Daily Archives: March 18, 2022

Accenture ( ACN 1.39% ) posted its second-quarter earnings report on March 17, easily beating analysts' expectations.

The IT services company's revenue rose 24% year over year (28% in local currency terms) to $15.05 billion, which cleared analysts' estimates by $380 million. Its earnings per share (EPS) grew 25% on an adjusted basis to $2.54, which also exceeded Wall Street's expectations by $0.13.

Does that earnings beat indicate it's safe to invest in Accenture? Let's review four reasons to buy the stock -- and one reason to sell it -- to find out.

Image source: Getty Images.

Accenture serves five main industries: communications, media, and tech (21% of its second-quarter revenue); financial services (19%); health and public services (18%); products (29%); and resources (13%).

Accenture's growth decelerated across all of those segments, except for health and public services, throughout the onset of the pandemic in 2020. However, all of its end markets recovered throughout 2021, and its year-over-year revenue growth accelerated over the past year.

Revenue Growth (YOY)

Q2 2021

Q3 2021

Q4 2021

Q1 2022

Q2 2022

Communications, Media, and Tech

9%

19%

23%

32%

32%

Financial Services

10%

16%

20%

24%

25%

Health and Public Services

14%

21%

18%

23%

21%

Products

2%

17%

25%

34%

34%

Resources

(7%)

3%

13%

17%

25%

Total

5%

16%

21%

27%

28%

YOY = Year over year. Local currency terms. Data source: Accenture.

Accenture mainly attributes its acceleration to its "strategic growth priorities," which include its higher-growth cloud, interactive, industry X (digital transformation), and security businesses. Expanding those divisions reduces its overall dependence on legacy IT services and widens its moat against smaller digital transformation specialists like Globant.

For the third quarter, Accenture expects its revenue to grow 22%-26% year over year in local currency terms.

For the full year, it expects its revenue to rise 24%-26% in local currency terms (with a five percentage point boost from acquisitions), compared to its 11% growth in fiscal 2021. That's much higher than its previous guidance for 19%-22% growth (which also included its acquisitions). Both its quarterly and annual estimates exceeded analysts' expectations.

Accenture's confident forecasts fully account for its recent exit from Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. That impact should be minimal since only about 0.3% of Accenture's employees are based in Russia, but CFO KC McClure noted that its new guidance didn't account for any "significant escalation or expansion" of the ongoing conflict.

Accenture's operating margin dipped sequentially in the second quarter as it ramped up its investments, but remained flat year-over-year at 13.7%. Its adjusted earnings have also risen by more than 20% over the past four quarters.

Period

Q2 2021

Q3 2021

Q4 2021

Q1 2022

Q2 2022

Operating Margin

13.7%

16%

14.6%

16.3%

13.7%

Adjusted EPS Growth (YOY)

6%

26%

29%

28%

25%

Data source: Accenture. YOY = Year over year.

For the full year, Accenture expects its operating margin to expand by ten basis points to 15.2%, and for its adjusted EPS to increase 21%-23% -- which was also higher than its previous guidance for 17%-20% earnings growth.

Accenture expects to generate $8 billion to $8.5 billion in free cash flow (FCF) in fiscal 2022, compared to a FCF of $8.4 billion in fiscal 2021.

It returned $5.9 billion of its FCF through $3.7 billion in buybacks and $2.2 billion in dividends in 2021, and it expects to boost those shareholder returns to "at least" $6.5 billion this year. It currently pays a forward yield of 1.25%.

Accenture's stable FCF growth is impressive, especially considering it spent $4.2 billion on acquisitions in fiscal 2021 and plans to spend another $4 billion on acquisitions this year. Its ability to balance those acquisitions with consistent shareholder returns gives it an attractive blend of growth and value that many other blue-chip tech giants lack.

Accenture's financials look solid, but the stock is also richly valued relative to other tech giants at 31 times forward earnings. By comparison, Microsoft trades at 26 times forward earnings, while Alphabet has a forward P/E ratio of 23.

Accenture's higher valuation could limit its upside potential this year, especially if rising interest rates continue to push investors toward value stocks.

Accenture's stock isn't cheap, but I believe its stable growth, broad diversification, and superior scale easily justify its higher valuation.

It also remains a secular play on the digitization of aging businesses, many of which are hiring Accenture's IT professionals to shore up their cybersecurity defenses, migrate their data to cloud-based services, and reinvent their businesses for mobile apps. Its stock could remain volatile in this choppy market, but I believe it's still a great long-term investment.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis even one of our own helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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4 Reasons to Buy Accenture, and 1 Reason to Sell - The Motley Fool

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Social media companies should be forced to report to the federal government on how they use algorithms and how they address harm online, a parliamentary committee has recommended.

The proposal was one of 26 recommendations made in the final report of the social media and online safety committee, which was handed down on Tuesday.

The committee also recommended social media companies be mandated to set the highest privacy settings as a default for people under 18.

A digital safety review was also proposed, which would further examine all online safety legislation and government programs in the space.

Federal funding should be increased to support victims of technology-facilitated abuse, the report recommended.

The committee also called for more work by the eSafety Commissioner, who would examine how social media companies prevent pile-on attacks or harms across multiple online platforms.

Committee chair Lucy Wicks said the report was a crucial step to making online spaces safer.

For too long, social media platforms have been able to set the rules, enabling the proliferation of online abuse, she said.

The balance of responsibility for the safety of users online, which until recently has been primarily on users, must be flipped to ensure that social medial platforms bear more of the burden of providing safety for their users.

The inquiry was launched in late 2021, and heard from nearly 60 witnesses, which saw large tech companies be questioned.

The report said the algorithms of social media companies needed further investigation to determine the scale of the harm they caused, as well as how they could be regulated.

While algorithms play a key role in the basic function of multiple types of online services, it is clear that they have the potential to enormously accentuate online harm, the report said.

More transparency is required of social media companies to demonstrate that these concerns are being addressed.

Although the report considered social media companies having a statutory requirement to report on how they were minimising harm from algorithms online, a review would be needed to determine how it would be achieved.

Ms Wicks said any response in how to protect online users needed to evolve quickly, given the nature of social media platforms.

Social media companies have to take responsibility to enforce their terms of service, prevent recidivism of bad actors, prevent pile-ons or volumetric attacks (and) prevent harms across multiple platforms, she said.

The recommendations in this report are an important next step in making our online world and social media platforms safer for all.

Although the report was unanimous, Labor members of the committee said the countrys online safety framework should be updated to enable action taken against group hate speech.

A glaring gap in the existing Australian regulatory regime compared to other nations is dealing with hate speech targeting groups, Labor members said in the report.

This is particularly concerning in the context of this report being handed down at the time of the third anniversary of the Christchurch terrorist atrocity We have yet to address the online material that normalises hate and radicalises people to commit these acts of real-world violence.

-AAP

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Tech giants urged to report algorithm harm to online safety - The New Daily

U.S.-listed China stocks launched into a rallyearlier this week, encouraged in part by indications from Beijing that the witch-huntagainst these companies will soon end. A Bloomberg report, however, suggested that it may be too early to call a truce.

What Happened: Media and entertainment conglomerate Tencent Holdings ADR(OTC: TCEHY), could soon find itself in the crosshairs of regulators yet again. Chinese authorities are mulling over plans to get Tencent to organize its WeChat Pay as a financial holding company, Bloomberg reported.

This issimilar to what was askedof Alibaba Group Holding Ltd - ADR(NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma's Ant Financial after regulators poured cold water on the fintech company's mammoth initial public offering plans.

If regulators do decide to go ahead with their proposed plan for Tencent's payment platform, the latter may have to apply for a new license, Bloomberg said. The Chinese conglomerate has to group all its fintech businesses, including banking, securities, insurance and credit rating services under a financial holding company, it added.

The pushback is that the unit has to comply with strict disclosure and capital adequacy norms that are applicable to traditional banks, the report said.

Separating WeChat Pay from the WeChat social media platform will introduce uncertainty and reduce the convenience of Tencent's mobile service offerings, Bloomberg said. It also poses risk to Tencent's "one-stop" appeal that has helped it to evolve as one of the world's most valuable companies, the report added.

Related Link: Alibaba Opens Up Walled Garden To Allow Rival Tencent's Payment System In Some Apps

Why It's Important: China's regulatory clampdown, apparently driven by the quest to bridge the widening chasm between the rich and poor, has weakened most of the high-profile domestic tech companies. The regulations served as speed bumps to check their unhindered growth that, according to the communist regime, was giving them an air of invincibility.

The tech giants were also taken to task for misusing their dominant position in the market to stifle competition and misuse user data.

The result of the regulatory crackdown has been apparentand in particular forAlibaba, which has seen its shares plummet from a high of around $319 in October2020 to under $100 last week.

Renewed clampdowns could only hurt these companies further, which in turn can impact the domestic economy that has taken baby steps toward recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic impact.

TCEHY Price Action: Tencent shares trading over the counter in the U.S. were up 6.72% to $51.85 Friday afternoon at publication.

Related Link: How to Buy Tencent Stock

Photo: Courtesy Tencent

2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Chinese Regulators Aren't Done Yet: Authorities Reportedly Seek Overhaul Of Tencent's Payment Platform - - Benzinga

By Brian Fung, CNN Business

(CNN) -- As its troops have gotten bogged down in Ukraine, the Russian government has been fueling a conspiracy theory on social media about the purpose of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine.

In posts spread across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube viewed by CNN this week, Russia's foreign and defense ministries have repeated claims that Ukraine had been researching biological weapons an assertion that's previously been rejected as false by the United States, its allies and a top United Nations disarmament official.

In fact, the US-supported labs are part of a program to develop vaccines and perform peaceful research, the United States has said, while White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has described the Russian claim as "propaganda" and a potential pretext for Russia to deploy chemical or biological weapons itself in Ukraine.

The issue marks yet another front in the sprawling information war over Ukraine. And it highlights the challenge for social media platforms posed by Russian government accounts that critics say are freely allowed to spew disinformation to millions of users, even as those same platforms have moved to restrict Russian state media content over similar concerns.

Rather than announce blanket restrictions on Russian government accounts, as they've done with Russian state media, tech platforms have instead taken a more surgical approach by removing individual posts by government accounts that violate platform rules.

However, as the information war continues, and as US officials increasingly blast the Russian government for spreading false claims, tech platforms may come under more pressure to crack down on accounts linked to the Kremlin, disinformation experts say.

"We're in a serious crisis situation right now, and we're in an information warfare situation where maybe suspending these accounts, if not banning them for all eternity, would make a lot of sense," said Alina Polyakova, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a think-tank that receives support from some tech giants including Google and Microsoft. "For now [the platforms] have stuck to a more free-speech approach rather than a blocking approach, which I also understand, but again, we're in a very different situation when it comes to what's happening in Ukraine right now."

California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell put it more bluntly in a tweet last week: "RT NOW if @twitter should BAN the baby-killing country of Russia from its platform."

Earlier this week, Facebook removed a post by Russia's embassy in the UK for disputing reported facts about the bombing of a hospital in Mariupol. The post violated Facebook's policy against denying violent events, said Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

Similar posts by Russian embassy officials were also removed from Twitter for violating that platform's policy against denying violent events, company spokesperson Katie Rosborough told CNN.

The affected Russian accounts remain active on both websites, along with the Russian foreign ministry and ministry of defense. On Twitter, an account run by the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin still shares Kremlin promotional photos and links to press releases. And on YouTube, a Russian government channel broadcasts speeches by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"We don't remove accounts even when we disagree with the content they post but we do take action when they violate our rules," said Meta'sPusateri. "The world deserves the opportunity to hear and scrutinize the content of Russian leaders at this moment."

Like Facebook, Twitter labels government-run accounts, including Russia's, for transparency. Twitter added Wednesday that its moves to restrict Russian state media has led to a 30% decrease in that content's reach, and that it has also begun labeling accounts belonging to the Ukrainian and Belarusian governments.

"While we've had a policy around state-affiliated media and government accounts for years, the war in Ukraine raises a complicated set of challenges in how we handle the accounts," Rosborough said in a statement. "Our goal is to consistently enforce our rules while balancing the public interest."

Ivy Choi, a spokesperson for YouTube, said the platform's policies apply equally to all users, including Russian government channels, and that "our teams continue to monitor the situation closely." Asked to name an account linked to Russia that has been banned from the platform, Choi said YouTube had terminated Vladimir Solovyov, a pro-Russia broadcaster, for repeatedly violating YouTube policies, including its policy against incitement. But the company did not identify any official Russian government accounts that have been banned.

Russia has objected to what it's described as censorship at the hands of western tech platforms, and has moved to block Facebook, Instagram, and to a lesser extent, Twitter within its borders. Russian internet users have flocked to digital circumvention tools in response to defeat the government's information blackout.

Differences among platforms and how they work have in some cases led to varying policies and approaches to enforcement, said Polyakova, adding that greater regulation could lead to more uniform policies across the industry.

"We've seen this hodgepodge approach that hasn't always been coordinated or consistent; in general, this creates a lot of vulnerabilities and openings for spreaders of disinformation," Polyakova said.

Social media sites' handling of Russian government accounts also echoes how the companies have dealt with individual politicians for years.

Tech companies famously grappled with how to handle claims by Donald Trump both before and during his presidency with most platforms arguing it was important for users to hear what public figures have to say, if only to help keep them accountable. While some may argue it's in the public interest for Russia's claims to be documented and preserved, said Polyakova, there will always be ways to access Russia's propaganda without giving it a megaphone on social media.

The posts viewed by CNN this week containing the debunked claims about Ukrainian biolabs were not accompanied by content warnings or labels, though the platforms did label the Russian accounts as government-run in accordance with existing policies.

The rapidly unfolding military, political and diplomatic situation may prompt platforms to hesitate in many scenarios, said Karen Kornbluh, a disinformation expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

"It's a tough balancing act for platforms," Kornbluh said. "They do not want to call the shots in foreign policy disputes."

But even though tech companies may be wary of getting caught in an uncomfortable position, Kornbluh said, social media platforms should nevertheless consider applying to Russian government accounts some of the same restrictions they've applied to Russian state-run media, "especially when that same government is criminalizing truth in Russia with the new 'fake news' law" that threatens over a decade of jail time for contradicting official narratives about the war.

The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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Social media platforms tread carefully when it comes to the Russian government - WDJT

Seasonal affective disorder sufferers, rejoice! The Senate just voted to make daylight saving time permanent.

Anyways, onto today's tech news. Former Theranos president Sunny Balwani's trial starts today, and Tesla has been quietly raising the price on its cheapest model.

Let's dive in.

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1. Sunny Balwani's trial starts today. Balwani, the former president and COO of shuttered blood-testing startup Theranos and founder Elizabeth Holmes' ex-boyfriend, is finally getting his day in court. But, Adam Lashinsky writes, he's pretty much screwed.

What to expect from Balwani's trial.

In other news:

2. The price of Tesla's cheapest car has increased by $10,000 over the past year. The Model 3 now starts at $46,990, up from $36,990 about a year ago. Tesla drastically overhauled the pricing for its entire lineup this week, raising prices by up to $12,500. More on Tesla's price increases.

3. Some Googlers are pushing back on the company's return-to-office policy. Employees raised concerns about the company's hybrid work plan during an all-hands meeting last month. Some said the policy was applied inconsistently across teams, with some workers banned from remote work and others getting special treatment. Here's what employees are saying.

4. Amazon's acquisition of MGM was approved in the EU. The European Commission determined the $8.45 billion deal which would expand Amazon Prime's streaming selection to include big-name titles like James Bond wouldn't harm competition. Now, Amazon's last regulatory roadblock is the Federal Trade Commission. Here's a look at what that means.

5. We outlined tech giants' highest-paying cloud certifications. Demand for cloud skills is growing exponentially and so are the salaries for those jobs. Having a certification from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google Cloud, or other tech giants could help you earn more than $100,000. Check them out (and what it takes to earn them) here.

6. Politicians and warlords are responding to Elon Musk's challenge to fight Vladimir Putin. After Musk invited Russia's leader to "single combat" to decide Ukraine's fate, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Russia's space chief chimed in to side with Putin. See their latest beef here.

7. Shopify is diving headfirst into the world of NFTs, Web3, AR, and more. The e-commerce company is growing its dedicated blockchain team and exploring more uses for augmented and virtual reality, signaling an interest in how the tech can be used to help merchants. How Shopify is defying metaverse critics.

8. Mark Zuckerberg just expanded on his vision for the metaverse. While speaking at the South by Southwest Festival in Texas, the Facebook founder and CEO said a more functional metaverse is still "a few years off," and said NFTs are coming to Instagram.

Odds and ends:

9. We outlined a few ways we could actually use NFTs (that don't involve cartoon apes). NFTs don't have to be limited to multimillion-dollar pieces of art. Instead, we could ultimately use them for concert or sports tickets, or as passports. Here are four ways we could use NFTs in the real world.

10. These are Netflix's 13 biggest TV shows of all time. "Inventing Anna," a new limited series from Shonda Rhimes, has quickly become one of the streaming service's most popular shows. From "The Witcher" to "Stranger Things," see what other Netflix shows made the list.

What we're watching today:

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Michael Cogley in London.

Excerpt from:

10 Things in Tech: Theranos ex-COO in court - Business Insider

Good morning! South by Southwest returned to in-person programming this year after two years away, and a few Protocollers were on the ground to assess the vibe (and the tacos). As expected, the metaverse, crypto and climate change dominated conversations throughout the week.

The metaverse doesn't exist yet, but you wouldnt know that from attending SXSW. Technologists and creators alike descended upon Austin to hype up and criticize the possibilities and promises of it anyway. From fashion to film to sustainability, people wanted to talk about how everything and anything would work in a virtual world.

SXSW was awash in crypto. It wasnt just panels and talks, though seemingly every panel had some crypto or Web3 angle: Sponsors, events, parties and more leaned into the crypto hype.

Everyone at SXSW wanted to talk about climate change. (Everyones favorite new climate newsletter even launched there.) But your trusty Protocol Climate editor was particularly fascinated by who showed up from Big Oil. The Lone Star State is ground zero for the oil and gas industry in the U.S., but its rare to see folks from the industry at big, splashy climate events given fossil fuels are the main driver of the crisis itself.

Nat Rubio-Licht, Tomio Geron and Brian Kahn

From fraudsters to hackers, the web has its share of bad actors. Auras all-in-one digital protection keeps them at bay, so you can do what you love to do onlinesafely. Sign up for your free trial to experience how our powerful security fits seamlessly into your life.

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Qualcomms Cristiano Amon said were closer to the metaverse than people think:

Alex Rodriguez thinks blockchain tech could help sports fans invest in big teams:

Ukrainian crypto leader Michael Chobanian thinks crypto will change the world:

Rinki Sethi joined Bill.com as VP and CISO. Sethi previously worked in security roles at various companies, including Twitter and Rubrik.

Zipporah Allen is the new CMO of Strava. She was most recently the chief digital officer of Taco Bell.

Jonathan Farnell is Eqonexs new CEO. Farnell previously led Binances U.K. operations.

Scott Dresser is Ericssons new legal and compliance chief. Hes taking over for Xavier Dedullen, whos been the companys top lawyer for a few years.

Spotify is hiring two Web3-focused roles: A senior back-end engineer and a senior manager of Innovation and Market Intelligence.

Amazons MGM deal isnt just about the content. Sure Amazon is getting thousands upon thousands of movies and TV show episodes. But its also almost certain that a lot of this content will eventually show up on IMDb TV, Amazons free, ad-supported streaming service.

The EU is trying to take down Apples walled garden with a new anticompetition law that would force Apple to let users sideload apps.

WeCrashed is out on Apple TV+. The reviews aren't great, but the WeWork tale is still another entrant in the tech-chaos TV canon.

Matter wont arrive until at least the fall. The new connectivity standards launch was delayed again because more companies wanted in on it.

Lucid may raise prices for future cars. Prices for existing reservation holders wouldnt be affected.

Meta subpoenaed tech companies to prove it has competitors. But those companies, including LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest, dont want to hand over documents.

Amazon Flex drivers want the company to help offset soaring gas prices. The drivers protested in Los Angeles yesterday to urge Amazon to offer some sort of relief for gas costs.

Alibaba and Tencent might lay off tens of thousands of workers this year as China continues to crack down on tech giants.

Russians are turning to Clubhouse for information about the war. Its become a place for civilians to discuss and debate the conflict and understand whats happening in Ukraine.

Were only a couple of days away from the first day of spring, which means its time to swap out your winter clothes and declutter your home. But your work schedule could probably use some TLC, too, and Atlassian work futurist Dominic Price spelled out a few ways you can do it:

From fraudsters to hackers, the web has its share of bad actors. Auras all-in-one digital protection keeps them at bay, so you can do what you love to do onlinesafely. Sign up for your free trial to experience how our powerful security fits seamlessly into your life.

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Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you Sunday.

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Notes from SXSW: What's next for the metaverse, Web3 and climate tech - Protocol

The technology sector needs fresh blood.

In the first two months of 2022, employment in the industry increased by more than 20,000 positions, according to an analysis by training firm CompTIA. And that recent growth is only a portion of the 15-month streak of consecutive employment growth in the sector.

Companies have been frantically searching for qualified candidates to hire, frequently paying six figures or more to reel in top talent. To stand out in the process, recruiters and other industry insiders are recommending workers pursue certifications a standards-driven way for candidates to show that they're proficient in the skills needed to thrive in a career in programming or IT.

But the certifications and skills that have the most bang for a job candidate's buck vary widely depending on the company and position. That's why Insider rounded up the most sought-after skill sets at companies like Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, and more to help workers navigate which certification to pursue next.

A gap between the skills companies need and the qualified talent has led to a spike in demand. Candidates with cloud computing certifications can prove they'll be able to bring those highly sought after skills to a firm.

Cloud giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google all offer their own product-specific certifications that usually come in handy if a company runs on one of those clouds. But there are general cloud skills workers can pursue, too, to make themselves more marketable.

Read more:

How much workers can earn with a cybersecurity certification depends on the level and specialization of the certification they pursue.

Generally, higher-tier certifications earn more. Companies like Cisco, however, offer a range of cybersecurity education offerings that range from specific areas of technology to general knowledge. Areas like cloud security in particular are known to be in high demand given the current shortage of knowledgeable talent, and even people with existing skills in cloud computing can earn more when they obtain a new cybersecurity certification.

Read more:

Becoming a developer is a common way to enter the tech field. Available roles, however, vary widely and can include front-end, back-end, and full-stack development.

Online courses are usually a free or low-cost way to get started in programming. Some programming languages are more profitable than others, with SQL, CSS, and Java near the top of the list.

Read more:

Microsoft is one of the most valuable companies in the world, seeing growth in core business areas like its Azure cloud. To keep expanding, it needs qualified workers with knowledge of its Azure cloud processes, machine learning, its database services like Cosmos DB, process-improvement methodologies like Six Sigma, and more. Many of its workers earn well over $100,000 in base salary.

Read more:

A top employer globally, Amazon's cloud division alone aims to hire tens of thousands of workers this year. It's looking for employees with knowledge of its cloud platform services like Aurora and Redshift, and other skills like cybersecurity or data science. Many of those jobs pay over $100,000 in base salary.

Read more:

New hires at Cisco earn average salaries of $123,000, with top engineers bringing home as much as $230,000. Most jobs at the firm require specialized knowledge of Cisco systems, ranging from its "internetwork" expert certification to certificated cloud security professional credentials depending on the role.

Read more:

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Top tech certifications to get hired at Microsoft, Cisco, and more - Business Insider

Getting all of your smart home devices to connect to each other and work seamlessly together is an exercise in frustration, especially if you want to use Amazon devices with HomeKit-compatible ones, for example. There are workarounds to make everything work seamlessly that usually require a bridge or hub of some sort, which becomes more annoying (and expensive). The fragmentation also makes it difficult for consumers who arent particularly tech-savvy to use the devices at all.

Matter, a project led by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, is a new standard designed to fix that problem. Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google and Samsung all support the standard, which will make their devices work together without the use of a bridge. The standard has been coming soon for awhile now, and was supposed to roll out this summer after a previous delay. But if you've been waiting for Matter to roll out before going all in on a smart home, you'll have to wait even longer.

According to the CSA, the standard has been pushed back. CSA marketing chief Michelle Mindala-Freeman told The Verge not to expect a launch until at least the fall.

The finish line is in sight, the CSA said in a Thursday blog post. For the ability to tear down the walled gardens in IoT, accelerate growth, and improve experiences for customers and consumers, were certain a couple extra months will be worth the wait.

Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung SmartThings and Signify, the company behind Philips Hue smart bulbs, already committed to using Matter last year. While locking consumers into one smart home platform might be good for device sales, it becomes frustrating for users who might be turned off the whole smart home idea altogether. One company might have mastered the smart light bulb, while another has the most popular doorbell. If some companies' devices don't play nicely with others, people might buy ones that do. Matter-compatible devices will be branded as such so consumers know which devices work together.

The delay wasn't due to technical difficulties. The CSA said it was mainly caused by the growing number of companies that want in. Matter, which is already testing devices from 50 different companies, now has more than 200 onboard, according to Mindala-Freeman.

While they wont all be certified as part of the Matter ecosystem by the fall, the rollout will almost certainly include enough companies to, well, matter.

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The smart home standard uniting tech companies has been delayed again - Protocol

In 2020, three coworkers and I threw together a three-page outline of a patent idea, rife with typos, and turned it over to our big tech employer. In exchange, we each got a $700 bonus. The proposal took maybe half an hour to write and less than five minutes to present to an internal review board of specialists who were also our peers. We joked around, the board voted yes, and we emailed the file to an in-house legal team. A little more than a year later, our application for carbon footprint tracker was published.

Its typical for a company to assume ownership of the intellectual property developed by its employees. But, in my experience, proposed patents didnt need to be groundbreaking or even relevant to the business to gain traction. Carbon footprint tracker had nothing to do with my job or any proprietary technology. Some of my coworkers had up to 100 patents under their names, covering everything from video games to finding better parking spots to coffee delivery via drone.

This isnt unusual at big tech companies. Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, and Microsoft, among others, have employee patent recognition programs. The incentives vary, but these tech giants offer even entry-level employees cash rewards and free access to a team of patent attorneys, services worth an estimated value of $50,000, according to Microsofts informational page.

Payouts to inventor-employees typically start at about $500 but might go into the thousands for ascending stages of a patents lifecycle. Most corporations offer rewards for any idea worth patenting, regardless of whether it is ultimately granted or rejected. According to internal documentation, Apple offers up to $4,000 per inventor per filing. Others hold off on a big payout until a patent is granted, a process that usually takes years and ends in success for only about half of patents submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office. Google pays employee inventors a whopping $10,000 at this milestone, according to internal sources. (Google did not respond to requests for comment.)

I proposed more than a dozen potential patents through my companys process and received a framed certificate for my efforts, made out to Fatty Nut Watkins, which I submitted as my name just to see if they would print it. Patenting was lucrative, easy, and downright fun.

Prior to the tech revolution, it would have been difficult for corporations to manage an internal system for fast, casual, crowdsourced patenting. A decade ago, the USPTO handled only about half as many patents as it does today. Applications had to be filed by individual inventors, which shut employers out at a crucial step. This changed in 2011, when the passage of the LeahySmith America Invents Act streamlined the process and enabled companies like my (now former) employer to file patents on behalf of an employee inventor.

Around the same time, tech giants became increasingly interested in patents. As Steve Jobs reportedly said at the invention of the first iPhone, were going to patent it all. And patent it all Apple didright down to the slide-to-unlock feature and beveled edges. In 2011, Googles top lawyer, David Drummond, claimed that the average smartphone might be protected by up to 250,000 patent claims. Today, no one seems able to get an accurate count, but last months sale of all legacy patents from Blackberrys terminated smartphone business fetched $600 million.

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Inside Big Techs Race to Patent Everything - WIRED

The agency will be subject to a certain amount of political pressure, said Tracy Rosenberg, the executive director of the nonprofit Media Alliance, a Bay Area public interest group, who also works with Oakland Privacy, a community group. We dont really know how the governor and Legislature are going to react if there is pushback because of actions the agency takes.

The agencys proponents said its independence was protected in part by its structure, with unpaid board members appointed separately by different elected officials. Mr. Soltani described the initial funding as like the ante in a poker game because voters have bought in for at least $10 million, but said the Legislature could give more.

The agencys first task will be to turn the state privacy law, which is broad, into detailed regulations for industry. That runs the gamut, from how data is used for targeted ads to more novel areas of the law, like how algorithms use personal information to make automated decisions. The law also demands that businesses adhere to the privacy preferences that online users set in their browsers; it is up to the agency to decide what that means in practice.

Eventually, the agency will have the ability to enforce its rules. Businesses may also be required to submit audits of their cybersecurity risk to the agency. It has asked for input on what, exactly, those audits should include.

The agency has asked the public, nonprofits and businesses to submit comments to guide its initial rules. Privacy activists and industry groups have filed hundreds of pages of comments, trying to sway the agencys decisions. Google, for example, asked the regulator to write rules that provide flexibility for businesses to respond to consumer requests in a manner that prioritizes substance over form and to line up with privacy laws in other states.

A Google spokesman, Jose Castaneda, said in a statement that the company advocated national privacy legislation and as the California Privacy Protection Agency continues its work, we will continue to constructively engage to ensure we protect our users privacy.

The Privacy Protection Agencys board announced in February that it would hold workshops, likely this month, for more commentary from privacy experts and academics. At a meeting that month, Mr. Soltani said the group was likely to issue its first regulations later in the year so it could balance hiring a staff with the complex questions it had to address.

Were building the car while we drive it, he said.

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How California Is Building the Nations First Privacy Police - The New York Times