The 15-year-old “Safe Harbor” agreement that made it possible for the likes of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google to transfer information seamlessly between the United States and Europe is officially invalid.
The ruling isn’t a surprise, and there are stop-gap measures in place. But it’s another sign of how differently U.S. and European citizens view data privacy.
“This is extremely bad news for E.U.-U.S. trade,” London lawyer Richard Cumbley told the New York Times. “Thousands of U.S. businesses rely on the Safe Harbor as a means of moving information. Without Safe Harbor, they will be scrambling to put replacement measures in place.”
As if that weren’t enough for the tech industry to worry about, multinational technology companies are bracing for higher bills as European regulators race to eliminate traditional havens. New rules issued Monday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development could become law in November.
Also making headlines: Amazon Web Services has been awfully quiet about its Internet of things aspirations. That’s about to change. Plus, IBM is officially dedicating an entire business unit to artificial intelligence services. Enjoy your autumn Tuesday!
TRENDING
SAP's next frontier: business analytics. Like most of its competitors (and partners), the European business software giant is planning new services for data visualization and predictive decision-making. (Wall Street Journal)
Cisco's new CEO predicts 50 billion connected devices. Chuck Robbins spent very little time talking about networking technology during a Monday strategy briefing with journalists. But he is planning more software investments: "Everything will be programmable." (Fortune)
Another day, another new IBM business unit. This time, the focus is artificial intelligence. The new division will teach businesses how to use Watson technology for their own applications. (Journal)
Sony will spin off its fast-growing image sensors business. A future focus: automotive partnerships. (Reuters)
GE Ventures prioritizes digital healthcare. It is teaming up with incubator StartUp Health to bootstrap 10 startups developing virtual health and medical payments solutions. Now, it just has to find them. (Fortune)
THE DOWNLOAD
Amazon sets sights on massive Internet of things opportunity with new cloud offering
The cloud services leader plans to announce an offering for the Internet of things this week at its AWS Re:Invent trade show, according to sections of a memo viewed by Fortune. The document implies that the new AWS service will mimic similar offerings from Microsoft, IBM, Ayla Networks and others that target developers trying to build connected devices by linking the AWS cloud platform to silicon from specific vendors. So far it has been pretty quiet on this topic, but Barb Darrow and Stacey Higginbotham have the scoop.
BITS AND BYTES
Wall Street messaging service attracts intriguing new backer: Google. Symphony is finding fans among traders and financial services teams that want an alternative to Bloomberg terminals. (Journal)
Monster venture round for data backup company Code42. It raised another $85 million in what will likely be its last private fundraising event, bringing its total to $137.5 million. Customers include Lockheed Martin and the Mayo Clinic. (TechCrunch)
Pinterest adds more "buy" buttons. There are now more than 60 million on the visual social network. (Fortune)
Did Apple's privacy policy help it win a deal with Porsche? The German carmaker didn't like how much personal data Google wanted. (Motor Trend)
VMware's cloud exec has left the building. Mathew Lodge is now chief operating officer at data center "container" startup Weaveworks. (Fortune)
Sony and Verizon: Forget that smartphone we introduced. The device in question has been sold in Japan since last April but the U.S. debut is now completely cancelled. (Verge)
IBM just bought cloud storage specialist Cleversafe. The move is linked to its big data services. (Fortune)
Want a smartphone version of Adobe's successful photo-editing app? You can download it for free. (Fortune)
MY FORTUNE BOOKMARKS
Jack Dorsey's big challenge: Silencing the critics by Erin Griffith
Everything you need to know about the DraftKings and FanDuel data scandal
by Daniel Roberts
Here's why it's costing you more to use an ATM by Claire Zillman
Are comments dead, or have media outlets just given up on them by Mathew Ingram
Why your next job search may involve solving online puzzles by Kia Kokalitcheva
ONE MORE THING
Steve Jobs could inspire an Oscar. The movie isn't even out yet, and Michael Fassbender is already the odds-on favorite for the leading actor award. (Fortune)
