Group Presentation Notes – Day 4

Mit Dave

500903878

Jian Guan

Tuesday, December 1 2020

GMS802 – 031 Business Ethics

Facebook Privacy Concerns (Cambridge Analytica)

- Facebook will pay a record $5bn fine to settle privacy concerns, the US Federal Trade

Commission (FTC) has said

- The social network must also establish an independent privacy committee that Facebook's

chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will not have control over.

- The FTC had been probing allegations political consultancy Cambridge

Analytica improperly obtained the data of up to 87 million Facebook users

- The probe then widened to include other issues such as facial recognition.

- The $5bn fine is believed to be the biggest ever imposed on any company for violating

consumers' privacy.

- He added that the heavy fine was designed "to change Facebook's entire privacy culture

to decrease the likelihood of continued violations".

- Facebook's financial results reported on Wednesday did not reflect any move by

customers to shun the network over privacy concerns. It said monthly active users had

risen 8% in the second quarter. Revenues, mainly advertising sales, rose by 28%, beating

analysts' forecasts.

Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

- In September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars

being sold in America had a "defeat device" - or software - in diesel engines that could

detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve

results.
 - The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the US.

- VW has had a major push to sell diesel cars in the US, backed by a huge marketing

campaign trumpeting its cars' low emissions. 

- The EPA's findings cover 482,000 cars in the US only, including the VW-manufactured

Audi A3, and the VW models Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat.

- But VW has admitted that about 11 million cars worldwide, including eight million in

Europe, are fitted with the so-called "defeat device".

- The company has also been accused by the EPA of modifying software on the 3 litre

diesel engines fitted to some Porsche and Audi as well as VW models.

- VW has denied the claims, which affect at least 10,000 vehicles.

- ADVERTISEMENT

- In November, VW said it had found "irregularities" in tests to measure carbon dioxide

emissions levels that could affect about 800,000 cars in Europe - including petrol

vehicles.

Nestle Baby Formula Scandal

- After WWII, many western families with infants switched from breastfeeding to bottle-

feeding. 

- The latter was considered more civilized, more modern, and less messy.

- Mothers who opted to bottle-feed were ostensibly backed by science; formulas made

by companies like Nestlé – whose founder, pharmacist Henri Nestlé, invented baby

formula in 1867 – were full of nutrients and provided a great alternative to breast milk. 
 - Faced with a declining population in the western world during the 1960s, however,

formula sales fell. B

- Baby formula companies had to find a new market for their product. 

- Some companies, like Nestlé, turned to developing countries, providing mothers with

propaganda and samples to hook them on a new method of feeding their infants.

- The Nestlé infant formula, however, wrought horrible effects in Africa, South America,

and south Asian countries. 

- Lost lives linked to Nestlé baby formula skyrocketed, culminating in a Nestlé boycott

during the 1970s.

- The boycott didn't end the problem but rather spurred the call for international formula

standards. 

Apple Batterygate Lawsuit

- Apple has admitted that they purposely slow down previous versions of their iPhones.

- The technology giant spoke out in court about throttling the phones down in order to

preserve battery life. 

- The case has led the company to settle in paying out $500 million to owners and

attorneys.

- This settlement was filed in a California court last Friday, covering anyone who bought

an Apple product in the 6 or 7 families. 

- The whole ordeal started with multiple class-action lawsuits that eventually consolidated

into one.

- It took months to negotiate and is now waiting for final approval. 

 - Apple will be paying every former or current owner of a covered product $25 – though

the amount is subject to change.

- The minimum payout has been settled at $310 million. 

- Each owner could be getting more than $25 if only a few claim that money.

- On the other hand, if the amount exceeds the $500 million top, they could get less.

Googles Privacy Issues

- Google has agreed to pay a $13 million settlement that could resolve a class-action

lawsuit over the company's collection of people's private information through its Street

View project.

- The agreement, if approved by a judge, would resolve a 2010 suit over the Street View

program's privacy violations, ending nearly a decade of legal challenges related to the

issue. 

- Many expected the case to cost Google (GOOGL) billions of dollars because plaintiffs

alleged the data collection broke federal wiretapping laws -— but the agreement doesn't

include financial relief for class members.

- Street View is a feature that lets users interact with panoramic images of locations around

the world that launched in 2007.

- The legal action began when several people whose data was collected sued Google after

it admitted the cars photographing neighborhoods for Street View had also gathered

emails, passwords and other private information from wifi networks in more than 30

countries.

- The company initially called the data collection "a mistake."

- However, investigators found Google engineers built software and embedded it into

Street View vehicles to intentionally intercept the data from 2007 to 2010, according to

court documents.