Omega Muchabaiwa, Staff

Last week, from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26, the world observed Data Privacy Week, an international initiative led by the National Cybersecurity Alliance. This week-long campaign represents a collective effort to equip individuals with the tools and knowledge necessary to protect their data and foster trust in an increasingly digital world.

Originally designated as Data Privacy Day, the event expanded into a week-long series of activities and presentations in 2022, reflecting the growing importance of data privacy in our daily lives. This year, the focus remained steadfast on educating individuals about the significance of safeguarding their personal information.

A key highlight of this year’s Data Privacy Week was the diverse array of presenters from various organizations who shared insights and expertise on data privacy concerns. Among them were Jennifer Mahoney from Optiv and Lissa Plaggeimier, the Director of the National Cybersecurity Council. Together, they underscored the critical importance of understanding how data is collected, shared and utilized, particularly in the context of online tracking mechanisms like cookies.

Cookies, while commonly used by websites to enhance user experiences and tailor content, sometimes raise concerns about data privacy. These small pieces of data enable marketers to glean insights into user behavior and preferences, often without explicit consent or understanding from users themselves. However, recent trends indicate a shift towards cookie-less browsing experiences as more websites prioritize privacy and user consent.

In response to mounting privacy concerns, international privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have imposed stringent requirements on organizations to uphold individual data rights and transparency. It is incumbent upon users to remain vigilant and proactive in monitoring changes to terms and conditions, as well as exercising control over their personal data.

Furthermore, Data Privacy Week addressed the pervasive issue of data brokers – entities that aggregate and monetize personal information without direct user consent. Don Marti, one of the presenters, offered valuable insights on mitigating the risk of unwittingly sharing sensitive data with such entities. By empowering users to exercise greater control over their digital footprint, individuals can minimize their exposure to data exploitation and manipulation.

Considering recent developments, including the removal of non-compliant applications from digital marketplaces, there is a growing recognition of the need for enhanced data hygiene practices. Users are encouraged to leverage tools and features that afford greater visibility and control over their data, such as global privacy controls and auto-request permissions.

As we navigate an increasingly interconnected digital landscape, the imperative to prioritize data privacy has never been more pressing. Data Privacy Week serves as a reminder of our collective responsibility to safeguard personal information and preserve digital trust in an era defined by rapid technological advancement.

The insights shared during Data Privacy Week underscore the need for continued collaboration and education in promoting a culture of privacy and accountability. By empowering individuals with knowledge and resources, we can forge a more secure and equitable digital future for all.

Claire Herquet, Staff

Previous UAW strike via wiki media commons

Following suit with the Writers Guild of America this past summer, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has escalated its strike actions with their employers on Sept. 22, as they have struggled to reach a deal with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. America is coming to what could be one of the biggest labor conflicts of the century between the “big three” automobile companies.  

The auto industry is a big piece of the US economy. Being the largest manufacturing sector and employing 150,000 UAW workers wanting higher wages, the union is striking all three companies at the same time, which has never happened before. 

After decades of back-and-forth conflict with the union, once again their autoworkers need resources to invest in electric vehicles in order to have a chance to fight the competition they have against the global market. If negotiation does not take place, automakers may be facing a loss of billions of dollars worth of revenue and profit, along with the consequence of local economies brought to a standstill. 

Over the weekend, it has been an uphill battle for Ford and the UAW, making arrangements with their financial crisis and putting a stop to the strike; with GM and Stellantis, the union has expanded its strike to 38 additional locations. 

Thankfully, the striking UAW workers received some support from US Senator. Dick Derbin on Monday morning. “Nobody wants a strike, but nobody wants conditions to remain the same and not change. They want these workers to have a fighting chance for a decent living in the future and building on the American dream,” Durbin said. 

While negotiating with the big three, the union is observing the automakers’ profits in comparison to its CEO’s pay, as it displays an increase in wages of around 36%. The companies have offered just shy of half that amount to make a change and have their employees come back to work. 

The union has responded saying they cannot take the wage increase proposal because they need to invest in the appropriate profits needed, in accordance with the big change of working on gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles. Many of them have even turned away from the suggestion of being paid for five-day work weeks while only working four-day work weeks, which is a significant increase in payment. 

US Presidents and senators often show up at the scenes of strikes to try to mediate the situation or show their solidarity with their workers, however President Joe Biden has been very open about being on the side of the laborers. Biden has joined the UAW picket line as of Tuesday morning, appearing in Detroit on the strike’s twelfth day.  

“I think the UAW gave up an incredible amount back when the automobile industry was going under. They gave everything from their pensions on, and they saved the automobile industry,” Biden stated at the White House. The Biden administration has no role or association with the negotiations.

Jason Ryan, Staff

In an effort to keep from declaring bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond is asking shareholders to approve a reverse stock split at a forthcoming special meeting, according to a regulatory filing made late Wednesday.  

To ensure that there are enough shares available to raise up to the $300 million in equity from a stock offering announced last week, the retailer’s board is urging shareholders to accept the reverse stock split at the May 9 meeting as Bed Bath & Beyond deeply needs cash to survive, again. 

The company has seen problems with the business before the pandemic hit, and its business has been experiencing declining trends. Despite an increase in online retail sales, Bed Bath & Beyond still didn’t generate the same number of sales in past years as other shops like Target. Due to poor performance, Bed Bath & Beyond fired Mark Tritton, its recently appointed CEO and former Target chief of merchandising. 

The declining stock price of Bed Bath & Beyond, which has been trading below $1 for the past two weeks, has made fundraising attempts extremely difficult. Bed Bath’s stock was trading at about 30 cents early on Thursday, giving it a market worth of only about $132 million. According to the company’s statement, if the plan isn’t carried out, it probably will not have enough equity to pay its debts and maintain operations. Leaving them no option but to file for bankruptcy. 

That being said, the struggling store announced that the reverse stock split would occur at a ratio between one for ten and one for twenty, to be overall decided by the board. If the split is granted, there will be a considerable decrease in the number of shares of common stock that are outstanding, enabling the company to issue enough shares to satisfy the requirements of the offering. The firm anticipates that the reverse split will increase Bed Bath’s share price per share, which will enhance investor perception of the company’s stock.

The stock offering will eventually dilute Bed Bath’s share price, even if the reverse split temporarily raises it. This is what happened after the business announced another stock offering in February. Since January, the home goods business has been issuing bankruptcy warnings after a string of poor quarters left it barely hanging on to life. For instance, it announced a $120 million lifeline on Wednesday from liquidator Hilco Global so it may replenish its inventory in a desperate attempt to boost sales.

On paper, Bed Bath & Beyond’s plans to streamline operations and stock fewer items may have made sense, but in fact, they have displeased customers and investors. Since fewer products were available, the “Beyond” division of the company struggled because many devoted customers were used to buying at the retailer before heading to rivals Target or Home Goods. Customers used to have a wide variety of brand alternatives, therefore they were disappointed by the alterations made after the structural cleaning of its aisles.  Bed Bath & Beyond has been distressed for years, having failed to reinvent itself in the digital age despite efforts to declutter its stores and remake its coupon strategy. I believe the company’s idea to push for a reverse stock split proves the company is on its last leg. If not approved, the company will likely end up in liquidation if it cannot find a buyer. 

ryanj21@lasalle.edu

Jason Ryan, Staff

Twitter Inc. is heading into its second full workweek under Elon Musk with half its workforce, mounting losses and a couple of expected reversals to its plans\

The social-media company, Twitter Inc. laid off close to 3,700 people on Friday, only to reach out soon thereafter to dozens of employees where it was decided they were either fired in error or are just too essential to the changes the billionaire businessman, Elon Musk, wanted to make. 

The layoffs hit across many divisions, including the engineering and machine learning units, the teams that manage content moderation and the sales and advertising departments.

These stroke events, as described by people familiar with the situation or in an internal company memo posted on Slack, follow Musk’s own acknowledgment in a tweet that the company he and wealthy partners bought for $44 billion is losing $4 million a day.

Twitter Inc. decided to go after its workforce  to trim costs following Musk’s acquisition, which finally closed in late October. Many employees learned they lost their job after their access to companywide systems, like email and Slack, were suddenly suspended. The sudden requests for employees to return to office demonstrate how rushed and disorganized the process was.

Some regions were hit harder than others. For example, the company fired more than 90% of its staff in India over the weekend, severely depleting its engineering and product staff. The job cuts left the company with a little over a dozen staff in the growth market.

That being said, Twitter is rolling out new features such as its Twitter Blue subscription plan. To elaborate, Twitter will issue the new blue verification check marks to users who pay $7.99 a month for the service starting on Nov. 9. The company had previously planned to roll out the subscription feature Nov. 7, the day before the election; however, one of Musk’s early goals for the company is  delayed until Wednesday to avoid potential chaos during the U.S. midterm elections.

The company received internal and external feedback that the verification process for its Twitter Blue subscription program could be prepared for abuse. This has raised concerns that candidates and other political figures might be impersonated on site in the days before the US election. 

Late Sunday, Musk said Twitter would ban accounts that impersonate others, after several high-profile users changed their names and pictures to match the billionaire. Any name change at all will cause a temporary loss of a verified check mark.

Though the company needs some technical staff to return, the platform is not likely to be forgotten about. They surely need to figure out a way to get out of this mess and control Musk’s short temper.

  ryanj21@lasalle.edu

Ian Krysztofiak, Staff

The Trump Organization is to begin trial on Monday, Oct. 24, involving tax fraud regarding compensation for the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Jury selection begins as the prosecutor argues that executives were paid in cars, private school tuition, apartments and cash. While the Trump Organization has been the subject of legal scrutiny, this is one of the first criminal trials that the company has faced. The Trump Organization faces criminal counts of conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. The company could face fines of $1.6 million under New York state law if convicted. 

The Manhattan district attorney’s office says that the Trump Organization kept two sets of books, internal records review that chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg received compensation through Mercedes-Benz cars and private school tuition for his grandchild. Weisselberg argues that the company didn’t report these benefits to tax authorities.  The Trump Organization is expected to say that the incident was an isolated practice of Mr. Weisselberg and another employee. Mr. Weisselberg is expected to take a plea deal to fully testify against the Trump Organization. 

Along with Mr. Weisselberg, Donald Bender, a partner at accounting firm Mazars USA LLP, will be another witness who prepares the company’s tax returns. Mazars said earlier this year that it would drop the Trump Organization as one of its clients and that it does not stand by its prior financial statements. 

Even though Mr. Trump and his family were not charged, the indictment says that the former president signed checks for private-school tuition. This trial follows a multiyear investigation by Manhattan’s district attorney’s office into the Trump Organization’s unethical conduct involving hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels among their many other civil lawsuits. The New York Attorney General, Letitia James, brought a civil suit against Mr. Trump, his three children, and his company last month for the misrepresentation of the company’s assets to its lenders and insurers. However, this trial is only regarding the company’s payroll practices. 

Jason Ryan, Staff

A significant consumer pullback is showing up in ocean shipping, with logistics managers and specialists stating they have seen a 20% drop in ocean freight orders for the months of September and October. The decline in demand cuts across products, including machinery, housing, industrial and some apparel. 

Ocean carriers have been canceling dozens of sailings on the busiest routes during their peak season, the most recent sign of the economic whiplash touching firms as inflation weighs on global trade and consumer spending.

For the first two weeks of October, a total of about forty scheduled sailings to the U.S. West Coast from Asia and 21 sailings to the East Coast from Asia have already been scrapped. Typically, during this time of the year, an average of two to four sailings in a week are blanked, the industrial term for canceled sailings.

The cancellations in October 2022 are a sharp reversal from months back when the scarce shipping space pushed the freight rates higher, and the carriers’ profits touched record levels. In October 2021, firms like Walmart and Home Depot were chartering their ships to get around the bottlenecks at major ports to satisfy a surge in demand for imports, this is just not the case now. 

Moreover, Trans-Pacific shipping rates have plummeted about 75% from levels seen a year ago. The transportation industry has been grappling with weaker demands as giant retailers cancel orders with vendors and step up their efforts to cut inventories.

The impact of Hurricane Ian can also be a reason for the cancellations. For example, this CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map demonstrates how vessel congestion on the east coast continues and how the impact of Hurricane Ian will delay the clearing out of vessel congestion.

To elaborate, during the period of Sept. 12-18, the Port of Savannah, a major U.S. seaport, reached the highest number of weekly average days waiting at anchor and cancellations since April 2022. Because of Hurricane Ian, zero vessel calls have been recorded at the Port of Savannah since Sept. 29. There is no question this new disruption by Ian will increase the existing congestion even more. 

  ryanj21@lasalle.edu

Ian Krysztofiak, Staff

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-08-17/hsbc-citigroup-and-the-end-of-global-banking

The British pound hit a record low of $1.0349 when compared to the dollar during Asian trading hours on Monday, surpassing 1985’s previous record low. This comes after the British government unveiled tax cut programs on Friday. These plans include canceling the proposed plan of a 25% corporate tax hike, and a reduction on income and bonus taxes. These tax cuts come after a rise in energy prices from Russia’s cut in energy exports. The tax cuts will hopefully shield businesses and households from surging energy prices. It has been 50 years since Britain has seen tax cuts of this scale. 

Resulting in a low pound against the dollar, imports, oil and gas, and other commodities priced in dollars will now be more costly, which puts more economic stress on England. A low pound also affects yields on ten-year UK government bonds, which ultimately makes government borrowing more expensive. The ten-year UK government bond yield is currently at 4.12%. 

Recently, currency exchange markets have been hit hard; the Turkish Lira has also hit a record low against the dollar. And China has recently announced that it will make it harder to bet against the Yuan by introducing a 20% risk-reserve ratio for any financial institutions that sell foreign exchange forward contracts. This will make it costlier for banks and their clients to sell Yuan to buy Dollars in the derivatives market. The Euro has also fallen to a 20-year-low against the dollar. 

Critics see the falling pound as a potential debt problem for the U.K., as they recently borrowed 11.8 billion pounds in August, a 5.3 billion difference from what they borrowed in 2019. These tax cuts by the U.K. are a gamble, using the cuts to both fight inflation, and high energy prices are accelerating worries of a recession. With inflation at a 40-year high of 9.9 percent, this is a bold strategy from Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Unfortunately, these tax cuts will most likely only benefit the wealthy more than the middle class.