The Morning Download: Drone Regulations Take Off Without Much on Privacy and Safety

The Morning Download: Drone Regulations Take Off Without Much on Privacy and Safety

By Kim S. Nash

Good morning. Today's the day. The first detailed U.S. regulations for flying drones, or other aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds, go into effect. Nationwide licensing for pilots and the prohibition of flying at night are two key rules now in place after two years of debate.

But privacy and safety are not covered fully in the regulations, even after long arguments and 4,500 written comments to the Federal Aviation Administration, reports The Wall Street Journal's Andy Pasztor. The FAA had its hands full coming up with basic rules to try to stay ahead of states writing rules on their own. "Some researchers have identified hundreds of incidents in which pilots reported drones flying dangerously close to airports in recent years, prompting many safety experts, drone proponents and lawmakers to call for automated digital fencing to prevent such incursions," Mr. Pasztor writes. Pilots, too, want a "stronger stance" at the federal level to ensure drone flyers receive proper training.

With business use of drones projected to draw millions of new operators across the U.S. each year – and companies like Amazon.com Inc. lobbying Congress on the issue – what should the FAA be doing? Let us know what you think.

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS

The entrance to a Hewlett-Packard Co. office complex in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., in May. PHOTO: Reuters

HP and HP Enterprise accused of age discrimination. A lawsuit filed in California by four former employees of what was then known as Hewlett-Packard Co. alleges that they were victims of age discrimination as the technology giant pared back its workforce in recent years, Don Clark of The Wall Street Journal reports. The lawsuit is seeking class-action on behalf of workers who were 40 years old or older when they were laid off, naming Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. and HP Inc., the two companies spun off of Hewlett-Packard last fall. Both companies denied the allegations.

Facebook cuts use of human "news curators." In response to criticism of political bias, Facebook Inc. said it plans to let software do most of the work in selecting content that appears in its "trending" feature, The Wall Street Journal's Deepa Seetharaman reports. Until now, story descriptions that accompanied topics and headlines in the feature, which is distinct of users' news feed, were written by contract workers known as "news curators." Going forward, users will see only a hashtag or broad topic name, with a tally of a tally of how many others on the social networking site are talking about it. Over this year's election cycle, Facebook got in hot water over allegations of bias in the selection of trending stories.

Blockchain could out-internet the internet. The technology for distributed online ledgers is gaining traction among corporations and could become a better world-wide network than the internet, writes columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger. Blockchain is the next step in the evolution of the internet, promising more privacy and better security – two critical items the internet was not conceived or built to deliver, he says.

Apple CEO Tim Cook sells $36 million in shares. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows the shares were part of a compensation plan worth roughly $135 million in Apple Inc. stock, the bulk of which Mr. Cook earned by remaining in the top executive spot for five years, The Journal's Robert McMillan reports. All told, Mr. Cook's stock-compensation plan could see him awarded seven million shares by 2021. Apple stock outperformed more than two-thirds of the companies in the S&P 500-stock index over the past three years. The filing shows Mr. Cook, who is holding the remaining shares, forfeited another $71 million to cover taxes.

Rackspace to go private. Saying it needs more flexibility to take on shifts in customer demand, the cloud-computing provider is being taken private by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC for $4.3 billion, roughly a 38% premium over its stock price, The Wall Street Journal reports. Rackspace Hosting Inc. has shifted its business model in recent years from primarily running its own cloud-based serves in its 11 data centers to also helping to manage services from larger technology companies, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The Journal reported earlier this month that a deal was imminent.

Robot "birth control" babies appear to encourage pregnancies. According to a recent study, lifelike robot babies, known as "Think it Over" dolls that are meant to discourage teen pregnancies by offering a taste of real-life parenting, appear to have the opposite effect, The Wall Street Journal reports. Researchers at the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia found that teenage girls who spend a weekend caring for so-called infant simulators were more likely to become pregnant, compared with girls who received old-fashioned sex education. The robots "just didn't really work in putting the students off" parenting, one researcher said.

Uber and Careem suspend services in Abu Dabi. Both ride-hailing companies ceased operations in the United Arab Emirates capital on Saturday, following reports that as many as 50 drivers had been arrested, Reuters reports. Witnesses said the drivers were being detained over unspecified violations of regulations. Reached by Reuters, a spokesman for Careem, a Dubai-based firm, said many of its drivers were being stopped over licensing issues. Uber Technologies Inc., through a spokesman in Dubai, said the suspensions were temporary.

EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Federal Reserve says negative interest rates aren't needed in the U.S. because the economy and job market are improving. (WSJ)

China has set up a state-run aircraft-engine maker, called Aero Engine Corp. of China, to help the country rely less on foreign-made parts. (WSJ)

The U.S. government is encouraging individuals and third-parties to wage a counter-terrorism war against ISIS on social media to combat terrorist recruiting efforts. (WSJ)

Jason Bourne makes some swoon, others dizzy, as the 3-D version of the latest movie in the action franchise garners complaints in China about shaky camera work. (WSJ)

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Angus Loten contributed to this article. The Morning Download comes from the editors of CIO Journal and cues up the most important news in business technology every weekday morning. Send us your tips, compliments and complaints. You can get The Morning Download emailed to you each weekday morning by clicking http://on.wsj.com/TheMorningDownloadSignup.