Former Amazon executive admits turning off Alexa for ‘private moments’ February 17, 2020 A former senior Amazon executive has admitted to turning off his Alexa whenever he wants some privacy due to concerns the company was listening in on his conversations. Robert Frederick, who served as senior manager of Amazon Web Services, told BBC Panorama: “I don’t want certain conversations to be heard by humans. Conversations that I [...]
Judge pauses Microsoft’s $10bn Pentagon contract in Amazon lawsuit February 13, 2020 A US judge has temporarily blocked Microsoft’s $10bn (£7.66bn) Pentagon cloud computing contract, in response to a lawsuit filed by Amazon. Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith issued the injunction but did not release her written opinion. Amazon Web Services has been told to earmark $42m to pay for costs and damages in the event that today’s [...]
Amazon seeks to depose Trump in $10bn Pentagon contract battle February 10, 2020 Amazon is seeking to depose Donald Trump and US defence secretary Mark Esper in a legal battle over whether the president was trying to ‘“screw Amazon” in handing a Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft. Amazon Web Services said Trump influenced the decision to give the $10bn (£7.74bn) Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure Cloud contract, which [...]
Goldman Sachs ‘in talks’ to partner with Amazon on small business loans February 3, 2020 Goldman Sachs is reportedly in advanced talks with Amazon to offer small business loans in the US, as the Wall Street giant looks to the tech titan in a bid to break into the mainstream areas of financial services. Goldman Sachs has begun building technology that would allow it to offer loans to small and [...]
Amazon ‘launches search’ for new London office space February 3, 2020 Amazon is said to be on the hunt for new office space in London as the e-commerce giant doubles down on its commitment to the capital after Brexit. The tech firm has called in advisers at Cushman & Wakefield to find a building with roughly 200,000 square feet (sq ft) of office space, the Times [...]
Tech giants urged to pick up VAT bills in fraud crackdown January 29, 2020 Online marketplaces such as Amazon and Ebay have been urged to take responsibility for VAT collection and remittance in the UK. Trade body the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) today called on the government to make tech firms liable for the goods tax, citing concerns about growing fraud. HMRC has estimated that VAT fraud by [...]
Amazon breaks $200bn mark as world’s most valuable brand January 22, 2020 Online retail titan Amazon has defended its position as the world’s most valuable brand for a third year in a row, with the firm becoming the first to break the $200bn (£153bn) mark. Jeff Bezos’ company is worth $220.8bn in total, over $60bn more than second-placed Google, which is worth $159.7bn, according to the annual [...]
Amazon says UK tech tax could hit small businesses January 16, 2020 Amazon’s UK boss has played down concerns about a new tech tax, but warned the move could raise costs for small businesses using its platform. The government’s 11 March Budget is expected to include a digital services tax, which will charge a two per cent levy on the UK revenue of technology companies. Douglas Gurr, [...]
Tech giants lobby EU not to hold them liable for illegal content January 7, 2020 The biggest tech companies have called on the EU not to hold them liable for all content on their platforms, but have accepted that their efforts to remove illegal or harmful content could be regulated by a new European watchdog. A lobby group that represents tech titans including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon has written [...]
Amazon’s Deliveroo investment could cause higher prices, says CMA December 27, 2019 Amazon and Deliveroo are the subject of an in-depth probe by competition authorities into the e-commerce giant’s investment in the food delivery firm. Neither company offered undertakings in response to concerns aired by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Read more: CMA puts brakes on Amazon’s Deliveroo investment The CMA said earlier this month that [...]