MEPs Back Law to Hold Firms to Account For Environment and Human Rights Abuses
More countries are passing laws, various regulators escalating requirements and stock exchange mandating on ‘material’ disclosures from corporates.
What was kicked off by investors through ESG monitoring is now being solidified through laws and regulations. On the digital front, Human Right Abuses are increasingly including privacy and digital rights under their umbrella.
At Creating Future Us, we’re working to overhaul the ESG taxonomy to encompass responsible corporate behaviour on the digital front. Tech has become a ubiquitous force in the world and we’re working to ensure that ESG is fit for this Digital Age.
We warmly welcome any stakeholder who wants to join forces with us on this journey.
Uber To Pay UK Drivers Minimum Wage, Holiday Pay and Pension
A massive concession by Uber, and likely to lead to a rejig of the gig economy. The tide is turning and it’s clear that courts and regulators in liberal economies are setting boundaries around the responsibilities of companies – versus those of governments – in protecting workers.
There will be reverberations due to this decision, from what Uber peers do, to cost structures and how gig work itself evolves, considering the reassessment of risk/rewards for companies and workers.
We would caution that this is only V1.0 of a novel area that will continue to develop, and expect that there will be alternative lines drawn on other occasions, with more experimentation yet to take place for us to arrive at an equitable balance across the board.
Biden Administration Convenes Government, Private Sector Groups to Respond to Microsoft Vulnerabilities
The escalation of alleged espionage first by Russia, through SolarWinds, and now China, through Microsoft Exchange services, is the new arena where IP and geopolitical wars are taking place.
Private companies acting as contractors to the government – and other businesses – will indubitably get caught in the fray. How are their boards preparing not only for their own cybersecurity, but those in their supply chain, that rely on them?
China’s Tech Giants Test Way Around Apple’s New Privacy Rules
This news is interesting in two ways:
- The exceptions to accommodate China’s anti-privacy preferences continue to accrue. At some point the ring-fence around China’s internet will close, creating a completely separate and parallel information and data universe. Is that a good thing?
- It demonstrates how challenging self-governance is, even when in alignment with a company’s business model. Individual companies attempting to create significant change without regulatory backing face harrowing choices in high stakes situations: “The big picture is that there is simply too much money at stake,” she said. “There will always be an arms race to track consumers. Only legislation can make it stop.”
Slick Tom Cruise Deepfakes Signal That Near Flawless Forgeries May Be Here
Deepfake capabilities are ratcheting up quickly with no governance in place. In a race to provide this capability, companies are motivated by the many use cases, addressable markets and accompanying profits.
Dr Farid of UC Berkeley, an expert on this matter offers a “hypothetical example: Say he created a deepfake video to show Amazon executive Jeff Bezos saying that the company’s profits have taken a hit. If that video goes viral, he posited, “How long does it take me to move the market to the tune of billions of dollars?”
It’s an area investors ought to monitor carefully.