Bulletins

Hundreds of Google employees have formed a union

More than 225 Google workers formed the Alphabet Workers Union, having planned its creation in secret before officially announcing it Monday, The New York Times reports.

The group, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, was established to provide "structure and longevity to activism at Google, rather than to negotiate for a contract," according to the NYT. Its creation follows several years of activism at the company, and is a notable development for an industry that has long resisted efforts to organize.

 Jamie Condliffe

Jamie Condliffe ( @jme_c) is the executive editor at Protocol, based in London. Prior to joining Protocol in 2019, he worked on the business desk at The New York Times, where he edited the DealBook newsletter and wrote Bits, the weekly tech newsletter. He has previously worked at MIT Technology Review, Gizmodo, and New Scientist, and has held lectureships at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. He also holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Oxford.

Latest Bulletins

Biden hopes privacy appeals for EU citizens will save data flows

President Joe Biden on Friday will sign an order to implement the details of an agreement with the EU, including new privacy protections for the bloc's citizens that authorities hope will finally regularize data flows between the two continents.

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Lacework 'unifying' under single CEO as David Hatfield steps down

David Hatfield has stepped down as co-CEO of cloud security vendor Lacework but will remain on the company's board of directors, Protocol has learned.

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The future of pay transparency in tech

California’s new pay transparency law, SB 1162, promises to shake up compensation in the tech industry by requiring employers in the state to list pay scales in job ads and reveal pay information to both the state and to current employees. We spoke with Susan Alban, operating partner and chief people officer at Renegade Partners, and compensation consultant Ashish Raina to learn how.

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The EU ushers in the USB-C era

Pour one out for the Lightning cable.

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Why $100 per ton is the carbon removal industry's holy grail

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Google Stadia’s sudden shutdown leaves players and partners scrambling

When Google announced the closure of its Stadia cloud gaming platform last week, the news was delivered at roughly the same time to employees, partners, and players on Thursday morning. Within hours, it had become clear that Stadia’s shutdown, planned for next January, would involve more than just refunding consumer purchases and quietly bowing out.

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Musk may buy Twitter after all

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The US will soon unveil expanded chip controls on China

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Tech recruiters' best tips for sourcing talent on LinkedIn

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Kim Kardashian will pay $1.26 million over crypto post, SEC says

Kim Kardashian broke the internet, and according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, she also broke the securities laws.

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Prison calls are wildly expensive. Gov. Newsom just made them free.

On Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that makes phone calls from California’s prisons free of charge. The new law places the cost of calls not on incarcerated people — or the people receiving calls from them — but on the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

California is the second state after Connecticut and the biggest state by far to institute such a law, which is a direct shot at the $1.4 billion prison telecom industry. For years prison telecom companies have maintained rates that “can be unjustly and unreasonably high, thereby impeding the ability of inmates and their loved ones to maintain vital connections,” the FCC said in 2020.

Prison reform advocates argue the new California law will have a hugely positive impact on the families of incarcerated people in California — and potentially other states that follow California's lead.

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CFPB Rohit Chopra's second year could be rockier than his first

Rohit Chopra arrived as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau one year ago today. True to his reputation as an aggressive watchdog from his time as an FTC commissioner and an earlier stint at the CFPB, he has pursued a busy agenda that’s setting up regulatory battles to come.

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Get ready for California's new pay transparency law

Tech salaries are about to get a lot more transparent. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law to require California employers to post salary ranges in job postings and report hourly pay data by employees’ race and sex to the state. We spoke with four employment lawyers and other pay transparency experts about what this means, and how to comply.
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Microsoft is rushing to patch new zero-day Exchange vulnerabilities

Microsoft said Friday it's "working on an accelerated timeline" to provide a patch for two newly disclosed vulnerabilities affecting Exchange email servers, which the company acknowledged have been used in attacks on customers.

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Google makes AV1 codec support mandatory for Android 14

Google is stepping up its push for open video formats: The company plans to force hardware manufacturers to support the AV1 video codec if they want to run Android 14 on their mobile devices, according to comments left in recent commits to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that were first spotted by Esper senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman.

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Researchers disclose new zero-day Microsoft Exchange vulnerability

A troubling new vulnerability affecting Microsoft Exchange email servers has been disclosed by researchers, though details are still emerging on the severity and exploitability of the flaw.

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New York follows California’s gas-powered car ban lead

The gas-powered vehicle ban dominoes have begun to fall.

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Big Tech is trying to block the Texas social media law — again

Tech industry groups are once again pleading with the 5th Circuit to block HB 20, Texas' on-again, off-again social media law, which the court recently allowed to take effect.

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What the massive Optus breach tells us about API security risks

Sometimes a major "hack" isn't really a hack at all, such as with some breaches caused by the mishandling of APIs.

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The CFPB says MoneyLion violated a military lending law

The neobank MoneyLion charged service members excessive fees for loans and often refused to cancel paid memberships, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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Google adds Stadia to the Google graveyard

Google is shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming service, nearly three years after its launch and roughly 18 months since the company shut down its internal game development division.

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Amazon is paying more workers early. Regulators might take a look.

Amazon announced pay raises and the rollout of new benefit programs to warehouse employees Wednesday. But one of those products may pose increased risks to the company’s most precarious workers: the expanded rollout of Amazon’s Anytime Pay Program.

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Bay Area Big Tech must now disclose pay ranges in ads

More pay transparency is coming to California. The Golden State is joining New York City, Colorado, and Washington in requiring employers to disclose pay ranges in job ads.

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Why Meta and Google want to keep job cuts quiet

Cost-cutting in tech is officially hitting the industry’s titans. After years of ruthless staffing up, both Meta and Google have told some employees to find new jobs within the company or leave, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

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Calendly acquires Prelude, a recruitment startup

Calendly, the $3 billion scheduling startup that everyone likes to periodically fight about, has made its first acquisition: Prelude, a startup specializing in the hiring process. Prelude is specifically geared toward scheduling job interviews or other types of recruitment-related meetings.

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Bulletins