Business & Tech Gig-Worker Bill Signed By Governor, Rideshare and Delivery Apps Unhappy As expected, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 5 into law today, meaning that, at least in theory, companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash will not be able to relegate the majority of their workforces — the drivers — to contractor status.
Business & Tech ‘Gig Worker’ Wage And Benefits Bill Passes Both Chambers Of Legislature, Likely To Become Law The gig may be up for the so-called unicorn startups who’ve coasted on crazy cheap labor, as California is poised to become the first state in the nation to make companies classify independent contractors as employees.
Business & Tech Apple Unveils iPhone 11, Uses Free Apple TV+ To Sell More iPhones CEO Tim Cook unveiled some more details and trailers for Apple TV+, as well as a new 10.2-inch iPad, Apple Watch Series 5, and the new iPhone 11 models that are just supercharged versions of the X models that came out in 2018.
Business & Tech FDA Pens Strongly Worded Letter to Juul About Claims That Vaping Is Safer Than Cigarettes Swiftly on the heels of incendiary national news stories about the growing number of cases of serious vaping-related lung illnesses, the FDA issued a warning letter to SF-based Juul Labs saying the company has already violated federal regulations with its marketing claims.
Business & Tech Almost Every State Except California Is Coming After Google In Antitrust Action A coalition of attorneys general from 50 U.S. states and territories formally announced an investigation into possible antitrust-violating practices by Google/Alphabet with regard to advertising. The only states not participating: California and Alabama.
Business & Tech Lyft Hit With Sexual Assault Lawsuit From 14 Different Women Lyft has allegedly received more than 100 rape and assault claims in California alone, and the victims say the company "chooses to stonewall" on prosecuting drivers. Now 14 women are suing.
Business & Tech Acknowledging Recent Hacks, Twitter Turns Off Ability To Tweet Via Text Twitter is addressing a potential vulnerability that has been abused by some hackers in the last week, and the company announced on Wednesday that it is temporarily shutting off the ability to tweet via SMS.
Business & Tech New Book Describes Travis Kalanick Meltdown Amid 2017 Uber PR Crisis In a new book about Uber's rise, there's a scene in which CEO Travis Kalanick is writhing on the floor of a marketing executive's home repeating, "I'm a terrible person."
Business & Tech Hackers Seize Jack Dorsey's Twitter, Make Bomb Threats, Praise Hitler Some hackers compromised Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's Twitter account on Friday and used the platform to make racial slurs, bomb threats, and otherwise be grossly offensive.
Business & Tech CDC Issues Broad Warning About Vaping, and SF-Based Juul Is Not Having the Greatest Summer Some 200 people have come down with serious respiratory illnesses in recent months that are linked to street-purchased vape products. The CDC has now taken the unusual step of issuing a warning about vaping, despite there being no single product that's been identified as the culprit.
Business & Tech Uber's Half-Billion-Dollar Marketing Campaign Reportedly Hasn't Helped Its Reputation Uber laid off 400 people on its marketing team last month, and a big reason for that is likely the fact that efforts to turn around public sentiment about the company don't appear to have worked. Like, at all.
Business & Tech Now 15 Years Old, Yelp Is Gung-Ho on Letting Its Users Shape Their Search Yelp — the crowd-sourced review forum virtually everyone visits before heading to a new eatery — is (finally) giving users the ability to personalize their profiles to appease certain dietary and lifestyle needs.
Business & Tech 50 San Francisco Blocks Are Now Being Surveilled By 1,000 Private Security Cameras What began as a network of just six cameras in Union Square has grown to cover entire neighborhoods in SF in a private-security surveillance network that's been tapped by law enforcement on a daily basis.
Business & Tech Uber Driver Caravan Descends On Company HQ, Joined By Pete Buttigieg That convoy of Uber and Lyft drivers that drove up from Southern California to stage a demonstration in Sacramento on Wednesday made their way, predictably, to protest outside Uber's SF headquarters on Tuesday.
Business & Tech Star Google Engineer Who Left Waymo Team To Launch Uber's Self-Driving Cars Charged With Theft Of Trade Secrets In a federal case dating back to 2017, former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski was charged this month with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets.
Business & Tech Uber and Lyft Drivers Plan Protest Caravan To Fight For Employee Rights Disgruntled rideshare drivers from all over the state plan to storm the statehouse in their vehicles next week, and don’t be surprised if they raise a little hell at Uber’s downtown SF headquarters too.
Business & Tech Apple Is Getting Trolled For Its Cleaning Instructions For Its New Credit Card Apple's new, gleaming white, titanium credit card needs some tender loving care apparently. And it must only be cleaned with a microfiber cloth.
Business & Tech Uber Not Moving Its Headquarters To Dallas... Yet Uber made big headlines Tuesday after announcing it was opening a "second" headquarters in Dallas, which will be home to 3,000 employees. Dallas media seized on the story, with some suggesting Uber was moving its headquarters there. But the company says it has no plans to do that.
Business & Tech Unionmade Shuts Retail Stores In Castro After 10 Years Yet another significant retail closure to tick off for the Castro neighborhood: Unionmade has closed both its men's and women's stores on 18th Street after a decade in business.
Business & Tech Facebook Will Now Let You Opt Out Of Having Your Every Move Tracked Online Over a year after the Cambridge Analytica debacle showed Facebook users how insidious the practice of personal data-collection has become, Facebook is giving users a new way to control how much data it's collecting on your activities outside Facebook.
Business & Tech Uber Cuts $200,000 Balloon Budget for 'Uberversaries' Uber's Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai reportedly sent out a company-wide email earlier this month to announce a bit of deflating news: The company is axing work anniversary balloons from their yearly expenditures.
Business & Tech Eight LGBTQ YouTubers Sue Over The Company's Alleged Discrimination Against Them In an ever-evolving uproar around the tech-gargantuan that gave rise to viral makeup tutorials, eight LGBTQ YouTubers are suing the Google-owned video platform, saying, per court-released documents, that they’re being illegally discriminated against.
Business & Tech Marc and Lynne Benioff Give Major Donation To Gut Biome Research Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne just announced a $35 million donation to research into the under-studied field of the human microbiome — specifically into research that could lead to new therapies for asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and other ailments.
Business & Tech Verizon Is Selling Off Tumblr To SF-Based Owners of Wordpress Tumblr is changing hands once more, and Yahoo parent company Verizon is reportedly offloading it for less than one percent of what Yahoo paid for the company in 2013.
Business & Tech FBI Seeks Contractor To Harvest Facebook and Twitter Data To Identify Potential Shooters, Terrorists The FBI put out a request for proposals last month seeking a contractor that will trawl social media to identify potential threats to American interests — something that Facebook and Twitter explicitly prohibit any third party from doing.
