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Amazon wins court backing for now against EU tech rules’ ad clause

by economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

Synopsis

The US online retailer took its grievance to Europe’s second highest court, the Luxembourg-based General Court, in July after EU antitrust regulators in April designated it as a VLOP along with 18 other platforms and search engines.

Amazon has won court backing for now in its fight against EU tech rules that label it as a very large online platform (VLOP) required to provide researchers and authorities access to its ad repositories to see how ads are targeted.

The U.S. online retailer took its grievance to Europe’s second highest court, the Luxembourg-based General Court, in July after EU antitrust regulators in April designated it as a VLOP along with 18 other platforms and search engines.

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It asked for an interim measure to suspend Digital Services Act (DSA) requirements on compiling and making public an advertisement repository, and on providing users with an option for each of its recommender systems which is not based on profiling, until the Court rules on its challenge against its label.

The Court agreed with its arguments.

“The grant of the interim measures requested amounts to no more than maintaining the status quo for a limited period,” judges said in a ruling dated Sept. 27.

Amazon welcomed the interim measure, calling it an “an important first step that supports our broader position that Amazon doesn’t fit the description of a ‘Very Large Online Platform’ (VLOP) under the DSA, and therefore should not be designated as such”.

The Court dismissed the second part of Amazon’s application.

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New Marriott Hotels are Smartphone Friendly and High Tech | Digital Trends

by www.digitaltrends.com Leave a Comment

Yotel in New York City).

Marriott International is one of the largest hospitality corporations in the world, with thousands of hotel properties. If there is a company that has the resources to roll out high-tech hotels, it would be this one. But visit any of their newest flagship properties, and, for techies hoping for a Jetsonian experience, they’ll be disappointed. Why are there no voice activation, remote controlled blinds, touchscreen flat-panel display everywhere, or robot butlers? Why does a 21st-century hotel room still look like it was from the previous one?

Nowhere is that more apparent than Marriott’s stunning and massive Marquis Washington, D.C. With more than 1,200 rooms and suites, and more than 100,000 square feet of event space, the newly built glass-and-steel, LEED-certified structure, with a soaring enclosed atrium, glows like a modern jewel box in the nation’s capital – which is fitting, considering this is Marriott’s 4,000th property. But step inside the state-of-the-art-looking building, and get over the shiny new fixtures, you’ll realize that this new hotel looks a lot like many Marriott properties that’s come before it.

(While spacious and cozy, the Marriott Marquis’ reception area, lounge, and guest rooms [above, left to right] are fairly standard. Technology, however, plays a behind-the-scenes role.)

But it isn’t because the company doesn’t embrace technology – it just interprets it differently, and there’s quite a lot of it. For Marriott, this selective approach is intentional for numerous reasons. It could have filled every room with gizmos to rival a Brookstone, but from a business standpoint, it doesn’t make any good financial sense. There are smaller boutique hotels that are capable of rolling the latest tech in and out, whenever it sees fit. But for a company that needs to establish a seamless experience across thousands of hotels around the world, it’s not feasible.

Another related issue is that big properties like the Marquis were planned years in advance, so whatever tech was dreamt up then, is most likely outdated now. Case in point: the iPod-dock radio, which was a much-ballyhooed feature in hotel rooms a few years go, but is now a relic thanks to Apple’s connector switch from 30-pin to Lightning. In fact, the Marquis’ guestrooms have simple RCA-branded clock radios that you can find in your local Walgreens.

So no, when it comes to tech, you won’t find many gadgets inside a Marriott guest room. But there is technology being utilized, and for Marriott’s strategy, it’s behind the scenes and in the mobile smartphone inside your pocket.

Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there

As Marriott’s SVP for Global Brand Management, Paul Cahill, said, “We’re not in the tech business, we’re in the hospitality business.” What he means is that Marriott will use technology where it sees fit, but it won’t necessarily revolve around it.

It’s all about Marriott’s ongoing theme of “high tech, high touch.” It involves using technology strategically that elevates the customer service experience. For example, there are plenty of USB ports and outlets to charge mobile devices, and there are large touchscreen displays in the lobby to help you find your way around the hotel.

But that doesn’t mean the rest of the hotel itself isn’t high-tech. Technology is at play in the Marquis, but it’s done so in a way that the customer isn’t always aware of it, but is indeed using it.

The technical backbone of the Marquis is a fiber optic network, said Derek Brauner, who’s the Marquis’ director of engineering and oversees a team of 30 engineers – two of whom are dedicated to just the IT infrastructure. The fast network is not only designed to deliver YouTube steaming videos and VPN access to guests, it’s also how Brauner and the hotel staff operate the hotel. Many of the Marquis’ lighting could be operated from Brauner’s iPad, over Wi-Fi, for example. It keeps the housekeeping staff connected, as they all carry iPod Touch devices that display their assignments for the day, requests for toiletries from guests, as well as what rooms may or may not be occupied without having to knock on a door; it also eliminates the need to print out their duties on paper, and, because information can be updated in real-time, the housekeepers are able to work quicker and more efficiently.

The rooms are also smarter: It knows if it’s occupied, and puts everything in an eco-saving mode when it’s not. Sensors throughout the building continuously monitor for things that might be off. If the temperature in a particular area doesn’t seem right, an alert would be sent to Brauner and the engineering team. (Features like these are actually required for a building to be LEED-certified.)

Anyone who has stayed at a big-chain hotel and turned on the television, probably know how excruciatingly slow and unresponsive it is. But the high-bandwidth network has allowed the Marquis to install IPTV-based television sets that are fast and much more fluid. Menus and services call up near-instantly, while a downloadable app lets you control the TV from your smartphone. The system is still fairly basic, but Brauner said the system and app will be upgraded over time to include features like content streaming from your smartphone.

The hotel’s computer system isn’t so smart that it can predict what temperature each guest likes – at least not yet. Like in so many advanced buildings, Brauner says the beauty of the network is that it’s scalable, and could be upgraded accordingly in the future, to meet whatever is required. That could mean unlocking doors with your smartphone after checking in, or setting the climate control before entering. Whatever it may be, the system was designed to evolve – but only if it meets guests’ demands and enhances the customer service experience.

Embrace of mobility

If there’s one piece of customer technology Marriott is investing in, it’s with mobile devices. Marriott is researching new ways on how its hotels can interact with consumers’ mobile lifestyle. Besides the ability to interact with your television, guests can utilize the Marriott Guest Services app to do everything from checking in and checking out, to requesting more shampoo or a wake-up call – all without ever speaking to a Marriott employee, if the guest wishes.

Just for kicks, we wanted to see how responsive the system is, so we scheduled a wake-up call. At the exact time requested, we received a voice call through the room’s phone, which provided information like weather the day’s weather as well.

You could argue that these services are rudimentary – hotels today should already have such capabilities – but, like its network, these mobile services are scalable, and represent only just the beginning. Marriott continues to work with hospitality-based companies and even high-tech universities to test out new features, but, like so many other industries, mobile is where you’ll find the hotel tech of the future.

The app crashed a few times during use, but for the most part, it works. But it also demonstrates that a lot of the mobile services are in their infancy. Marriott actually offers multiple apps for different services (the TV, for example, is controlled via an app made by Guest-Tek, a company that makes IP solutions for the hospitality industry), which is actually confusing. But it is one area that Brauner said Marriott is planning to consolidate all of its apps into one.

Responding to trends

Perhaps it’s all well and good that guests aren’t bombarded with tech – after all, most people just want a good night’s sleep. Cahill reminded us that they are in the hospitality industry, and they’re not trying to build an Apple Store.

But research is showing that more hotel guests are starting to demand certain techie features. Research company SmartBrief found that 45 percent of hotels guests travel with two mobile devices – 40 percent carry three. And with these devices, guests are demanding more charging options, mobile-based automated services like check-in/check-out, digital signage in the lobby, sophisticated meeting rooms, and customer service via social media, according to a poll SmartBrief conducted last year on the top-10 tech trends hotels guest are now looking for . For Marriott, it’s actually already addressing many of these trends: the study references the company’s Red Coat Direct app and service that lets meeting planners communicate directly and electronically with the hotel for requests, the Workspace on Demand service that lets guests convert hotel spaces into secondary remote offices, as well as Marriott’s use of digital signage that can be programmed constantly to highlight relevant, among others.

Unfortunately, one tech trend that the Marquis hasn’t embraced yet is free Wi-Fi. While Marriott offers it in select properties, you’ll still need to pay for it at this flagship hotel. We will say that it is robust and fast, however, which may justify the daily rate.

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Pava LaPere death: Suspect in killing of Baltimore tech entrepreneur is ‘repeat offender’, arrested

by economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

Synopsis

A man wanted in the case related to the killing of the CEO of Baltimore startup EcoMap Technologies, has been arrested. Police call him a repeat offender. Know about earlier charges.

After a dayslong manhunt across the city, a convicted felon suspected of killing tech executive Pava LaPere in Baltimore has been arrested. Jason Dean Billingsley was wanted in connection with the death of the 26-year-old CEO of Baltimore-based startup EcoMap Technologies. Deputy US Marshal Albert Maresca Jr. told journalists that Billingsley was arrested at a train station in Bowie, Maryland.

Suspect in another case too

LaPere was found dead at an apartment with apparent blunt-force injuries. Baltimore police has said that Billingsley is also a suspect in a separate case, in which a man and woman were hospitalized in critical condition on September 19. He has been accused of attempted murder, rape and arson.

Manhunt

Police and the U.S. Marshals Service launched a manhunt for Billingsley in these cases. In an earlier press conference, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates said that Billingsley is a ‘repeat violent offender’.

Repeat offender

Earlier in 2015, Billingsley was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 16 years suspended, after he pleaded guilty to first-degree rape. He also pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in 2009 and second-degree assault in 2011 in separate cases.

Besides, in 2010, he was accused of punching his ex-girlfriend in the face, pinning her down, and snatching her phone.

Mother urges Billingsley to return

Jason Dean Billingsley’s mother has urged her son to return. Scarlett Billingsley texted her son to surrender. She told the police that she asked him to surrender lest the police kill him. She said that Billingsley came to her home for a few minutes on Monday and showed her a gun. She thought that he wanted to sell the gun.

LaPere cofounds startup

LaPere was from Tucson, Arizona, she moved to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University and stayed there. According to the company’s website, Pava LaPere cofounded EcoMap at age 21 while she was still attending college at Johns Hopkins University. Her company, a startup, sells artificial intelligence tools. It has grown to over 30 employees and announced nearly $8 million in financing this year.

FAQs:

Q1. In which case was Billingsley wanted?
A1. Jason Dean Billingsley was wanted in connection with the death of Pava LaPere, the 26-year-old CEO of Baltimore-based startup EcoMap Technologies.

Q2. Where was Jason Dean Billingsley arrested?
A2. Deputy US Marshal Albert Maresca Jr. told journalists that Jason Dean Billingsley was arrested at a train station in Bowie, Maryland.

Disclaimer Statement: This content is authored by a 3rd party. The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). ET does not guarantee, vouch for or endorse any of its contents nor is responsible for them in any manner whatsoever. Please take all steps necessary to ascertain that any information and content provided is correct, updated, and verified. ET hereby disclaims any and all warranties, express or implied, relating to the report and any content therein.
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Lina Khan vs Jeff Bezos: This is Big Tech’s real cage match

by economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

Synopsis

His forcefully nurtured creation, Amazon, sold as many items as possible as cheaply as possible and delivered them as quickly as possible. The result is that $40 out of every $100 spent online in the United States goes to Amazon and Bezos is worth $150 billion. Lina Khan made her reputation with a very different idea: What if pleasing the customer was not enough?

Jeff Bezos made his fortune with one truly big idea: What if a retailer did everything possible to make customers happy?

His forcefully nurtured creation, Amazon, sold as many items as possible as cheaply as possible and delivered them as quickly as possible. The result is that $40 out of every $100 spent online in the United States goes to Amazon and Bezos is worth $150 billion.

Lina Khan made her reputation with a very different idea: What if pleasing the customer was not enough?

Low prices, she argued in a 95-page examination of Amazon in the Yale Law Journal, can mask behavior that stifles competition and undermines society. Published in 2017 while she was still a law student, it is already one of the most consequential academic papers of modern times.

These two very different philosophies, each pushed by an outsider unafraid of taking risks, at last have their much-anticipated confrontation. The Federal Trade Commission, now run by Khan after her stunning rise from policy wonk to policy player, on Tuesday filed suit against Amazon in federal court in Seattle. The suit accused Amazon of being a monopolist that used unfair and illegal tactics to maintain its power. Amazon said the suit was “wrong on the facts and the law.”

Bezos, 59, is no longer in charge of Amazon on a day-to-day basis. He surrendered the CEO reins to Andy Jassy two years ago. But make no mistake: Bezos is Amazon’s executive chair and owns more of the company than anyone else. It is his innovations, carried out over more than 20 years, that Khan is challenging. The FTC complaint quotes him repeatedly.

Silicon Valley spent the summer transfixed by the prospect of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg literally fighting each other, despite the odds of this actually happening being near zero. Khan and Bezos are, however, the real thing — a courtroom clash that could have implications far beyond Amazon’s 1.5 million employees, 300 million customers and $1.3 trillion valuation.

If Khan’s arguments hold sway, the competitive landscape for tech companies will look very different going forward. Big antitrust cases tend to have that effect. The government achieved only a muddled victory in its pursuit of Microsoft 25 years ago. Yet that still had enough force to distract and weaken a much-feared software empire, allowing 1,000 startups to bloom, including Amazon.

It’s due largely to Khan, 34, that imposing major changes on the retailer is even thinkable. After spending a few days interviewing her and those around her for a profile in 2018, I thought she understood Bezos because she was so much like him. Very few people can see possibilities unseen by others and successfully work toward them for years, getting others to join along the way. But these were attributes they both shared.

“How does change happen in history?” asked Stacy Mitchell , an early Khan ally who is co-executive director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a research and advocacy group that promotes local power to fight corporations. “Lina has captured imaginations in a way that has enabled the reform movement to engage a wider set of people.”
edtfgvFor years, every article about Amazon featured the line “Amazon declined to comment,” another form of control. Khan likewise never willingly surrendered to me a piece of personal data, even if it was inconsequential.

Amazon and the FTC declined to comment for this article.

Bezos’ unlikely saga long ago entered the realm of myth. He spent his childhood summers on his grandfather’s West Texas ranch, wanted to be a theoretical physicist but became a Wall Street analyst instead. He had no retailing background. He was interested in ideas, not things.

Amazon was not the first online store — it wasn’t even the first online bookstore. It spent lots of money foolishly and drove many employees mercilessly. The whole enterprise nearly failed in the dot-com crash in the early 2000s. But the media was fascinated by it, customers liked it, and that gave Bezos room to run.

A former Amazon engineer once memorably described Bezos as making “ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies.” A company that puts “attendance reminder” signs in bathroom stalls telling warehouse workers they will be “reviewed for termination” if they screw up their time keeping is a company with overwhelming ambition.

Reformers are just like entrepreneurs: They too are fighting against reality, trying to carve out space for their vision of how things could be better. Khan’s journey to confronting Amazon in federal court is in some ways an even less likely tale than Bezos’. And so, like Bezos in the early years of Amazon, she has become a figure of fascination.

The daughter of Pakistani immigrants by way of London, Khan had the natural instincts of a good journalist. At Williams College, where she worked on the school newspaper, a friend described her as especially interested in understanding power, particularly the way it conceals itself to seize more power. She was in her late 20s when she wrote her paper on Amazon — about Bezos’ age when he quit his Wall Street job to drive with his wife at the time, MacKenzie Scott, west to Seattle and his destiny.

Antitrust law was the traditional tool used to rein in companies that became too powerful. Antitrust played a major role in the 1890s, marking the beginning of the Progressive Era, and again in the 1930s under the New Deal. But by the early 1980s, antitrust was at a low ebb. The so-called consumer welfare standard reduced antitrust down to one issue: the price customers paid. If prices were low, there was no problem.

The Microsoft case was important and influential, but it was very much an aberration. In the early years of this century, the prevailing laissez-faire philosophy allowed not just Amazon but other startups to rise much quicker than they might otherwise have. Facebook and Google charged users nothing, and were allowed to acquire their way to dominance. Six of the eight most valuable U.S. companies are tech companies — seven if you consider Tesla a tech firm.

Government was slow; Silicon Valley was fast. The marketplace would decide the fate of corporate empires. By 2015, when Khan was entering law school, hardly anyone was interested in promoting competition through government intervention. Criminal justice reform, environmental law, immigration — those were the topics that appealed to students. She chose antitrust, practically alone.

Anyone with a radical idea in Washington faces so many obstacles that it is not surprising it happens so rarely. When Khan was nominated to be chair of the FTC in 2021, Amazon complained that she was biased.

“She has on numerous occasions argued that Amazon is guilty of antitrust violations and should be broken up,” the company wrote in a 25-page petition to have Khan recused from any judgment on it.

The logic: If you are critical of a company, you can’t be allowed anywhere near it as a regulator. Khan survived this challenge but it was only the first. To go against the live-and-let-live attitude of many bureaucrats, a relentless determination is required.

A hostile media is another hurdle. Dozens of Wall Street Journal editorials, opinion essays and letters to the editor have criticized Khan over the last two years. They called for Congress to investigate her, argued she didn’t understand that monopolies were actually good and accused her of letting people die by blocking a drug company merger.

Then there is the lobbying. Amazon spent $10 million in the first half of this year, five times the 2013 level. It gave money to hundreds of trade associations and nonprofits in 2022, some of which issue pro-Amazon reports without publicizing their funding. Under the “know your enemy” philosophy, Amazon has also been staffing up with Khan’s former FTC colleagues.

Getting to court offers little relief. Well-steeped in decades of the consumer welfare standard, judges are not particularly encouraging to Khan’s arguments. Cases against Meta , Facebook’s parent company, and more recently Microsoft have faltered. The Amazon case incorporates aspects of the consumer welfare standard, which might make it more palatable in court.

It’s a formidable amount of opposition. Even some of her ideological foes are impressed that Khan is nevertheless having such an impact. By sheer force of intellect, she is opening up a conversation about how companies are allowed to behave.

“Five years ago, you would have been laughed out of the room if you challenged the consumer welfare standard,” said Konstantin Medvedovsky, a former antitrust attorney who is now a hedge fund analyst. “Now serious people make that argument at major conferences and are taken seriously. That’s Lina’s triumph.”

Medvedovsky is not very sympathetic to Khan’s enforcement agenda. He was one of the critics who derided the reform movement as “hipster” antitrust. Still, he said, “It’s hard not to be somewhat in awe.”

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How tech master Bigspark turns firms into AI supremos

by www.express.co.uk Leave a Comment

MyNara: Narcissistic Abuse Recovery app Walkthrough

One UK company leading the way helping others to embrace the revolution and be fit and future-proofed proofed is data engineering consultancy Bigspark.

A problem-solving powerhouse, it enables firms and organisations to integrate the right operational structures and then works with them to deliver better products and services to achieve efficient end-to-end solutions.

In real-life terms, this can mean apps and software for improved fraud detection protecting banks’ customers and gaining a deeper understanding of their needs, while MyNara is a life-saving app that Bigspark has helped develop to empower abuse victims.

Growing fast since start up in 2019 the company has a team of 100 along with offices in Nottingham, Leeds and Scotland as well the US.

Ghana is a recent addition thanks to its well-educated workforce and compatible time zone. Turnover is forecast to reach £9.6million this year, with further expansion on the way after Bigspark secured £750,000 of growth funding from enterprise specialist SME Capital this summer.

Clients span sectors ranging from banking (NatWest), insurance (eSure), asset management (including tracking) and healthcare to grid energy distribution, EV charging, retail and entertainment.

For all the projects, where charges start at £50,000 rising up to £2million, engineering excellence is the foundation. “We look through a pure technology lens, igniting innovation by solving hard problems quicker and faster than competitors through better data, software engineering and management.

Igniting innovation: Bigspark CEO Robin Bradley

Igniting innovation: Bigspark CEO Robin Bradley (Image: PR)

We create a base layer that can scale and clients are coached and supported to deliver better solutions themselves,” explains chief executive Robin Bradley who last year joined founders and former NatWest employees Christopher Finlayson, Richard Hay and Shaine Ismail.

“AI is the future, any business or board not looking at the technology now would be remiss,” declares Bradley. “We’re doing exciting projects with ChatGBT and Generative AI – machine learning and data expertise are a very powerful combination,

“To capitalise companies need to understand what it offers, what they have and what may need to change so they can use the latest tools and take the opportunities – otherwise they fall behind.

“Our job is to make the technology transparent, explainable and able to be implemented smoothly in an ethical, compliant way.”

The SME Capital deal was put together by Chris Searson of strategic funding consultancy Citizen , renowned for enabling clients to achieve their business growth plans through remodelling, fundraising and delivering above-average market multiples on exit.

Ian Pottle of Cornerstone Commercial Finance acted as the lead broker. Seen as a major turning point for Bigspark , the raise was complex and involved much due diligence in regard to cash flow pressures and overhead costs, with the company successfully vindicating both its high growth forecasts and ability to manage the fast expansion effectively.

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Tech for good: MyNARA helping abuse victims

Tech for good: MyNARA helping abuse victims (Image: PR)

A firm supporter of getting more females into engineering and technology, 38 percent of Bigspark’s staff are women in an industry where 20 percent is the norm.

Its acclaimed innovations for the MyNARA app hailed as tech “forcing cops to prosecute abuse cases” enable it to be disguised as another app so victims can upload evidence of narcissistic abuse secretly on their phone without a perpetrator able to access it.

The company worked with MyNARA founder Emma Davey on the breakthrough with its chatbot tool proving an unexpected success – victims of human cruelty in this instance found it easier to communicate with both.

And with Bigspark now laying plans to triple turnover, and then raise £30 million ahead of a market listing, much more tech-for-good could be on its way.