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Cogito announced a $37 million Series C investment today led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. Previous investors Salesforce Ventures and OpenView also chipped in. Mark Midle of Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division, has joined Cogito’s Board of Directors

The company has raised over $64 million since it emerged from the MIT Human Dynamics Lab back in 2007 trying to use the artificial intelligence technology available at the time to understand sentiment and apply it in a business context.

While it took some time for the technology to catch up with the vision, and find the right use case, company CEO and founder Joshua Feast says today they are helping customer service representatives understand the sentiment and emotional context of the person on the line and give them behavioral cues on how to proceed.

“We sell software to very large software, premium brands with many thousands of people in contact centers. The purpose of our solution is to help provide a really wonderful service experience in moments of truth,” he explained. Anyone who deals with a large company’s customer service has likely felt there is sometimes a disconnect between the person on the phone and their ability to understand your predicament and solve your problem.

He says using his company’s solution, which analyzes the contents of the call in real time, and provides relevant feedback, the goal is to not just complete the service call, but to leave the customer feeling good about the brand and the experience. Certainly a bad experience can have the opposite effect.

He wants to use technology to make the experience a more human interaction and he recognizes that as an organization grows, layers of business process make it harder for the customer service representative to convey that humanity. Feast believes that technology has helped create this problem and it can help solve it too.

While the company is not talking about valuation or specific revenue at this point, Feast reports that revenue has grown 3X over the last year. Among their customers are Humana and Metlife, two large insurance companies, each with thousands of customer service agents.

Cogito is based in downtown Boston with 117 employees at last count, and of course they hope to use the money to add on to that number and help scale this vision further.

“This is about scaling our organization to meet client’s needs. It’s also about deepening what we do. In a lot of ways, we are only scratching the surface [of the underlying technology] in terms of how we can use AI to support emotional connections and help organizations be more human,” Feast said.

• In 2017, Amazon signed a national contract with a co-op that buys products (e.g. school and office supplies, electronics, and library books) for 1,500 cities, counties, and school districts across the US. Public funds, often through taxes, pay for these Amazon products.
• The co-op says that Amazon could receive up to $5.5 billion over the next 11 years.
• A new report from the Institute of Self Reliance looks at purchasing totals from 60 cities, counties, and school districts in 2016.
• The report's authors argue that relying on Amazon to buy public goods undermines local retailers or national chains with local stores. 

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When cities, counties, and public school districts need to buy office and classroom supplies, computers, musical instruments, and library books, they often consult purchasing co-ops. One of the largest of these co-ops is US Communities, which negotiates contracts with retailers. Cities then use public funding to buy the products.

In 2017, Amazon signed a contract with US Communities to provide its products to 1,500 public agencies, ranging from Atlanta Public Schools to the Mesa, Arizona police department. According to the co-op, Amazon could receive up to $5.5 billion over the next 11 years (or $500 million a year) as a result. While not every Amazon product is available through the deal, it includes a range of categories for products from Amazon Basics and various brands.

The contract could hinder local or national retailers that would otherwise be able to sell their products to local governments. It may also help Amazon fortify its position as the dominant platform for online commerce, especially among local governments.

Amazon already sells to tens of thousands of local governments and agencies, The Washington Post reports. And while public agencies can still purchase from local companies through Amazon Marketplace, the tech giant takes a cut through fees it charges sellers.

"Amazon is changing the rules for how local governments buy goods — and putting cities, counties, and school districts at risk," write Stacy Mitchell and Olivia Lavecchia of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit that advocates for strong local economies. 

The group recently submitted public records requests to over 90 local governments and school districts across the US, and received info on the total amount of money spent on Amazon products from 60 of them. Although the data is from 2016 (before the new contract went into effect), the following agencies are continuing to partner with Amazon. These figures can hint at local governments' Amazon spending habits going forward.

Here were the top 10 spenders, which span most regions of the US, in 2016:

• Denver Public Schools — $1,560,726
• Portland School District, Oregon — $629,031
• Denver City and County — $548,419
• Salt Lake County, Utah — $515,686
• Austin, Texas — $501,724
• Portland, Oregon — $493,677
• Montgomery County, Maryland — $455,011
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — $289,128
• Hennepin County, Minnesota — $233,819
• Los Angeles County, California — $217,850

Based on the sample the institute collected, Denver Public Schools is the biggest Amazon spender by far. While the city has a higher student population than a place like Rutland, Vermont (which spent less than $3,000 on Amazon in 2016), Denver Public Schools reported the third highest purchases per capita ($2.29). Following the contract, Amazon spending by the school district increased 77%. In the city and county, it rose by 49%.

Unlike most agreements that retailers have signed with local governments in the past, Amazon's contract does not include price guarantees or volume discounts. 

The contract could signal Amazon's broader ambitions to capture public sector spending. In 2016, the company hired Anne Rung, who held top roles in procurement in the Obama Administration, to lead its government division. Last year, Amazon began working with the General Services Administration, which supplies federal agencies with commercial goods. That multi-year contract is worth up to $5.5 billion.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

In an interview earlier this year with Bloomberg, Rung said smaller businesses that have online marketplaces will benefit from the new law that allows federal agencies to buy from online retailers.

"Today, a small and medium-sized business has to market themselves to 3,200 different separate ... units across the federal government," Rung told Bloomberg. "Highly decentralized. That’s enormously costly and time-intensive."

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The blockchain is in the middle of a major hype cycle at the moment, and that makes it hard for many people to take it seriously, but if you look at the core digital ledger technology, there is tremendous potential to change the way we think about trust in business. Yet these are still extremely early days and there are a number of missing pieces that need to be in place for the blockchain to really take off in the enterprise.

Suffice it to say that it has caught the fancy of major enterprise vendors with the likes of SAP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon all looking at providing some level of Blockchain as a service for customers.

While the level of interest in blockchain remains fluid, a July 2017 survey of 400 large companies by UK firm Juniper Research found 6 in 10 respondents were “either actively considering, or are in the process of, deploying blockchain technology.”

In spite of the growing interest we have seen over the last 12-18 months, blockchain lacks some basic underlying system plumbing, the kind any platform needs to thrive in an enterprise setting. Granted, some companies and the open source community are recognizing this as an opportunity and trying to build it, but many challenges remain.

Obstacles to adoption

Even though the blockchain clearly has many possible use cases, some people still have trouble separating it from its digital currency roots, and Joshua McKenty, who helped develop Open Stack while working at NASA and now is head of Cloud Foundry at Pivotal, sees this as a real problem, one that could hold back the progress of blockchain as an enterprise technology.

He believes that right now bitcoin and blockchain are akin to Napster and peer to peer (P2P) technology in the late 90s. When Napster made it easy to share MP3 files illegally on a P2P network, McKenty believes, it set back business usage of P2P for a decade because of the bad connotations associated with the popular use case.

“You couldn’t talk about Napster [and P2P] and have it be a positive conversation. Bitcoin has done that to blockchain. It will take us time to recover what bitcoin has done to get to something that is really useful [with blockchain],” he said.

A recent survey by Deloitte of over 1000 participants in 7 countries found that outside the US in particular this perception held true. “When asked if they believed that blockchain was just “a database for money” with little application outside of financial services, just 18 percent of US respondents agreed with that statement versus 61 percent of respondents in France and the United Kingdom,” the report stated.

Richie Etwaru, founder and CEO at Hu-manity and author of the book, Blockchain Trust Companies sees it as a matter of trust. Companies aren’t used to dealing from a position of trust. In fact, his book argues that the entire contract system exists because of a total lack of it.

“The hurdle [to widespread blockchain adoption in the enterprise] is that those who have traditionally designed or transformed business models in large enterprise settings have systematically and habitually treated trust and transparency as second, sometimes third level characteristics of a business model. The raw material needed are the willingness and executive level alignment and harmonization around the notion that trust and transparency are the next differentiators,” Etwaru explained.

The volatility of new technology

Blockchain was originally created as a system to track bitcoin (digital currency) ownership, and it’s still used extensively for that purpose, but a trusted and immutable record has great utility to track virtually anything of value and enforce a set of rules. We have seen companies like po.et trying to use it to enforce content ownership, Hu-manity, which wants to enforce data ownership, and the IBM TrustChain consortium to track the provenance of diamonds from mine to store.

Rob May, who is CEO at Talla and whose company helped launch a blockchain called BotChain to track the authenticity of bots, says finding good use cases could help ultimately determine the technology’s success or failure. “Blockchain has a bunch of different use cases, and they are usually either all lumped together or poorly understood separately,” May said.

He believes that in many instances today, companies don’t understand the advantages of blockchain, which he identifies as immutability, trust and tokenization, the latter of which can help finance blockchain initiatives (but which can also contribute to confusion with digital currency use cases).

“Right now, businesses are missing real blockchain opportunities and instead throwing blockchain in places where it doesn’t belong. For example, they are trying to use it for smart contracts, and that stuff isn’t ready. They also try to use it for cases that require a lot of speed, and again blockchains aren’t ready,” he said.

Finally, he says, if you don’t require immutability, trust and tokenization, you might want to consider a different approach other than blockchain.

Please identify yourself

Like any network, identity will be at the core of any blockchain network because it is imperative that you understand whom you are communicating with. Charles Francis, a senior analyst at Accenture says for now blockchains will remain private for the most part, but authentication will become increasingly important as we eventually have blockchain-to-blockchain communications.

“Initially blockchain-to-blockchain connections will be manually set up and you will manage your network in a private model and bad actors will be immediately obvious,” he explained. But he believes that we will require a system in place to ensure we are authentically who we say we are as we move beyond private networks.

Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow and VP of Blockchain says that there will come a time when there are multiple networks and we will need to set up systems for them to communicate. “There won’t be one blockchain network to rule them all. It’s a very safe bet. Once you make that statement, these systems need to work together,” he said. “All [the different pieces of networks] need identity and the identity better play across networks. My identity on one network better be the same on another network,” he explained.

For Etwaru it comes back to trust, and a trusted identity would be a natural extension of that. “Transformational blockchain use cases require a network of trading partners to start to operate in a more trusted and transparent way, not just one individual,” he said.

Moving toward adoption

All this said, there is still a steady march toward adoption in the enterprise. As Talla’s May says, there may be open questions, but that just represents a big opportunity for smart companies. “If you are interacting with a network instead of a single company, whose throat do you choke when something goes wrong? I think you will see many companies in the blockchain space do what Red Hat did for Linux. Enterprises need consulting help and better frameworks to think about how [blockchain] networks will work, since Ethereum isn’t a product per se in the traditional sense,” he said.

Gil Perez, SVP for products and innovation, as well as head of digital customer initiatives at SAP says he’s seeing companies with real projects in production. “It is beyond just wanting to do something. We’re doing large scale implementations and pilots. For example, we did one in the pharmaceutical industry with over a billion transactions,” he said.

In fact, SAP has a total of 65 companies working on various projects at different stages of progress at the moment. Perez says the next level of adoption will require a way to involve multiple parties, not just a single company, as with a supply chain example, which involves moving goods and paperwork across multiple countries involving many individuals.

He also points out the importance of making sure there is good data because ultimately, if you have bad data in an immutable record, that is going to be a serious problem. That requires the companies involved to come together and agree to a common system to enter and agree upon each piece of information that moves through the system and that is a work in progress.

May sees blockchain technology transforming the way we do business in the future and providing a more standard way of interacting than today’s hodgepodge of vendor approaches.

“Now that blockchain is here, what if we could launch a standard and have shared marketplace by all apps in a space? So as a developer, you write your [application] add-on one time and it works with any [similar application] that supports that standard, and they share one giant marketplace. But how do you get them to share a marketplace? Blockchain and tokens provide decentralization and incentives such that, if you set the right rules, maybe you could do it. That could be transformational,” he said.

As with any new technology, the more it scales the more the tools and adjacent technologies are required. We are still in the early stages of discovering what those are, and before the technology can take off in a big way, we will need more underlying infrastructure in place. If that happens, blockchain could be just as transformational as May suggests.

Following a year of intense competition as US telecoms raced to one-up each other on new unlimited data plans, the promotional benefits are beginning to dry up. Cell carriers are now pulling back on deals to try to shore up revenue to offset the cost of large mergers and acquisitions and network upgrades.

According to a consumer price index for wireless service put together by the US Labor Department, the cost of a cell plan rose by 0.3 percent in June 2018 from the same time a year ago, as reported by The Wall Street Journal today. That’s the first price increase the index has recorded in two years.

The primary price increase method for US telecoms is upping the cost of unlimited data plans, which already come with built-in...

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• Facebook is promoting Holocaust denial groups at the top of its search results.
• This is despite cracking down on the anti-Semitic content on its algorithm so it doesn't get promoted much in its News Feed.
• No other major search engines promote Holocaust denialism in their search results when users search for "Holocaust."

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Mark Zuckerberg defended the presence of Holocaust deniers on Facebook this week despite widespread criticism, arguing that the company's algorithm will punish misinformation to restrict its circulation on the social network rather than deleting it outright.

But Facebook is still prominently showcasing groups that promote Holocaust denial at the top of its search results, Business Insider has found.

If a user searches for "Holocaust" on Facebook, some of the top results are for user-created groups that falsely claim the Nazi murder of millions of Jews was fabricated. These appear on the first page of the search results, as well as on the dedicated Groups tab of the search results.

The prominence of these groups in Facebook's search results reveal a gaping hole in Facebook's defenses to stop the spread of falsehoods on its service and raise new questions about the effectiveness, and seriousness, of Facebook's policies. 

In contrast to Facebook's search results, if a user searches for "Holocaust" on Google, the first-page results are a mixture of news articles, legitimate informational websites, and other results, none of which suggest the Holocaust did not occur. The same is true of Yahoo, Microsoft-owned search engine Bing, and privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo.

Reached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson said: "We find Holocaust denial to be repugnant and ignorant. Mark [Zuckerberg] has made that clear – and we agree that we 'find Holocaust denial deeply offensive.'  We don’t allow people to celebrate or defend or try to justify the Holocaust.  We also remove any content that mocks Holocaust victims or survivors."

'People are starting to wake up'

On Wednesday, technology news site Recode published a wide-ranging interview with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It came on the back a furor over conspiracy theory website Infowars' use of Facebook, and Zuckerberg argued that the company did not feel comfortable restricting the "voice" of its users, even if they were clearly wrong.

Instead, he said, Facebook penalized hoaxers and misinformation spreaders with its algorithm, which ensures that such posts get far less traction and views in the News Feed. Zuckerberg cited Holocaust denialism as an example of content that was penalized but not banned.

"I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened," the Facebook founder said. "I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong."

But the News Feed is not the only way Facebook users can find and consume information on the social network. Holocaust denial groups rank highly in Facebook's Search results, mixed in alongside non-conspiracy-theorist groups.

The groups vary slightly in their search ranking position from user to user. One such group, "The Open Holocaust Debate," has more than 1,600 members and frequently ranks in the top three search results. Billed as a "study group," its users frequently post anti-Semitic messages and deny that the Holocaust occurred.

Another in the top-ten results is the 1,000-member "Holocaust Revisionism," which has a description that reads in part: "many people are starting to wake up, and find out that the official story which we have been told about the Holocaust may not be 100% true ... the truth of the matter is that Hitler was a Zionist puppet from start to finish... and that the whole Holocaust thing was part of a Messianic agenda in order to fulfill a Sabbatean Frankist version of prophecy."

Facebook says search results are unique — but the issue is widespread

In an emailed statement, a Facebook spokesperson said that search results are unique to each user: "They're ordered algorithmically based on a combination of many factors. A few of the factors that determine what Groups appear in the Groups module on the search results page include relevance to what you type into the search bar, if you are connected to members of the Group and the activity level of the Group. "

However, Business Insider tested the "Holocaust" search with four different users, and Holocaust denial groups appeared highly every time — indicating this is likely a widespread issue. For two of the users, "The Open Holocaust Debate" was ranked third, and "Holocaust Revisionism" was ranked sixth. For one user, the former was ranked second and the latter was ranked eighth. And for another, "The Open Holocaust Debate" was ranked sixth.

The spokesperson added that Facebook blocks Holocaust denial content in countries where it is illegal, and takes down groups if they "[devolve] into threats or statements of hate."

The prominence of Holocaust denial groups in Facebook's search results risk misinforming users seeking more information about the historic atrocity, especially as Facebook increasingly encourages the Groups feature as a way to make connections on the platform.

A recent survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany found that 11% of US adults were not sure if they had heard of the Holocaust and that 2 out of 3 Americans between 18 and 34 years of age could not identify Auschwitz. 

While Facebook has begun taking greater steps to stop the spread of misinformation in its NewsFeed, it's not clear to what extent the company is policing the other corners of its 2-billion member internet service. 

With its engineering resources and capital, Facebook should be capable of solving the problem with technology. 

After all, no other major search engine promotes Holocaust denial material on its first page of results for "Holocaust."

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While transparency in AI is critical to preserving trust with consumers, "perverse" market incentives undermine the need for companies to proactively self-regulate and avoid problems down the road.

• Amazon says it will not produce its own networking switches, contradicting a recent report. 
• Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy talked it over on the phone directly, says a Cisco spokesperson. 
• Cisco stock shot up about 3% after the denial.

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Amazon Web Services, the retailer's cloud computing business, has officially denied a report that indicated the company was going to produce its own networking equipment that would compete with Cisco.

Cisco shares went up as high as 3.6% in after-hours trading following the news.

“Cisco and AWS have a longstanding customer and partner relationship, and during a recent call between Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and AWS CEO Andy Jassy, Andy confirmed that AWS is not actively building a commercial network switch,” a Cisco spokesperson told Business Insider.

MarketWatch originally reported on Cisco's statement earlier on Wednesday. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the contents of the statement to Business Insider. 

Originally, the Information reported that AWS was considering the possibility of selling its own network switches — a key component in networking infrastructure, and one of Cisco's flagship product lines. Amazon was reportedly looking into undercutting Cisco on price. Following that original report, Cisco shares sunk as much as 4%. 

Some analysts were skeptical of how much Amazon could damage Cisco's core business, especially among the large enterprises that constitute the company's core customers. 

Analysts at Nomura Instinet said in a note last week that while Amazon-made switches might appeal to AWS customers, companies typically use multiple clouds at once, making it a tougher sell. Plus, Cisco provides lots of after-sale customer support that it would be difficult for Amazon to replicate, the analysts said. 

 

 

SEE ALSO: Google is running a private cable underneath the Atlantic Ocean to speed up its infrastructure

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• Bruce Springsteen's one-man Broadway show, "Springsteen on Broadway," will stream on Netflix on December 15, the company announced. 
• Springsteen's show, which mixes his decades of music with intermittent personal stories, is still running on Broadway until December 15.
• The Netflix performance will reportedly be filmed this week before an invitation-only audience, according to The New York Times.

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"The Boss" is coming to Netflix.

A recorded performance from Bruce Springsteen's one-man Broadway show, "Springsteen on Broadway," will stream on Netflix on December 15, the company announced Wednesday. 

Springsteen's show, based on his autobiography "Born to Run" and mixing his decades of music with intermittent personal stories, earned rave reviews upon its launch in October 2017. In March, the show extended its run to 236 total dates, stretching from July through a final performance on December 15.

The Netflix performance will reportedly be filmed this week before an invitation-only audience, according to The New York Times. "Springsteen on Broadway" is written by Bruce Springsteen, and directed and produced by Thom Zimny, the director of Springsteen's Emmy-winning 2001 concert film "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City."

"We are thrilled to bring Bruce Springsteen — a master storyteller, humanitarian and voice of the everyman — to Netflix in this historic one man show," Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, said in a release. "This groundbreaking experience defies the boundaries of theater, concerts and film and will give our global audience an intimate look at one of the biggest cultural icons of our time."

"The purpose of the film is to bring this incredibly intimate show to Bruce’s entire audience intact and complete," Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, said. "In addition to its many other virtues, Netflix has provided for a simultaneous worldwide release which is particularly important for our massive international audience. Ted Sarandos and the entire company’s support has been a perfect match for Bruce’s personal commitment to the filmed version of 'Springsteen on Broadway.'"

SEE ALSO: The 10 countries where Netflix is the most popular

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• Google has been fined an unprecedented €4.3 billion ($5 billion/£3.8 billion) by the EU Commission over three specific competition breaches.
• These included, requiring manufacturers to pre-install its browser and search apps in order to access Google's app store, Google Play.
• Paying manufacturers to exclusively pre-install Google's search app was the second breach, while the third was stopping manufacturers from running alternative versions of Android.

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Google was fined a record €4.3 billion ($5 billion/£3.8 billion) on Wednesday by the EU's competition watchdog for using its dominant position in the marketplace to quash competition.

Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition, took issue with three specific trade practices, which it found to be illegal. Here they are in detail:

1. Requiring manufacturers pre-install its browser and search apps for access to the Google Play store

Google required phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and its browser app, Chrome, in order to access Google's app store, Google Play.

Speaking in Brussels, Vestager said pre-installation is an advantage that cannot be topped, as it creates a "status quo" bias. This means that people are far more likely to use search apps and browsers already present on their devices, and are unlikely to download competing apps.

To illustrate the point, the Commission said in 2016 more than 95% of all search queries on Android were made via Google Search, whereas more than 75% of search queries on Windows Mobile devices were made via Bing, the default Windows search engine.

During the investigation, device manufacturers told the Commission that the Google Play Store is a "must-have" app, which consumers expect to have pre-installed, especially since they cannot lawfully install it themselves.

"Google's practice has therefore reduced the incentives of manufacturers to pre-install competing search and browser apps, as well as the incentives of users to download such apps. This reduced the ability of rivals to compete effectively with Google," the Commission concluded.

2. Paying manufacturers to exclusively pre-install Google Search

Google made payments to certain (unspecified) large manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-install the Google Search app on devices.

The Commission found that rival search engines would have been unable to match the financial incentive offered by Google.

Google started this practice in 2011, but began to slowly row back on it in 2013 after it became aware of the Commission's scrutiny.

3. Preventing manufacturers from selling devices running alternative versions of Android

Google blocked manufacturers from selling devices running any alternative versions of Android (otherwise known as "Android forks") not approved by the company.

In order to pre-install Google's apps — including the Play Store and Google Search — on their devices, manufacturers had to commit not to develop or sell even a single device running on an Android fork.

Vestager pointed out that Android forks are not a "remote possibility from a theory book," using Amazon's Fire OS as an example. The commission found that while manufacturers were interested in Amazon's operating system, Google's restrictions meant that it could only launch on Amazon devices.

Google argued that restrictions on Android forks were necessary to prevent "fragmentation" of the Android ecosystem, but the Commission assessed these arguments to be "not well-founded."

"These technical requirements cannot serve as a smokescreen to prevent the development of competing Android ecosystems. Google cannot have its cake and eat it," said Vestager.

SEE ALSO: Google fined a record $5 billion by the EU for abusing the dominance of Android

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Samsung is working on a foldable smartphone that might be introduced early next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. This phone will reportedly feature a 7-inch display that can bend in half to transform it into a wallet shape. The outside of the device would still have some sort of display. Because of its two displays, the company would have to build in a larger battery, which is worrisome because of the prior Galaxy Note 7 battery issues (aka explosions). This phone could cost more than $1,500 and would first be marketed toward niche users, like gamers.

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I’ve been banging on for a while now that Android tablets are done for and will be replaced — someday — by Chrome OS tablets. Over the past couple of years, it’s gone from a weird theory that enraged Android partisans to conventional wisdom. This is despite some fairly decent, yet ultimately not very popular, Android tablet offerings from Huawei and Samsung.

That’s all fine in theory — in fact, it’s great, in theory. Chrome OS has the advantage of running a full, true desktop-class browser that is much more capable than Safari on an iPad (or even Edge on a Surface). Combining that power with Android applications and other conventional Android subsystem bits seems like it should be easy. And if you add in the fact that Chrome OS is...

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• Google was fined €4.3 billion ($5 billion) in July by the EU over its Android monopoly.
• The EU gave Google 90 days to get its house in order, saying if it didn't, it could be fined up to 5% of its daily revenue for each day it fails to comply with EU laws.
• That means it could have been fined as much as $15.2 million a day, on top of the $5 billion penalty.
• Google filed an appeal against the ruling, but in the meantime, it will implement changes to comply with the EU's decision.

Google was fined a record €4.3 billion ($5 billion/£3.8 billion) by the EU in July, and although it's appealing the ruling, the tech giant has announced it's complying with the EU's decision.

The European Commission antitrust watchdog, led by Margrethe Vestager, identified three key transgressions, which prompted the $5 billion fine:

• Requiring mobile device manufacturers to preinstall Google's browser and search apps for access to the Play store.
• Paying manufacturers to exclusively preinstall Google Search.
• Preventing manufacturers from selling devices running alternative versions of Android.

The Commission said if these issues were not put right within 90 days, Google would be fined up to 5% of the global daily revenue of its parent company Alphabet.

Alphabet's total annual revenue stood at $110.9 billion last year, which evens out at a daily average of approximately $304 million. That means Google could have been stung with penalties of as much as $15.2 million a day, on top of its existing $5 billion fine.

But on Tuesday, Google published a blog post announcing that it would be complying with the EU's Android demands while it is in the process of appealing.

It said it would no longer require European phone manufacturers who use its Android operating system to pre-install Google apps. The downside for manufacturers is that they will now have to pay to pre-install apps such as Gmail or the Google Play Store.

The EU originally gave Google a deadline of October 28, and the company said the changes will come into effect on October 29. The move seems designed to avoid incurring further fines should Google lose its appeal against the EU.

Google is not entirely off the hook, however. A Commission spokeswoman told Business Insider: "It is Google's responsibility to comply with its obligations under the decision. The Commission will closely monitor Google's compliance to ensure that the remedy is effective and respects the Decision."

The EU was also keen to emphasise that its decision did not stipulate that Google charge manufacturers to install its apps. "It is for Google to decide exactly how to comply with the Commission's decision. The decision does not require Google to charge for any of its apps or for the Play Store," the spokeswoman added.

Business Insider contacted Google for comment.

SEE ALSO: Here are the 3 reasons Google was slapped with an enormous $5 billion fine by the EU

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• After selling consumer-oriented digital phone call companies to Yahoo and Google, Craig Walker decided to disrupt the landline-filled world of business communication. 
• The result was Dialpad, a digital business communication platform built by a cohort of Google Voice alumni, which just raised $50 million to grow its platform.
• The startup, which was last valued at $250 million in a 2017 funding round, will use its new funding to expand its artificial intelligence offerings and grow its team by at least 100 people.

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Dialpad CEO Craig Walker wants to replace desk phones once and for all. 

"We're the only competitor built after the iPhone launched," Walker told Business Insider. "It was built for a different world; It was built for a world of mobility and world where the modern worker isn't sitting at a desk or picking up a desk phone."

Dialpad is a digital business communication platform designed to handle two-way phone calls, conference calls, and call-center work via a desktop browser or mobile app.

On Tuesday, Dialpad announced its $50 million series D funding round, led by ICONIQ Capital with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz. Dialpad didn't disclose its new valuation, but the company was last valued at $250 million in 2017, according to PitchBook. 

That funding will be used to build out new artificial intelligence tools, and to grow its existing 275 person team by at least 100 more, with new offices arriving across Asia and Europe.

Though Dialpad functions as a work phone, the platform has access to vast troves of data — a necessary component of effective AI. Its platform integrates with other workplace productivity tools like Slack, Zendesk, Salesforce and G Suite, and soon its AI tools will give users live transcriptions, sentiment analysis and coaching that tells employees what to do next on a call. 

Those new features, which are expected to roll out over the next couple of months, are the direct result of Dialpad's reported $50 million acquisition of a competing startup called TalkIQ, which the companies announced in May. 

"It's a really unique offering to a really large market that's been dominated by antiquated legacy vendors like Cisco and Avaya," Walker said.

Dialpad formed straight out of Google Voice

Dialpad, in its current incarnation, was founded in 2011 by a cohort of Google Voice people who wanted to refocus their expertise on a paid product aimed at enterprises, instead of the free consumer phone tool offered by Google. 

Around half of Dialpad's first 30 hires came from Google, according to Walker, which has been good news for the business since product people at Google know a thing or two about building to scale. 

"If you launch a product at Google, particularly a consumer product, it has to theoretically scale to be able support 100 million users on Day One. And that made us build the Google Voice platform in a way that scaled like no other phone system before it or since could," Walker said.

"So when we left to build this, we built it in the same way. That allows us to take on a company like Uber that could add 1,000 people during a lunch break and we wouldn't even notice," he said. (As of 2017, Uber had 16,000 employees around the world.) 

But the team's journey started long before Google Voice.

Walker and chief product officer Vincent Paquet co-founded the first version of Dialpad, under the same name, back in 2001, before being acquired by Yahoo in 2005. The pair stayed at the corporation for about 6 months before leaving to start another telecommunication startup called GrandCentral. 

It was GrandCentral that was ultimately acquired by Google for a reported $50 million in 2007. It became Google Voice, the company's consumer-oriented phone service, which gives users a free phone number that they can use to make and receive calls from within a web browser.

Though the team stayed on for a few years, the magic faded once "Google got very concerned with Facebook," Walker said. Everyone's attention shifted toward launching the company's social media network Google+, "and that's when we decided to leave and go work on solving this for enterprises," he continued. 

Once things fizzled with Google, Walker had one more challenge: buying the original name back from Yahoo, which he got, thus preventing him from facing an even bigger stressor.

"One of the hardest parts of starting a company as an entrepreneur," Walker said, "is getting a URL that makes sense and is memorable, and ends in dot-com."

SEE ALSO: Salesforce ups its AI game with a customer service bot that decides when to give customers a good deal

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• Openpath, a startup that lets employees enter offices with their phone, raised $20 million in a series B funding round led by Emergence Capital, the company told Business Insider.
• The Los Angeles-based company was started by the founders of Edgecast, which was acquired by Verizon in 2013 and is now used as Verizon's primary content delivery network.
• Openpath works by letting employees enter the office with their phones, hands free. After tapping on a reader, Openpath's cloud-based software recognizes the phone and automatically opens the door.

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Getting into the office when you have to sift through a handful of badges or forgot your keycard at home is inconvenient.

Openpath, which just raised $20 million in a series B funding round led by Emergence Capital, wants to fix that.

Existing investors Upfront Capital, Sorenson Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and Fika Ventures also participated in the round. The company last raised a seed round in May before the product launched, netting $7 billion from investors.

Openpath works by letting employees enter the office with their phones, hands free. By tapping on a reader, Openpath's cloud-based software recognizes the phone and automatically opens the door. Employees can also press a button inside an app, use an Apple Watch, or scan a traditional keycard to gain access too.

And while "digital keys" aren't anything new, many of the ones on the market are riddled with glitches or only work 90% of the time, founders James Segil and Alex Kazerani told Business Insider. Openpath works with Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular data, which the company says makes it more reliable than other systems that do the same thing. After a person taps on the reader, their phone sends three signals via Bluetooth, WiFi, or cellular data, and whichever one is the fastest is the one that ultimately opens up the door.

"People tell us that this is such a time saver, from an employee perspective where it only takes a second to get into the office, and from an administrator perspective so they don't have to chase everyone down worrying about keycards and badges," Segil said.

In addition to offices, Openpath is also marketing itself to landlords.

'Like a dog collar'

James Segil and Alex Kazerani personally felt how difficult it is to get into your office with a dozen badges and kaycards to sort through. The pair founded Edgecast, which was acquired by Verizon in 2013 for more than $350 million and is now used as the cellular giant's primary content delivery network.

After the acquisition, Segil and Kazerani were working at Verizon and found that the number of keycards they had to keep track of quadrupled. 

"We saw other people with this problem too," Kazerani said. "We saw people carrying them around their neck like a dog collar and we hated and resented that so much."

Realizing this was a problem and that similar digital key solutions were often glitchy, they decided to start Openpath in 2016.

From a security standpoint, Segil and Kazerani say that a phone is safer than a keycard, which can be easily copied, stolen, or given to anyone else. Users can also toggle security settings to require employees to authenticate themselves with additional measures, like a fingerprint or a code.

Openpath's software comes with handy additional features, such as letting an administrator remotely unlock doors or letting them import employee lists and permissions from other apps.

While the company would not disclose how many customers use Openpath since it launched a month ago, Segil said the company has seen double the sales they originally put in their business plan, which in part enticed investors to back the company.

SEE ALSO: WeWork bans meat at company events and won't let employees expense meals that include meat because it's bad for the environment

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• Amazon's critics came out in full force on social media in the run-up to Amazon Prime Day, attacking the company and its CEO, Jeff Bezos.
• These consumers urged people not to shop the Prime Day sales and to boycott the retailer for its working environment and tax policies. 
• The company has come under increased scrutiny as it has grown at a rapid rate over the past few years. 

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Many of Amazon's harshest critics are taking Prime Day as an opportunity to voice their concerns about the e-commerce giant. 

Before Amazon's technical glitches plagued the beginning of its Prime Day sales, hundreds of consumers took to social media to show their disdain for the retailer, urging customers not to shop there.

For some consumers, Amazon has increasingly become a symbol of everything that is wrong with big corporations in the US – an image that has historically been associated with Walmart. This has intensified in recent years as Amazon has grown and spread its tentacles into new areas of business.

Today, the backlash is mainly centered around the issues of taxes and workers' rights.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out against the company and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, on Twitter, accusing the company of not paying taxes.

This is true — Amazon pays almost no federal taxes. As Business Insider reported earlier this year, the company uses a variety of tax credits and tax exemptions, which are legal and built into the US tax code, to avoid paying these taxes. 

But perhaps the biggest reason for the anti-Amazon campaign stems from recent reporting about working conditions in the company's warehouses. 

In 2016, a journalist went undercover as a worker in an Amazon warehouse in the UK and described how workers were peeing into bottles because they feared that bathroom breaks would take too long and cause them to miss their strict targets.

Several warehouse employees subsequently confirmed this crippling working environment to Business Insider, adding that the constant surveillance and security cameras dotted around the warehouses made employees feel like "robots."

In a statement sent to Business Insider Amazon said:

“Amazon is proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs in the last year alone. These are good jobs with highly competitive pay and full benefits. One of the reasons we’ve been able to attract so many people to join us is that our number one priority is to ensure a positive and safe working environment. We use our Connections program to ask associates a question every day about how we can make things even better, we develop new processes and technology to make the roles in our facilities more ergonomic and comfortable for our associates, and we investigate any allegation we are made aware of and fix things that are wrong."

Amazon workers in Spain and Poland went on strike on Monday to protest against the conditions at its warehouses. Thousands more are expected to do the same in Germany on Tuesday.

“Amazon is a fair and responsible employer and as such we are committed to dialogue, which is an inseparable part of our culture. We are committed to ensuring a fair cooperation with all our employees, including positive working conditions and a caring and inclusive environment," a spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider.

SEE ALSO: Amazon is the new Walmart: the e-commerce giant is increasingly becoming a symbol for everything wrong with big business

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• Germany's high court ruled last week that Facebook data and messages can be inherited much like physical diaries or letters.
• The landmark ruling comes as a result of a case in which a mother was denied access to her dead daughter's Facebook messages.
• Facebook said it "respectfully disagrees" with the ruling.

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Germany's Federal Court of Justice last week ruled in favour of two parents who have been trying to gain access to their dead daughter's Facebook messages for more than five years.

The daughter (identified only as "L.W.") was 15 when she was struck and killed by a train in 2012. Her mother tried to gain access to her Facebook account, in particular, to see if her daughter had expressed any suicidal thoughts, but her account had already been memorialized making the user data inaccessible.

The mother brought the case against Facebook to the high court, and on Thursday it ruled that personal Facebook data can be inherited, thereby giving her the right to access her daughter's Facebook messages.

Although the court recognised that Facebook data is highly sensitive personal information, it found that it is no different to physical diaries or letters, which can be inherited by a person's estate after their death. A copy of the initial ruling was published on KV Legal's website, the law firm that represented the mother.

Facebook, however, is not content with the ruling.

"We empathise with the family. At the same time, Facebook accounts are used for a personal exchange between individuals which we have a duty to protect," a Facebook spokeswoman told Business Insider.

"While we respectfully disagree with the decision by the FCJ, the lengthy process shows how complex the issue under discussion is. We will be analysing the judgment to assess its full implications."

The full judgement has not yet been delivered, so it is uncertain exactly how or whether Facebook will be able to oppose the ruling.

It is not the first time this year that Facebook has lost a legal battle over the data of a deceased individual. In June, a British high court ordered Facebook to reveal why the profile of jazz musician was deleted six months after his death.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or has had thoughts of harming themselves or taking their own life, get help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations. For the Samaritans (UK) call 116 123.

SEE ALSO: Facebook ordered to explain why it deleted the profile of a dead man after a mysterious request

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NOW WATCH: Everything wrong with Android

Microsoft is once again redesigning its Skype app for Windows today. While the software giant released a universal app for Windows 10 users previously, the Skype classic desktop app is getting updated today with a new design that’s similar to the mobile version of Skype. Microsoft has been testing the new design over the past year, and it’s now planning to force all Skype classic desktop users to upgrade to the 8.0 version by September 1st.

The new classic desktop app for Skype includes many of the features from the Windows 10 or mobile versions. Microsoft has tweaked group chats to make it easier to share photos or screen sharing during calls. The new @ mentions, message reactions, notification panel features are also included, and...

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It was almost 5 years ago that I first posed the question, “Where are the USB 3.0 webcams.” They seem to have finally arrived. Logitech’s Brio is now over a year old. Their MeetUp product, not exactly a traditional webcam, is well suited to smaller meeting rooms, aka “huddle rooms.” Vaddio and PTZ Optics each … Continue reading "Logitech Rally: A New 4K PTZ Webcam"

• WeWork is banning meat.
• The company will no longer reimburse employees for meals that include red meat, poultry, or pork and will stop serving meat at company events.
• The policy change was made in an effort to reduce WeWork's carbon footprint.

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WeWork is going vegetarian.

In an email to about 6,000 employees on Friday, the $20 billion office rental company announced that it will no longer reimburse employees for meals that include red meat, poultry, or pork and will stop serving meat at company events.

Employees who need medical or religious allowances are being referred to the company's policy team.

The news was first reported by Bloomberg and the policy change was confirmed to Business Insider by a WeWork spokeswoman.

WeWork's co-founder and chief culture officer Miguel McKelvey wrote in the email that the meat ban is an effort to reduce the company's carbon footprint. WeWork estimates the policy will save 445.1 million pounds of Carbon Dioxide emissions by 2023, 16.6 billion gallons of water, and 15,507,103 animals.

“New research indicates that avoiding meat is one of the biggest things an individual can do to reduce their personal environmental impact, even more than switching to a hybrid car," McKelvey said in a statement. 

WeWork provides coworking spaces for companies in locations around the world. The meat ban will affect offices in all of the company's locations, the spokeswoman said.

SEE ALSO: Recruiting platform Greenhouse raises $50 million to grow its diverse hiring feature

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GitHub has released GitHub Enterprise version 2.14 which includes a number of new tools for developers. Among the new tools are unified search, Checks API (public beta), and multiple issue templates.

Microsoft is launching its collaborative Whiteboard app on Windows 10 today, and promising versions for iOS and the web soon. The app has been in preview for Windows 10 for the past seven months, and it’s now being made widely available on PCs alongside a new version for the web and iOS devices. Whiteboard lets users make notes on a virtual whiteboard that can be shared and edited with others in real time across devices.

Anyone can download the app and begin collaborating with other users. If you sign into the app with an Office 365 work or school account then you can also collaborate with multiple people within that organization. Whiteboard supports inking on Windows 10 so styluses like the Surface Pen can be used for collaborative...

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The Federal Communications Commission voted 3–1 today to change how it handles consumer complaints, but questions over what those changes mean turned into a heated exchange among the agency’s commissioners.

Earlier this week, House Democrats said in a letter to the agency that a proposed change could lead consumers filing free informal complaints with the agency to file formal ones instead — a process that costs $225.

The Republican leadership at the agency disputed the letter, and said during the vote today that changes in language had no practical effect on how the agency handles informal complaints, only formal ones. But Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, the agency’s lone Democrat, agreed with the lawmakers, and today voted against...

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PC shipments have dropped drastically since 2011, marking a change of pace as consumers began to adopt Macbooks or rid themselves of laptops altogether. Now, after decreasing by almost 30% since the current peak, sales are settling below 2007 levels.

As this chart from Statista shows, 2017 marked the sixth year of decline for PC sales and the stagnation is expected to last through 2020, according to estimates from market research firm Gartner. This year's slight decline is attributed to an undersupply of chips that will drive up PC prices, but in 2020 — when Microsoft removes support for Windows 7 — businesses will be forced to reinvest in hardware, offsetting that difference by just enough. 

 

SEE ALSO: Streaming services account for 75% of all music listening in 2018, up from 50% in 2016

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NOW WATCH: What people get wrong about superfoods

Microsoft is giving its Notepad app for Windows a surprising amount of new features. While the software giant hasn’t updated Notepad for years, the next Windows 10 update will include some highly requested additions. Microsoft is clearly listening to Windows 10 users who use notepad for development, logs, or simple text manipulation.

You’ll soon be able to do wrap around find and replace alongside the ability to zoom into text by holding down the ctrl key and using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Microsoft is also adding in extended line ending support so that Unix/Linux line endings (LF) and Macintosh line endings (CR) are supported in Notepad. The status bar will now be enabled by default in Notepad, and it includes the ability to...

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FCC boss Ajit Pai likes to repeatedly proclaim that one of his top priorities while chair of the FCC is to "close the digital divide." Pai, who clearly harbors post-FCC political aspirations, can often be found touring the nation's least-connected states proclaiming that he's working tirelessly to shore up broadband connectivity and competition nationwide. More often than not, Pai can be found somewhere in flyover country "highlighting how expanding high-speed internet access and closing the digital divide can create jobs and increase digital opportunity."

And that would be great... if he was doing anything to actually accomplish that goal.

While Pai's best known for ignoring the public and making shit up to dismantle net neutrality, his other policies have proven to be less sexy but just as terrible. From neutering plans to improve cable box competition to a wide variety of what are often senseless attacks on smaller competitors, most of Pai's policies are driving up costs for the rural Americans he so breathlessly pledges fealty to.

For example, a guy that's actually trying to improve competition wouldn't be taking steps to hide that lack of competition by weakening broadband availability standards. Similarly, a politician actually focused on improving broadband connectivity to rural areas wouldn't be actively dismantling programs specifically designed to accomplish that goal.

One of Pai's biggest targets has been the FCC's Lifeline program, an effort started by Reagan and expanded by Bush that long enjoyed bipartisan support until the post-truth era rolled into town. Lifeline doles out a measly $9.25 per month subsidy that low-income homes can use to help pay a tiny fraction of their wireless, phone, or broadband bills (enrolled participants have to chose one). The FCC under former FCC boss Tom Wheeler had voted to expand the service to cover broadband connections, something Pai (ever a champion to the poor) voted down.

Some of the most-frequently ignored in the battle for better connectivity are native populations and tribal areas. Under Chairman Ajit Pai's "leadership," the FCC voted 3-2 last November to eliminate a $25 additional Lifeline subsidy for low-income native populations on tribal land. As part of Pai's effort he also banned smaller mobile carriers from participating in the Lifeline program, a move opposed by even the larger companies (Verizon, AT&T) that stand to benefit.

Small wireless carriers and several tribal organizations subsequently sued the FCC (pdf) in the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, noting the FCC "failed to engage affected tribal governments" ahead of the rule changes. Tribal leaders also filed a petition (pdf) claiming Pai's multi-pronged attack on Lifeline would only make it harder to connect tribal lands to the internet:

"The Order on review adopted new restrictions on the provision of enhanced support that threaten the fundamental viability of the Lifeline program in many tribal areas. As relevant to Crow Creek’s petition, the Order would limit the availability of enhanced support to facilities-based carriers only, thereby excluding MVNOs from the tribal Lifeline program. Once the rule takes effect, MVNOs will be eligible to receive only $9.25 in support for service provided on tribal lands, an amount that the Commission already determined is woefully insufficient to ensure that low-income American Indians have access to telecommunications."

And while tribal leaders had petitioned the FCC to stay its decision pending the appeal, the FCC last week unsurprisingly rejected that request. Much like opponents of Pai's net neutrality repeal, tribal leaders say the FCC violated laws like the Administrative Procedures Act by reversing existing policy without truly consulting those impacted and without basing the decision on, you know, hard, substantive data:

"The Commission failed to engage affected tribal governments prior to adopting the MVNO exclusion as required by its own policies, the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), and laws governing the relationship between the federal government and federally recognized American Indian tribes."

That's curious for a guy that tries so hard to portray himself as a bosom buddy to marginalized communities trying to obtain affordable internet in the Comcast era. But again, it's not surprising if you watched Pai ignore the fact that a massive, bipartisan coalition of Americans telling him his net neutrality repeal was a terrible, counter-productive policy.

While the telecom industry is certainly no stranger to subsidy fraud and waste, the Lifeline program -- which you generally only qualify for if you're living near the poverty line -- has generally been agreed upon as the very least we can do to help the downtrodden get connected to the internet. Pai prattles on ad nauseum about his dedication to closing the digital divide, and so far has faced few repercussions for the fact his policies will actively make the problem worse. Especially since it couldn't be any clearer that Pai intends to do absolutely nothing about the lack of competition that sits at the heart of this dysfunction.

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If you’re in the market for a MacBook Pro that doesn’t exclusively use USB-C ports, you’re out of luck. Today, Apple ceased sales of the 2015 MacBook Pro, its last prosumer laptop to include useful ports, including USB-A, HDMI, and a full-size SD card slot.

The 2015 MacBook Pro was also Apple’s last to feature a traditional keyboard. After its release, the company switched over to a newer butterfly keyboard mechanism that has led to some reliability troubles. Just last month, Apple acknowledged that keys on the keyboards were prone to sticking, repeating characters, and becoming unresponsive, so the company launched a four-year extended service program.

The discontinuation of the 2015 model leaves consumers with a few options, but none...

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Broadcom announced on Wednesday its intent to acquire CA Technologies, an American software company, for $18.9 billion in cash. 

The deal was first reported earlier on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, and later confirmed by CA Technologies in a press release.

If the deal clears every hurdle and goes through, the $108 billion semiconductor company will pay $44.50 a share for CA in a deal that could go public on Wednesday, the companies say. The news represents Broadcom expanding beyond processors 

News of this deal comes just four months after President Trump blocked Broadcom from acquiring Qualcomm in a $103 billion hostile takeover on national security grounds. 

Broadcom, which was based in Singapore, officially registered itself as an American corporation in April, and is now headquartered in San Jose. CA.

Broadcom designs and produces the semiconductors used in many smartphones, database networks and wifi networks. CA Technologies sells the software behind database mainframes, cloud computing systems and virtual machine environments.  

CA Technologies stock was up over 16% in after-hours trading immediately following the announcement of the deal. Shares of Broadcom were down over 5.5%. 

SEE ALSO: Dell is about to be public again, but its CEO says there are no plans to merge with VMware

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NOW WATCH: Here's why the US Men's team sucks at soccer

YouTube TV experienced a service outage on Wednesday during the World Cup game between Croatia and England, marking the second time in recent months that the app has had problems during a high-profile live event. In May, YouTube TV had a similar service disruption during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

Wednesday afternoon, YouTube said it was “working to be up and running again ASAP.” In the meantime, customers were able to stream the World Cup by authenticating with their YouTube TV credentials inside the Fox Sports Go mobile app or website.

L...

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