Silicon Valley isn’t happy: Here’s what top tech CEOs have to say about US President Trump’s immigration order

Image: Reuters

By tech2 News Staff /  29 Jan 2017 , 11:38

US President Donald Trump has passed an executive order which halts immigration from seven Islamic nations including Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and Syria, for at least 90 days. For Syrian refugees, the ban is indefinite. Trump said that the order was to keep away radical Islamic terrorists.

This has caused a lot of furore not just among the general population, but also among technology companies.

Most of the top technology firms in the US are filled with staff who aren’t native US citizens. And logically enough, most leaders from across the technology industry spectrum have criticised this new temporary ban that Trump has issued.

Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Uber Technologies and many other companies have expressed concern about the immigration order’s effects on their employees, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Here is what the heads of top US tech companies have to say about this order.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, himself an immigrant told the Wall Street Journal that he had experienced and seen the positive impact that immigration has had on Microsoft as well as for the US and the world. He said that Microsoft Corp would continue being an advocate on the issue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent an email to his employees assuring them that Apple has contacted the White House to explain the negative effects of such restrictions. Cook had also spoken about the importance of immigration, both to Apple and the US’s future, when he had visited Washington last week.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the order affected close to 187 current Googlers. “We’re upset about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US. It is painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues,” he said.

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg put out a status on his Facebook pagestating that both his and his wife’s parents were immigrants to the US. “We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat. Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don’t pose a threat will live in fear of deportation,” said Zuckerberg.

Digital storage firm Box’s CEO Aaron Levie said that the move was quite infuriating and morally wrong. He said that he was looking at ways to get personally involved and fight the order.

Amazon’s vice president for HR, Beth Galetti, said that a diverse workforce helps Amazon make better products for its customers. It has sent out an email to its staffers, recommending US based employees from countries in the ban-list, from travelling outside the US. It has also asked such employees to get in touch with the company if they are already outside the borders for travel or work.

Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, in a personal post on his Facebook page said, “Trump’s actions are hurting Netflix employees around the world, and are so un-American it pains us all. Worse, these actions will make America less safe (through hatred and loss of allies) rather than more safe. A very sad week, and more to come with the lives of over 600,000 Dreamers here in a America under imminent threat. It is time to link arms together to protect American values of freedom and opportunity.”

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has sent out an email to his employees titled, ‘Standing up for what’s right.’ Kalanick goes on to talk about the executive order issued by Trump and how it affects Uber drivers. He said that Uber will be reaching out to all its drivers who work in the US but go home for long breaks to be with family. These drivers affected by the order will be compensated for three months, pro bono, said Kalanick.

“While every government has their own immigration controls, allowing people from all around the world to come here and make America their home has largely been the U.S.’s policy since its founding. That means this ban will impact many innocent people—an issue that I will raise this coming Friday when I go to Washington for President Trump’s first business advisory group meeting,” he said.

Google is hiring more conservatives for its lobbying arm as Trump convenes tech meeting

Image: Reuters

  14 Dec 2016 , 18:29

Alphabet’s Google is racing to hire more conservatives for its lobbying and policy arm, trying to get a foothold in President-elect Donald Trump’s Washington after enjoying a uniquely close relationship with the administration of President Barack Obama. In the weeks since the Nov. 8 election, Google has ramped up efforts to hire Republican lobbying firms and in-house lobbyists to change the composition of its Washington office, according to three lobbyists with knowledge of the matter.

The company also posted an advertisement for a manager for conservative outreach and public policy partnership, seeking a “liaison to conservative, libertarian and free market groups.” While the position is not new, it gives Google a chance to make a hire that reflects the new political climate. Conservatives already are represented in the office. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the record for this article.

Chief Executive Officer Larry Page of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is expected to be in the room on Wednesday when Trump convenes a gathering of leaders of some of the largest technology companies in his New York headquarters. The session, organized by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, adviser Reince Priebus and Trump supporter and tech financier Peter Thiel, is billed as an introductory meeting that would not result in any job or investment announcements, two sources briefed on the talks said.

Others attending are Apple Inc Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla Motors Inc CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella and Oracle CEO Safra Catz, according to sources familiar with the session plans. The Information Technology Industry Council, a trade group whose members include Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, had a conference call last Friday to discuss policy objectives it could agree on to present to Trump, according to a person familiar with the call.

Trump clashed with Silicon Valley on several issues during the election campaign, including immigration, government surveillance and encryption. His surprise victory alarmed many companies, which fear he might follow through on his pledges. Trump has also opposed the Obama administration’s “net neutrality” rules, ordered in 2015 by the communications regulator to reclassify broadband internet services to treat them more like public utilities. The rule is now said to be headed for a reversal.

Google bet heavily on Clinton

Liberal-leaning Silicon Valley bet heavily on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton winning the White House, and many technology companies have found themselves scrambling in the wake of Trump’s election. But Google, which forged deep ties to the Obama White House and was the largest corporate contributor to Clinton’s campaign, appears to have been caught especially off guard, Washington insiders said.

Only 33 employees of Google and its parent company Alphabet donated $201 or more to Trump, for a total of $23,300. Clinton received donations from 1,359 Google or Alphabet employees for a total of $1.6 million. Google NetPAC, the company’s political action committee, made 56 percent of its contributions to Republicans in the 2016 election cycle, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

During Obama’s presidency, more than 250 people moved between jobs at Google or related firms and the federal government, national political campaigns and Congress, according to a report this year by the Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group. The company notched several wins during the administration, including favorable policies on net neutrality. Google seemed poised to enjoy similar treatment under a Clinton administration. Schmidt was seen wearing a staff badge at Clinton’s election night party, a sign of their close relationship. But those ties are now something of a liability as the company tries to re-position its presence, lobbyists said.

The hiring push will adjust the political makeup of Google’s Washington office, where the team of lobbyists for Congress and the agencies contains more Democrats than Republicans, according to people familiar with the operation. Such a skew is not unusual given that Democrats controlled the White House the past eight years. To be sure, conservatives are well-represented in the company’s Washington office: Susan Molinari, a former Republican congresswoman from New York, has been the top lobbyist since 2012, and Seth Webb, who worked for a former Republican speaker of the house, helps lead Congressional lobbying.

But the company has tended toward moderate Republicans in past hiring. Its previous director of conservative outreach was alumnus of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, and a number of former staffers for Sen. John McCain have passed through the office as well. But the company still has to reconcile the lobbyists it hires with its liberal-leaning existing staff. Said one lobbyist for a rival tech company, “I think they are going to have a tough time really finding the cultural fit.”

Reuters

EU has planned a new security draft which will put strict restriction on WhatsApp and Skype

Image Credit: WhatsApp

  13 Dec 2016 , 12:35

Messaging services such as Microsoft’s Skype and Facebook’s WhatsApp face stricter rules on how they handle customer data under new security laws due to be proposed by the European Union, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. The EU executive wants to extend some rules that now only apply to telecom operators to web companies offering calls and messages using the internet, known as “Over-The-Top” (OTT) services, according to the draft.

Web services will have to guarantee the confidentiality of communications and obtain users’ consent to process their location data, mirroring similar provisions included in a separate data protection law due to come into force in 2018.

“Moreover, it generates an uneven playing field between these providers and electronic communications service providers, as services which are perceived by users as functionally equivalent are not subject to the same rules.”

A European Commission spokeswoman declined to comment on the draft but said the aim of the review was to adapt the rules to the data protection regulation which will come into force in 2018 and simplify the provisions for cookies. Telecom companies, barred by current rules from using customer data to provide additional services and make more money, will be able to use customer data with their consent, according to the proposal.

It would also remove the obligation on websites to ask visitors for permission to place cookies on their browsers via a banner if the user has already consented through the privacy settings of the web browser. Cookies are placed on web surfers’ computers and contain bits of information about the user, such as what other sites they have visited or where they are logging in from. They are widely used by companies to deliver targeted ads to users.

“If browsers are equipped with such functionality, websites that want to set cookies for behavioural advertising purposes may not need to put in place banners requesting their consent insofar as users may provide their consent by selecting the right settings in their browser,” the draft said.

Many have questioned the effectiveness of such cookie banners which appear every time a user lands on a website because people tend to accept them without necessarily reading what that entails. “While such banners serve to empower users, at the same time, they may cause irritation because users are forced to read the notices and click on the boxes, thus impairing internet browsing experience,” the draft said. The proposal is set to be unveiled in January and may still undergo changes.

Reuters

CapitalG, former Google Capital discloses investment in Snapchat

Image Credits: REUTERS

  07 Nov 2016 , 09:34

Alphabet Inc’s venture capital arm CapitalG, earlier known as Google Capital, disclosed an investment in Snapchat by adding the social networking firm’s logo to a page on its investment portfolio website. CapitalG has not made a formal announcement and it was not clear when Google made the investment. The company was not immediately available to comment.

Snap Inc, which operates the popular messaging app Snapchat, has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc as lead underwriters for an initial public offering. The banks were notified last month that they had been awarded one of most coveted and potentially lucrative IPO mandates in recent years, as the Venice, California-based company vies for a $25 billion valuation in the stock market.

Snapchat, which lets users send smartphone photos which automatically disappear after a few seconds, has proven popular among teenage users. The company had reportedly rejected an acquisition offer from Facebook Inc that would have valued the company at $3 billion or more in 2013. This comes right after Facebook is trying to integrate the ‘Snaps’ like feature in its products including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. WhatsApp was the latest to get the ‘Status’ updates which mirror the functionality of Snapchat ‘Snaps’ and Instagram ‘Stories.’

With inputs from Reuters