavigan , Founder and CEO , Prima
Adam Regelmann , Founder and COO , Quartzy
Nate Maslak , Co-Founder and CEO , andNate Fox, Co-Founder and CTO , Ribbon Health
Zachariah Reitano, Co-Founder and CEO , Ro
Gary Beasley , Co-Founder and CEO , Roofstock
Stephen Ehikian , Co -Founder and CEO , Ruist
Brian Schechter, CEO , SelfMade
Olga Vidisheva , Founder and CEO , Shoptiques Inc.
Dan Doctoroff , CEO , Sidewalk Labs
Jason Tan, CEO , Sift
Matt Cooper , CEO , Skillshare
Grant Jordan , CEO , SkySafe
Josh Guttman , Co- Founder and CEO and Florent Peyre, Co-Founder and President , Small Door
Michael Carvin , Co Founder and CEO SmartAsset
Aaron King, Founder and CEO , Snapdocs , Inc.
Neil Capel, CEO , Solve. io
Ben Hindman , Co-Founder and CEO , Splash
Evan Beard , Founder and CEO Standard Bots
Stanlee R . Gatti, Founder, Stanlee R . Gatti Designs
Bradford Oberwager, CEO , Sundia Corporation
Ross Feinstein , CEO , Sunlight Health
Paul Budnitz , CEO , Superplastic
Ron Conway , Founder , SV Angel
HeidiZak, Co-Founder and Co-CEO , and David Spector, Co-Founder and Co- CEO ThirdLove
Yashar Nejati, CEO , thisopenspace inc .
Joshua Kushner , Founder and Managing Partner, Thrive Capital
Chris Wang, CEO , ThunderCore Inc.
Corbett Kull, CEO , Tillable
Meghan Jewitt, CEO , Uniform Teeth
Nicholas Goldner , Co- Founder and CEO , and Christopher Bulow , Co-Founder and COO
Viosera Therapeutics
Ken Chong, CEO Virtual Kitchen Co
Irv Remedios, CEO , Voxer
Oliver Cameron , Co-Founder and CEO Voyage
Chase Adam , Co-Founder and CEO , and Grace Garey , Co-Founder and COO , Watsi
Liz Wessel , Co-Founder and CEO , WayUp
NeilWaller, CEO , Whalar
Bismarck Lepe, CEO , Wizeline
Dennis R . Mortensen , Founder and CEO , x .ai, inc.
Geoff Ralston, President, Y Combinator
Shan -Lyn Ma, Co -Founder and CEO Zola

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Jack Dorsey And 170+ CEOs Sign Letter Declaring Abortion Bans ‘Bad For Business’

Screen Shot 2019-06-11 at 10.06.03 AM

By Chris Menahan

In order for businesses to keep “thriving day in and day out” women need constant, round the clock abortions, our prog-globalist overlords announced in a full-page ad in The New York Times on Monday.

Screen Shot 2019-06-11 at 10.08.50 AM

From NBC News:

More than 170 CEOs have signed a letter opposing laws and regulations that restrict women’s reproductive healthcare, including abortion.

The letter appears today as a full-page ad in The New York Times under the heading “Don’t Ban Equality,” and comes less than a month after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the most restrictive abortion legislation in the U.S., banning doctors from performing abortion at any stage of pregnancy, punishable by 99 years in prison. The law includes no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

Several other states — including Georgia, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri — have adopted similar laws this year.

Twitter and Square Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, along with fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff, Diane Von Furstenburg, and CEOs from companies including Yelp, H&M, The Body Shop and Glossier, say they signed the letter to send a clear message that restricting access to reproductive care, including abortion, is “against our values, and is bad for business.”

Such legislation, the executives write, inhibits “our ability to build diverse and inclusive workforce pipelines, recruit top talent across the states, and protect the well-being of all the people who keep our businesses thriving day in and day out.”

The CEOs of Disney and Netflix said as much late last month:

Abortion after abortion is required to keep our GDP high and our factories running at full capacity, 24/7.

This is “our values” and this is “who we are.”

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Android Apps Still Sending Data to FACEBOOK — Even if You Don’t Have an Account…

Even when you’re not logged in or don’t have a Facebook account

By Nick Statt

Major Android mobile apps from companies including Yelp and Duolingo send data that could be used to personally identify you for ad tracking straight to Facebook immediately upon logging in, according to a new report from the London-based UK charity and watchdog group Privacy International (PI). This data transfer happens even if a user isn’t logged into Facebook on that device and even in the event the user doesn’t have an active Facebook account at all.

In addition to Yelp and Duolingo, PI found that two Muslim prayer apps, as well as a bible app and a job search app called Indeed, also sent similar data to Facebook that could be used to help identify users for ad targeting purposes when they browse the social network. It’s not clear exactly what type of data is being sent in this case, other than that a user opened the app at a given time, but PI’s report says this transmission may also reveal custom identifiers that help Facebook track that user across its network of services and when that person opens Facebook on a mobile device.

The report builds on a similar investigation from PI last December that first revealed that big-name Android apps were sending data to Facebook without a user’s consent and without proper disclosure. It also highlights that this problem is universal across both iOS and Android; last month, The Wall Street Journal revealed that these same set of developer tools that scrape data when you use a mobile app and send it to Facebook are employed on iPhone apps, despite Apple’s much more stringent privacy rules and protections.

“This is hugely problematic, not just for privacy, but also for competition. The data that apps send to Facebook typically includes information such as the fact that a specific app, such as a Muslim prayer app, was opened or closed,” reads PI’s report, published earlier today. “This sounds fairly basic, but it really isn’t. Since the data is sent with a unique identifier, a user’s Google advertising ID, it would be easy to link this data into a profile and paint a fine-grained picture of someone’s interests, identities and daily routines.”

As Facebook’s privacy practices come under even greater scrutiny in the aftermath of last year’s Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, a spotlight is being shone on the lesser-known arrangements between large advertising companies and the smaller app makers that use those platforms to reach new users and target existing ones with ads. As revealed by the WSJ last month, a number of prominent iOS app makers use a Facebook analytics tool known as “custom app events” that, in this case, was sharing sensitive health, fitness, and financial data with the social network for ad targeting purposes.

On Android, Facebook has long collected sensitive user data such as contact logs, call histories, SMS data, and real-time location data, for the purpose of informing its ad targeting and improving features like friend suggestions. Yet the practices have caused vocal outcry from privacy advocates and users concerned Facebook is amassing far too much data about their personal lives and online and offline behaviors. Following reports about Facebook using its location-tracking capabilities to catch company interns skipping work, it said it would allow Android users the ability to explicitly disable the feature.

In this case, PI is underscoring one of Facebook’s longstanding indirect data collection policies, one that relies on third-party apps to autonomously collect and send information about app usage to the social network without telling users about the arrangement.

“Facebook routinely tracks users, non-users, and logged-out users outside its platform through Facebook Business Tools. App developers share data with Facebook through the Facebook Software Development Kit (SDK), a set of software development tools that help developers build apps for a specific operating system,” PI explained in the initial December 2018 report. The report found that nearly two thirds of the 34 Android apps PI tested — including big names like Spotify and Kayak and all of which had between 10 and 500 million installs — sent information to Facebook without informing users or gaining express consent.

PI says that a number of apps stopped the practice following its December report. Similarly, most of the operators of the iOS apps highlighted in the WSJ report also ceased using Facebook’s analytics and developer tools to collect sensitive user data. However, it appears some apps, like Yelp’s and Duolingo’s, continue to do so. PI says it’s in contact with Duolingo, and the company has agreed to suspend the practice, but it’s not clear how many other apps in the Android or iOS ecosystem may be skirting Apple and Google’s data-collection and user privacy policies to improve Facebook’s ad targeting tools.

In these situations, Facebook puts the onus on app makers not to break platform rules or misuse its developer tools by collecting sensitive information. The company has also claimed not to use a majority of this sensitive data and, in some extreme cases like credit card numbers and Social Security numbers, automatically deletes it. But it’s not clear why the data is being collected in the first place and what ways it’s been put to use in the past, either by the apps collecting it or by Facebook.

“Apps relay on the Facebook SDK to integrate their product with Facebook services, like Facebook’s login and ad tracking tools. However, Facebook places all responsibility on apps to ensure that the data they send to Facebook has been collected lawfully,” reads PI’s report. Facebook not immediately available for comment.

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